Today was our first full day of diving of this trip and it was a great start as usual! We spent all day at San Benedicto island at the infamous El Cañon, the conditions didn’t changed much through out the day we had about 45ft/14m visibility and the water temperature was around 25C/76f with mild to zero east current.
The first dive was very good, with Giant Pacific Mantas from the start! While going down the anchor line they were nearby, they were not that playful on this dive but they were around! The highlight of this dive was a very curious bottle nose dolphin that came in the middle of our group of divers and stayed there posing for the pictures while we were waiting to see if any hammerheads were around! As soon as the dolphin left, we saw some hammerheads but from a distance. As we made our way up to the safety stop back on the anchor line we had once again some mantas around us!
On the next two dives we tried to go to where we saw the hammerheads again to see if they would came a bit closer and they did. There was a school of around 20 of them that came very close. Still we did not pay much attention to them because this time the mantas were all over the place and very playful! From the second dive on it was manta day at El Cañon. At one point we saw six of them together and almost all of them were very playful and were enjoying the diver’s bubbles on their gills.
On the surface interval before the last dive of the day we had a lot of action close to the boat, with lots of dolphins and tunas jumping around and lots of birds following them, something was being chased for sure!
The fourth and last dive of the day was a bit different, once again we had the mantas all over but this time we saw some silver tips and silky sharks along with a couple of dolphins and some big tunas around. We ended the day once again with a beautiful sunset creating great colors and shadows over the volcano on San Benedicto. Now we head to Socorro Island planning to do four dives on Cabo Pearce tomorrow!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Master
Monday, January 19, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
We're back at the archipelago!
Hola amigos!
We are back at the archipelago!
Yesterday we left Cabo at about 3:30pm and had a very very smooth and fast crossing, the current helped us to get to the San Benedicto Island a little faster than normal and we got to our first dive site, “El Cañón”, for our check out dive at 2 pm! By 2:40 we were already in the water!
The temperature out of the water was 27C/80F, warmer than last trip, and the water temperature was 25C/77F, what made the dive very comfortable, the visibility was not very good, about 40ft/12m, but still, we had lots to see.
The weather was nice and calm so we set the stern anchor and we dove off the Solmar V swimming platform, a giant stride into the water and down the descent line we went! Once in the water we noticed a mild current coming from the northeast, so we decided to go check out the east cleaning station of the dive site, but first as we made it to the end of the line, there was a black manta that came to say "Welcome to Revillagigedo Archipelago" to our divers! It only checked us out and left, so we started swimming along the edge of the rocks and the blue waters, on the way out to the cleaning station we found several hammer heads, a couple swimming right above us, another small group of about 6 swimming out in the blue, another singles checking the rocks getting mixed with the bunch of white tip reef sharks and juvenile silver tips that made their way out to the cleaning station with us!
Once at the cleaning station we just laid on top of the rocks and enjoyed the show, we had schools of creole, trigger, butterfly fish, big eye trevallies, and of course all the sharks that accompanied us to the cleaning station, it was great just sitting there! Right before we started heading back towards the anchor line a huge very bulky hammer head showed up! Then time to head back and start the ascent, it was a very impressive dive as a first dive of the trip! Everybody is just waiting the time to get in the water tomorrow morning!
We are spending the night here at “El Cañón” and we will dive here again in the morning, so stay tuned because there is more action to come!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
We are back at the archipelago!
Yesterday we left Cabo at about 3:30pm and had a very very smooth and fast crossing, the current helped us to get to the San Benedicto Island a little faster than normal and we got to our first dive site, “El Cañón”, for our check out dive at 2 pm! By 2:40 we were already in the water!
The temperature out of the water was 27C/80F, warmer than last trip, and the water temperature was 25C/77F, what made the dive very comfortable, the visibility was not very good, about 40ft/12m, but still, we had lots to see.
