Hi everybody! This trip has been really good and sadly it must come to an end, but more new stuff is waiting for us on the next adventure so we have closed this trip diving in San Benedicto Island at the infamous dive site “El Boiler”.
The conditions were good in the first dive with visibility of 50 feet/15 mts, water temperature 76 F/24 C, no current and everything looked perfect to get to see some dolphins early in the morning and mantas for the rest of the day. For the third and fourth dives the conditions got a little worse than usual, the visibility dropped to almost 30 feet or less than that and every looked blurry and murky but the divers didn’t miss the chance to get to interact once more with the giant pacific manta!
During the day we got to see at least 5 different mantas along the pinnacle in different cleaning stations. One of them, a black one was very friendly and spent the last two dives feeling the bubbles of the divers in the belly. We got to see one of them without a tail due a bite, because it lost not only the tail but the clusters and even part of the wing. It was good to see how excited our divers got with the mantas, for some of them it was their very first experience with them and they weren’t disappointed, the mantas showed along the day and made especial every single swim with them. We didn’t get to see the dolphins this time, something new at “El boiler”. We don’t know if they moved to Socorro or somewhere else but we hope we get to see them next trip, asides that we saw many jacks hanging around the pinnacle, some silvertips in the deep and the usual white tip sharks.
Rodrigo Marroquin
Solmar V
Dive Instructor
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Humpbacks splashing at the surface of Roca Partida!
Hi everybody!
Today we are at Roca Partida after a great journey diving in San Benedicto Island with mantas and dolphins, now it’s time to see something more and we had a wonderful surprise as soon as the day cleared in Roca Partida!
The whale season is been on for more than one month but we haven’t seen that many at surface and not even one underwater, but as we are in the ocean most of the time the probabilities are quite high to encounter a humpback whale, therefore, early in the morning we started to spot some spouts close to the rock and the divers were very excited about the chances to dive with a whale, so everybody got ready to splash and make their descent into the blue!
Once in the water, the conditions were super clear as usual in Roca Partida, there wasn't any current no matter the wind was blowing at surface from the north producing big swells. The visibility was about 90 feet/30 meters, temperature of 24 C/75 F made the dive a little chill but thanks to some thermoclines we could bare easily the 3 dives of the day.
As we were descending we could see big school of jacks and right in the middle a big silver tip shark which suddenly disappeared into the deep. Most of the dive we spend it trying to find whales but these guys are hard to find even with their big size, but we kept trying during the whole day. The groups kept moving from the north to the south and around the rock to encounter mantas really friendly that followed our divers like bubble seekers, we could see white tip sharks sleeping in the little caves of the east face of the rock and hunting tunas chasing the creole fish followed by the mackerel fish.
This place has a little bit of everything but sadly we didn´t get to see the whales underwater but fortunately we saw them at least jumping and splashing the surface with their tail, so our guest got a great view of them, so maybe next time we will have more luck and make the great encounter with them, until then lets enjoy what the ocean brings to us.
Rodrigo Marroquin
Solmar V
Dive Instructor.
Today we are at Roca Partida after a great journey diving in San Benedicto Island with mantas and dolphins, now it’s time to see something more and we had a wonderful surprise as soon as the day cleared in Roca Partida!
The whale season is been on for more than one month but we haven’t seen that many at surface and not even one underwater, but as we are in the ocean most of the time the probabilities are quite high to encounter a humpback whale, therefore, early in the morning we started to spot some spouts close to the rock and the divers were very excited about the chances to dive with a whale, so everybody got ready to splash and make their descent into the blue!
Once in the water, the conditions were super clear as usual in Roca Partida, there wasn't any current no matter the wind was blowing at surface from the north producing big swells. The visibility was about 90 feet/30 meters, temperature of 24 C/75 F made the dive a little chill but thanks to some thermoclines we could bare easily the 3 dives of the day.
As we were descending we could see big school of jacks and right in the middle a big silver tip shark which suddenly disappeared into the deep. Most of the dive we spend it trying to find whales but these guys are hard to find even with their big size, but we kept trying during the whole day. The groups kept moving from the north to the south and around the rock to encounter mantas really friendly that followed our divers like bubble seekers, we could see white tip sharks sleeping in the little caves of the east face of the rock and hunting tunas chasing the creole fish followed by the mackerel fish.
This place has a little bit of everything but sadly we didn´t get to see the whales underwater but fortunately we saw them at least jumping and splashing the surface with their tail, so our guest got a great view of them, so maybe next time we will have more luck and make the great encounter with them, until then lets enjoy what the ocean brings to us.
Rodrigo Marroquin
Solmar V
Dive Instructor.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Mantas were a non-stop joy at San Benedicto!
--Jan 26, 2016
Hi All!
