Hello
Today we had our last day of diving on this trip witch has been one of the best ones so far on the season. We started the day at El Cañon the water was 76F/25C and the visibility about 60ft/18m with a mild current. As soon as we got down the anchor line we headed to to closest cleaning station which takes just 2 minutes to get there. We waited for a bit and a group of 8 big hammerheads started passing by very close! After the hammerheads left a dolphin showed up displaying a very unique behavior it was chasing a jack that had just eaten ad made it vomit its food so it could eat it, and just when we thought that it could not get better 7 very friendly mantas showed up and followed us back to the boat! On the second dive we had a couple of mantas again ad some silky sharks under the boat!
After lunch we moved to El boiler the temperature and visibility was about the same and we had two really good manta dives they stayed with us during the whole dive till the last minute. Right after we got out of the water from the last dive two humpback whales came up next to the boat to say good bye to us. Now we will be heading back to Cabo Next weak we will have some more stories to tell, so keep tuned.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive instructor Solmar V
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Great dives, and a good time at Roca Partida!
February 22nd, 2016
Dive Report –Roca Partida
Hi All,
The first dive this morning at Roca Partida was fantastic! We dove the northern corner of the rock, we made our descent to 100 ft/30m, and once there we spotted 4-5 Galapagos sharks and a few white tip sharks. The current was strong at this corner, so when we made our way back with the current it was more relaxing. A chevron manta showed up on this side of the rock and stayed with us for a long time around our divers. We were with the manta for a while, and spotted some dolphins out in the blue. After a bit, the first group of dolphins passed overhead, and more and more dolphins were coming! There were about 40 bottlenose dolphins with us, including a mom with her baby! Most of the dolphins passed us swimming quickly, but one of them was very curious about the divers but went on with their group. A couple of them came very close to us, and at the last minute a couple of wahoos came by too, it was a great way to finish the dive.
For the 2nd dive, we thought the action was still happening on the north side of the rock, the current was stronger this time, and the sharks weren't there. After a couple of minutes; 2 Galapagos sharks came closer, but they were gone quickly. A chevron manta came out from the depth and liked to stay around 70ft/21m. The current picked up a bit and so we stuck near the rock; the chevron manta followed us to the east where we had no current. There we played with the manta swimming overhead enjoying our bubbles; little by little we made our way to the southern point of the rock and on the east sied we checked the ledges; to find plenty of white tip sharks! It was a great opportunity to take photos and video of the white tips resting on the ledge. Towards the south we spotted a Galapagos shark out in the blue along with a few wahoo's as well. While we were doing the safety stop; a couple of silky sharks started circling around us. The last dive of the day, we planned to check on the northern point for the last time and do a drift dive to the southern point of the rock along the western wall. We went straight down to 100' and there were no sharks this time. We drifted to the south; a few white tips were there; and another Galapagos shark in the blue. Along the wall we saw a beautiful school of jacks, a few trevally jacks along with different kinds of tropical reef fish, trumpet fish, Moorish idols, pacific trigger fish, hard corals, and a wonderful view of the weall and it's vertical drop off occupied by plenty of sea urchins! We quickly drifted south and were lucky to see 3 Galapagos sharks very close to us, one of them was especially large over 6' long! A beautiful shark, gray to silver color, with a white belly and huge dorsal fin, triangular characteristic of this species. It was amazing! Before we finished the dive we spotted some more action in the blue, a mobula ray was swimming in the blue, a huge yellow fin tuna zoomed by us, and we had silky sharks circling us during our safety stop! Great dives, and a good time at Roca Partida!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor
Solmar V
Dive Report –Roca Partida
Hi All,
The first dive this morning at Roca Partida was fantastic! We dove the northern corner of the rock, we made our descent to 100 ft/30m, and once there we spotted 4-5 Galapagos sharks and a few white tip sharks. The current was strong at this corner, so when we made our way back with the current it was more relaxing. A chevron manta showed up on this side of the rock and stayed with us for a long time around our divers. We were with the manta for a while, and spotted some dolphins out in the blue. After a bit, the first group of dolphins passed overhead, and more and more dolphins were coming! There were about 40 bottlenose dolphins with us, including a mom with her baby! Most of the dolphins passed us swimming quickly, but one of them was very curious about the divers but went on with their group. A couple of them came very close to us, and at the last minute a couple of wahoos came by too, it was a great way to finish the dive.
