Hola from Roca!

It was our last day here at Roca and we had some good diving. As we rode out to Roca on the pangas for the first dive we had dolphins bow riding. They didn't stick around for the dive, however, but they were nice to see nonetheless. On the north point we had quite a few galapagos sharks with silvertips, maybe 12 schooling together. We drifted to the south which was filled with fish. There were jacks, creolefish, and triggerfish everywhere. On the outside we watched as the school of galapagos and silvertips moved in and out of the bait.

Our second dive started with dolphins finally making an appearance. They were two juvenile bottlenose dolphins checking us out. They stuck around for about five minutes and like teenagers do, decided they had better things to do. So we waited on the outside of the bait and waited. Many sharks passed by, but the highlight was a huge baitball of skipjack tuna. They seemed to boil up from out of the blue and circled us as we got closer. We returned to the rock where we saw more silvertips in groups of three or fours.

Our last dive today had some heavy current, especially around the points where all the action was happening. There were so many fish and the school of sharks were there. This time I counted 20 silvertip sharks with 2 or three galapagos with them. They were approaching very close and coming around again and again. There were also some very large tuna 100 lb plus. They were rubbing against one another, a behavior we have just started to see. It seemed also that one would change colors and show stripes-this would be the one pursuing the other large tuna. It was quite a show with fish bigger than you are swimming circles around you.

Roca gave us some good diving this trip. We saw some things we haven't seen this season. Most remarkably the schools of silvertips. There were no silkies and the schools of galapagos seemed to changeover to this now mixed school of silvertips and galapagos. I can't wait to see what changes we see next week. Off to San Benedicto for some manta action.

Until next time...

dave valencia <(((><

Day 1 at Roca

Hi all! From the amazing Roca Partida

    Despite the conditions due to hurricane Bud the weather has been
treating us very well at Roca! This trip we have a charter of all mexican divers led underwater by Dive Instructor Dave, Dive Instructor Erick, and myself, Daniel Dive Inst as well.

The whole day was great with a surface temp of 77F and in the low 70's with thermocline, Vis 60' and mild current from west during the morning, second and third dive mild as well from north.

The dives we did were great! Once again mother nature provided us with lots of Galapagos shark and siver tips and mixed in this school were 2 pregnant silver tips! The school of galapagos and silvertips swam from one end of the rock to the other several times during a dive, so everyone had an opportunity to observe their schooling behavior. And considering the pregnant females, hopefully we'll see a for new borns in the near future! On second dive we found about 10 hammerheads plus our many friendly white tips all over the Rock!  Out in the blue we found a school of BIG yellow fin tunas and we witnessed an interesting new tuna behavior. It was so good we're staying for another day! Stay tuned for more!

    Dive Inst Daniel Zapata
    Gracias!

Greetings from San Benedicto! Despite reports of a storm several hundred miles away, we had some pretty great weather and some amazing dives today..

We Started the day with two dives at El Boiler. Even before jumping in the water we had dolphins surrounding the boat. We quickly jumped in and had three dolphins zipping here and there. They seemed so excited they would go straight from 50 ft. and leapt out of the water and would come back down again. Soon they disappeared. So we checked out the many green morays, octopus, and scorpionfish. Then during the last 10 minutes of our dive they dolphins came back, this time with more dolphin friends and in a more playful mood. They swam in a tight group and swam around us many times. They were keeping a bit of distance away from the rocks in the blue, which was really nice for our photographers. The dolphins kept playing but it was time for our safety stop and they followed us all the way to the swim step.

In between dives we spotted a few mantas staying close to the surface and hoped it would be a good sign for our second dive. It started slow with my group checking out the pinnacle to the east, hoping to entice some mantas there, but to no avail. Instead we checked out more eels, octo, and scorpionfish. We made our way around the rock and spotted many creolefish away from the rock so we followed them into the blue. There I spotted 1 silky shark, then another then we saw saw a small school of 15 silky sharks come in and out of visibility. We were straying from the rock so we turned back and there was a manta leading the way. As we arrived back on the boiler antoher manta showed up and we knew our manta sightings from the surface was a good omen. These mantas played with us all for the last 30 min of our dive.

While all our guests were having lunch Dani, our lead divemaster, was sighting for birds on the horizon. He spotted lots of birds and dolphins maybe two miles away. This has been our new obsession since the baitball action has been so good. So we got everyone suited up and headed out for a blue water adventure. Dolphins greeted us as we got close to the tornado of birds. Upon jumping in, however, we didn't see any bait. Too bad...only dolphins and silkies, so we jumped in anyway. There was a marlin sighting early in the encounter, lots of silky sharks, and a pod of over 20 bottlenose dolphins. Everyone snorkeled in the blue watching dolphins play underneath among the many silkies. The longer we stayed, the more silkies accumulated. It's difficult to estimate, but by the end we had a school of over 100 silky sharks. They were acting as a school as well. They made a wall and if you held your breath and dove down, they would approach very close. They were swimming in a large circle around all of the snorkelers in the water. It's a good thing we weren't shipwrecked. 