It is taking a bit longer every day for the sunrise to happen in a bit colder morning. The idea of seeing dolphins made drop in the water early, the first ones welcomed us once again to the underwater world where Pacific creole-fish are in a constant plankton-feeding process. The descent line continued taking us to 60ft/18m, every morning for what we have seen Bi color parrot fish like to gather in this specific area to spawn, a few solitary and so curious, unafraid to us divers Guinea Foul Puffer Fish find funny to see themselves in the reflection of our mask, as we look towards the surface, away from the wall on West side shallow water jacks are well organised swimming a constant circle, in the distance the chirp of a dolphin kept us awake meantime a quick flyby of a manta was happening, the South West area gained our attention due the amount of fish, obviously we had to check it out, Black jacks were there, cotton mouth jacks, Yellow fin Surgeon fish, traveling slowly a small loose group of RainBou Runner showed up as well, but then, finally dolphins made themselves visible to us, curious as always coming up to us so close making full swim circles around us, swimming along with them we got to the East side of El Boiler where can probably use the expression —a manta was awaiting on us to blow bubbles—, water temp remained the same during the entire dive 75F/24C, Vis about 50ft, no current at all!
Our second dive wasn't bad at all! Mantas were there, dolphins were there! Lots of fish, a number of lobsters that one more couldn't fit no more in the crevices, green morays, flounders, we had the time to enjoy each and all of it!
I am happy to say we continued doing more diving along the day to count a total of 4 dives, mantas were a non stop joy, graceful slow swimmers but also fast when they need it! We never feel alone underwater, every place we turned around mantas were there counting up to 8 at the same time when the least we had 4 to 5, so much they like to feel the bubble tickles that allowed even 3 divers at the same time to swim along just below the belly area to blow those so much wanted bubbles, now I let you imagine the length of the manta from tip to tip of wings!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Hi All!
It is taking a bit longer every day for the sunrise to happen in a bit colder morning. The idea of seeing dolphins made drop in the water early, the first ones welcomed us once again to the underwater world where Pacific creole-fish are in a constant plankton-feeding process. The descent line continued taking us to 60ft/18m, every morning for what we have seen Bi color parrot fish like to gather in this specific area to spawn, a few solitary and so curious, unafraid to us divers Guinea Foul Puffer Fish find funny to see themselves in the reflection of our mask, as we look towards the surface, away from the wall on West side shallow water jacks are well organised swimming a constant circle, in the distance the chirp of a dolphin kept us awake meantime a quick flyby of a manta was happening, the South West area gained our attention due the amount of fish, obviously we had to check it out, Black jacks were there, cotton mouth jacks, Yellow fin Surgeon fish, traveling slowly a small loose group of RainBou Runner showed up as well, but then, finally dolphins made themselves visible to us, curious as always coming up to us so close making full swim circles around us, swimming along with them we got to the East side of El Boiler where can probably use the expression —a manta was awaiting on us to blow bubbles—, water temp remained the same during the entire dive 75F/24C, Vis about 50ft, no current at all!
Our second dive wasn't bad at all! Mantas were there, dolphins were there! Lots of fish, a number of lobsters that one more couldn't fit no more in the crevices, green morays, flounders, we had the time to enjoy each and all of it!
I am happy to say we continued doing more diving along the day to count a total of 4 dives, mantas were a non stop joy, graceful slow swimmers but also fast when they need it! We never feel alone underwater, every place we turned around mantas were there counting up to 8 at the same time when the least we had 4 to 5, so much they like to feel the bubble tickles that allowed even 3 divers at the same time to swim along just below the belly area to blow those so much wanted bubbles, now I let you imagine the length of the manta from tip to tip of wings!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
One giant manta and 5 silky sharks on our checkout dive at El Cañon!
Hello
Another trip just started and this time we have awesome weather conditions no wind and very small swell, we arrived at San Benedicto in the afternoon witch gave us time for one check out dive at El Cañon. The water temperature was 76F/25C with no current, the visibility was not the best around 30ft/10m but we still had a fantastic dive. As soon as we got down the descent line a black manta saw us and kept going around the divers for over 30 minutes, after that as we made our way to the safety stop we spotted 5 silky sharks hanging out just under the boat together with tons of jacks, not a bad way to start the trip!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Another trip just started and this time we have awesome weather conditions no wind and very small swell, we arrived at San Benedicto in the afternoon witch gave us time for one check out dive at El Cañon. The water temperature was 76F/25C with no current, the visibility was not the best around 30ft/10m but we still had a fantastic dive. As soon as we got down the descent line a black manta saw us and kept going around the divers for over 30 minutes, after that as we made our way to the safety stop we spotted 5 silky sharks hanging out just under the boat together with tons of jacks, not a bad way to start the trip!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Nearly a dozen different mantas on our final day at San Benedicto!
Hi everybody!
Today we are in our last day of this trip heading back to Cabo, having a great time diving and admiring the amazing life around these isolated islands!
The people are pleased and happy to see so much on this trip, from the friendly mantas to the cheerful dolphins but not to forget all the different kind of fish and all kind of weird things they got to see here!
Today we woke up very early in San Benedicto Island to set up all the equipment, zodiacs and the anchor line to be used by the divers in order to have an easy descend to explore the well know dive site “El Boiler”. The conditions were just great; calm sea, visibility of 60 feet/20 meters, temperature of 24 C/77 F, no current for the first 3 dives and a little bit of surge during day make it easy to handle for our divers.
Once we got in the water we found a mother dolphin with her calf coming up and down to take breathes and then go down to the depth. Thanks to the great conditions we got to interact with them for about 30 minutes. As the day goes on, we got to swim between a big group of dolphins; two of them started spinning between the divers, squeaking and blowing bubbles imitating our behavior.
