Today was an excellent day of diving at the Boiler!!

For our first dive we went down the northern wall of the reef exploring the pinnacle which is in front of the Boiler. The top of the pinnacle is at the 70 ft /21m and was filled with plenty of tropical fish like moorish idols and clarion angel fish plus we found lots of lobsters. From the pinnacle we came back to the Boiler to check the cleaning stations at 50 ft /15 m. And at 30 ft / 9 m, we expected to find mantas but instead a solitary bottlenose dolphin was there and came up from the depth to interact with the divers. We moved to the western corner of the reef when a manta chevron showed up at the 50 ft /15m. The manta was swimming around when a group of 9 bottlenose dolphins appeared in front of us. One of them was very curios and another 3 were going down and swimming up to the surface. What a wonderful way to begin our diving day.

On the second dive we encountered a manta chevron at the 20 ft/6m and then it disappeared in the blue. We found a big school of amberjacks at  50 ft / 15 m, wahoos, lots of pacific creole fish, and within the reef moray eels, and whitetip sharks. At the northern side we saw the manta again, but this time it was very playful and curious with the divers, circling close to the reef, going up and down, and enjoying the divers bubbles on its belly. Every diver had the chance to interact with this gentle creature of the pacific.

During the 3rd dive, the water was a little bit colder 77 fº/24 cº and was possible to watch the thermocline.  With a little bit more current we had lot of action on the western corner, schools of amberjacks, cotton mouth jacks, bigeye jacks, trevalley jacks, pacific creole fish. A big hammerhead shark was patrolling in the blue and curious enough to circle a couple of times in front of the anxious divers taking photos and videos.The last dive of the day was very relaxed and a great chance to explore the reef in detail. We found a stingray resting at the reef and we could appreciate the beauty of the reef, which drops off and forms a wall with stripes with hard coral in some areas. If you pay attention to the small stuff like lobster, moray eels, tropical fish, whitetip shark resting in the reef at the ledges, you’ll find that is a great opportunity to do good photos. When we were close to the bottom of the Solmar V, at the belly of the ship was a huge school of amberjacks right below the ship and a curious silky shark was around, and passing in front of us many times and close to the finish of the safety stop. Wonderful day of diving at the Boiler today.

Ignacio H. Leyro, Dive Instructor, Solmar V