The weather was nice and calm so we set the stern anchor and we dove off the Solmar V swimming platform, a giant stride into the water and down the descent line we went! Once in the water we noticed a mild current coming from the northeast, so we decided to go check out the east cleaning station of the dive site, but first as we made it to the end of the line, there was a black manta that came to say "Welcome to Revillagigedo Archipelago" to our divers! It only checked us out and left, so we started swimming along the edge of the rocks and the blue waters, on the way out to the cleaning station we found several hammer heads, a couple swimming right above us, another small group of about 6 swimming out in the blue, another singles checking the rocks getting mixed with the bunch of white tip reef sharks and juvenile silver tips that made their way out to the cleaning station with us!
Once at the cleaning station we just laid on top of the rocks and enjoyed the show, we had schools of creole, trigger, butterfly fish, big eye trevallies, and of course all the sharks that accompanied us to the cleaning station, it was great just sitting there! Right before we started heading back towards the anchor line a huge very bulky hammer head showed up! Then time to head back and start the ascent, it was a very impressive dive as a first dive of the trip! Everybody is just waiting the time to get in the water tomorrow morning!
We are spending the night here at “El Cañón” and we will dive here again in the morning, so stay tuned because there is more action to come!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
What a last day we had at San Benedicto Island!
Hola amigos!
Last night we left Roca Partida and crossed back to San Benedicto island, it took us about 9 hours, it was a little bumpy but not too bad. This morning we woke up next to the great volcano and at 6:45 am we were all ready on the dive deck, suited up and before we started the dive briefing we took a minute to look at the great sunrise we had!
It was windy and we were expecting some swell so the dive site we picked was “El Cañón”, as it is the most protected site on the island, and it actually was very calm there behind that lava flow. By 7am we were in the water ready to enjoy the last day of diving of the trip, and what a last day we had!
For our first dive we got in the water we noticed it was a little cooler, 76F/24C, not great visibility, but still OK at about 40ft/12m. We also noticed a little south east current so we swam out into the current to the edge of the wall and when we got there we went down to hold on to the rocks, and waited for a few minutes in between hundreds of creole fish, white tip reef sharks, jacks and the big prize was the hammer heads, but there was no sign of them. Instead, we found a female bottled nosed dolphin with her little calf showing up from the blue waters and coming to the dive site in between a school of jacks, they only checked us out from the distance and kept going. We stayed there and kept waiting and finally and a school of about 12 hammerheads passed by, nice and slow, posing for the cameras and leaving everybody excited! As we were about to leave the rocks and start heading towards the ascent line, we had 2 chevron mantas visiting us! They played for a while with us and actually followed us all the way back to the boat! It was mantastic! I think there is no better way to start a day of diving!
For our second dive of the day we had a little bit more current, still coming from the south east and this time we headed to the south east corner of the dive site, on the way out there we found a big hammer head just cruising on top of the sandy bottom by itself, after checking it out we kept going and this time not many hammer heads were there, only 4 showed up, but what we did have was mantas! 2 chevron mantas came to play again, they would come and practically sit on top of us to feel our bubbles on their bellies and they just kept coming and coming and coming! Some divers got to get underneath them and blow some bubbles at them for a while, then they left and we went back to the anchor where we found more mantas and played with them, while a huge female hammerhead with a tiny little hammerhead came to check out the rocks by the anchor!
For the third dive we decided to make it a manta dive, so we went down the descent line and stayed a few feet/meters away from it and waited patiently for the mantas to come, and they showed up! We had 2 chevron and a black mantas that stayed with us for the entire dive! It was great! They would come, get their bubble bath, swim away a few feet/meters and come back and come back and come back and yes! They will come back again and again! We had about 40 minutes of this! It was just awesome!
The last dive of the trip was probably one of the best dives of the trip, current was not so strong, still coming from the south east, so we took the pangas and got dropped by the south east cleaning station, a quick back roll and down to the rocks! We were at 90ft/27m holding on top of the rocks, surrounded by 8 white tip reef sharks laying on the sandy bottom, a lot of creole and trigger fish, schools of jacks, and sea bass, green morays in between the rocks, then 2 juvenile silver tip sharks showed up and to make it even better a school of 35 hammer heads passed about 3m/10ft right in front of us so slow that it almost looked like somebody press the slow motion button. They swam into the sandy bottom, on top of other rocks and then back out into the blue, they where quite big sharks but that was not all! As we turned around to start heading back towards the boat 2 chevron mantas showed up, one was almost on top of us for a bout 3 minutes just enjoying our bubbles, silver tips came passing and passing in front of us, and on the way back to the anchor the mantas followed us like saying please don't go! What an end for this great trip!