For the rest of the day it was all about mantas, at some point we got to see more than 10 mantas at the east side of the pinnacle, making a perfect spot thanks to the clarion fish that come to clean them. The highlight of the day took a place with an albino manta, the same we had seen it in Socorro a couple of trip before, so these guys they like to travel as much as us! We cannot forget the tunas passing by the divers so quiet that they seem to be part of the group, these guys are so big that it looks they have found the perfect spot to feed.
Great day today at “El Boiler”! The trip has been a success and the divers will go back to their homes filled with memories of the great experiences we had this trip!
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor.
Today we are in our last day of this trip heading back to Cabo, having a great time diving and admiring the amazing life around these isolated islands!
The people are pleased and happy to see so much on this trip, from the friendly mantas to the cheerful dolphins but not to forget all the different kind of fish and all kind of weird things they got to see here!
Today we woke up very early in San Benedicto Island to set up all the equipment, zodiacs and the anchor line to be used by the divers in order to have an easy descend to explore the well know dive site “El Boiler”. The conditions were just great; calm sea, visibility of 60 feet/20 meters, temperature of 24 C/77 F, no current for the first 3 dives and a little bit of surge during day make it easy to handle for our divers.
Once we got in the water we found a mother dolphin with her calf coming up and down to take breathes and then go down to the depth. Thanks to the great conditions we got to interact with them for about 30 minutes. As the day goes on, we got to swim between a big group of dolphins; two of them started spinning between the divers, squeaking and blowing bubbles imitating our behavior.
For the rest of the day it was all about mantas, at some point we got to see more than 10 mantas at the east side of the pinnacle, making a perfect spot thanks to the clarion fish that come to clean them. The highlight of the day took a place with an albino manta, the same we had seen it in Socorro a couple of trip before, so these guys they like to travel as much as us! We cannot forget the tunas passing by the divers so quiet that they seem to be part of the group, these guys are so big that it looks they have found the perfect spot to feed.
Great day today at “El Boiler”! The trip has been a success and the divers will go back to their homes filled with memories of the great experiences we had this trip!
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
We had a great day of diving at Roca Partida!
Hola Hola
Today we had a great day of diving at Roca Partida! The conditions were great we finally got a day out here with no wind small swells and sunny. The water temperature was 76F/25C the visibility over 100ft/30m and there was no current, on the first dive we saw the usual things from roca big schools of jacks and the white tips on the rocks and also some big yellow fin tunas hunting very close to us. On the second dive there were four very friendly mantas that stayed around almost the entire dive there was also a big school of bonitas that surrounded us being followed by a couple of silky sharks! On the last dive of the day we spotted a small school of hammerhead sharks right next to a big school of big eye jacks and another of white mouth jacks, just to make a perfect ending we were followed by a manta on the safety stop. Another awesome day of diving at Roca Partida!!!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today we had a great day of diving at Roca Partida! The conditions were great we finally got a day out here with no wind small swells and sunny. The water temperature was 76F/25C the visibility over 100ft/30m and there was no current, on the first dive we saw the usual things from roca big schools of jacks and the white tips on the rocks and also some big yellow fin tunas hunting very close to us. On the second dive there were four very friendly mantas that stayed around almost the entire dive there was also a big school of bonitas that surrounded us being followed by a couple of silky sharks! On the last dive of the day we spotted a small school of hammerhead sharks right next to a big school of big eye jacks and another of white mouth jacks, just to make a perfect ending we were followed by a manta on the safety stop. Another awesome day of diving at Roca Partida!!!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
A great day of diving at El Boiler!
Hi everybody!
We are now heading towards Roca Partida after spending a great day of diving in “El Boiler” at San Benedicto Island, sharing space with the giant mantas and playful dolphins as usual! The people couldn´t be happier at this point of the trip and they are hoping to see more!
We started the day with great conditions to spend the day under water. A Weak swell contrasting the weather report which allowed us to do the dives using the anchor line from the stern of the Solmar V. As the divers started going down, the current picked up a little bit so everybody made sure to hold the line while descending as planned, once at the lower part of “El Boiler” the visibility was about 50 feet/15 mts with the water temperature at 78 F/25 C. The current kept flowing from the south, so we stayed must of the time protected by the pinnacle.
In the first dive we had the chance to swim between dolphins, including 2 calf protected by the group, apparently they were showing them how to hunt! This was very exciting to see, especially how the mothers get so involved in their learning. They kept coming from the surface towards the divers and sometimes even sneaking to appear right in the middle of our group without notice them, in just a blink they were there.
The mantas always make their appearance at this spot. For this day we could see more than 8, between chevron and black mantas the divers use their air to have the best shots they could. For the last dive two silver tip sharks appeared from the blue and started to swim close to us, while 3 tunas were surrounding the Boiler hunting, these guys are really big!, looked that they found the perfect place to feed.
The visibility at the last dive wasn't the best but the mantas made it the best of the day, when they started to swim towards the divers seeking the closest bubbles available, seem that this interaction is part of their routine now, they actually get to recognize the divers that blow more bubbles to them, it’s incredible! Definitely this is the best experience here in San Benedicto.