For the 2nd dive, we thought the action was still happening on the north side of the rock, the current was stronger this time, and the sharks weren't there. After a couple of minutes; 2 Galapagos sharks came closer, but they were gone quickly. A chevron manta came out from the depth and liked to stay around 70ft/21m. The current picked up a bit and so we stuck near the rock; the chevron manta followed us to the east where we had no current. There we played with the manta swimming overhead enjoying our bubbles; little by little we made our way to the southern point of the rock and on the east sied we checked the ledges; to find plenty of white tip sharks! It was a great opportunity to take photos and video of the white tips resting on the ledge. Towards the south we spotted a Galapagos shark out in the blue along with a few wahoo's as well. While we were doing the safety stop; a couple of silky sharks started circling around us. The last dive of the day, we planned to check on the northern point for the last time and do a drift dive to the southern point of the rock along the western wall. We went straight down to 100' and there were no sharks this time. We drifted to the south; a few white tips were there; and another Galapagos shark in the blue. Along the wall we saw a beautiful school of jacks, a few trevally jacks along with different kinds of tropical reef fish, trumpet fish, Moorish idols, pacific trigger fish, hard corals, and a wonderful view of the weall and it's vertical drop off occupied by plenty of sea urchins! We quickly drifted south and were lucky to see 3 Galapagos sharks very close to us, one of them was especially large over 6' long! A beautiful shark, gray to silver color, with a white belly and huge dorsal fin, triangular characteristic of this species. It was amazing! Before we finished the dive we spotted some more action in the blue, a mobula ray was swimming in the blue, a huge yellow fin tuna zoomed by us, and we had silky sharks circling us during our safety stop! Great dives, and a good time at Roca Partida!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor
Solmar V
Monday, February 22, 2016
Sharkiest dives of the season so far at Roca Partida!
Hello
Roca Partida is on fire!! Today we had three amazing dives out here, they were for sure the sharkiest dives of the season so far, the conditions were great more that 100ft/30m visibility, water temperature about 76f/25C and some mild current.
All three dives were very similar with a lot of action all day long we saw big schools of Galapagos sharks up to 30 of them together silver tips up to 10 together and silkys all over the place. We also had a group of 10 dolphins all day long and schools of bonitas and yellow fin tunas!
The highlights of the day were on the first dive were we got to see a dolphin hunting a creole fish, but it did not swallow it right away he kept it on its mouth and passed right in front of us showing off his catch! The next highlight was on the second dive were we got to see a school of 30 galapagos and a couple of silvertips that passed in the middle of the divers and right after that the dolphins showed up. To finish the day we had a small group of Galapagos and silkys chasing the tunas and after the last dive we got to see some whale spouts very close to the boat. The best day we have had for schooling sharks at Roca so far this season, tomorrow we will be diving here again keep tuned to see what happens next hopefully the sharks will stay here for a while!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Roca Partida is on fire!! Today we had three amazing dives out here, they were for sure the sharkiest dives of the season so far, the conditions were great more that 100ft/30m visibility, water temperature about 76f/25C and some mild current.
All three dives were very similar with a lot of action all day long we saw big schools of Galapagos sharks up to 30 of them together silver tips up to 10 together and silkys all over the place. We also had a group of 10 dolphins all day long and schools of bonitas and yellow fin tunas!
The highlights of the day were on the first dive were we got to see a dolphin hunting a creole fish, but it did not swallow it right away he kept it on its mouth and passed right in front of us showing off his catch! The next highlight was on the second dive were we got to see a school of 30 galapagos and a couple of silvertips that passed in the middle of the divers and right after that the dolphins showed up. To finish the day we had a small group of Galapagos and silkys chasing the tunas and after the last dive we got to see some whale spouts very close to the boat. The best day we have had for schooling sharks at Roca so far this season, tomorrow we will be diving here again keep tuned to see what happens next hopefully the sharks will stay here for a while!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Sunday, February 21, 2016
We had an excellent day of diving at The Boiler!
--Hi Everybody!!!
We had an excellent day of diving at The Boiler, we couldn’t have asked for a better start! We had a chevron manta at the beginning of our dive as we made our way to the western corner of the reef. We reached the 90ft/27m depth and headed east, we found lots of trevally jacks, trumpet fish, lobsters, white tip sharks, while waiting for the mantas to show up! When the first manta showed up around 50 ft./ 15m, it was soon joined by three more! We had 4 chevron mantas playing with us circling our divers, when a juvenile whales hark joined the mantas! The whale shark was at least 15 ft/ 5m long, and was circling around and interacting with the mantas! Our divers were very excited to see this kind of interaction first hand, what an awesome first dive!! No one expected to find mantas and a whale shark together, on top of it, 6 bottle nose dolphins were in the area! What a breathtaking first dive! Our second dive was exclusively for the mantas! This time we dove the north side of El Boiler, and immediately we found mantas. We stayed with them for over an hour on this manta filled dive! We saw chevron mantas coming from every direction, swimming up and down, around the cleaning station, and interacting with divers the whole time! A huge yello wfin tuna passed very close to us, and a silky shark was around too!
The temperature of the water was a very nice 75F/24C. during the 3rd dive the manta action was still at the northern end of the dive site, with a black manta and a chevron one. The mantas were there for the entire 60 minute dive, even during our safety stop they were circling below us! The visibility dropped a bit on our final dive of the day, and we spent out time taking a closer look at the little critters along the reef. We found some green moray eels, white tip sharks, lobsters, big eye jacks, and a curious silky shark circling around the scent line below the Solmar V. We had a great day of diving, now we're heading to Roca Partida for another great experience! Stay tuned!
