We started our third day of diving with a clear sky less wind and smaller swell, but still a strong current at El Cañon. On the first dive here it took us some time to get down the decent line, but once we got to the reef we were able to find some protection from the current. After that we waited there for about 15 minutes to see if we could see some of the hammerheads we saw yesterday, we were about to let go of the reef and start to drift, when a black manta passed by and stopped right in front of the group and right after she left three big hammerheads came to check us out while the rest of the school was a bit further away just at the edge of our sight. Then it was time to start going shallower, so we let go of the reef and started our drift we didn’t see much until the safety stop where another manta decided to hang out with us making us do a longer safety stop.
The current was still very strong after we came out of the water so we decided to go to the other side of San Benedicto to see how El Boiler was. We had good dives at El Cañon , but we were ready for some more mellow dives. When we got to El Boiler everyone was happy to see that there was absolutely no current, so we got ready and went in the water. Right at the decent at about 15ft/5m we already had 2 mantas going around us but they were still a bit shy. We went by the wall which was filled with white tip reef sharks, lobsters and green morays heading towards the blue and that’s where we had 8 mantas playing with the whole group for almost 40 minutes. When we came out of the dive the captain asked us if we had seen or heard whales because he had seen them pretty close by.
The third and fourth dives were very good too with less mantas but still very playful. The highlight was when one group of twelve divers was trying to get a group picture and they had to pose for a bit longer because they realized one of the mantas was right on top of them trying to get in the shot, and it did!
The day ended with another beautiful sunset followed by a delicious Mexican style barbecue, and now we are on our way to Isla Socorro planning to get there still at night and starting our first dive right after the sunrise!
Thiago Mendonca.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Schooling hammerheads, tiger shark, mantas and more at San Benedicto!
Hello Hello!
First full day of diving on this trip and what a way to start it!
The dive site of the day was “El Cañón”, yesterday evening it was all cloudy and gray here at San Benedicto, but this morning we knew we were going to have a great day when we saw the clear sky and sunshine! The water temperature was 77F/25C and the visibility around 70ft/21m, the current was exactly as we wanted it, coming from the east and quite strong, that means better chances for hammerheads! As we finished the dive briefing we saw dolphins right off the back of the boat, so we jumped into the water as quickly as possible and as soon as we hit the anchor we could hear them but couldn't see them. So we went down the rocks on the north side of the dive site to hold on to the rocks waiting for a big school of hammer heads, we spotted a couple. So we moved towards the cleaning station and stopped about half way there when we spotted the dolphins swimming at the surface! They decided to not come and play this morning, so we kept on going east and when we got to the cleaning station we had about 8 hammerheads! Then the waiting game started, so we held on the the rocks looking into the blue waters and after waiting a few minutes there they were, a school of about 30 hammerheads showed up! Gliding through the blue waters and circling in front of us a couple of times, and while all this was right in front of us, we had 2 chevron mantas right behinds us! So we had to look at both shows! It was just the best way to start the day! The dive was so good that one of my divers came to me and said “Antonio I don't need to dive anymore, lets just go back to Cabo, we have seen it all!”
For our second dive the current was still the same, from the east and strong, so we had the same plan to hang out at cleaning station where this time we found up to 12 hammer heads at once, they were swimming in smaller schools but this time they came a lot closer to us, and posed for great videos and pictures! Then action stopped for a bit until a tiger shark that came up from the deep a couple of times and got quite close to the divers before disappearing again into the deep. Then we let go of the rocks and drifted south along the edge and there they where a group of 10 hammerheads swimming right underneath us before we turned around to see the 2 mantas we had next to us! So we left the bottom and started going up with their great company, a black and a chevron manta came along on the drift for a few minutes and once we got to our safety stop they went back on their own way.
For our third dive the current got really really strong so the way down and the way out to the cleaning station, it took a little longer and we actually had to literally crawl all the way out! If you'd let go off the rocks then that was the end of your dive as the current was so strong, this time at the cleaning station we had a lot of jacks, white tip reef sharks, juvenile silver tip sharks, lobsters, green morays, but no hammer heads.