Stay tuned guys because there is more to come on our next trip to the Socorro islands!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Last night we left Roca Partida and crossed back to San Benedicto island, it took us about 9 hours, it was a little bumpy but not too bad. This morning we woke up next to the great volcano and at 6:45 am we were all ready on the dive deck, suited up and before we started the dive briefing we took a minute to look at the great sunrise we had!
It was windy and we were expecting some swell so the dive site we picked was “El Cañón”, as it is the most protected site on the island, and it actually was very calm there behind that lava flow. By 7am we were in the water ready to enjoy the last day of diving of the trip, and what a last day we had!
For our first dive we got in the water we noticed it was a little cooler, 76F/24C, not great visibility, but still OK at about 40ft/12m. We also noticed a little south east current so we swam out into the current to the edge of the wall and when we got there we went down to hold on to the rocks, and waited for a few minutes in between hundreds of creole fish, white tip reef sharks, jacks and the big prize was the hammer heads, but there was no sign of them. Instead, we found a female bottled nosed dolphin with her little calf showing up from the blue waters and coming to the dive site in between a school of jacks, they only checked us out from the distance and kept going. We stayed there and kept waiting and finally and a school of about 12 hammerheads passed by, nice and slow, posing for the cameras and leaving everybody excited! As we were about to leave the rocks and start heading towards the ascent line, we had 2 chevron mantas visiting us! They played for a while with us and actually followed us all the way back to the boat! It was mantastic! I think there is no better way to start a day of diving!
For our second dive of the day we had a little bit more current, still coming from the south east and this time we headed to the south east corner of the dive site, on the way out there we found a big hammer head just cruising on top of the sandy bottom by itself, after checking it out we kept going and this time not many hammer heads were there, only 4 showed up, but what we did have was mantas! 2 chevron mantas came to play again, they would come and practically sit on top of us to feel our bubbles on their bellies and they just kept coming and coming and coming! Some divers got to get underneath them and blow some bubbles at them for a while, then they left and we went back to the anchor where we found more mantas and played with them, while a huge female hammerhead with a tiny little hammerhead came to check out the rocks by the anchor!
For the third dive we decided to make it a manta dive, so we went down the descent line and stayed a few feet/meters away from it and waited patiently for the mantas to come, and they showed up! We had 2 chevron and a black mantas that stayed with us for the entire dive! It was great! They would come, get their bubble bath, swim away a few feet/meters and come back and come back and come back and yes! They will come back again and again! We had about 40 minutes of this! It was just awesome!
The last dive of the trip was probably one of the best dives of the trip, current was not so strong, still coming from the south east, so we took the pangas and got dropped by the south east cleaning station, a quick back roll and down to the rocks! We were at 90ft/27m holding on top of the rocks, surrounded by 8 white tip reef sharks laying on the sandy bottom, a lot of creole and trigger fish, schools of jacks, and sea bass, green morays in between the rocks, then 2 juvenile silver tip sharks showed up and to make it even better a school of 35 hammer heads passed about 3m/10ft right in front of us so slow that it almost looked like somebody press the slow motion button. They swam into the sandy bottom, on top of other rocks and then back out into the blue, they where quite big sharks but that was not all! As we turned around to start heading back towards the boat 2 chevron mantas showed up, one was almost on top of us for a bout 3 minutes just enjoying our bubbles, silver tips came passing and passing in front of us, and on the way back to the anchor the mantas followed us like saying please don't go! What an end for this great trip!
Stay tuned guys because there is more to come on our next trip to the Socorro islands!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Lots of sharks, dolphins, mobula and more on our 3rd day at Roca Partida!
Jan 12, 2015 at Roca Partida
We had an amazing morning watching sunrise sky, with very intense colors, in the distance we could see a tiny glance of Socorro Island and as the morning gets brighter Socorro disappears from our sight!