Ignacio H. Leyro
We had an excellent day of diving at The Boiler, we couldn’t have asked for a better start! We had a chevron manta at the beginning of our dive as we made our way to the western corner of the reef. We reached the 90ft/27m depth and headed east, we found lots of trevally jacks, trumpet fish, lobsters, white tip sharks, while waiting for the mantas to show up! When the first manta showed up around 50 ft./ 15m, it was soon joined by three more! We had 4 chevron mantas playing with us circling our divers, when a juvenile whales hark joined the mantas! The whale shark was at least 15 ft/ 5m long, and was circling around and interacting with the mantas! Our divers were very excited to see this kind of interaction first hand, what an awesome first dive!! No one expected to find mantas and a whale shark together, on top of it, 6 bottle nose dolphins were in the area! What a breathtaking first dive! Our second dive was exclusively for the mantas! This time we dove the north side of El Boiler, and immediately we found mantas. We stayed with them for over an hour on this manta filled dive! We saw chevron mantas coming from every direction, swimming up and down, around the cleaning station, and interacting with divers the whole time! A huge yello wfin tuna passed very close to us, and a silky shark was around too!
The temperature of the water was a very nice 75F/24C. during the 3rd dive the manta action was still at the northern end of the dive site, with a black manta and a chevron one. The mantas were there for the entire 60 minute dive, even during our safety stop they were circling below us! The visibility dropped a bit on our final dive of the day, and we spent out time taking a closer look at the little critters along the reef. We found some green moray eels, white tip sharks, lobsters, big eye jacks, and a curious silky shark circling around the scent line below the Solmar V. We had a great day of diving, now we're heading to Roca Partida for another great experience! Stay tuned!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Saturday, February 20, 2016
A shark filled day with great conditions, mantas, dolphins, and more!
--Feb 18, 2016
Hi All!
A combo day of diving places with Dolphins and a Tiger Shark! Surface conditions were perfect to dive Roca O’neil this morning! A line attached from surface starboard side of the Solmar V all the way down to the front anchor made our descent easy to 18m/60ft, vis is great here 18 to 24m/ 60 to 80ft, water temp 24C/75F, the view as we are descending is fantastic, white sandy bottom with whitish/pale purple colours rocks, lobsters, green morays eels, moorish idols, long nose butterfly fish, white tip sharks were the preamble of our dive, everything is perfect, so neat in this area! Our swimming between rocks 7m/20ft tall took us to top area of the cliff, we continued swimming ahead of us, a few seconds later we find ourselves with no bottom as a reference, this is like jumping off into the abyss! Head down we are descending into deep water letting the weight system do the job for us, a wall brown in colour that drops to 50m/150ft. We resumed the swimming at 30m/ 100ft keeping the wall in our left side, a big opening in the wall turns to be an underwater arch, as we swim into it the first chamber has no overhead with access from 35m/115ft sandy bottom to 18m/60ft if we need to make an ascent, swimming into a second chamber it gets a bit darker, with lots of lobsters and white tip reef sharks, here and there some green moray eels. Turning around to get out of the cave the light penetrating into the area with no overhead made a fantastic view of an underwater arch, further ahead lots of Pacific Creole-Fish, a couple of Hammer Head sharks swimming slowly along the wall, a Chevron manta, juvenile Galapagos sharks, a silver tip shark as well were there to fascinate us! I can't forget to mention about 10 dolphins in shallower water, made a group of divers drift along in the current that was starting to pick up. Punta Tosca was the place to end our day of diving, lots of hard coral, fish, lobsters, octos, green morays, giant electric rays, juvenile Galapagos shark, silky sharks, white tip sharks, giant pacific chevron manta rays so friendly and totally unexpected swimming over our heads a Tiger Shark at the almost end of our dive!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Hi All!
A combo day of diving places with Dolphins and a Tiger Shark! Surface conditions were perfect to dive Roca O’neil this morning! A line attached from surface starboard side of the Solmar V all the way down to the front anchor made our descent easy to 18m/60ft, vis is great here 18 to 24m/ 60 to 80ft, water temp 24C/75F, the view as we are descending is fantastic, white sandy bottom with whitish/pale purple colours rocks, lobsters, green morays eels, moorish idols, long nose butterfly fish, white tip sharks were the preamble of our dive, everything is perfect, so neat in this area! Our swimming between rocks 7m/20ft tall took us to top area of the cliff, we continued swimming ahead of us, a few seconds later we find ourselves with no bottom as a reference, this is like jumping off into the abyss! Head down we are descending into deep water letting the weight system do the job for us, a wall brown in colour that drops to 50m/150ft. We resumed the swimming at 30m/ 100ft keeping the wall in our left side, a big opening in the wall turns to be an underwater arch, as we swim into it the first chamber has no overhead with access from 35m/115ft sandy bottom to 18m/60ft if we need to make an ascent, swimming into a second chamber it gets a bit darker, with lots of lobsters and white tip reef sharks, here and there some green moray eels. Turning around to get out of the cave the light penetrating into the area with no overhead made a fantastic view of an underwater arch, further ahead lots of Pacific Creole-Fish, a couple of Hammer Head sharks swimming slowly along the wall, a Chevron manta, juvenile Galapagos sharks, a silver tip shark as well were there to fascinate us! I can't forget to mention about 10 dolphins in shallower water, made a group of divers drift along in the current that was starting to pick up. Punta Tosca was the place to end our day of diving, lots of hard coral, fish, lobsters, octos, green morays, giant electric rays, juvenile Galapagos shark, silky sharks, white tip sharks, giant pacific chevron manta rays so friendly and totally unexpected swimming over our heads a Tiger Shark at the almost end of our dive!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Friday, February 19, 2016
Great conditions at Socorro Island!