San Benedicto was good to us today. Looking forward to another great one here in San Benedicto tomorrow.

Until next time...

Dave Valencia

San Benedicto had one of it's incredible surprises waiting for us!

When you have to describe what we saw today, words just can't do it justice, you will have to come see for yourself!

To start the day we went to dive in El Cañon. Water around 71 degrees and visibility around 50 ft with a strong south - south east current. The conditions were the perfect combination to find a big Tiger Shark close to the Hammerheads Cleaning station, a gentle Chevron Manta and some Hammerheads hanging around in the dive site.

After this dive we decided to move to El Boiler, where we did our second dive of the day, with soft currents, clear and warm water. The highlight of this dive was the incredible school of Pacific Creoles surrounding the area and the gentle presence of an small school of Jacks. Now, when everything was going according to plan, San Benedicto had one of it's incredible surprises waiting for us.

After the second dive, coming back to the boat to have lunch we saw a lot of birds over a bait ball so we decided to take our snorkeling gear and go in a Panga ride to the bait ball to see what was going on, and A LOT was going on there.

We jumped and we found that at least 100 Silky Sharks, hundred of tunas and wahoos were feeding in the bait ball, and we where right there, with our cameras enjoying one of the mos incredible moments in nature. Just when everything was already a NatGeo moment, many dolphins came to join the party, and 8 Marlins show up too.

With all this incredible moment going on, more sharks came to the area, and we could spot Black Fin and some Galapagos sharks joining the action with the uncountable number of Silky Sharks, and of course again the dolphins and more dolphins...and when everything was just perfect, a Mobula Ray peacefully crossed through the middle action.

After that what else can you ask?? Well San Benedicto had another gift for us in our last dive. When we got in the water, soft currents and warm water made the perfect place for a huge school of big eyes Jacks with at least 7 or 8 silky sharks chasing them, making our last day in Socorro Islands quite memorable.

Now we are heading back to Cabo San Lucas with the feeling that we where in the middle of one of those special nature moments, and we deeply know that this kind of things will probably not happen again to us, so we are still having the images of the day going trough our minds and anywhere you look in the Solmar V you will find a big big smile and happy eyes.

Adios from paradise
Ricardo Tamaño
Dive Instructor

Today was absolutely breathtaking.

If I had to sum up today's diving in one word: Wow! If you have not been to Roca Partida before, you need to experience this. Today was absolutely breathtaking.

To start, Roca emerges from the ocean like a monument to the past. There's nothing but birds on the rock and all the life in the water. There's a quietness here like you're in some sort of sacred place. This is what it must have been like everywhere before people effected it.

As the sun rose this morning, the breeze dwindled and the sea calmed. Roca was good to us these last three days and even more so on this last day.

As we arrived by panga to roca this morning we saw dolphins. They were bow riding the pangas, excited for our arrival. We all jumped in and had the entire dive with approximately 12 bottlenose dolphins in the blue. They swam in and out of the group and teased everyone with their favorite game.. That is, falling to the depths to see if you will follow. They know exactly where the recreational dive limit is (130ft.) and they will put you to the test.  After 30 minutes of playing we decided to head back to the rock and found many silvertips, silkies, and galapagos sharks. There was virtually no current so we just hovered and watched. The dolphins even followed us back to the rock and we saw a couple mating. For some, it was their first time with dolphins.

The second dive started slow. We had a school of 12 or so Galapagos sharks patrolling the north point. There were also quite a few tuna and silky sharks spotted. We drifted all around the rock looking for the action, but didn't find too much. Until the last 5 minutes. Once we made it around to the north point again we saw the 12 Galapagos sharks again, but this time with 12 hammerheads. They were all schooling together. They circled around three or four times and split. We made our way more shallow on the edge of the bait and watched a large school of 30 wahoo pass very close by. As we surfaced from the dive, Pancho, one of the pangeros, told us that there was a whale shark circling the Solmar V. So we got our gear on board as fast as we could and headed to the boat. Sure enough a juvenile whale shark ~15ft (5m) circled the boat. Everyone, and I mean everyone, jumped in and snorkled with the little guy. It was a blast! She stayed on the surface and allowed close approach. Never did it show any signs of nervousness or annoyance with all the people in the water. This was our third whale shark in three days. The whale shark stayed until all were exhausted.

