Hola amigos!
Last night we left Roca Partida and crossed back to San Benedicto island, it took us about 9 hours, it was a little bumpy but not too bad. This morning we woke up next to the great volcano and at 6:45 am we were all ready on the dive deck, suited up and before we started the dive briefing we took a minute to look at the great sunrise we had!
It was windy and we were expecting some swell so the dive site we picked was “El Cañón”, as it is the most protected site on the island, and it actually was very calm there behind that lava flow. By 7am we were in the water ready to enjoy the last day of diving of the trip, and what a last day we had!
For our first dive we got in the water we noticed it was a little cooler, 76F/24C, not great visibility, but still OK at about 40ft/12m. We also noticed a little south east current so we swam out into the current to the edge of the wall and when we got there we went down to hold on to the rocks, and waited for a few minutes in between hundreds of creole fish, white tip reef sharks, jacks and the big prize was the hammer heads, but there was no sign of them. Instead, we found a female bottled nosed dolphin with her little calf showing up from the blue waters and coming to the dive site in between a school of jacks, they only checked us out from the distance and kept going. We stayed there and kept waiting and finally and a school of about 12 hammerheads passed by, nice and slow, posing for the cameras and leaving everybody excited! As we were about to leave the rocks and start heading towards the ascent line, we had 2 chevron mantas visiting us! They played for a while with us and actually followed us all the way back to the boat! It was mantastic! I think there is no better way to start a day of diving!
For our second dive of the day we had a little bit more current, still coming from the south east and this time we headed to the south east corner of the dive site, on the way out there we found a big hammer head just cruising on top of the sandy bottom by itself, after checking it out we kept going and this time not many hammer heads were there, only 4 showed up, but what we did have was mantas! 2 chevron mantas came to play again, they would come and practically sit on top of us to feel our bubbles on their bellies and they just kept coming and coming and coming! Some divers got to get underneath them and blow some bubbles at them for a while, then they left and we went back to the anchor where we found more mantas and played with them, while a huge female hammerhead with a tiny little hammerhead came to check out the rocks by the anchor!
For the third dive we decided to make it a manta dive, so we went down the descent line and stayed a few feet/meters away from it and waited patiently for the mantas to come, and they showed up! We had 2 chevron and a black mantas that stayed with us for the entire dive! It was great! They would come, get their bubble bath, swim away a few feet/meters and come back and come back and come back and yes! They will come back again and again! We had about 40 minutes of this! It was just awesome!
The last dive of the trip was probably one of the best dives of the trip, current was not so strong, still coming from the south east, so we took the pangas and got dropped by the south east cleaning station, a quick back roll and down to the rocks! We were at 90ft/27m holding on top of the rocks, surrounded by 8 white tip reef sharks laying on the sandy bottom, a lot of creole and trigger fish, schools of jacks, and sea bass, green morays in between the rocks, then 2 juvenile silver tip sharks showed up and to make it even better a school of 35 hammer heads passed about 3m/10ft right in front of us so slow that it almost looked like somebody press the slow motion button. They swam into the sandy bottom, on top of other rocks and then back out into the blue, they where quite big sharks but that was not all! As we turned around to start heading back towards the boat 2 chevron mantas showed up, one was almost on top of us for a bout 3 minutes just enjoying our bubbles, silver tips came passing and passing in front of us, and on the way back to the anchor the mantas followed us like saying please don't go! What an end for this great trip!
Stay tuned guys because there is more to come on our next trip to the Socorro islands!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Lots of sharks, dolphins, mobula and more on our 3rd day at Roca Partida!
Jan 12, 2015 at Roca Partida
We had an amazing morning watching sunrise sky, with very intense colors, in the distance we could see a tiny glance of Socorro Island and as the morning gets brighter Socorro disappears from our sight!
Early morning air temperature of 24˚C/76˚F. 3days here show how good Roca has been! Our first dive started at 8:00 am, 50 minutes underwater and everything was at the north eastern point! As a welcome to the first dive of the day, before even we get in the water dolphins were already leaping high out the water, excited maybe?! And of course first thing we hear underwater is dolphins chirping! We don’t see them yet but they sound so close and louder as they're getting closer! One thing really helped to feel very safe while playing with them was the zero current in the area. Finally, we see at least 15 of them in small groups, 3, 4, 3, 2 etc, and a mom with her calf. It is impressive the way mom really takes care of her calf. While they were near us there was not a separation in distance, just like adults do, they had physical contact to feel moms care and safety! And of course that dolphin smile was always there. They were surrounding us really, with divers in the center and dolphins surrounding us, the chirping, clicking was constant, a mobula ray came across the center to check us out before leaving. In deep water, we could see tips of silver tip sharks, above some silky sharks that with so much action here are very interested in getting closer to us! For a minute the dolphins disappeared, but again the chirping was still there, once again they showed up in small groups. A single one adopts the vertical position just in front of me and stays like that for over a minute, letting me get very close, there were no scars on the body, we made eye contact, the dolphin blew some bubbles and I blew some bubbles of course! Close to the wall the schools of cotton mouth jacks making formations and 3 hammer heads under slowly swimming towards North, what a way to complete on this dive, which was also dive numbers 700 for Nancy Graff and dive number 400 for Marcia Massironi!