On our last dive of the day current went down a little and this time was a little easier to swim without holding on to the rocks all the time. Half way out to the cleaning station we saw 2 big hammer heads cruising by and once at the cleaning stations were had a lot of white tip reef sharks, 2 juvenile silver tip sharks and schools of 2 and 3 hammer heads visiting the rocks, suddenly all the fish moved away and there was a huge Galapagos shark just cruising by in the middle of hundreds of fish! By the end of the dive we started drifting there we found 2 mantas a black and a chevron that came and play with us, posing for the cameras very gentle.
Now we have a great atmosphere on the boat, had a great dinner prepared by chef Tony and we are going to spend the night here in San Benedicto to dive “El Cañón” in the morning, we wanted to go to Roca Partida, but the wind and the swell is not favorable so we will spend another day here next to the great volcano!
Stay tuned to know how our second day goes!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
First full day of diving on this trip and what a way to start it!
The dive site of the day was “El Cañón”, yesterday evening it was all cloudy and gray here at San Benedicto, but this morning we knew we were going to have a great day when we saw the clear sky and sunshine! The water temperature was 77F/25C and the visibility around 70ft/21m, the current was exactly as we wanted it, coming from the east and quite strong, that means better chances for hammerheads! As we finished the dive briefing we saw dolphins right off the back of the boat, so we jumped into the water as quickly as possible and as soon as we hit the anchor we could hear them but couldn't see them. So we went down the rocks on the north side of the dive site to hold on to the rocks waiting for a big school of hammer heads, we spotted a couple. So we moved towards the cleaning station and stopped about half way there when we spotted the dolphins swimming at the surface! They decided to not come and play this morning, so we kept on going east and when we got to the cleaning station we had about 8 hammerheads! Then the waiting game started, so we held on the the rocks looking into the blue waters and after waiting a few minutes there they were, a school of about 30 hammerheads showed up! Gliding through the blue waters and circling in front of us a couple of times, and while all this was right in front of us, we had 2 chevron mantas right behinds us! So we had to look at both shows! It was just the best way to start the day! The dive was so good that one of my divers came to me and said “Antonio I don't need to dive anymore, lets just go back to Cabo, we have seen it all!”
For our second dive the current was still the same, from the east and strong, so we had the same plan to hang out at cleaning station where this time we found up to 12 hammer heads at once, they were swimming in smaller schools but this time they came a lot closer to us, and posed for great videos and pictures! Then action stopped for a bit until a tiger shark that came up from the deep a couple of times and got quite close to the divers before disappearing again into the deep. Then we let go of the rocks and drifted south along the edge and there they where a group of 10 hammerheads swimming right underneath us before we turned around to see the 2 mantas we had next to us! So we left the bottom and started going up with their great company, a black and a chevron manta came along on the drift for a few minutes and once we got to our safety stop they went back on their own way.
For our third dive the current got really really strong so the way down and the way out to the cleaning station, it took a little longer and we actually had to literally crawl all the way out! If you'd let go off the rocks then that was the end of your dive as the current was so strong, this time at the cleaning station we had a lot of jacks, white tip reef sharks, juvenile silver tip sharks, lobsters, green morays, but no hammer heads.
On our last dive of the day current went down a little and this time was a little easier to swim without holding on to the rocks all the time. Half way out to the cleaning station we saw 2 big hammer heads cruising by and once at the cleaning stations were had a lot of white tip reef sharks, 2 juvenile silver tip sharks and schools of 2 and 3 hammer heads visiting the rocks, suddenly all the fish moved away and there was a huge Galapagos shark just cruising by in the middle of hundreds of fish! By the end of the dive we started drifting there we found 2 mantas a black and a chevron that came and play with us, posing for the cameras very gentle.
Now we have a great atmosphere on the boat, had a great dinner prepared by chef Tony and we are going to spend the night here in San Benedicto to dive “El Cañón” in the morning, we wanted to go to Roca Partida, but the wind and the swell is not favorable so we will spend another day here next to the great volcano!
Stay tuned to know how our second day goes!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Today was en excellent day of diving at El Boiler!
Hello all from Isla San Benedicto!