Hello
Today was our first full day of diving of the trip and we started at Cabo Pearce a dive site located in Socorro Island, the conditions were great, we had very calm seas visibility around 80ft/24m water temperature of 76f/25C and some current going on and off though out the day.
Because we like to spoil our guests the first dive was the best as soon as we jumped in the water, there were some dolphins that followed us from the surface to the reef and interacted with the divers for almost 10 minutes! Towards the end of the dive they came back more of them but they just passed by to say hello!
The second dive we had one shy manta and one hammerhead in the distance, but the third dive made up for it because we had one manta with us for the whole dive over 50 minutes being very friendly enjoying the divers bubbles and being cleaned by up to 10 clarion angels!
To finish the day we had some black jacks hunting what made some juvenile Galapagos and silvertips very curious so they came to check it out and got very close to the divers!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today was our first full day of diving of the trip and we started at Cabo Pearce a dive site located in Socorro Island, the conditions were great, we had very calm seas visibility around 80ft/24m water temperature of 76f/25C and some current going on and off though out the day.
Because we like to spoil our guests the first dive was the best as soon as we jumped in the water, there were some dolphins that followed us from the surface to the reef and interacted with the divers for almost 10 minutes! Towards the end of the dive they came back more of them but they just passed by to say hello!
The second dive we had one shy manta and one hammerhead in the distance, but the third dive made up for it because we had one manta with us for the whole dive over 50 minutes being very friendly enjoying the divers bubbles and being cleaned by up to 10 clarion angels!
To finish the day we had some black jacks hunting what made some juvenile Galapagos and silvertips very curious so they came to check it out and got very close to the divers!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Thursday, February 18, 2016
El Fondeadero-Dive Report
El Fondeadero-Dive Report
Today we arrived to San Benedicto Island at 4 Pm. We had a wonderful view of the Island and a sunny day. The temperature was 84 Fº / 27 Cº. We did the first dive of the trip with very nice conditions for a check out dive. No current, temperature of the water was 76 Fº / 24.5 Cº. The visibility was 40 ft. /12 m. we went down straight to the 60 Ft. /18 m. We stick to the reef where we saw lots of different tropical fishes like Moorish Idols,Gold grimmed, Trevalley Jacks, Pacific triggerfish, lots of creole fish, green moray eels, lobsters, and octopus! We crossed to another rock formation which had a lot of hard coral, and at the border of the reef, a solitary white tip shark passed in front of us, and meanwhile the clarion angel fishes around were an explosion of color. A little Silvertip shark passed quickly and disappeared, and a chevron manta was swimming at the limit of the visibility. When we returned to the ascent line at 30 Ft / 9 m a curious Silky Shark showed up, and was passing very close to us and leaving the area to come back, when another Silky Shark showed up as well to check what was going on with this bunch of divers having fun!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor
Solmar V
Today we arrived to San Benedicto Island at 4 Pm. We had a wonderful view of the Island and a sunny day. The temperature was 84 Fº / 27 Cº. We did the first dive of the trip with very nice conditions for a check out dive. No current, temperature of the water was 76 Fº / 24.5 Cº. The visibility was 40 ft. /12 m. we went down straight to the 60 Ft. /18 m. We stick to the reef where we saw lots of different tropical fishes like Moorish Idols,Gold grimmed, Trevalley Jacks, Pacific triggerfish, lots of creole fish, green moray eels, lobsters, and octopus! We crossed to another rock formation which had a lot of hard coral, and at the border of the reef, a solitary white tip shark passed in front of us, and meanwhile the clarion angel fishes around were an explosion of color. A little Silvertip shark passed quickly and disappeared, and a chevron manta was swimming at the limit of the visibility. When we returned to the ascent line at 30 Ft / 9 m a curious Silky Shark showed up, and was passing very close to us and leaving the area to come back, when another Silky Shark showed up as well to check what was going on with this bunch of divers having fun!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor
Solmar V
Monday, February 15, 2016
Hammerheads, mantas, dolphins, we couldn't have asked for a better end to this trip!