We are hoping to find good conditions to dive Roca Partida tomorrow, let’s wait to see some whales.
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor.
We are now heading towards Roca Partida after spending a great day of diving in “El Boiler” at San Benedicto Island, sharing space with the giant mantas and playful dolphins as usual! The people couldn´t be happier at this point of the trip and they are hoping to see more!
We started the day with great conditions to spend the day under water. A Weak swell contrasting the weather report which allowed us to do the dives using the anchor line from the stern of the Solmar V. As the divers started going down, the current picked up a little bit so everybody made sure to hold the line while descending as planned, once at the lower part of “El Boiler” the visibility was about 50 feet/15 mts with the water temperature at 78 F/25 C. The current kept flowing from the south, so we stayed must of the time protected by the pinnacle.
In the first dive we had the chance to swim between dolphins, including 2 calf protected by the group, apparently they were showing them how to hunt! This was very exciting to see, especially how the mothers get so involved in their learning. They kept coming from the surface towards the divers and sometimes even sneaking to appear right in the middle of our group without notice them, in just a blink they were there.
The mantas always make their appearance at this spot. For this day we could see more than 8, between chevron and black mantas the divers use their air to have the best shots they could. For the last dive two silver tip sharks appeared from the blue and started to swim close to us, while 3 tunas were surrounding the Boiler hunting, these guys are really big!, looked that they found the perfect place to feed.
The visibility at the last dive wasn't the best but the mantas made it the best of the day, when they started to swim towards the divers seeking the closest bubbles available, seem that this interaction is part of their routine now, they actually get to recognize the divers that blow more bubbles to them, it’s incredible! Definitely this is the best experience here in San Benedicto.
We are hoping to find good conditions to dive Roca Partida tomorrow, let’s wait to see some whales.
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor.
Monday, January 18, 2016
A phenomenal day at San Benedicto!
--Jan 17, 2016.
Hi All!
We had a beautiful sunny morning in San Benedicto Island. A well shaped volcano with perfect outer grooves raises from the surface of the ocean 347m/1,140ft protecting us against wind.
Immersed in 24C/75F water temperature of EL CAÑON made us wake up a bit during our morning dive to enjoy life underwater. The congregations of juvenile black Jacks, big eye jacks, and chubs seeking protection just below the
Solmar V made it home for the day, 5 silky sharks also made it interesting, there were lots of red tail trigger fish in mid water. Taking advantage of the lack of current, we covered the entire area swimming slowly watching more jacks in the blue water while hoping to find Hammer heads. Dolphins snuck up on us quietly, without making a sound, they didn't stay long but we were able to follow them for a bit. The friendly white tip sharks are all over the reef, and they don't mind having us around! As we continued more into the dive our eyes are sharp on the look out to see what we can find, we have to have graceful mantas flying around us, then all of a sudden, look what's coming up from deep water! A Tiger shark at about 30m/100ft of water slowly swimming showed up then swam away, disappearing into the blue.
A second dive started on the opposite side of EL CAÑON, the zodiacs are so useful to get here, we initiated a negative entry all the way to 21m/70ft, open arms gliding using fins to steer, feeling the water rub our faces, head down position, a unique sensation of freedom that we enjoy the most, at same time we are seeing the bottom coming closer to us, our gliding took us right were we wanted to 21m/70ft of water, just in time to see a few hammerhead sharks swim by in from of us followed by a chevron manta ray as a background the just vast amount of blue water momentarily empty of fish! Below us there were lots of white tip reef sharks, we followed the trail of those hammer heads leading us to see once again the Tiger Shark, this second time from a distance but it still counts if you can see the stripes! More jacks made their way over there so we think it means something, and below them more hammer heads making circles, of course we are enjoying the dive and dive computers started to bip bip bip making their job to keep us safe. It's time to return to our original world on the surface! Our underwater navigation skills took us once again to enjoy the silky sharks counting 6 of them below the shadow of Solmar V for a long time safety stop!
We ended up our day making two more dives with super friendly mantas, we followed below them staying under their shadow, until some of them took us all the way to bottom 27m/90ft of water almost nailing us down on the bottom, to give us manta hugs! We can feel that we are kicking the bottom and mantas don't go away from our heads!
We can say they really enjoy of the bubble sensation! Other mantas were in mid water for other divers to play with. 24C/75F Water temp with no thermocline at all, visibility ranged from 15 to 18m/50 to 60ft, mild current from the west during our last dive of the day, and to complement the day of diving our guests enjoyed a shoreline zodiac ride offered by on board naturalist and experienced zodiac captain Geronimo along the shore, to see the frozen lava flow, spectacular view, and get some great photos.
Dive Instructor
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Hi All!
We had a beautiful sunny morning in San Benedicto Island. A well shaped volcano with perfect outer grooves raises from the surface of the ocean 347m/1,140ft protecting us against wind.