Early morning air temperature of 24˚C/76˚F. 3days here show how good Roca has been! Our first dive started at 8:00 am, 50 minutes underwater and everything was at the north eastern point! As a welcome to the first dive of the day, before even we get in the water dolphins were already leaping high out the water, excited maybe?! And of course first thing we hear underwater is dolphins chirping! We don’t see them yet but they sound so close and louder as they're getting closer! One thing really helped to feel very safe while playing with them was the zero current in the area. Finally, we see at least 15 of them in small groups, 3, 4, 3, 2 etc, and a mom with her calf. It is impressive the way mom really takes care of her calf. While they were near us there was not a separation in distance, just like adults do, they had physical contact to feel moms care and safety! And of course that dolphin smile was always there. They were surrounding us really, with divers in the center and dolphins surrounding us, the chirping, clicking was constant, a mobula ray came across the center to check us out before leaving. In deep water, we could see tips of silver tip sharks, above some silky sharks that with so much action here are very interested in getting closer to us! For a minute the dolphins disappeared, but again the chirping was still there, once again they showed up in small groups. A single one adopts the vertical position just in front of me and stays like that for over a minute, letting me get very close, there were no scars on the body, we made eye contact, the dolphin blew some bubbles and I blew some bubbles of course! Close to the wall the schools of cotton mouth jacks making formations and 3 hammer heads under slowly swimming towards North, what a way to complete on this dive, which was also dive numbers 700 for Nancy Graff and dive number 400 for Marcia Massironi!
Our surface interval was very clear sky with air temp of 23˚C/73.4˚F, being able to have a glance of Socorro Island means we had 124km/67 miles visibility!
Second dive, we decided to go find that school of hammer heads on the south western area which after some time of swimming we did, at least 50 individuals, but they were in very deep water, at least 50m/164ft or more! We actually made it back to the rock since our current was still zero, the west side of it offered lots of lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, jacks, red and yellow trigger fish, moorish idols, barber fish, the chirping of dolphins still around we just did not see them on this dive!
A third dive took place on the south eastern point of the rock due to a mild current from the south there were, lots of fish there, blue water with 30m/100ft visibility, the high light of the dive here was the yellow fin tunas hunting so actively for the 50 minutes we spent in this corner, jacks were there with a few hammer heads below us making small circles, so close to the wall to see lots of white tip sharks, and so this is the end of our 3 days spent at Roca!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
We had an amazing morning watching sunrise sky, with very intense colors, in the distance we could see a tiny glance of Socorro Island and as the morning gets brighter Socorro disappears from our sight!
Early morning air temperature of 24˚C/76˚F. 3days here show how good Roca has been! Our first dive started at 8:00 am, 50 minutes underwater and everything was at the north eastern point! As a welcome to the first dive of the day, before even we get in the water dolphins were already leaping high out the water, excited maybe?! And of course first thing we hear underwater is dolphins chirping! We don’t see them yet but they sound so close and louder as they're getting closer! One thing really helped to feel very safe while playing with them was the zero current in the area. Finally, we see at least 15 of them in small groups, 3, 4, 3, 2 etc, and a mom with her calf. It is impressive the way mom really takes care of her calf. While they were near us there was not a separation in distance, just like adults do, they had physical contact to feel moms care and safety! And of course that dolphin smile was always there. They were surrounding us really, with divers in the center and dolphins surrounding us, the chirping, clicking was constant, a mobula ray came across the center to check us out before leaving. In deep water, we could see tips of silver tip sharks, above some silky sharks that with so much action here are very interested in getting closer to us! For a minute the dolphins disappeared, but again the chirping was still there, once again they showed up in small groups. A single one adopts the vertical position just in front of me and stays like that for over a minute, letting me get very close, there were no scars on the body, we made eye contact, the dolphin blew some bubbles and I blew some bubbles of course! Close to the wall the schools of cotton mouth jacks making formations and 3 hammer heads under slowly swimming towards North, what a way to complete on this dive, which was also dive numbers 700 for Nancy Graff and dive number 400 for Marcia Massironi!