Today was an excellent day of diving at El Boiler! We had excellent conditions, they were not too rough, with a mild current most of the day. This gave us the chance to move around El Boiler, a beautiful underwater rock formation in gradual steps to the bottom. Near the pinnacle on the northern side, was where we spotted the first manta of the day! We found a chevron giant manta as we approached the pinnacle, and between the pinnacle and the boiler the first Black Manta showed up and was very playful with the chevron manta we found! The temperature of the water was 77 F/25 C to 79 F / 26 C, visibility was changing during the day, averaging around 80 ft/24m, very nice and clear to play with all the mantas gliding around the cleaning station! At the northern side of the cleaning station we had 3 chevron mantas swimming together doing a spectacular dance in front of us! During our surface interval we had some bottlenose dolphins playing and jumping very close to the Solmar V. The weather at the surface was a little bit cloudy in the morning but the rest of the day was a sunny warm! When we entered the water for our second dive, we were hoping to get to dive with dolphins. The current was a little bit stronger this time and the mantas showed up early on this dive! We had a chevron swimming around El Boiler out into the blue and a black one staying a bit shallow, turning around the cleaning station. We turned around the at the end of the Boiler, hoping to find hammerheads, but instead we heard the clicks of the bottle nose Dolphins, and we saw them very close by and heading our way! It was a group of 11 dolphins all together, playing with the divers, making a delightful spectacle, swimming vertically, going up, down, a couple of them were very friendly with our divers and they kept static position opening their mouth like they were smiling all the time! We followed them back to The Boiler until they disappeared into the blue .When we turn back to the cleaning stations, we saw more mantas both chevron and black ones! We can say that we’ve had 10 Giant Pacific Mantas gliding all over the dive site all day, at depths ranging from 70 Ft /21 m to 30 Ft. /9 m, they even played with our divers during the safety stop! For the last dive, the challenge of an enthusiastic group of Canadian divers was to do a no wetsuit dive! Everybody thought that it could be a chilly dive, but It wasn’t at all. It was a nice feeling of freedom and we reached the bottom depth of 90 Ft. /27 m. in a very short time. We then,swam around around the little pinnacle at the northern point north and once at the Pinnacle we saw lots of tropical fish, like Clarion Angel Fish, moorish idols, gold rimmed surgeon fish, Pacific Creole fish and around the pinnacle we had 4 White tip sharks! The visibility at northern point was very clear and from the pinnacle we had a spectacular view of the Boiler and a nice view of the bottom, with very nice rock formations and sandy patches . We explored the exterior perimeter of El Boiler and swam out into the blue a bit, when a chevron manta came from depth, and disappeared into the blue. We started returning to El Boiler when a very nice amber Jack school joined us! We headed back northeast one more time and paying attention to the wall of the Boiler and the small marine life it has, moray eels, tropical reef fish, white tips sharks on patrol, beautiful hard coral, and finally it was time to say goodbye to the last manta Chevron we had, and make our way back to the Solmar V along side a a big school of Pacific Creole fish!
Ignacio Hernán Leyro
Solmar V
Scuba Instructor
Today was an excellent day of diving at El Boiler! We had excellent conditions, they were not too rough, with a mild current most of the day. This gave us the chance to move around El Boiler, a beautiful underwater rock formation in gradual steps to the bottom. Near the pinnacle on the northern side, was where we spotted the first manta of the day! We found a chevron giant manta as we approached the pinnacle, and between the pinnacle and the boiler the first Black Manta showed up and was very playful with the chevron manta we found! The temperature of the water was 77 F/25 C to 79 F / 26 C, visibility was changing during the day, averaging around 80 ft/24m, very nice and clear to play with all the mantas gliding around the cleaning station! At the northern side of the cleaning station we had 3 chevron mantas swimming together doing a spectacular dance in front of us! During our surface interval we had some bottlenose dolphins playing and jumping very close to the Solmar V. The weather at the surface was a little bit cloudy in the morning but the rest of the day was a sunny warm! When we entered the water for our second dive, we were hoping to get to dive with dolphins. The current was a little bit stronger this time and the mantas showed up early on this dive! We had a chevron swimming around El Boiler out into the blue and a black one staying a bit shallow, turning around the cleaning station. We turned around the at the end of the Boiler, hoping to find hammerheads, but instead we heard the clicks of the bottle nose Dolphins, and we saw them very close by and heading our way! It was a group of 11 dolphins all together, playing with the divers, making a delightful spectacle, swimming vertically, going up, down, a couple of them were very friendly with our divers and they kept