Monday, June 19, 2017

June 11 – June 19, 2017 #TripReport

MANTA´S FULL CLEANING SERVICE

Our 22nd journey started with rough seas but once we got to San Benedicto Island calmed down just to start our check out dive at “Las Cuevas” where we could spot the first silkies sharks, turtles and the lazy white tips laying under the caves. We stayed overnight at “El Cañon” and the diving started early morning without current which made the divers performance easier getting the opportunity to have the best shots of all kind of different fishes among which the jacks under the boat were one of the favorites, been patrolled by the 5 silkies that as usual never stop swimming between the divers. On the drop offs we got to see more than 5 silvertips surrounding the cleaning station and the mantas showed their way coming on and off from the blue over the sandy bottom.

The choppy sea made us to move to Socorro Island where we dove the second day at Cabo Pearce with great manta action especially in the south area where the endemic clarion fishes were ready to give the full cleaning service to the mantas along with a bunch of stubborn jacks that stayed under one particular black manta that kept coming towards the divers on and on to get their bubble doze of the day. In total we got to see more than 5 different mantas during the dives and lots of tunas crossing from one side to the other of the reef mixing their shades with big schools of blue jacks, triggerfishes and steel pompanos in the shallow zones.

Our next stop was Punta Tosca where we got a little bit of current closer to the wall, so we ended up diving in the middle bars of the reef looking for countless nudis all over the place, we drifted along a huge variety of tropical fishes like the rock mover wrasses, the Mexican goat fishes, big balls of hungry parrot fishes eating the coral, long schools of yellow snappers and a couple of turtles hovering next to us. We reached a shallow area getting ready to do our safety stop when we heard dolphins and out of the blue we were swimming between 7 of them including a baby that stayed close to the mama who was teaching him how to hunt the jacks, an amazing behavior to watch!

Roca Partida was outstanding with huge schools of all kind of jacks, mantas everywhere chasing each other and hovering where the current was stronger and getting a glance of our divers here and there. The whitetips were out of the ledges and swimming in the south point close to the rock making the perfect scenario for the photographers in turn, meanwhile in the blue we got to see the huge school of skipjacks with silkies, silver tips and a huge Galapagos in the middle moving from north to south. On the outsides we didn´t get to see hammers this time, instead we found big schools of tunas of all sizes swimming from one side to the other of the rock.

Last trip of the Socorro season… Coming back to land from the amazing archipelago of Revillagigedo and the feeling couldn't be other than gratefulness for what we have been so lucky to see along this unforgettable 8 months: thrilling dives with all kind of different species of sharks, big schools of hammerheads, bubble junkies mantas, our lovely friends the dolphins, the epic return of the false orcas along with the vagabond whale sharks and the elusive humpback whales; this year the sea has been so kind with us and our debt with it is huge, thanks Revillagigedo for an amazing journey and see you next season!

Wishing the best from and for the ocean.

Rodrigo Marroquín, dive instructor.
SOLMAR V.


Trip Conditions:

Temperature
71 F / 22 C

Visibility
60 feet / 20 mts

In scale 1 to 5

Seas: 3

Current: 2

Crossings
To San Benedicto: 3

To Socorro: 3

To Roca Partida: 1

Monday, June 12, 2017

June 2 – June 10, 2017 #TripReport

Trip report from June 2nd to the 10th

Hello people,

This is the report from the 21st trip of the season. We started in San Benedicto Island doing the check out dive in “Las Cuevas”, with white tip sharks, stingrays, a sea turtle and plenty of fish. The dive site “El Boiler” was very good this trip. Early in the morning we saw dolphins and a couple of mantas. For the rest of the day the mantas stayed there hanging out with us. “El Cañon” was the other site where we dove in San Benedicto the last day of the trip. We saw a school of hammerheads, some silver tip, white tip and a couple of Galapagos sharks. Also a couple of playful mantas were there most of the time during two of the dives.

Socorro Island was great too; three or four mantas were in the area. Also on the first dive of the day, a couple of dolphins were hunting jacks. On the second dive we spent most of the time with two chevron mantas.

And last but not least, Roca Partida. As always this place gave us the best diving in the Archipelago. During the two days we stayed there, we saw a big school of skipjacks, Galapagos sharks, hammerheads, silver tip sharks, lots of white tips, tunas, mantas and silky sharks. In one of the dives we had seven mantas at the same time!

Despite the weather conditions, we had a great time in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, our guests came back very happy and with great memories.


See you soon!
Pablo - DM Solmar V

Weather conditions (0 to 5 “max”)
Wind 3
Clouds 4
Water conditions
Current 3 (0 none to 5 strong)
Visibility 4 (0 poor to 5 excellent)
Temperature average 73F/23C
Crossing (0 good to 5 rough)
To Socorro 2
To Cabo 4