Immersed in 24C/75F water temperature of EL CAÑON made us wake up a bit during our morning dive to enjoy life underwater. The congregations of juvenile black Jacks, big eye jacks, and chubs seeking protection just below the
Solmar V made it home for the day, 5 silky sharks also made it interesting, there were lots of red tail trigger fish in mid water. Taking advantage of the lack of current, we covered the entire area swimming slowly watching more jacks in the blue water while hoping to find Hammer heads. Dolphins snuck up on us quietly, without making a sound, they didn't stay long but we were able to follow them for a bit. The friendly white tip sharks are all over the reef, and they don't mind having us around! As we continued more into the dive our eyes are sharp on the look out to see what we can find, we have to have graceful mantas flying around us, then all of a sudden, look what's coming up from deep water! A Tiger shark at about 30m/100ft of water slowly swimming showed up then swam away, disappearing into the blue.
A second dive started on the opposite side of EL CAÑON, the zodiacs are so useful to get here, we initiated a negative entry all the way to 21m/70ft, open arms gliding using fins to steer, feeling the water rub our faces, head down position, a unique sensation of freedom that we enjoy the most, at same time we are seeing the bottom coming closer to us, our gliding took us right were we wanted to 21m/70ft of water, just in time to see a few hammerhead sharks swim by in from of us followed by a chevron manta ray as a background the just vast amount of blue water momentarily empty of fish! Below us there were lots of white tip reef sharks, we followed the trail of those hammer heads leading us to see once again the Tiger Shark, this second time from a distance but it still counts if you can see the stripes! More jacks made their way over there so we think it means something, and below them more hammer heads making circles, of course we are enjoying the dive and dive computers started to bip bip bip making their job to keep us safe. It's time to return to our original world on the surface! Our underwater navigation skills took us once again to enjoy the silky sharks counting 6 of them below the shadow of Solmar V for a long time safety stop!
We ended up our day making two more dives with super friendly mantas, we followed below them staying under their shadow, until some of them took us all the way to bottom 27m/90ft of water almost nailing us down on the bottom, to give us manta hugs! We can feel that we are kicking the bottom and mantas don't go away from our heads!
We can say they really enjoy of the bubble sensation! Other mantas were in mid water for other divers to play with. 24C/75F Water temp with no thermocline at all, visibility ranged from 15 to 18m/50 to 60ft, mild current from the west during our last dive of the day, and to complement the day of diving our guests enjoyed a shoreline zodiac ride offered by on board naturalist and experienced zodiac captain Geronimo along the shore, to see the frozen lava flow, spectacular view, and get some great photos.
Dive Instructor
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
We had an amazing checkout dive at San Benedicto!
Hello!
We are back at the archipelago once again, and this time we had an amazing start! our first stop was at San Benedicto at El Cañon. The water temperature was 76F/24C, the visibility was about 60ft/20m with no current, and as soon as we started going down the descent line we spotted 5 silky sharks under the boat along with two very friendly mantas that hung out with us during the whole dive! Not bad at all for a check out dive! Tomorrow we have our first full day of diving here at San Benedicto, we are hoping to get some more manta and dolphin action like we have had on the last trips.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive instructor
We are back at the archipelago once again, and this time we had an amazing start! our first stop was at San Benedicto at El Cañon. The water temperature was 76F/24C, the visibility was about 60ft/20m with no current, and as soon as we started going down the descent line we spotted 5 silky sharks under the boat along with two very friendly mantas that hung out with us during the whole dive! Not bad at all for a check out dive! Tomorrow we have our first full day of diving here at San Benedicto, we are hoping to get some more manta and dolphin action like we have had on the last trips.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive instructor
Monday, January 11, 2016
Perfect conditions at San Benedicto!
Hi everybody!
This is the last day of diving of our 7th trip of the season, now we are on our way back to Cabo San Lucas with happy divers and a long trip to remember what we have lived this time. Everyone is dry and the dive gear secure, but great photographs and memories stay still in our head!
After the complicated conditions due the wind blowing from the north, today we got protected on the east side of the island of San Benedicto, so we planned to dive “El cañon” one more day thinking that the visibility would be good compared to other dive sites and we wouldn't be wrong!
Perfect conditions helped to have one of the best days of diving of the trip, with visibility close to 60 feet/20 meters, no current during the first 2 dives and the swell at the surface allowed us to set the anchor from the stern so the divers could easily made their own way to the boat.
For the first dive we went down to 30 meters to the south corner of “El cañon” to find the hammerheads. Once we were there 4 of them showed up into the blue with a quick glance to disappear right away, but once we have seen that, dolphins came toward the divers and started to squeak and spin around us, one male came very close to us so the divers could take good shots of him. We kept looking at them right at the surface with the company of silky sharks. For the next dives we could spot mantas, silvertip sharks, white tip sharks and we tried to find the hammerheads again, this time only at the distance we could see their characteristic white color.
For the 3rd and 4th dive we stayed close to the boat cause many silky sharks gathered under the boat so our divers liked the idea of taking photos there, also the current picked up and the conditions underneath were perfect we spent the dives swimming between big schools of jacks, sharks and creole fish.
The mantas were the highlight as usual, but this time they enjoy the bubbles flaring around the divers even squeezing us against the sandy bottom (in a friendly way of course), this is because they feel so comfortable that close their eyes and let them sink feeling the tickles in the belly, this happen on and on, they seem to be used to the people and enjoyed it. This has been a great trip, let’s hope the next one we can see a humpback whale, now they are around so it’s a high probability!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive Instructor.