static position opening their mouth like they were smiling all the time! We followed them back to The Boiler until they disappeared into the blue .When we turn back to the cleaning stations, we saw more mantas both chevron and black ones! We can say that we’ve had 10 Giant Pacific Mantas gliding all over the dive site all day, at depths ranging from 70 Ft /21 m to 30 Ft. /9 m, they even played with our divers during the safety stop! For the last dive, the challenge of an enthusiastic group of Canadian divers was to do a no wetsuit dive! Everybody thought that it could be a chilly dive, but It wasn’t at all. It was a nice feeling of freedom and we reached the bottom depth of 90 Ft. /27 m. in a very short time. We then,swam around around the little pinnacle at the northern point north and once at the Pinnacle we saw lots of tropical fish, like Clarion Angel Fish, moorish idols, gold rimmed surgeon fish, Pacific Creole fish and around the pinnacle we had 4 White tip sharks! The visibility at northern point was very clear and from the pinnacle we had a spectacular view of the Boiler and a nice view of the bottom, with very nice rock formations and sandy patches . We explored the exterior perimeter of El Boiler and swam out into the blue a bit, when a chevron manta came from depth, and disappeared into the blue. We started returning to El Boiler when a very nice amber Jack school joined us! We headed back northeast one more time and paying attention to the wall of the Boiler and the small marine life it has, moray eels, tropical reef fish, white tips sharks on patrol, beautiful hard coral, and finally it was time to say goodbye to the last manta Chevron we had, and make our way back to the Solmar V along side a a big school of Pacific Creole fish!
Ignacio Hernán Leyro
Solmar V
Scuba Instructor
Friday, January 2, 2015
Back at San Benedicto for our first diving of 2015!
Hola Hola!
First of all happy new year to everybody!
Now we are back at San Benedicto Island, after diving Cabo Pearce yesterday we went trough the navy inspection and after dinner we started the crossing which was very very smooth. This morning we woke up anchored at “El Cañón”, we were planning to dive “El Boiler”, but since there was another boat there then we decided to dive “El Cañón” first.
Conditions looked very good for diving, the ocean was completely flat, water temperature of 79F/26C, outside temperature was 73F/23C, and we were all ready to start the 2015 with some great dives!
On our first dive of 2015 we had a visibility of about 50ft/15m and a mild current coming from the south, so we swam out to the south corner of the site looking for hammerheads, as soon as we got there we had 2 hammer heads swimming right above the cleaning station so we layed on the rocks and watched the show. After a short show we started swimming east, as the current was changing, and after looking at a school of jacks, we decided to go into the blue, where we found more hammer heads! Not a big school this time, but 2 or 3 at a time that would come and dance around before disappearing into the blue once again, also a bottled nose dolphin stopped by to say hi! It was down very deep and then suddenly swam up, passed in between divers, went straight to the surface to catch a breath and then it was gone!
For our second dive at “El Cañon” we had better luck, this time current was coming from the east, so we swam to the east cleaning station and as soon as we got there we had 8 hammer heads! As they saw us they slowly went into the blue, so we held on to the rocks, waited patiently until they came back! 3 or 4 at a time until we had a group of 7 right in front of us! They were swimming in circles and posing for the cameras, it was awesome and this went on for about 15 minutes! Then we swam back towards the ascent line, and right there by the anchor we found a chevron manta! It swam slowly under us before swimming away.
For our third and fourth dive we moved to “El Boiler” looking for some manta action and...we got it! First dive there we had 6 mantas, 4 chevron and 2 black ones that kept us very entertained, 3 of them were on the west side and 3 on the east side of the dive site, where they kept coming back to the divers for their bubble bath, mantas were everywhere! They were deep, shallow, anywhere you looked there was one, and this show went on for the entire dive!!! Then on our last dive of the day we had only 3 chevron mantas, but again along with some huge yellow fin tunas they put on a great show for us, mantas would come and play with the divers, while the tunas were slowly swimming around checking the fish and suddenly they will swim really really fast trying to get one, it is amazing to listen at all of that fish moving so quick underwater!
Now we are going to spend the night here at “El Boiler” and tomorrow we have more dives before we head back home. Stay tuned and Dive master Nacho will let you know how our last day of diving on this trip went!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
First of all happy new year to everybody!
Now we are back at San Benedicto Island, after diving Cabo Pearce yesterday we went trough the navy inspection and after dinner we started the crossing which was very very smooth. This morning we woke up anchored at “El Cañón”, we were planning to dive “El Boiler”, but since there was another boat there then we decided to dive “El Cañón” first.