Our surface interval was very clear sky with air temp of 23˚C/73.4˚F, being able to have a glance of Socorro Island means we had 124km/67 miles visibility!
Second dive, we decided to go find that school of hammer heads on the south western area which after some time of swimming we did, at least 50 individuals, but they were in very deep water, at least 50m/164ft or more! We actually made it back to the rock since our current was still zero, the west side of it offered lots of lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, jacks, red and yellow trigger fish, moorish idols, barber fish, the chirping of dolphins still around we just did not see them on this dive!
A third dive took place on the south eastern point of the rock due to a mild current from the south there were, lots of fish there, blue water with 30m/100ft visibility, the high light of the dive here was the yellow fin tunas hunting so actively for the 50 minutes we spent in this corner, jacks were there with a few hammer heads below us making small circles, so close to the wall to see lots of white tip sharks, and so this is the end of our 3 days spent at Roca!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Humpbacks, playful dolphins, lots of sharks, and even a manta on Day 2 at Roca Partida!!
Today we had another great day at Roca Partida. It started with some whale watching from the boat right after breakfast, we had three humpbacks going around us with a couple of breaches very close!
At 8:00 am we got in the water for our first dive, from the beginning to the end of the dive which lasted fifty minutes we had bottlenose dolphins playing with us! At one point, we counted twenty at the same time. Throughout the dive we also saw a few hammerheads, silky, silvertips and Galapagos sharks, at some points all in the same frame!
Roca Partida was full of life the entire day, on the second dive, the hammerheads were still around but this time we saw a big school! At the beginning of the dive we went down to 30 meters/100ft where around 30 of them passed by facing us and you could see the rest of the school deeper down! We didn’t see dolphins on this dive but we could hear them. Lots of yellow fin tunas and silky sharks were passing chasing smaller fish throughout the dive.
In the afternoon we went for our last dive of the day and the conditions were still the same, all day long no current, 30meters/100ft visibility and the temperature around 24C/76f. This dive was very similar to the second one, but on the last twenty minutes we had one manta hanging out with the group at about 5meters/15ft, there were about ten divers together and the manta was going on top of everyone one by one enjoying all the divers' bubbles.
We finished the day watching the beautiful sunset and checking out the silky sharks going around the boat on the surface. Tomorrow we have one more day here at Roca Partida hopefully it will be as good as the last two days have been.
Thiago Mendonca
At 8:00 am we got in the water for our first dive, from the beginning to the end of the dive which lasted fifty minutes we had bottlenose dolphins playing with us! At one point, we counted twenty at the same time. Throughout the dive we also saw a few hammerheads, silky, silvertips and Galapagos sharks, at some points all in the same frame!
Roca Partida was full of life the entire day, on the second dive, the hammerheads were still around but this time we saw a big school! At the beginning of the dive we went down to 30 meters/100ft where around 30 of them passed by facing us and you could see the rest of the school deeper down! We didn’t see dolphins on this dive but we could hear them. Lots of yellow fin tunas and silky sharks were passing chasing smaller fish throughout the dive.
In the afternoon we went for our last dive of the day and the conditions were still the same, all day long no current, 30meters/100ft visibility and the temperature around 24C/76f. This dive was very similar to the second one, but on the last twenty minutes we had one manta hanging out with the group at about 5meters/15ft, there were about ten divers together and the manta was going on top of everyone one by one enjoying all the divers' bubbles.
We finished the day watching the beautiful sunset and checking out the silky sharks going around the boat on the surface. Tomorrow we have one more day here at Roca Partida hopefully it will be as good as the last two days have been.
Thiago Mendonca
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Dolphins, hammerheads, and more on Day 1 at Roca Partida!
Hola amigos!
Last night after the navy inspection in Socorro island we sailed off to Roca Partida, after 9 hours of navigation we got to the rock, anchored and waited for sunrise to get into our wetsuits.
By 7:45am everybody was on deck, suited up and excited to see what the rock had prepared for us!
