Back to San benedicto!

We are back in San Benedicto, last day of diving of this trip and the dive site of the day is  “El Cañón”. We started the day with an stunning sunrise, everybody was very excited to get in the water and go explore the dive site,the sea was really really calm  as we were protected by the island from the wind.
6:45 dive briefing and 7am vamonos! The first dive couldn't been better, we had warm water, 80F/26C and strong north east current which means a very good chances to see hammer heads!
So as it was very calm we dove of the swimming platform of the Solmar V, a giant stride into the water and down the descent line we went. As we got to the rock, we had to hide to be protected from the current and started swimming towards the east corner of the dive site, on the way a chevron manta came to say good morning, but it disappeared as quick as it showed up.  We kept swimming and about half way to the east corner we stopped and hold on to the rocks, we had a lot of jacks, creolefish and other reef fish swimming around us and after waiting a few minutes patiently a school of probably about 50 hammer heads showed up! What a show, they started coming very close to us, a couple even swam in between some of our divers and this kept going for a few minutes, as we were running out of bottom time we started slowly crawling on the rocks back to the anchor, and hammer heads were still there, all swimming the same direction we were going, got to the anchor and we still had some hammer heads in front of us, and also a black manta went by! What a way to start the last day of the trip!

For the second dive we still had the same current so same plan! We went down the line and this time we didn't even have to swim too much, we just kicked a few meters off the anchor and there they were again! They kept circling in front of us! And again a black and a chevron manta showed up by the end of the dive to pose for some pictures!
For our third dive of the day current switched and now it was coming from the south south east, this change stirred the sand up and visibility was not great, about 40ft, but we still saw some cool stuff. So after the descent we swam to the other side of the dive site and there holding on to the rocks we had the chance to see two silver tip sharks circling several times in front of us, next to us on top of the rocks we had 4 white tip reef sharks facing the current and a lot of reef fish, waited and waited but no hammer heads came this time, so we let go off the rocks and drifted along the rocks, on our way we saw a solo hammer head that came very close to us and a massive school of big eye trevallys to end up our dive with 4 mantas that were kind of dancing with each other!

Because of the low visibility we decided to move and end the trip diving “El Boiler”, so after lunch we moved and the last dive was really nice, the visibility was better than at “El Cañón”, around 70ft/21m,and on this dive we just went down to play with the mantas, 5 of them showed up and played with us for the entire dive, man these mantas love their bubble baths!

Now we are heading back to Cabo and this group is having a blast, they are in the salon drinking margaritas, prepared by our steward Luis, playing music, joking with the dive masters...sorry I have to go and have fun... I will write to you again soon!

And just to clarify, the crew is not drinking, we have to keep the boat a float!

Antonio
Dive Instructor

We spent our diving day with giant mantas, dolphins, and more at Socorro Island!

Hi All! 
Beautiful green Socorro Island with its Volcano on the West side to an amazing sunrise in East side.
Cabo Pearce so good we stayed for all 4 dives today, we all enjoyed of a little bit of everything under good dive conditions, water temp 27.2˚C/81˚F, moderate visibility and a strong current from North.  We had to swim into the current for a little bit of time to get to North Edge, but it was only a matter of time before we were there at 27m/90ft holding on to the rocks, then you feel how strong the current is traveling, and just minutes later what we were really hoping to see appeared in front of us! Hammerheads doing two things: Schooling in as many as 50 to 60 individuals and swimming a bit on the side, current doesn’t bother them as they showed up they turned around into the current to swim off in front of our eyes, they make look so easy to swim into it! So good 20 to 30 seconds of it was enough to get out of the water screaming of excitement for many happy divers! To end our dive we drifted for short time during our safety stop.
Of course we had Manta action too, as usual in the shallow water cleaning station around 12m/40ft some Mantas were having fun in the current as well, letting it take them away a bit then return to cleaning stations to play more! Bright orange clarion angelfish were in a rush to get to the Manta first to do the job done and clean all parasites from it!
Dolphins were part of the fun as well, a bit later along in the day we had some mild wind causing minor swells, and the dolphins were surfing those swells! Others were doing high jumps, underwater the best thing was to be able to swim alongside with them, so close doing eye contact. They passed on to you the idea of smiling while swimming and by chirping they are letting you know you they are in the area so keep eyes wide open or you miss them which you definitely don’t want to! 
Juvenile Galapagos sharks were very curious, they like to play the game you don’t see me I come closer, now you see me I go away! Over and over that even make you laugh rather than worry!
Lobsters, green moray eels, and flounders are really good at blending in as well as scorpion fish! Octopus were also something that kept us really busy finding them while Mantas got here, the reef gets so busy with life around sunset time, life coming from different depths, you just hover as we did over the reef and enjoy a wonderfully pleasant moment underwater surrounded by all kinds of life.
For the most part sunny day with air temp of 33˚C/93˚F.
So Cabo Pearce is one of those places can make memorable dive experiences!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata.