Our surface interval was very clear sky with air temp of 23˚C/73.4˚F, being able to have a glance of Socorro Island means we had 124km/67 miles visibility!
Second dive, we decided to go find that school of hammer heads on the south western area which after some time of swimming we did, at least 50 individuals, but they were in very deep water, at least 50m/164ft or more! We actually made it back to the rock since our current was still zero, the west side of it offered lots of lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, jacks, red and yellow trigger fish, moorish idols, barber fish, the chirping of dolphins still around we just did not see them on this dive!
A third dive took place on the south eastern point of the rock due to a mild current from the south there were, lots of fish there, blue water with 30m/100ft visibility, the high light of the dive here was the yellow fin tunas hunting so actively for the 50 minutes we spent in this corner, jacks were there with a few hammer heads below us making small circles, so close to the wall to see lots of white tip sharks, and so this is the end of our 3 days spent at Roca!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
We had an amazing morning watching sunrise sky, with very intense colors, in the distance we could see a tiny glance of Socorro Island and as the morning gets brighter Socorro disappears from our sight!
Early morning air temperature of 24˚C/76˚F. 3days here show how good Roca has been! Our first dive started at 8:00 am, 50 minutes underwater and everything was at the north eastern point! As a welcome to the first dive of the day, before even we get in the water dolphins were already leaping high out the water, excited maybe?! And of course first thing we hear underwater is dolphins chirping! We don’t see them yet but they sound so close and louder as they're getting closer! One thing really helped to feel very safe while playing with them was the zero current in the area. Finally, we see at least 15 of them in small groups, 3, 4, 3, 2 etc, and a mom with her calf. It is impressive the way mom really takes care of her calf. While they were near us there was not a separation in distance, just like adults do, they had physical contact to feel moms care and safety! And of course that dolphin smile was always there. They were surrounding us really, with divers in the center and dolphins surrounding us, the chirping, clicking was constant, a mobula ray came across the center to check us out before leaving. In deep water, we could see tips of silver tip sharks, above some silky sharks that with so much action here are very interested in getting closer to us! For a minute the dolphins disappeared, but again the chirping was still there, once again they showed up in small groups. A single one adopts the vertical position just in front of me and stays like that for over a minute, letting me get very close, there were no scars on the body, we made eye contact, the dolphin blew some bubbles and I blew some bubbles of course! Close to the wall the schools of cotton mouth jacks making formations and 3 hammer heads under slowly swimming towards North, what a way to complete on this dive, which was also dive numbers 700 for Nancy Graff and dive number 400 for Marcia Massironi!
Our surface interval was very clear sky with air temp of 23˚C/73.4˚F, being able to have a glance of Socorro Island means we had 124km/67 miles visibility!
Second dive, we decided to go find that school of hammer heads on the south western area which after some time of swimming we did, at least 50 individuals, but they were in very deep water, at least 50m/164ft or more! We actually made it back to the rock since our current was still zero, the west side of it offered lots of lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, jacks, red and yellow trigger fish, moorish idols, barber fish, the chirping of dolphins still around we just did not see them on this dive!
A third dive took place on the south eastern point of the rock due to a mild current from the south there were, lots of fish there, blue water with 30m/100ft visibility, the high light of the dive here was the yellow fin tunas hunting so actively for the 50 minutes we spent in this corner, jacks were there with a few hammer heads below us making small circles, so close to the wall to see lots of white tip sharks, and so this is the end of our 3 days spent at Roca!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Humpbacks, playful dolphins, lots of sharks, and even a manta on Day 2 at Roca Partida!!
Today we had another great day at Roca Partida. It started with some whale watching from the boat right after breakfast, we had three humpbacks going around us with a couple of breaches very close!
At 8:00 am we got in the water for our first dive, from the beginning to the end of the dive which lasted fifty minutes we had bottlenose dolphins playing with us! At one point, we counted twenty at the same time. Throughout the dive we also saw a few hammerheads, silky, silvertips and Galapagos sharks, at some points all in the same frame!
Roca Partida was full of life the entire day, on the second dive, the hammerheads were still around but this time we saw a big school! At the beginning of the dive we went down to 30 meters/100ft where around 30 of them passed by facing us and you could see the rest of the school deeper down! We didn’t see dolphins on this dive but we could hear them. Lots of yellow fin tunas and silky sharks were passing chasing smaller fish throughout the dive.
