Its Henry the dolphin

Today we are on our second day of diving at San Benedicto Island, the dive site this time was "El Cañon" that has probed once more to be such a great place thanks to the variety and good diving conditions.

The day started early as normal here at Solmar V with some clouds that filter the bright light from the full moon in the sky, some wind blowing from the north as a reminder of the change of climate due this time of year, but nothing to be afraid of, so we unload the zodiacs, prepare the equipment and gave the briefing to get in the water.

The conditions were good with clear visibility 20 mts / 60 ft all day, weak current coming from the north for the first 2 dives and after the second it got a little bit stronger but this brought more possibilities to encounter more animals, the water temperature has raised considerably to 78 F / 25 C and we found some thermoclines just perfect to spot the hammers.

The first dive has brought a known friend to us, Henry the dolphin. Just when I went down to set the anchor on the stern of the boat I heard dolphin squeaks and what was my surprise when I turned back and there he was with his mother and another dolphin, getting closer to me as if he could recognize me, he started swimming and rubbing against my body with such a friendly touch, I started petting him for about 5 minutes and he didn´t seem to want me to leave but I had to come up to start the dives, until next time Enrique! Great joy is to see him every time, now he is just like part of the Solmar V family.

Once the groups were in the water we started diving right on the edge of Cañon, trying to see some hammers, we spotted some dolphins hunting the jacks (Henry was with them) but they disappear quite fast, then we could see a black manta hovering close to the rocks at 20 mts / 60 ft with lots of jacks following it, as usual here we saw many white tips lying in the sand and swimming all over the place, some silkys patrolling under the boat, and the first hammers of the day.

For the second dive we focus on finding the hammerheads, so we swam along the edge of the rock and then into the blue when we spotted a big school of jacks mixed with some juvenile tunas, and immediately the hammers showed up, about 50 of them swimming at 30 mts / 90 ft for about 15 minutes so we kept drifting with them to have a better view of them, such a great dive!

For the third and fourth dive the conditions changed a bit with the current pushing from the north, even though we saw many sharks, between them some black tips and the classic white tips, we cannot forget the trumpet fishes mating, the occasional rock mover wrasse, the grunts digging in the sand for some food and the clarion fishes that always showed their beauty in company with the abundance of yellow tail trigger fishes. Some mantas at the distance made the perfect closing for the day in company of the silkys surrounding the jacks under the boat.

Rodrigo Marroquin, dive instructor, SOLMAR V.