Whale sharks, mantas, and schooling hammerheads, Roca Rocks!

Second day at Roca Partida, the conditions kept the same as yesterday, water temperature 78F/25C and a visibility of 100’/30m. In the first dive we encountered 2 Mantas that kept circling around the pinnacle the entire dive, if some divers missed them, all they had to do is wait because the Mantas were going to come back around. Down deep the White Tip Reef Sharks still patrolled the south point with couple of Galapagos Sharks. We all hoped to see one of the Whale Sharks we had seen yesterday on the last dive, however didn’t show up.
Not until 4 of our guests that were low on air earlier than the rest of the group, headed away of the rock to complete their stop, so while doing it, the 30’/10 m Whale Shark cruised by underneath the feet just to give them a brief pass for later disappeared in the blue. Lucky divers, sometime is good to end the dive early and drift away into the blue, you never know what you can find out there!
Second dive, conditions were the same, however this time three Mantas, two Chevron and one Black one chased each other delivering a synchronized dance at the north point. Two of them took off and only one stayed around receiving bubble massages by some of the divers. We all gave up of hanging and waiting if the Whale Shark showed up this time by the rock but never did, so we tried to change our luck and headed towards the south point to check if we found her there, but instead of a Whale Shark, about 50 Hammerhead Sharks showed up from nowhere and hung out with us for about 5 min. Time to come up and end the dive.
We decided to try one more time the south point in the third dive in case if we could find the Hammers, no luck this time, but there were several Silkie Sharks that kept pursuing a small group of Bonitos that tried to escape from them, everybody got entertained shooting the persecution. This time one the Chevron Mantas swam by but didn’t show any interest in us.
So far in the season, Roca has been really good in Mantas and Whale Sharks sightings since the season started, so as always, Roca rocks!
Tonight after dinner, a beautiful sunset and a bunch of delicious Luis’s Margaritas, we’ll head to Socorro Island to looking forward to diving with friendly Dolphins and Mantas getting clean by dozens of Clarion Angelfishes at the famous cleaning station of Cabo Pearce, and who knows, maybe another spotty Shark?
Thanks for tuning in, stand by for the next adventures with the folks of the Solmar V!
Hasta la vista!
 Erick Higuera

We had everything on our first day at Roca Partida!