Conditions looked very good for diving, the ocean was completely flat, water temperature of 79F/26C, outside temperature was 73F/23C, and we were all ready to start the 2015 with some great dives!
On our first dive of 2015 we had a visibility of about 50ft/15m and a mild current coming from the south, so we swam out to the south corner of the site looking for hammerheads, as soon as we got there we had 2 hammer heads swimming right above the cleaning station so we layed on the rocks and watched the show. After a short show we started swimming east, as the current was changing, and after looking at a school of jacks, we decided to go into the blue, where we found more hammer heads! Not a big school this time, but 2 or 3 at a time that would come and dance around before disappearing into the blue once again, also a bottled nose dolphin stopped by to say hi! It was down very deep and then suddenly swam up, passed in between divers, went straight to the surface to catch a breath and then it was gone!
For our second dive at “El Cañon” we had better luck, this time current was coming from the east, so we swam to the east cleaning station and as soon as we got there we had 8 hammer heads! As they saw us they slowly went into the blue, so we held on to the rocks, waited patiently until they came back! 3 or 4 at a time until we had a group of 7 right in front of us! They were swimming in circles and posing for the cameras, it was awesome and this went on for about 15 minutes! Then we swam back towards the ascent line, and right there by the anchor we found a chevron manta! It swam slowly under us before swimming away.
For our third and fourth dive we moved to “El Boiler” looking for some manta action and...we got it! First dive there we had 6 mantas, 4 chevron and 2 black ones that kept us very entertained, 3 of them were on the west side and 3 on the east side of the dive site, where they kept coming back to the divers for their bubble bath, mantas were everywhere! They were deep, shallow, anywhere you looked there was one, and this show went on for the entire dive!!! Then on our last dive of the day we had only 3 chevron mantas, but again along with some huge yellow fin tunas they put on a great show for us, mantas would come and play with the divers, while the tunas were slowly swimming around checking the fish and suddenly they will swim really really fast trying to get one, it is amazing to listen at all of that fish moving so quick underwater!
Now we are going to spend the night here at “El Boiler” and tomorrow we have more dives before we head back home. Stay tuned and Dive master Nacho will let you know how our last day of diving on this trip went!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Dolphins, mantas, and more at Socorro Island!
Dec 31, 2014
Cabo Pearce, Isla Socorro
The early morning couldn’t have been any more orange than it already was, due to gorgeous sunrise, partially cloudy, very calm water surface, it was a fantastic morning to go diving!
As we are briefing our guests for a 7:00 am dive, dolphins were already here cutting the surface with dorsal fins just by the stern of Solmar V.
Underwater we had almost zero current, making an easy dive to wait for dolphins at 18m/60ft of water. We know they are in the area, constantly chirping communicating with each other, we can hear them louder and louder, they really made our neck work out trying by looking for them in all directions! It took from 5 to 10 minutes to find us, we can think of them like if they sent 3 messengers to play first for a bit of time then the whole group of 11 were encircling us with different moves! Their intelligence, curiosity, and energy makes them extremely popular, we know their max measurements 2.45 to 3.8m/8ˈ to 12ˈ6ʺ and can live up to 50 years! Anyway as usual they disappeared by swimming off in front of us heading toward the island, they left us behind in the company of a chevron manta coming up from 27m/90ft of water, not too long after and again 4 dolphins showed up to do more spins and a slow free fall showing bellies in front of us sort of inviting to go deeper and deeper, blowing some donuts to make them look more cute to look at.
Our surface interval very pleasant in air temp of 26.6˚C/80˚F, vis on the surface of about 74km/40 nautical miles, San Benedicto Island visible from here!
Second dive current picked up strongly from North, we had the opportunity to go to the end of the reef heading East. The mantas are also very curious, they like us or the bubbles we make, 3 of them following us until the end of reef, with a few hammerheads here and there.
Third dive we are on a mission, to find octopus to please our guests. That is not difficult here at Cabo Pearce, right by the anchor we found 2 of them very well tucked in, so our divers got up really close with them, and had an opportunity to see how octos can change colors, texture of skin, move tentacles by reaching out to feel whatˈs that, they are also very intelligent by the way! Flounders do change color too, one just by the octo was very blended in! We moved on to make our dive progress for more around 12m/40ft of water to the cleaning station, obviously mantas were there but not so playful this time, they were more at distance coming in barely, vis also changed to from 10m/33ft to 20m/66ft, water temp 26˚C/79˚F.