We just finished another trip and it could not have ended in a better way! We dove at Cabo Pearce at Socorro Island the water was very clear 100ft/30m visibility and 76F/25C. The first dive was the best one there was strong current so we drifted along the reef passing by a couple of mantas, when we got to the drop off we spotted a big school of hammerheads and 10 of them got close to us at this point we realized that there were 3 mantas on top of us and 4 dolphins following us we stayed with the dolphins for about 20 minutes and after the dive did some snorkeling with them!
The second dive we had some mantas again but they didn’t stay for very long, then on the third dive the dolphins showed up again! This timey two of them were being very curious and cruising around the cleaning station as a manta hovered on top of them. On the surface interval before the last dive we saw some whales close to the boat but they passed by and disappeared quickly. Now we head back to Cabo with the calmest sea conditions we have had all season no wind and no waves!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
The second dive we had some mantas again but they didn’t stay for very long, then on the third dive the dolphins showed up again! This timey two of them were being very curious and cruising around the cleaning station as a manta hovered on top of them. On the surface interval before the last dive we saw some whales close to the boat but they passed by and disappeared quickly. Now we head back to Cabo with the calmest sea conditions we have had all season no wind and no waves!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Saturday, February 13, 2016
"Manta Madness" at San Benedicto!
Hi everybody!
Today we are leaving San Benedicto Island towards Socorro Island after spending a great day of diving at “El Boiler”. Early in the morning we prepared the zodiacs, the diving equipment and all the divers got ready to get in the water hoping to see dolphins and mantas as usually happens in “El Boiler”. Once we set the anchor line and started our descent we had no current but the visibility was a little murky with 30 feet/ 10 meters, some thermoclines at surface and temperature of 23 C/75 F underwater. For the first dive we got to see lots of mantas on the south side close to the little pinnacle so the divers had a “manta madness” spinning between them, fighting to find their place under them, blowing bubbles and enjoying along the day. Other highlights were the dolphins quite deep close to the sand coming up and down to take some breaths, despite the low visibility it was an unexpected surprise for the divers after sharing their with the mantas, the chasing parrot fishes and the colorful butterfly fishes.
For the second and third dive the visibility got a little better enough to continue with the manta madness all over the dive site especially with two big chevron and a huge black manta that kept coming on and on to the bubbles. For this dive if you want your manta you had to fight for it because the divers wanted to be as close as possible to them! For the fourth dive the conditions kept pretty much the same with a little change in the current coming from the south, this helped to have more fishes swimming against it and a big school of creole fish gathers under the boat making company to the divers at their safety stop. Two big tunas were hunting on the west side of the pinnacle so you could even hear the noise made when they are chasing the other fishes. We hope the divers had the experience that they were hoping for about “El Boiler” thanks to the lovely mantas that made the day!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive instructor
Solmar V
Today we are leaving San Benedicto Island towards Socorro Island after spending a great day of diving at “El Boiler”. Early in the morning we prepared the zodiacs, the diving equipment and all the divers got ready to get in the water hoping to see dolphins and mantas as usually happens in “El Boiler”. Once we set the anchor line and started our descent we had no current but the visibility was a little murky with 30 feet/ 10 meters, some thermoclines at surface and temperature of 23 C/75 F underwater. For the first dive we got to see lots of mantas on the south side close to the little pinnacle so the divers had a “manta madness” spinning between them, fighting to find their place under them, blowing bubbles and enjoying along the day. Other highlights were the dolphins quite deep close to the sand coming up and down to take some breaths, despite the low visibility it was an unexpected surprise for the divers after sharing their with the mantas, the chasing parrot fishes and the colorful butterfly fishes.