This is the last day of diving of our 7th trip of the season, now we are on our way back to Cabo San Lucas with happy divers and a long trip to remember what we have lived this time. Everyone is dry and the dive gear secure, but great photographs and memories stay still in our head!
After the complicated conditions due the wind blowing from the north, today we got protected on the east side of the island of San Benedicto, so we planned to dive “El cañon” one more day thinking that the visibility would be good compared to other dive sites and we wouldn't be wrong!
Perfect conditions helped to have one of the best days of diving of the trip, with visibility close to 60 feet/20 meters, no current during the first 2 dives and the swell at the surface allowed us to set the anchor from the stern so the divers could easily made their own way to the boat.
For the first dive we went down to 30 meters to the south corner of “El cañon” to find the hammerheads. Once we were there 4 of them showed up into the blue with a quick glance to disappear right away, but once we have seen that, dolphins came toward the divers and started to squeak and spin around us, one male came very close to us so the divers could take good shots of him. We kept looking at them right at the surface with the company of silky sharks. For the next dives we could spot mantas, silvertip sharks, white tip sharks and we tried to find the hammerheads again, this time only at the distance we could see their characteristic white color.
For the 3rd and 4th dive we stayed close to the boat cause many silky sharks gathered under the boat so our divers liked the idea of taking photos there, also the current picked up and the conditions underneath were perfect we spent the dives swimming between big schools of jacks, sharks and creole fish.
The mantas were the highlight as usual, but this time they enjoy the bubbles flaring around the divers even squeezing us against the sandy bottom (in a friendly way of course), this is because they feel so comfortable that close their eyes and let them sink feeling the tickles in the belly, this happen on and on, they seem to be used to the people and enjoyed it. This has been a great trip, let’s hope the next one we can see a humpback whale, now they are around so it’s a high probability!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive Instructor.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
A very pleasant day of diving at Socorro Island, and the first sighting of humpbacks!
Hello
Today we dove at Punta Tosca in Socorro Island, the water temperature was 77f/25C and the visibility ranged from 40f/12m to 60ft/20m there was a strong current all day long but on this dive site it is nice when that happens because the current usually goes along the reef and what allows you to do some nice drift dives. Yesterday we did not see many mantas at the other side of the island but today we found them here in one of the dives up to five mantas dance with our divers for several minutes and in another dive we had one follow us all the way to the safety stop.
We also saw lots of the usual stuff that can be appreciated in Punta Tosca, white tip reef sharks, juvenile Galapagos sharks, juvenile silvertip sharks, tons of lobsters walking around, eels swimming by the wall and big groups of parrot fish. It was a very pleasant day of diving.
At lunch time we spotted two humpback whale spouts close to the boat what make us very excited because it means that the whale season has started and now we start hoping to have some encounters with them on the next couple of months.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today we dove at Punta Tosca in Socorro Island, the water temperature was 77f/25C and the visibility ranged from 40f/12m to 60ft/20m there was a strong current all day long but on this dive site it is nice when that happens because the current usually goes along the reef and what allows you to do some nice drift dives. Yesterday we did not see many mantas at the other side of the island but today we found them here in one of the dives up to five mantas dance with our divers for several minutes and in another dive we had one follow us all the way to the safety stop.
We also saw lots of the usual stuff that can be appreciated in Punta Tosca, white tip reef sharks, juvenile Galapagos sharks, juvenile silvertip sharks, tons of lobsters walking around, eels swimming by the wall and big groups of parrot fish. It was a very pleasant day of diving.
At lunch time we spotted two humpback whale spouts close to the boat what make us very excited because it means that the whale season has started and now we start hoping to have some encounters with them on the next couple of months.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Better conditions at Socorro Island
Hi everybody!
Today we are at Socorro Island on our third day of diving. After the big swell at “El Boiler” at San Benedicto Island, now the weather conditions were way better with great visibility, about 60 ft/20 mts with the water temperature at 79 F/26 C and mild current coming from the south.
We got in the water for the first dive at Cabo Pearce. The dolphins showed up right at the surface before the sunrise, as soon as we got in some of our divers got to see a pregnant dolphin that looked more like a puffer fish than a dolphin due the pregnancy! The group of dolphins stayed for a little while and then left into the blue. This place is great with good conditions, with long hills that run along the reef with overhangs to get protected if the current pick up. As the dives continue we got to see silver tip sharks deep in the blue whit their clear white marks in every fin, along with some big Galapagos sharks that emerged from the depths to amaze our divers with their majestic shape and size.
The reef is full of white tip sharks all over the place, is so hard to even count them some times but the highlight for this place are the big pacific mantas. We were looking for them all over the place but today they were shy, maybe they decided to get fed deeper, so we've made it our mission is to find them tomorrow at Punta Tosca!
For the last two dives we spend most of the dives close to the rocks, trying to find octopuses, flounders and scorpion fishes; at the end of the last dive right before the safety stop finished we spotted two dolphins in the blue, they came closer, a mother with her calf! It was so little that we supposed it just had only been several days of birth. A Nice way to finish the dive! Tomorrow we are heading to Punta Tosca waiting for good conditions and great diving!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive Instructor.