After the dive briefing we got on the pangas and off we went to explore the rock! After an easy back roll entry we were in the warm water, 77F/25C, and started descending on the east side of the rock and first thing we noticed was the great visibility we had, about 80ft/24m, when we got to 40ft/12m we went to check out the ledges were the white tip reef sharks lay down and it was crowded! About 15 white tip were there laying on top of each other, after a few pictures there we swam north and when we got to the north end it was full of fish, huge schools of creole and trigger fish, jacks and more white tips swimming around close to the rock, so we went off the rock in between all this fish and into the blue, after a couple of minutes we heard a familiar sound...bottled nose dolphins! We heard them and we started turning around but no sign of them until suddenly here they were, a pod of about 25 dolphins showed up in little groups at the time, and that's when the fun started! Dolphins were going up and down, swimming around the divers, while divers were trying to keep up with them doing their dolphins style swim, what a picture! It was just great, everybody was so excited and dolphins kept coming and coming for the rest of the dive, in total we spent about 30 minutes with them! While all this was going on we had a little school of bonitos swimming closer to the surface and a silky shark chasing them, we didn't know which show to watch, but at the end we decided to keep playing with the dolphins! By the end of the dive after a little break of no dolphins we started drifting south and on the way we found more dolphins! This time 3 of them came by to check us out, while some huge tunas cruised at about 60ft/18m looking for their morning pray, then it was time to surface, so safety stop and back on board the Solmar V.
For the second dive we went down on the north end of the rock, and again we were surrounded by thousands of fish, we were expecting some shark action but there was no big sharks, others than the white tips, so after waiting a few minutes there we headed south, on the way we found a few schools of jacks and more and more white tip reef sharks. By the time we got to the south west corner we felt a little current coming from that direction, so we went into it to see whats it could bring us, and after kicking away from the rock a few meters we had a school of about 50 hammer heads swimming at 100ft/30m, they were doing their classic pattern in circles and we followed them for a few minutes! It was just awesome!
On our third dive we decided to go look for the hammer heads again so we went down on the same south western corner where we saw them earlier, this time we got to 100ft/30m and no sign of them, we had to kick farther out into the blue and at about 120ft/36m, there they were, a smaller school this time, but still about 30 of them! As they saw us they started going deeper and we followed on top, but then they were to deep to take a good look so we turned around and started heading towards the rock. We didn't have to kick far before there they were again! They came very close this time and 2 of them actually passed right next to one of our divers! We had a few more minutes with them and then headed back towards the rock. On the way back we spotted a silver tip shark swimming under us and right after a school of bait fish being chased by a silky shark, but that was not all, when we got back to the rock, we swam south and there we found three huge yellow fin tunas that were on the hunt of some smaller fish, they swam right next to us in a very slow motion and then disappeared. So to resume not many sharks close to the rock, but great schools of hammerheads and tuna action! Stay tuned because we are staying in Roca Partida for another great day of diving!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Last night after the navy inspection in Socorro island we sailed off to Roca Partida, after 9 hours of navigation we got to the rock, anchored and waited for sunrise to get into our wetsuits.
By 7:45am everybody was on deck, suited up and excited to see what the rock had prepared for us!
After the dive briefing we got on the pangas and off we went to explore the rock! After an easy back roll entry we were in the warm water, 77F/25C, and started descending on the east side of the rock and first thing we noticed was the great visibility we had, about 80ft/24m, when we got to 40ft/12m we went to check out the ledges were the white tip reef sharks lay down and it was crowded! About 15 white tip were there laying on top of each other, after a few pictures there we swam north and when we got to the north end it was full of fish, huge schools of creole and trigger fish, jacks and more white tips swimming around close to the rock, so we went off the rock in between all this fish and into the blue, after a couple of minutes we heard a familiar sound...bottled nose dolphins! We heard them and we started turning around but no sign of them until suddenly here they were, a pod of about 25 dolphins showed up in little groups at the time, and that's when the fun started! Dolphins were going up and down, swimming around the divers, while divers were trying to keep up with them doing their dolphins style swim, what a picture! It was just great, everybody was so excited and dolphins kept coming and coming for the rest of the dive, in total we spent about 30 minutes with them! While all this was going on we had a little school of bonitos swimming closer to the surface and a silky shark chasing them, we didn't know which show to watch, but at the end we decided to keep playing with the dolphins! By the end of the dive after a little break of no dolphins we started drifting south and on the way we found more dolphins! This time 3 of them came by to check us out, while some huge tunas cruised at about 60ft/18m looking for their morning pray, then it was time to surface, so safety stop and back on board the Solmar V.