For the second and third dive the visibility got a little better enough to continue with the manta madness all over the dive site especially with two big chevron and a huge black manta that kept coming on and on to the bubbles. For this dive if you want your manta you had to fight for it because the divers wanted to be as close as possible to them! For the fourth dive the conditions kept pretty much the same with a little change in the current coming from the south, this helped to have more fishes swimming against it and a big school of creole fish gathers under the boat making company to the divers at their safety stop. Two big tunas were hunting on the west side of the pinnacle so you could even hear the noise made when they are chasing the other fishes. We hope the divers had the experience that they were hoping for about “El Boiler” thanks to the lovely mantas that made the day!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive instructor
Solmar V
Friday, February 12, 2016
Roca Partida gave us a wonderful day of diving
Hi Everybody,
Roca Partida gave us a wonderful day of diving as it does just about every trip. We went down straight to the ledges at the 45 Ft /14 m which are located at the stern side, and once there we watched lots of whitetips sharks resting on the the ledges, and even the little ones! We continued going down to the 100 ft. / 30 m. and we headed north, when a Manta Chevron showed up! The gentle giant swam along with our divers meanwhile, a silky shark was swimming around with lots of creole fish when a group of 10 bottlenose dolphins passed in front of us! We kept moving all along from North to South, both of them followed us all the time! At the end of the dive we opened to the blue and saw a big school of tunas was at the limit of the visibility which was 80 ft. / 24 m with a temperature was 75 Fª. / 24Cº. During the safety stop a Wahoo was around shining in the blue. For the second dive we had lot of action with 2 Mantas Chevron at the southern corner of the rock, playing around, turning from the depth to the 50 ft. /15 M. and we have the first school of Amberjacks and lots of creole fish. We had an amazing view of the rock, which drops off as a vertical wall. On the west side this wall has hard coral, sea urchins, and on some small ledges rest white tip sharks. We went to the southwest where was possible to observe a hammerhead in the deepest area, and we came back to the rock where a giant manta was moving with elegance. To complete our 3rd dive we found lots of creole fish, a Manta Chevron was there too, along with many more schools of fish that were arriving to the area at this time including a big school of cottonmouth jacks and another school of skip jacks, lots and lots of fish everywhere! They stayed at north and they turn and came to the south. We followed this school and we have time to see white tip sharks on a ledge, sharing the space with some big lobsters, and finally all the action was coming from the south! A huge school of amberjacks circling from the 30 ft. /9 m t to the surface almost, Big eye jacks, cotton mouth jacks, creole fish, and 3 curios Wahoos surrounded us. Another great day of diving in this majestic sanctuary of marine life in the Pacific!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor- Solmar V
Roca Partida gave us a wonderful day of diving as it does just about every trip. We went down straight to the ledges at the 45 Ft /14 m which are located at the stern side, and once there we watched lots of whitetips sharks resting on the the ledges, and even the little ones! We continued going down to the 100 ft. / 30 m. and we headed north, when a Manta Chevron showed up! The gentle giant swam along with our divers meanwhile, a silky shark was swimming around with lots of creole fish when a group of 10 bottlenose dolphins passed in front of us! We kept moving all along from North to South, both of them followed us all the time! At the end of the dive we opened to the blue and saw a big school of tunas was at the limit of the visibility which was 80 ft. / 24 m with a temperature was 75 Fª. / 24Cº. During the safety stop a Wahoo was around shining in the blue. For the second dive we had lot of action with 2 Mantas Chevron at the southern corner of the rock, playing around, turning from the depth to the 50 ft. /15 M. and we have the first school of Amberjacks and lots of creole fish. We had an amazing view of the rock, which drops off as a vertical wall. On the west side this wall has hard coral, sea urchins, and on some small ledges rest white tip sharks. We went to the southwest where was possible to observe a hammerhead in the deepest area, and we came back to the rock where a giant manta was moving with elegance. To complete our 3rd dive we found lots of creole fish, a Manta Chevron was there too, along with many more schools of fish that were arriving to the area at this time including a big school of cottonmouth jacks and another school of skip jacks, lots and lots of fish everywhere! They stayed at north and they turn and came to the south. We followed this school and we have time to see white tip sharks on a ledge, sharing the space with some big lobsters, and finally all the action was coming from the south! A huge school of amberjacks circling from the 30 ft. /9 m t to the surface almost, Big eye jacks, cotton mouth jacks, creole fish, and 3 curios Wahoos surrounded us. Another great day of diving in this majestic sanctuary of marine life in the Pacific!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor- Solmar V
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Today we dove two lesser known dive sites at Socorro Island!
Hola.
Today we did our first two dives at Punta Tosca the weather conditions were great visibility about 100ft/30m and the water temperature was 76f/25C! On this site we went along the wall and spotted one hammerhead shark, one green turtle, as usual on this dive site the schools of parrot fish, and the endemic clarion angel fish, the best part of the dive was towards the end when a bottle nose dolphin came to the divers on the safety stop!
For the third and fourth dive we moved to Roca Oneil, the visibility and the temperature were the same, here we went to check out the beautiful underwater arch you have on this site and there were 4 silvertip sharks right on the entrance of it and some yellow fin tunas passing by, also a very friendly manta that stayed with us for over 20 minutes! Tomorrow we are going to Roca Partida hoping fore some good weather and hopefully some whales!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today we did our first two dives at Punta Tosca the weather conditions were great visibility about 100ft/30m and the water temperature was 76f/25C! On this site we went along the wall and spotted one hammerhead shark, one green turtle, as usual on this dive site the schools of parrot fish, and the endemic clarion angel fish, the best part of the dive was towards the end when a bottle nose dolphin came to the divers on the safety stop!
For the third and fourth dive we moved to Roca Oneil, the visibility and the temperature were the same, here we went to check out the beautiful underwater arch you have on this site and there were 4 silvertip sharks right on the entrance of it and some yellow fin tunas passing by, also a very friendly manta that stayed with us for over 20 minutes! Tomorrow we are going to Roca Partida hoping fore some good weather and hopefully some whales!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Mantas, dolphins, galapagos sharks and more underwater with humpback spouts at the surface!
Hi Eveybody!
Thanks for following the Solmar V liveaboard on our 10th trip of the season! It has been such a great experience for all of us to share the incredible marine life surrounding Revillagigedo, and today this is not the exception.