Our final dive at Roca today sta rted quite mello. We saw some Galapagos sharks and a silvertip shark here and there but they were not getting close and not in big numbers. We had a rare sighting of a chevron manta. It took a look at us and slowed but didn't want to play. We kicked to the south point where a lot of action seemed to be happening. On the outside we started seeing silky sharks and Galapagos. There were three silky sharks in particular who were following eachother in a line and circling eachother. The approached all divers very close. We enjoyed this show for ahile and kicked back to the north. Here we watched some LARGE yellowfin tuna hit the surface. They were obviously hunting, but they rarley pass between a diver and the rock and this time they were allowing divers to get close. These tuna were over 100 lbs and more than 4 ft in length. They were larger than some of the silky sharks. I even observed one tuna rub itself against a silky shark a few times. This is interesting because we have been seeing a lot of this inter-species behavior: Galapagos sharks rubbing on Whale shark, rainbow runners rubbing on silkies, and now tuna on silkies. Something is in the water and things are getting exciting here at Roca. Finally, we ended the dive watching 40+ sharks circle beneath us.. A school made of Galapagos, silkies, and Silvertips.
 
Today was absolute magic. It just goes to show the true potential of this place. The water has changed here since the first week of May and hopefully it's a sign of more amazing things to come. Off to San Benedicto for tomorrow.

Until next time....

Dave Valencia

No words are enough to describe todays dives at Roca Partida!

We arrived early in the morning and with a crystal clear water that was a refreshing 75 degrees F in the surface and still 73 at 60 ft, we started the day with too many white tip sharks to count, over 20 Galapagos Sharks, some Silky Sharks and millions of Pacific Creoles, Jacks, all that in the middle of a gentle current coming from the north west of the island.

Our second dive was promising from the start when we face a massive school of black jacks chased by around 7 big Galapagos sharks, The current was a little bit more demanding in this dive, but still easy to go trough, what made the dive very enjoyable for every diver. Visibility and temperature remained the same all day long!

On our third and last dive of the day, we had the visit of our big friend at Roca Partida! A curious whale shark stayed with us at 30 to 20 ft of water, for the entire dive giving our photographers the chance to keep him in their lens as long as they needed it. Big Tunas and Wahoos in the background added to best dive of the trip so far!

- Tomorrow we will look for our friend again before heading back to San Benedicto for the last 2 days of our trip.-

See you soon,
Ricardo Tamano
Dive Instructor

What a day at Isla San Benedicto!

What a day at Isla San Benedicto! We have a fantastic group aboard this week and we were all treated to a great first full-day of diving.

We spent the first three dives at El Canon. This morning we didn't have the best visibility. However, throughout the day it improved. As soon as we hit the chilly 71 degree (F) water, we had a black manta playing with us. This was the same manta from two trips ago, who happens to be very friendly. It enjoyed swimming over the bubbles of every single diver in the water. When I took my turn, the manta enjoyed the bubbles so much it seemed to stop swimming and rested all its weight directly on my head pushing me to the bottom. Don't worry, the manta was gentle and obviously enjoyed the interaction. With the manta in tow, we kicked over to the corner hoping for some hammerheads. We saw one's and two's but no school. There we had dolphins. Clicking and chirping they chased the jacks above our heads. They even swam around our group a few times making us dizzy. After the dolphins grew tired of us we rounded the divesite in the blue. I spotted a large school of 40 or sohammerheads, but most in my group couldn't get a visual because the visibility was barely 30 ft. Not to worry, it was only our first dive of the day and lots more exciting things to come.

Our second dive had similar conditions, but this time we had a large hammerhead waiting for us next to the descent line. It made a close pass and even came back around to take another curious look. We revisited the corner and spotted a two silvertip sharks among all the fish. They were swimming back and forth protesting that we took their spot on the cleaning station, so we moved on. Again we spotted a single hammerhead here and there, but no close passes. Then a different black manta apparated from the blue and played with us for the last ten minutes of our dive. This one was very curious, although didn't present the same behaviors as the manta in the first dive. Everyone waited as the manta inquired closer and allowed some great photo ops.

The visibility cleaned up a little on the third dive at El Canon to maybe 40ft. There were lots of green morays, scorpionfish, and octopus. We even took some time checking out the large congregations of little balloonfish.. This is an interesting detail that te balloon fish just started grouping together the last four weeks. Now we find them in large groups of 20-40 individuals. It obviously has to be some sort of behavior for spawning...it sure makes it a lot easier to find a mate! The rest of the dive was spent drifting with the current and spotting different animals on the rocks. It was a nice change of pace.

Our fourth dive took us to El Boiler. Visibility was suffering a little today maybe due to the light wind or a strange current. It was definitely coler in the water than normal at 71 degrees (F). Lots of Jacks surrounded the boiler and we checked every nook and cranny for Lobsters, Eels, and Octopus. We visited the pinnacle to the east and found two octopus mating. Once we realized what we interrupted, we covered our eyes and swam away. On the west side of the boiler, we swam out into the blue and found a huge cyclone of Jacks. It was huge! I looked back to find only half of my group there to share in the amazement. After a few kicks back to the rock, we found the rest of my group interacting with a nice size chevron manta. They were swimming underneath and blowing bubbles. The manta came around again and again until we had say our goodbyes and head to the surface.

Isla San Benedicto was good to us today. Tomorrow we head to Roca Partida..

Until next time...

Dave Valencia