For the second dive we went down on the north end of the rock, and again we were surrounded by thousands of fish, we were expecting some shark action but there was no big sharks, others than the white tips, so after waiting a few minutes there we headed south, on the way we found a few schools of jacks and more and more white tip reef sharks. By the time we got to the south west corner we felt a little current coming from that direction, so we went into it to see whats it could bring us, and after kicking away from the rock a few meters we had a school of about 50 hammer heads swimming at 100ft/30m, they were doing their classic pattern in circles and we followed them for a few minutes! It was just awesome!
On our third dive we decided to go look for the hammer heads again so we went down on the same south western corner where we saw them earlier, this time we got to 100ft/30m and no sign of them, we had to kick farther out into the blue and at about 120ft/36m, there they were, a smaller school this time, but still about 30 of them! As they saw us they started going deeper and we followed on top, but then they were to deep to take a good look so we turned around and started heading towards the rock. We didn't have to kick far before there they were again! They came very close this time and 2 of them actually passed right next to one of our divers! We had a few more minutes with them and then headed back towards the rock. On the way back we spotted a silver tip shark swimming under us and right after a school of bait fish being chased by a silky shark, but that was not all, when we got back to the rock, we swam south and there we found three huge yellow fin tunas that were on the hunt of some smaller fish, they swam right next to us in a very slow motion and then disappeared. So to resume not many sharks close to the rock, but great schools of hammerheads and tuna action! Stay tuned because we are staying in Roca Partida for another great day of diving!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Lots of action at Socorro Island!
Hi All! Jan. 09, 2015
A new day to go diving, everybody was excited listening to dive briefing about what Cabo Pearce, it's just like really listening to your favorite class! The sunrise happened very quickly, and by the time we were in the water we had plenty of light. During the whole day we enjoyed of 25˚C/77˚F, visibility was constantly changing from 10m to 25m/33ft to 80ft due to very strong current coming from South. As usual we set our stern anchor to make more comfortable the descent, right in the same area 12m/40ft deep there was an octopus changing color to blend in, which they do very well, after a minute it decided not to be shy any more, and continued to crawl on the rocks, slowly covering the area, using it's tentacles to feel what is there to move on. Nearby, spiny lobster detected anything approaching with it's antennas, flounders were also part of the show here, amazing who they can change colors as they go by areas in different colors like brown, purple, white, black etc. Anyway the manta cleaning station was not very active this morning so we took advantage of the current to find hammerheads on the northern edge of the dive site. There was only one first, but it was just a matter of waiting before another five showed up! Vis. wasn’t that great by this edge but good enough to see them for a short time, and watch how they swim on the side then turning making a big circle to come back in front of us! Then 2 mantas showed up as well, not so friendly for the moment, it seemed they needed time as well, not too long after however they were just like our best friends! Current still kicking hard so our safety stop was fun hanging onto the rope.
Our surface interval is always exciting doing panga rides by Jeronimo with his friendly grumpy face making every customer laugh, explaining about birds, lava formations etc.
On our second dive the rule was let see what we see not fighting the current! So everybody agreed with a, "Yeaaaaaa! Good idea! And here we go!" We were hiding sort of behind a rock at 14m/50ft deep, nice no current, enjoying the company of 3 friendly mantas, we wish we could be like them in the current, they don’t move a wing, they are stationary above our heads and the current doesn’t blow them away! So while some enjoyed the manta action, others decided to go around the rock a bit into the current on the south edge to hold onto it, how lucky we were by getting there on time to see 2 different schools of hammer heads counting more than 80 sharks! The good thing is the current took all the bubbles on the other direction so we had a clear view of all sharks, a plus was to have them swimming over our heads, I counted myself 1 minute 30 seconds until they all were gone into the blue, of course on the way back to the anchor we had the playful mantas again!
