--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.
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