Today we are at Socorro Island on our third day of diving. After the big swell at “El Boiler” at San Benedicto Island, now the weather conditions were way better with great visibility, about 60 ft/20 mts with the water temperature at 79 F/26 C and mild current coming from the south.
We got in the water for the first dive at Cabo Pearce. The dolphins showed up right at the surface before the sunrise, as soon as we got in some of our divers got to see a pregnant dolphin that looked more like a puffer fish than a dolphin due the pregnancy! The group of dolphins stayed for a little while and then left into the blue. This place is great with good conditions, with long hills that run along the reef with overhangs to get protected if the current pick up. As the dives continue we got to see silver tip sharks deep in the blue whit their clear white marks in every fin, along with some big Galapagos sharks that emerged from the depths to amaze our divers with their majestic shape and size.
The reef is full of white tip sharks all over the place, is so hard to even count them some times but the highlight for this place are the big pacific mantas. We were looking for them all over the place but today they were shy, maybe they decided to get fed deeper, so we've made it our mission is to find them tomorrow at Punta Tosca!
For the last two dives we spend most of the dives close to the rocks, trying to find octopuses, flounders and scorpion fishes; at the end of the last dive right before the safety stop finished we spotted two dolphins in the blue, they came closer, a mother with her calf! It was so little that we supposed it just had only been several days of birth. A Nice way to finish the dive! Tomorrow we are heading to Punta Tosca waiting for good conditions and great diving!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive Instructor.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Playful dolphins at El Canon and El Boiler of San Benedicto Island!
--Jan 07, 2016.
Hi All!
Its 6:00 O'clock in the morning, at the distance just above the surface of the ocean a grey line of clouds, leaving the morning sky above us clear and dark still full of stars, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Orion’s Belt visible to our naked eyes, as we bring our sight back to the surface of the water just 5m/15ft in front of us a group of 5 dolphins were catching our attention, slowly swimming, breaking the surface for more air!
Our first dive of the morning took place at El Cañon we were all excited, hoping to find some Hammer Heads, we jumped into the water, as we made our descent, we noticed the visibility is a bit lower than average due to swells in the area. 2 silky sharks seemed to like hanging below the Solmar V, still lots of fish here, but due to the vis our eyes were wide open hoping something was going to show up right in front like making us jump out of our seat! White tip sharks are faithful to the area no matter what the conditions are, we had no problem finding them, Big Eye Jacks as well, as we go more into the dive a pocket of blue water opened up allowing us better visibility. It seemed we were chasing 2 silver tip sharks just ahead of us that vanished, we were swimming close to the bottom into a mild current coming from West side. Those silver tip showed up once again, that current made a thick line of milky water letting us see the bottom at 90ft/27m, tall rock formations were hiding behind more white tip sharks. There were also leather bass in the area, we were spending time exploring the reef when we suddenly heard dolphins chipring! The question was where are they due to low vis!? Our dive computers were telling us time to come up shallower so here we go ascending but looking towards the bottom, in a second the milky water opens an other small window of good visibility letting us see a mother dolphin with its new born! They were so close to each other, touching each other, the mother dolphin didn't let the little one swim in front of her! Minutes went by and we were taking all the dolphin action in, the water was a refreshing 77F/25C, one silky shark then a second one came around then 4 dolphins chirping decided to stay at depth, we ended our dive with a silky shark around our safety stop depth!
We spent other 3 more dives at El Boiler doing Zodiac dives, enjoying a warm sunny day (81F/27C). Underwater the visibility at El Boiler was much better than previous dive site, it only took 10 minutes before we had 5 mantas for the whole dive! A tiny current from South made us work out to stay there, but that’s where mantas wanted to be! They were friendly as always, only one thing could distract us from paying attention to them... there were more dolphins here! The dolphins didn't want to come up shallow water, and the mantas wanted to stay shallow today! So these two amazing creatures made us divide the group in two, dolphin divers and manta divers, not bad right?! The surge was heavy today, but it was fun to ride it back and forward, white tips, lobsters, Jacks, yellow fin tuna, Pacific creole fish and more made our diving day a great one! Our surface intervals were also breath taking watching big rolling waves traveling, breaking into the island making fantastic photo opportunities, a silent way to show the power of Mother Nature.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Hi All!
Its 6:00 O'clock in the morning, at the distance just above the surface of the ocean a grey line of clouds, leaving the morning sky above us clear and dark still full of stars, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Orion’s Belt visible to our naked eyes, as we bring our sight back to the surface of the water just 5m/15ft in front of us a group of 5 dolphins were catching our attention, slowly swimming, breaking the surface for more air!