Here we are again at Roca Partida, yesterday after diving “El Boiler” we decided to navigate to Roca Partida as the weather report was indicating we were going to have a couple of days of good weather. The crossing was not smooth, but not super bad either, and this morning we woke up next to the rock, the water was calm, a light breeze was blowing from the north and everybody was excited and ready to dive!
7:45 dive briefing and off we went on the pangas, as we entered the water we noticed it was quite clear and warm, about 80ft/24m visbility and 79F/26C at depth, a light current from the north made it easy to dive all around the rock, were we were expecting to find sharks but unfortunately they were hanging out in deeper waters, any way we did spot a few, on the first dive as soon as we descended to 95ft/29m we had 2 sharks, one Galapagos and one silver tip that circled the same area a couple of times before disappearing into the blue waters, after that we went looking for hammer heads on the south west side were we saw a big school of big eye trevallies, and as we know they usually hang out more less close to the schooling hammer heads thats were we went, after hovering patiently at 105ft/35m we had 2 hammer heads that came very very close to us, especially one that swam right underneath the divers while the other one waited a little deeper, after a few minutes of watching them we started ascending a bit and at 60ft/18m another hammerhead came close to the group for a few seconds. So then we went north, were we found a lot of schooling jacks and creole fish, so we started ascending to our safety stop and for our surprise there were 2 silky sharks chasing a little school of striped bonitos, nice end for the first dive of the day!
For our second dive we had a little bit more current coming from the north west this time the highlight was a bunch of white tip reef sharks swimming in circles on the north west corner and a chevron manta that came across the group 3 times during the dive, by the end of the dive it just stayed with us and got really friendly, it came to get here bubble bath several times before we had to start heading back to the surface. So by this point the dives were good, but not really what were expecting so we said that the third dive will be the dive to make the decision to either stay another day in Roca or go to Socorro island...and for our surprise we went on our third dive of the day and... We had everything! We went down on the north west corner and descended to 120ft/36m were we were hovering with the rock on our back and in front of us a wall of fish, creole, black jacks, cotton mouth jacks, big eye trevallies, trigger fish, all kinds and in between them, SHARKS!!! Galapagos, a lot of silkys, silver tips, white tips, everything right in front of us, even a few big yellow fin tunas chasing bait fish! After about 15minutes into the dive, WHALESHAAAAARK! A juvenile of about 25ft/8m swam about a meter away from the group, very slowly, we stayed there hoping it was going to come back but nothing, so we started swimming south along the west wall and here comes a chevron manta, slowly swimming a little above the group, everybody was paying attention to it while the whale shark was actually in between us and the rock!...it actually almost run over one of the divers! So second time we see it and everybody is doing happy dances underwater haha....so we kept going slowly drifting with the current and when we hit the south west corner there was another whale shark probably a 20ft/6m one, this time swimming bellow us at about 90ft/27m! So I guess you can imagine what the decision was after this dive...we are staying one more day in Roca Partida hoping to see this majestic whale sharks once again!


Antonio
Dive Instructor

A great first day at El Boiler of San benedicto! Whale shark, hammerheads, dolphins, mantas and more!

 Isla San Benedicto
As early as 7:00 am and we are in the water for the first dive of the day at El Boiler!  There was a bit of surge, lots of bi-color parrot fish, yellow trumpet fish, jacks, and we could hear the chirping of dolphins, so we know they're in the area.  Layers of a thin horizontal rock are shaping El Boiler and becoming home for octopus, lobsters, and green moray eels!  As we make our way to the western side of the dive site we were led by a black manta, before being joined by one dolphin, then five dolphins, a current from the north brought with it lots of fish.  We were just admiring the fish when a second giant manta swims over our heads so slowly, and out of the blue more dolphins come into the area!  14 dolphins and 4 mantas were our numbers, we had an amazing time watching mantas, dolphins, divers, fish, white tip sharks all together, the interaction was absolutely great!
We are enjoyed of a so nice and relaxing surface interval in a sunny day, a bit windy under air temp 27.7˚C/82˚F. Underwater we were still enjoying of 27.2˚C/81˚F we go on a second dive so as soon as we dropped down a dolphin was already there to lead our way, giving us time to keep up with it until we arrived at the West side of the rock! Soon after we are surrounded by lots of cotton mouth jacks changing to a darker color, bicolor parrot fish, at a depth of 33m/110ft a black manta swims slowly making contrast against light brown color of the bottom, it didn’t take too long for the manta to come up to our depth, then another 4 coming from different directions! In the mean time dolphins kept chirping and showing up here and there, 36 minutes of dolphins and mantas time together plus 24 more of manta interaction, vis was 24m/80ft approx. Current still from North just a bit, a yellow fin tuna chasing creolfish made them swim as fast as bullets seeking protection among the rock! 
The third dive was one of those dives that leaves you asking how can you fit so many thing into a small area!  So as we are making our way down to the rock a no more than 4.5m/15ft long whale shark comes straight to us, it was so friendly, slowly swimming, no rush, I guess life is good to it! The massive shark swim off before later returning to stay for a bit longer this time among us in shallow water! From another point in the rock but happening at the same time we had 10 mantas in sight all together, each one from 3.6 to 4.8m/12 to 16ft wing span from 18m/60ft to surface! Below those 18m/60ft of water near the bottom 15 to 20 very robust hammer heads just passing by! And another area which had a really good vis also 8 dolphins came in to join the manta game, at 9m/30ft approx. second ledge of El Boiler is covered with lots of hard coral as well as about 22 white tip reef sharks swimming back and forward on the edge of it, lobsters, Moorish idols, green morays, jacks etc, adorning the rock, after seeing all, the mild current from North made drift some of us, on safety stop we were accompanied by 5 juvenile silver tip sharks.
Our final dive of the day we are on search for more hammer heads, just 4 out the school is what we found at 27m/90ft which was the limit of blue and green water on this dive, which also means water temp just changed from 27.2˚C/81˚F to 23.8˚C/75˚F, in our way back to shallow water of course more mantas to hang out with.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Friendly dolphins, giant mantas, whale shark and more at Roca Partida