Dive #4 a whole different story, once again we had octos walking over the reef, we followed it, slowly, and it didn’t seem to mind, it kept moving on from rock to rock, we were all looking at it but the mantas going crazy above wanting attention, so funny!! So we spent the whole dive with mantas being playful, they really changed behavior, bubbles all over the reef, mantas were happy happy, the dolphins showed up once more, but didn’t want to stay too long, it was a quick pass, but during one of the surface intervals we actually did some snorkeling with 10 of them!
By the way HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Cabo Pearce, Isla Socorro
The early morning couldn’t have been any more orange than it already was, due to gorgeous sunrise, partially cloudy, very calm water surface, it was a fantastic morning to go diving!
As we are briefing our guests for a 7:00 am dive, dolphins were already here cutting the surface with dorsal fins just by the stern of Solmar V.
Underwater we had almost zero current, making an easy dive to wait for dolphins at 18m/60ft of water. We know they are in the area, constantly chirping communicating with each other, we can hear them louder and louder, they really made our neck work out trying by looking for them in all directions! It took from 5 to 10 minutes to find us, we can think of them like if they sent 3 messengers to play first for a bit of time then the whole group of 11 were encircling us with different moves! Their intelligence, curiosity, and energy makes them extremely popular, we know their max measurements 2.45 to 3.8m/8ˈ to 12ˈ6ʺ and can live up to 50 years! Anyway as usual they disappeared by swimming off in front of us heading toward the island, they left us behind in the company of a chevron manta coming up from 27m/90ft of water, not too long after and again 4 dolphins showed up to do more spins and a slow free fall showing bellies in front of us sort of inviting to go deeper and deeper, blowing some donuts to make them look more cute to look at.
Our surface interval very pleasant in air temp of 26.6˚C/80˚F, vis on the surface of about 74km/40 nautical miles, San Benedicto Island visible from here!
Second dive current picked up strongly from North, we had the opportunity to go to the end of the reef heading East. The mantas are also very curious, they like us or the bubbles we make, 3 of them following us until the end of reef, with a few hammerheads here and there.
Third dive we are on a mission, to find octopus to please our guests. That is not difficult here at Cabo Pearce, right by the anchor we found 2 of them very well tucked in, so our divers got up really close with them, and had an opportunity to see how octos can change colors, texture of skin, move tentacles by reaching out to feel whatˈs that, they are also very intelligent by the way! Flounders do change color too, one just by the octo was very blended in! We moved on to make our dive progress for more around 12m/40ft of water to the cleaning station, obviously mantas were there but not so playful this time, they were more at distance coming in barely, vis also changed to from 10m/33ft to 20m/66ft, water temp 26˚C/79˚F.
Dive #4 a whole different story, once again we had octos walking over the reef, we followed it, slowly, and it didn’t seem to mind, it kept moving on from rock to rock, we were all looking at it but the mantas going crazy above wanting attention, so funny!! So we spent the whole dive with mantas being playful, they really changed behavior, bubbles all over the reef, mantas were happy happy, the dolphins showed up once more, but didn’t want to stay too long, it was a quick pass, but during one of the surface intervals we actually did some snorkeling with 10 of them!
By the way HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
A great day at Roca Partida, with lots of white tip sharks, galapagos sharks, big schools of fish, and more!
Hola to everybody from Roca Partida!