Our first dive of the morning took place at El Cañon we were all excited, hoping to find some Hammer Heads, we jumped into the water, as we made our descent, we noticed the visibility is a bit lower than average due to swells in the area. 2 silky sharks seemed to like hanging below the Solmar V, still lots of fish here, but due to the vis our eyes were wide open hoping something was going to show up right in front like making us jump out of our seat! White tip sharks are faithful to the area no matter what the conditions are, we had no problem finding them, Big Eye Jacks as well, as we go more into the dive a pocket of blue water opened up allowing us better visibility. It seemed we were chasing 2 silver tip sharks just ahead of us that vanished, we were swimming close to the bottom into a mild current coming from West side. Those silver tip showed up once again, that current made a thick line of milky water letting us see the bottom at 90ft/27m, tall rock formations were hiding behind more white tip sharks. There were also leather bass in the area, we were spending time exploring the reef when we suddenly heard dolphins chipring! The question was where are they due to low vis!? Our dive computers were telling us time to come up shallower so here we go ascending but looking towards the bottom, in a second the milky water opens an other small window of good visibility letting us see a mother dolphin with its new born! They were so close to each other, touching each other, the mother dolphin didn't let the little one swim in front of her! Minutes went by and we were taking all the dolphin action in, the water was a refreshing 77F/25C, one silky shark then a second one came around then 4 dolphins chirping decided to stay at depth, we ended our dive with a silky shark around our safety stop depth!
We spent other 3 more dives at El Boiler doing Zodiac dives, enjoying a warm sunny day (81F/27C). Underwater the visibility at El Boiler was much better than previous dive site, it only took 10 minutes before we had 5 mantas for the whole dive! A tiny current from South made us work out to stay there, but that’s where mantas wanted to be! They were friendly as always, only one thing could distract us from paying attention to them... there were more dolphins here! The dolphins didn't want to come up shallow water, and the mantas wanted to stay shallow today! So these two amazing creatures made us divide the group in two, dolphin divers and manta divers, not bad right?! The surge was heavy today, but it was fun to ride it back and forward, white tips, lobsters, Jacks, yellow fin tuna, Pacific creole fish and more made our diving day a great one! Our surface intervals were also breath taking watching big rolling waves traveling, breaking into the island making fantastic photo opportunities, a silent way to show the power of Mother Nature.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
We are back at the archipelago!
Hello
We are back at the archipelago, this time we arrived to San Benedicto in the afternoon and we had time for a check out dive at El Fondeadero! The water temperature was 78F/25C and the visibility was about 40ft/12m. As soon as the first divers went in the water, a couple of silky sharks passed by. As we explored the reef we saw lots of white tip reef sharks, lobsters, eels, jacks and schooling surgeonfish. We finished the day with a delicious barbeque and another amazing sunset here! tomorrow we start with our first full day of diving on the trip at El Cañon, let’s see how it goes!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
SolmarV
We are back at the archipelago, this time we arrived to San Benedicto in the afternoon and we had time for a check out dive at El Fondeadero! The water temperature was 78F/25C and the visibility was about 40ft/12m. As soon as the first divers went in the water, a couple of silky sharks passed by. As we explored the reef we saw lots of white tip reef sharks, lobsters, eels, jacks and schooling surgeonfish. We finished the day with a delicious barbeque and another amazing sunset here! tomorrow we start with our first full day of diving on the trip at El Cañon, let’s see how it goes!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
SolmarV
Friday, January 1, 2016
New Years Eve at Roca Partida!
Hello,
Another year has gone by and on board the Solmar V we ended it on big note with a day of diving at Roca Partida. The water is starting to cool down today we got 77F/25C and the visibility was amazing 100ft/30m plus of blue water.
On the first and second dive of the day we had a lot of action and got to see some unique behavior that can only be seen in very few places. Yellow fin tunas were hunting mackerel, when the tunas get into hunting mode they change their color and create loud noises from the speed in which they move in the water. As the yellow fins chase the mackerel they were getting together in small groups close to the surface what made the silky sharks happy because it was their time to hunt. The silky sharks line up and surround the mackerel and eventually they get to catch some at one point there were up to 10 sharks together feeding. Also at the end of the last dive some divers saw a whale shark but it was deep and going fast, we hope it is still around and we can get to see it tomorrow.
On the last dive as we started a huge school of tunas passed by with some big individuals and we ended the dive on the famous ledges of Roca Partida where the white tips hang out!
Tomorrow we will do one more day of diving at Roca Partida and we are excited to see how the year is going to start out here!
Thiago Mendonca
Another year has gone by and on board the Solmar V we ended it on big note with a day of diving at Roca Partida. The water is starting to cool down today we got 77F/25C and the visibility was amazing 100ft/30m plus of blue water.
On the first and second dive of the day we had a lot of action and got to see some unique behavior that can only be seen in very few places. Yellow fin tunas were hunting mackerel, when the tunas get into hunting mode they change their color and create loud noises from the speed in which they move in the water. As the yellow fins chase the mackerel they were getting together in small groups close to the surface what made the silky sharks happy because it was their time to hunt. The silky sharks line up and surround the mackerel and eventually they get to catch some at one point there were up to 10 sharks together feeding. Also at the end of the last dive some divers saw a whale shark but it was deep and going fast, we hope it is still around and we can get to see it tomorrow.
On the last dive as we started a huge school of tunas passed by with some big individuals and we ended the dive on the famous ledges of Roca Partida where the white tips hang out!
Tomorrow we will do one more day of diving at Roca Partida and we are excited to see how the year is going to start out here!
Thiago Mendonca
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)