Hi all! 
By 8:00 am we were heading to Roca Partida in the pangas, dolphins were doing high jumps near the rock so we quickly geared up and did a back entry and found 15-20 dolphins that enjoyed playing with our bubbles!  They were chirping the entire dive, the communication among them was absolutely gorgeous for the hour long dive, and very loud!  They came back to us several times in different groups from different directions, some of them rolled over showing us their bellies, others adopted a vertical position in front of everyone before doing a slow free fall into the depth, inviting us to go deeper!  Other dolphins were swimming so slowly letting us make eye contact with them, at times you could almost touch them, but they're good at estimating distance between your hand and their bodies.  To top it off, 2 chevron mantas showed up and then we had mantas and dolphins in a small area, and they get along pretty well.  All our divers were happy!  Water temp also made the time underwater slow down a bit where we enjoyed the 26.6˚C/80˚F water with visibiility in the 20m/65'+ range with no current.  We had fantastic underwater conditions, with an extended safety stop due to 10 dolphins that made our dive a bit longer, showing off their affections to each other.
A second dive with the same conditions made it count!  Just 10 minutes into the dive a maximum 20' long whale shark came into the area at 18m/60ft depth, swimming among the divers, it wasn't in a rush to go anywhere, it stayed with us for a long time, swimming so close you could almost touch it! (But we didn't of course)  For our safety stop, it came and checked us out again, in addition we foudn a black manta on the north eastern side of the rock, once we were on the zodiacs, we had an opportunity to get in the water and snorkel with it!  
A thirds dive was relaxing, swimming around the rock with lots of white tip reef sharks, fish everywhere, 4 hammerheads, 1 galapagos, and 1 silver tip shark, some divers opted to skip the dive, and instead chose to snorkel with the whale shark swimmig around the Solmar V!  So they jumped in the water and a black manta stopped by, probably felt secure swimming along side the whale shark!  A big thanks to Luis Godinez and Manolo our panga drivers, for their efficiency picking up our snorkelers with slightly windy conditions.
The night brought lots of sharks swimming around the Solmar V, and some flying fish found dinner time!
Dive Inst.
Daniel Zapata

Mantas on every dive at el Boiler!

Dive day 1, Isla San Benedicto, all four dives done at el boiler.
Water temperature steady throughout the day at 26 degrees celcius / 79 fahrenheight. Ambient temperature was comfortably warm starting the day off with 24 degrees celcius / 75 F and warming up to 29/84F degrees around midday.  Clouds were sporadic throughout the day with mostly sunshine, a slight southerly breeze moderately blowing at around ten knots constantly.
At the boiler, the current was mild at about half a knot, south to north was experienced throughout the day, with the exception of the second dive which had about a one knot current in the same direction.  Visibility was excellent throughout the day with a 25 plus meters (80'+) visibility.  Mantas represented in heavy numbers today on each and every dive! We counted at least six different mantas on each dive and at times seeing them all together, you could say there were swarms of mantas!  The dolphins were present strongly on the first and second dives of the day, exercising their signature behavior here at the boiler which is hanging neutrally in mid-water exposing their bellies. They were also seen underwater near the surface and from the boat they were seen jumping into the air in an acrobatic style.  The sharks seen throughout the day were the ever-present white tip reef sharks, as well as some silver tip sharks in the blue and deeper waters adjacent to the boiler. There was also an occasional hammerhead spotted by some of our guests.  The dozens upon dozens of lobsters were spotted in their usual cracks and crevices, along with many large moray eels.  Large schools of jackfish (jack crevalle) were swimming gently against the mild current on the surface and large schools were seen from above at depths exceeding 30 meters!  The surface throughout the day was a moderate to mild chop which was a bit contrasting to our navigation out here to the Revillagigedos, which was mostly flat and calm.