Today was a great day at Roca Partida, we had nice weather, temperature during the day was 26c/80 F, and a very sunny day. The water temperature was 77 F/25 C. We awoke to nice conditions, the current wasn't strong and helped us to have an easy dive on the eastern side of the rock with the white tips sharks. They’ve been hanging out at the caves and they were very helpful to take underwater photos and videos during our first dive. We continued our dive to the north area, once there we started watching ours first Galapagos sharks and the first big schools of Big eye Jack! The Galapagos got closer each time making a fascinating attraction to our divers. At our second dive we covered the eastern side once again, enjoying the amazing white tips shark ledges, including the little ones! Those caves are located at the 46 Ft, with very clear water and very good visibility, of more than 60 ft. We progressed down to the 90 ft. depth and we continued our dive on the northern point where we found big eye trevally jacks in little vertical schools, mixed with trumpet fish, Pacific creole fish, and huge big eye jacks. We moved with the marine life and we continued our dive to the western side to find a very nice vertical wall, plenty of hard coral in bright red and green colors, and to make our dive even more relaxing we could hear the sounds of the corals. On the way at southern point we ended our dive with white tips before we completed our safety stop in the beautiful and peaceful big blue. After our second dive, Antonio our chef prepared a delicious yellow tail fish with vegetables and rice, for everyone to enjoy. After recovering calories we burnt on our morning dives we got ready to start the third dive of the day and we went straight to the northern point, where immediately we found much more action this time! There were more Galapagos sharks circling, going up and down, in and out all over the place. This time they were moving from the 50' to the 70' and turning around. We found big schools of cottonmouth jacks, huge yellow fin tunas, and much deeper a few Hammerheads appear in a rush! Finally we moved southeast, finding a lot of action in the low light conditions. Galapagos mixed with white tips moving around. The current was a little bit stronger making an explosion of marine life! The swell was growing, then when the time was right we went out into the open blue to do our safety stop surrounded by a huge and beautiful school of Amberjack, making the enjoyment last until the very last minute of the dive!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Dive Instructor
Today was a great day at Roca Partida, we had nice weather, temperature during the day was 26c/80 F, and a very sunny day. The water temperature was 77 F/25 C. We awoke to nice conditions, the current wasn't strong and helped us to have an easy dive on the eastern side of the rock with the white tips sharks. They’ve been hanging out at the caves and they were very helpful to take underwater photos and videos during our first dive. We continued our dive to the north area, once there we started watching ours first Galapagos sharks and the first big schools of Big eye Jack! The Galapagos got closer each time making a fascinating attraction to our divers. At our second dive we covered the eastern side once again, enjoying the amazing white tips shark ledges, including the little ones! Those caves are located at the 46 Ft, with very clear water and very good visibility, of more than 60 ft. We progressed down to the 90 ft. depth and we continued our dive on the northern point where we found big eye trevally jacks in little vertical schools, mixed with trumpet fish, Pacific creole fish, and huge big eye jacks. We moved with the marine life and we continued our dive to the western side to find a very nice vertical wall, plenty of hard coral in bright red and green colors, and to make our dive even more relaxing we could hear the sounds of the corals. On the way at southern point we ended our dive with white tips before we completed our safety stop in the beautiful and peaceful big blue. After our second dive, Antonio our chef prepared a delicious yellow tail fish with vegetables and rice, for everyone to enjoy. After recovering calories we burnt on our morning dives we got ready to start the third dive of the day and we went straight to the northern point, where immediately we found much more action this time! There were more Galapagos sharks circling, going up and down, in and out all over the place. This time they were moving from the 50' to the 70' and turning around. We found big schools of cottonmouth jacks, huge yellow fin tunas, and much deeper a few Hammerheads appear in a rush! Finally we moved southeast, finding a lot of action in the low light conditions. Galapagos mixed with white tips moving around. The current was a little bit stronger making an explosion of marine life! The swell was growing, then when the time was right we went out into the open blue to do our safety stop surrounded by a huge and beautiful school of Amberjack, making the enjoyment last until the very last minute of the dive!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Dive Instructor
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
San Benedicto was mantastic!
Hello Hello!
Belated Merry Christmas to everybody!
After our Christmas break now we are back on the game diving the Socorro islands and to start the trip we had a great day of diving at “El Cañón” in San Benedicto Island! Conditions out of the water were perfect, we had a warm day with a light breeze and calm sea, underwater we had moderate visibility, 50ft/15m, but that didn't stop us from looking at great creatures!
We started the day with the perfect check out dive for the trip, the water was 79F/26C and we had a mild current coming from the northeast, so we went down the descent line and first thing we saw, a pod of 8 bottled nose dolphins! They came from out of the blue on to the rocks and slowed down to pose for our divers! A couple of them circled us and they kept going their own way, a few minutes later 9 more dolphins came and stayed a little longer as we made our way out to the east cleaning station. Half way out we stopped and waited holding on to the rocks, looking for hammerheads, but only one came close to the rocks, while white tip reef sharks, dolphins and jacks swam around us, so after a few minutes we went east a little closer to the cleaning station and it was there where we saw more hammerheads! We had about 8 to 10 hammerheads coming close to us, by the time we had to let go of the rocks 2 chevron mantas came by and started swimming above and around us several times! As we ascended they stayed down so we drifted and another manta showed up during our drift dive, this time it was a black manta that came up to our safety stop to play with us for a few minutes before we had to surface!