Today we are at Socorro Island after our first stop in San Benedicto diving 4 times during the day and enjoying the action underwater with all our guests. The dive site of the day was Cabo Pearce. We prepared the equipment, unloaded the zodiacs and put the divers in the water so they can admire what is waiting for them!
The conditions were a little bit challenging due the current heading from the north that made using the descent line very handy, so the divers could go down and once at the bottom at the rock they could have a relaxed dive thanks to the protection of the overhangs. The visibility was about 60 ft/20 mt with surge close to the edges of the rock, some thermoclines were present so this helped to have an enjoyable dive with 75 F/ 24 C along the day.
Cabo Pearce is well known thanks to the cleaning stations for the mantas, but there is so much more to see! We had 3 mantas along the day in addition to all the other little critters that call Cabo Pearce home. From the surface we were spotting some whales blowing at the surface, we tried to get close to them but the big guys aren’t dumb and know that people are close and in response they desend into the blue. Once underwater we could see dolphins close to the edges of the reef and quite deep, 6 galapagos sharks were out in the blue surrounding the divers and showing their territorial behavior (nothing to be afraid though) also some hammerhead made their appearance crossing from one side of the rock to the other. For the rest of the dives we had mild current so we could check lots of different things shallow at 50 feet, from octopuses to flounders with big groups of jacks, clarion angelfishes and chaser parrot fishes coming up and down along the reef!
Such a great day! Let’s wait for tomorrow, everybody is thinking about Roca Partida and the possibility of seeing a whale but that has to wait, first Punta Tosca here in the beautiful island of Socorro.
Rodrigo Marroquin
Solmar V
Dive Instructor.
Thanks for following the Solmar V liveaboard on our 10th trip of the season! It has been such a great experience for all of us to share the incredible marine life surrounding Revillagigedo, and today this is not the exception.
Today we are at Socorro Island after our first stop in San Benedicto diving 4 times during the day and enjoying the action underwater with all our guests. The dive site of the day was Cabo Pearce. We prepared the equipment, unloaded the zodiacs and put the divers in the water so they can admire what is waiting for them!
The conditions were a little bit challenging due the current heading from the north that made using the descent line very handy, so the divers could go down and once at the bottom at the rock they could have a relaxed dive thanks to the protection of the overhangs. The visibility was about 60 ft/20 mt with surge close to the edges of the rock, some thermoclines were present so this helped to have an enjoyable dive with 75 F/ 24 C along the day.
Cabo Pearce is well known thanks to the cleaning stations for the mantas, but there is so much more to see! We had 3 mantas along the day in addition to all the other little critters that call Cabo Pearce home. From the surface we were spotting some whales blowing at the surface, we tried to get close to them but the big guys aren’t dumb and know that people are close and in response they desend into the blue. Once underwater we could see dolphins close to the edges of the reef and quite deep, 6 galapagos sharks were out in the blue surrounding the divers and showing their territorial behavior (nothing to be afraid though) also some hammerhead made their appearance crossing from one side of the rock to the other. For the rest of the dives we had mild current so we could check lots of different things shallow at 50 feet, from octopuses to flounders with big groups of jacks, clarion angelfishes and chaser parrot fishes coming up and down along the reef!
Such a great day! Let’s wait for tomorrow, everybody is thinking about Roca Partida and the possibility of seeing a whale but that has to wait, first Punta Tosca here in the beautiful island of Socorro.
Rodrigo Marroquin
Solmar V
Dive Instructor.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
At least 10 different giant mantas with up to 60 minutes of bottom time with them at San Benedicto!!