On our third and fourth dives we finally had a break on the current, zero of it! Knowing about the hammer heads on previous dive we all decided to go find them, it was easy to navigate along the reef, the mantas were not in the cleaning stations they were here half way to the end of it making wide circles over the rocks, we also found lots of Pacific creole fish, lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, that by the way also know where there is no current to lay on the bottom to not get blown away! A huge Diamond head sting ray had a perfect circular bite on the back side of the wing, I guess we know what it means shark bite! Vis. in this area was just great, we are at 24m/80ft deep and we see the bottom like if it was so close but it is not. To get down there is 50m/160ft of water! Hammer heads here and there, not as many during our afternoon dives, but we had more mantas that were as playful as always, and I can say a good way to finish a day of diving was with the encounter we had with a tiger shark! Not so close but the stripes were there!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
A new day to go diving, everybody was excited listening to dive briefing about what Cabo Pearce, it's just like really listening to your favorite class! The sunrise happened very quickly, and by the time we were in the water we had plenty of light. During the whole day we enjoyed of 25˚C/77˚F, visibility was constantly changing from 10m to 25m/33ft to 80ft due to very strong current coming from South. As usual we set our stern anchor to make more comfortable the descent, right in the same area 12m/40ft deep there was an octopus changing color to blend in, which they do very well, after a minute it decided not to be shy any more, and continued to crawl on the rocks, slowly covering the area, using it's tentacles to feel what is there to move on. Nearby, spiny lobster detected anything approaching with it's antennas, flounders were also part of the show here, amazing who they can change colors as they go by areas in different colors like brown, purple, white, black etc. Anyway the manta cleaning station was not very active this morning so we took advantage of the current to find hammerheads on the northern edge of the dive site. There was only one first, but it was just a matter of waiting before another five showed up! Vis. wasn’t that great by this edge but good enough to see them for a short time, and watch how they swim on the side then turning making a big circle to come back in front of us! Then 2 mantas showed up as well, not so friendly for the moment, it seemed they needed time as well, not too long after however they were just like our best friends! Current still kicking hard so our safety stop was fun hanging onto the rope.
Our surface interval is always exciting doing panga rides by Jeronimo with his friendly grumpy face making every customer laugh, explaining about birds, lava formations etc.
On our second dive the rule was let see what we see not fighting the current! So everybody agreed with a, "Yeaaaaaa! Good idea! And here we go!" We were hiding sort of behind a rock at 14m/50ft deep, nice no current, enjoying the company of 3 friendly mantas, we wish we could be like them in the current, they don’t move a wing, they are stationary above our heads and the current doesn’t blow them away! So while some enjoyed the manta action, others decided to go around the rock a bit into the current on the south edge to hold onto it, how lucky we were by getting there on time to see 2 different schools of hammer heads counting more than 80 sharks! The good thing is the current took all the bubbles on the other direction so we had a clear view of all sharks, a plus was to have them swimming over our heads, I counted myself 1 minute 30 seconds until they all were gone into the blue, of course on the way back to the anchor we had the playful mantas again!
On our third and fourth dives we finally had a break on the current, zero of it! Knowing about the hammer heads on previous dive we all decided to go find them, it was easy to navigate along the reef, the mantas were not in the cleaning stations they were here half way to the end of it making wide circles over the rocks, we also found lots of Pacific creole fish, lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, that by the way also know where there is no current to lay on the bottom to not get blown away! A huge Diamond head sting ray had a perfect circular bite on the back side of the wing, I guess we know what it means shark bite! Vis. in this area was just great, we are at 24m/80ft deep and we see the bottom like if it was so close but it is not. To get down there is 50m/160ft of water! Hammer heads here and there, not as many during our afternoon dives, but we had more mantas that were as playful as always, and I can say a good way to finish a day of diving was with the encounter we had with a tiger shark! Not so close but the stripes were there!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
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