For our second dive we did a free descent as this time we had no current and this time mantas and dolphins were gone, so we went out to the cleaning station, waited there but no hammerhead action this time. So we enjoyed the company of lot of jacks, white tip reef sharks and a juvenile silver tip shark, before we decided to go into the blue waters looking for the hammerheads. We only found one hammerhead along with a chevron manta swimming below us at about 35m/115ft. We turned around and started heading back to where we started the dive and to our surprise hammerheads were swimming around the sandy bottom and 90ft/27m so we watched them “dancing” in front of us, about 7 of them of varying sizes. We then swam back to the rock formations, where we found 4 mantas 3 chevron and 1 black that kept us entertained for the rest of the dive!
For the third and last dive of the day we decided to do a manta dive, so went down and there they were, 3 chevron and 1 black manta again, they stayed with us the entire dive!!! They would swimm around us, underneath us, and obviously above us to get their bubble massage! These mantas just don't stop, they started swimming in a single line formation, very nice for pictures and video, then turning and flipping around each other and the action just didn't stop, coming back to the divers over and over, it was just mantastic!
Now we are expecting good weather for tomorrow so we are heading back to my favorite rock, Roca Partida, so stayed tuned to know what the rock has for us on this trip!
I wont write to you again this 2014 so have a happy new year and see you in 2015!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Belated Merry Christmas to everybody!
After our Christmas break now we are back on the game diving the Socorro islands and to start the trip we had a great day of diving at “El Cañón” in San Benedicto Island! Conditions out of the water were perfect, we had a warm day with a light breeze and calm sea, underwater we had moderate visibility, 50ft/15m, but that didn't stop us from looking at great creatures!
We started the day with the perfect check out dive for the trip, the water was 79F/26C and we had a mild current coming from the northeast, so we went down the descent line and first thing we saw, a pod of 8 bottled nose dolphins! They came from out of the blue on to the rocks and slowed down to pose for our divers! A couple of them circled us and they kept going their own way, a few minutes later 9 more dolphins came and stayed a little longer as we made our way out to the east cleaning station. Half way out we stopped and waited holding on to the rocks, looking for hammerheads, but only one came close to the rocks, while white tip reef sharks, dolphins and jacks swam around us, so after a few minutes we went east a little closer to the cleaning station and it was there where we saw more hammerheads! We had about 8 to 10 hammerheads coming close to us, by the time we had to let go of the rocks 2 chevron mantas came by and started swimming above and around us several times! As we ascended they stayed down so we drifted and another manta showed up during our drift dive, this time it was a black manta that came up to our safety stop to play with us for a few minutes before we had to surface!
For our second dive we did a free descent as this time we had no current and this time mantas and dolphins were gone, so we went out to the cleaning station, waited there but no hammerhead action this time. So we enjoyed the company of lot of jacks, white tip reef sharks and a juvenile silver tip shark, before we decided to go into the blue waters looking for the hammerheads. We only found one hammerhead along with a chevron manta swimming below us at about 35m/115ft. We turned around and started heading back to where we started the dive and to our surprise hammerheads were swimming around the sandy bottom and 90ft/27m so we watched them “dancing” in front of us, about 7 of them of varying sizes. We then swam back to the rock formations, where we found 4 mantas 3 chevron and 1 black that kept us entertained for the rest of the dive!
For the third and last dive of the day we decided to do a manta dive, so went down and there they were, 3 chevron and 1 black manta again, they stayed with us the entire dive!!! They would swimm around us, underneath us, and obviously above us to get their bubble massage! These mantas just don't stop, they started swimming in a single line formation, very nice for pictures and video, then turning and flipping around each other and the action just didn't stop, coming back to the divers over and over, it was just mantastic!
Now we are expecting good weather for tomorrow so we are heading back to my favorite rock, Roca Partida, so stayed tuned to know what the rock has for us on this trip!
I wont write to you again this 2014 so have a happy new year and see you in 2015!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
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