Hi All,
Today was an excellent day of diving at the Boiler! We started early in the morning at 7:15 am. A couple of Dolphins were close to the vessel. The day was cloudy and the temperature was nice 75 F º /24 ºC. The ocean was a little rough, but nothing we couldn't handle. During the first dive we had chevron mantas at the start of the dive on the northern side of the dive site. Out of the blue from the north east came dolphins, swimming very quickly around the dive site. 4 Chevron Mantas were around the cleaning station, the visibility was 50'/15m with water temp of 75F/24C, perfect to wear a 5 mm wetsuit! On our second dive, we moved to the pinnacle on the eastern side ,and between this pinnacle and the Boiler, a beautiful Manta Chevron showed up at the 80 Ft / 24 m. Soon more Mantas joined the show until we had 4 giant mantas going up and down, and all around us, circling the cleaning stations where the Clarion Angel fishes were ready to clean them up. Closer to the Boiler there was plenty of Pacific Triggerfish, Moorish Idols, big eye jacks, trumpetfish, creole fish, lots of them! This time we had the chance to see black mantas, their top in black, their belly's are black with white spots, and they mixed with the chevron mantas the entire dive, there were 4 to 6 of them swimming around, along with a huge yellowfin tuna that zoomed by us, an awesome massive Tuna! We could say that every group had their owns Mantas playing around them 3 giant mantas swimming from the 50 Ft / 15 m. to the surface. We had 60 minutes of bottom time enjoying the magnificence of these gentle creatures. On our 3rd dive the visibility was a little bit murky and dark, but the mantas concentrated at the western corner this time so they were not hard to find! The Mantas were between the 60 ft / 18 m to the 50 Ft /15 m. We saw at least 10 different Mantas and at some point was funny to find that every diver was interacting with them, taking pictures, videos, blowing bubbles on the Mantas belly, everybody had fun, no doubt! During the last dive of the day, visibility dropped even more, but the action didn't stop! At the beginning the mantas were coming to the Boiler from the west, and they were swimming into the blue, taking all the divers with them! They were in everywhere up, down, swimming all around our guests and very curious about the divers and very playful with them! After dinner all the divers were sharing comments and pictures, and videos of this great day of diving at San Benedicto Island! Now the Solmar V is running to Socorro Island, looking forward for another great day of diving!!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor
Solmar V
Today was an excellent day of diving at the Boiler! We started early in the morning at 7:15 am. A couple of Dolphins were close to the vessel. The day was cloudy and the temperature was nice 75 F º /24 ºC. The ocean was a little rough, but nothing we couldn't handle. During the first dive we had chevron mantas at the start of the dive on the northern side of the dive site. Out of the blue from the north east came dolphins, swimming very quickly around the dive site. 4 Chevron Mantas were around the cleaning station, the visibility was 50'/15m with water temp of 75F/24C, perfect to wear a 5 mm wetsuit! On our second dive, we moved to the pinnacle on the eastern side ,and between this pinnacle and the Boiler, a beautiful Manta Chevron showed up at the 80 Ft / 24 m. Soon more Mantas joined the show until we had 4 giant mantas going up and down, and all around us, circling the cleaning stations where the Clarion Angel fishes were ready to clean them up. Closer to the Boiler there was plenty of Pacific Triggerfish, Moorish Idols, big eye jacks, trumpetfish, creole fish, lots of them! This time we had the chance to see black mantas, their top in black, their belly's are black with white spots, and they mixed with the chevron mantas the entire dive, there were 4 to 6 of them swimming around, along with a huge yellowfin tuna that zoomed by us, an awesome massive Tuna! We could say that every group had their owns Mantas playing around them 3 giant mantas swimming from the 50 Ft / 15 m. to the surface. We had 60 minutes of bottom time enjoying the magnificence of these gentle creatures. On our 3rd dive the visibility was a little bit murky and dark, but the mantas concentrated at the western corner this time so they were not hard to find! The Mantas were between the 60 ft / 18 m to the 50 Ft /15 m. We saw at least 10 different Mantas and at some point was funny to find that every diver was interacting with them, taking pictures, videos, blowing bubbles on the Mantas belly, everybody had fun, no doubt! During the last dive of the day, visibility dropped even more, but the action didn't stop! At the beginning the mantas were coming to the Boiler from the west, and they were swimming into the blue, taking all the divers with them! They were in everywhere up, down, swimming all around our guests and very curious about the divers and very playful with them! After dinner all the divers were sharing comments and pictures, and videos of this great day of diving at San Benedicto Island! Now the Solmar V is running to Socorro Island, looking forward for another great day of diving!!
Ignacio H. Leyro
Scuba Instructor
Solmar V
Monday, February 8, 2016
A very good day of diving at El Cañon!
Helooo
Today we had our first full day of diving of this trip and as usual it was very good, this time we started at El Cañon the water temperature was 76F/25C and visibility around 40ft/12m!
Even though the visibility was not the best we still got to see lots of stuff, on the first and second dive there was some current witch is good at this site because sometimes it brings the hammerheads close to the reef and that is exactly what happened today, five curious hammerhead sharks were passing close as we held on the reef after a bit we swam into the blue and we saw more about ten maybe more. On the second and third dive there was a big school of bonitas close to the boat with some juvenile silver tip sharks following them trying to have a snack. Of course the mantas also showed up today three very friendly ones on the third dive for over 40 minutes with us, all of this and the usual silky sharks that stay under the boat on this site.
Tomorrow we will go to El Boiler hopping for some mantas and dolphins if we are lucky, keep tuned to see what comes next!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today we had our first full day of diving of this trip and as usual it was very good, this time we started at El Cañon the water temperature was 76F/25C and visibility around 40ft/12m!
Even though the visibility was not the best we still got to see lots of stuff, on the first and second dive there was some current witch is good at this site because sometimes it brings the hammerheads close to the reef and that is exactly what happened today, five curious hammerhead sharks were passing close as we held on the reef after a bit we swam into the blue and we saw more about ten maybe more. On the second and third dive there was a big school of bonitas close to the boat with some juvenile silver tip sharks following them trying to have a snack. Of course the mantas also showed up today three very friendly ones on the third dive for over 40 minutes with us, all of this and the usual silky sharks that stay under the boat on this site.
Tomorrow we will go to El Boiler hopping for some mantas and dolphins if we are lucky, keep tuned to see what comes next!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)