In the afternoon we went for our last dive of the day and the conditions were still the same, all day long no current, 30meters/100ft visibility and the temperature around 24C/76f. This dive was very similar to the second one, but on the last twenty minutes we had one manta hanging out with the group at about 5meters/15ft, there were about ten divers together and the manta was going on top of everyone one by one enjoying all the divers' bubbles.
We finished the day watching the beautiful sunset and checking out the silky sharks going around the boat on the surface. Tomorrow we have one more day here at Roca Partida hopefully it will be as good as the last two days have been.
Thiago Mendonca
At 8:00 am we got in the water for our first dive, from the beginning to the end of the dive which lasted fifty minutes we had bottlenose dolphins playing with us! At one point, we counted twenty at the same time. Throughout the dive we also saw a few hammerheads, silky, silvertips and Galapagos sharks, at some points all in the same frame!
Roca Partida was full of life the entire day, on the second dive, the hammerheads were still around but this time we saw a big school! At the beginning of the dive we went down to 30 meters/100ft where around 30 of them passed by facing us and you could see the rest of the school deeper down! We didn’t see dolphins on this dive but we could hear them. Lots of yellow fin tunas and silky sharks were passing chasing smaller fish throughout the dive.
In the afternoon we went for our last dive of the day and the conditions were still the same, all day long no current, 30meters/100ft visibility and the temperature around 24C/76f. This dive was very similar to the second one, but on the last twenty minutes we had one manta hanging out with the group at about 5meters/15ft, there were about ten divers together and the manta was going on top of everyone one by one enjoying all the divers' bubbles.
We finished the day watching the beautiful sunset and checking out the silky sharks going around the boat on the surface. Tomorrow we have one more day here at Roca Partida hopefully it will be as good as the last two days have been.
Thiago Mendonca
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Dolphins, hammerheads, and more on Day 1 at Roca Partida!
Hola amigos!
Last night after the navy inspection in Socorro island we sailed off to Roca Partida, after 9 hours of navigation we got to the rock, anchored and waited for sunrise to get into our wetsuits.
By 7:45am everybody was on deck, suited up and excited to see what the rock had prepared for us!
After the dive briefing we got on the pangas and off we went to explore the rock! After an easy back roll entry we were in the warm water, 77F/25C, and started descending on the east side of the rock and first thing we noticed was the great visibility we had, about 80ft/24m, when we got to 40ft/12m we went to check out the ledges were the white tip reef sharks lay down and it was crowded! About 15 white tip were there laying on top of each other, after a few pictures there we swam north and when we got to the north end it was full of fish, huge schools of creole and trigger fish, jacks and more white tips swimming around close to the rock, so we went off the rock in between all this fish and into the blue, after a couple of minutes we heard a familiar sound...bottled nose dolphins! We heard them and we started turning around but no sign of them until suddenly here they were, a pod of about 25 dolphins showed up in little groups at the time, and that's when the fun started! Dolphins were going up and down, swimming around the divers, while divers were trying to keep up with them doing their dolphins style swim, what a picture! It was just great, everybody was so excited and dolphins kept coming and coming for the rest of the dive, in total we spent about 30 minutes with them! While all this was going on we had a little school of bonitos swimming closer to the surface and a silky shark chasing them, we didn't know which show to watch, but at the end we decided to keep playing with the dolphins! By the end of the dive after a little break of no dolphins we started drifting south and on the way we found more dolphins! This time 3 of them came by to check us out, while some huge tunas cruised at about 60ft/18m looking for their morning pray, then it was time to surface, so safety stop and back on board the Solmar V.
For the second dive we went down on the north end of the rock, and again we were surrounded by thousands of fish, we were expecting some shark action but there was no big sharks, others than the white tips, so after waiting a few minutes there we headed south, on the way we found a few schools of jacks and more and more white tip reef sharks. By the time we got to the south west corner we felt a little current coming from that direction, so we went into it to see whats it could bring us, and after kicking away from the rock a few meters we had a school of about 50 hammer heads swimming at 100ft/30m, they were doing their classic pattern in circles and we followed them for a few minutes! It was just awesome!
On our third dive we decided to go look for the hammer heads again so we went down on the same south western corner where we saw them earlier, this time we got to 100ft/30m and no sign of them, we had to kick farther out into the blue and at about 120ft/36m, there they were, a smaller school this time, but still about 30 of them! As they saw us they started going deeper and we followed on top, but then they were to deep to take a good look so we turned around and started heading towards the rock. We didn't have to kick far before there they were again! They came very close this time and 2 of them actually passed right next to one of our divers! We had a few more minutes with them and then headed back towards the rock. On the way back we spotted a silver tip shark swimming under us and right after a school of bait fish being chased by a silky shark, but that was not all, when we got back to the rock, we swam south and there we found three huge yellow fin tunas that were on the hunt of some smaller fish, they swam right next to us in a very slow motion and then disappeared. So to resume not many sharks close to the rock, but great schools of hammerheads and tuna action! Stay tuned because we are staying in Roca Partida for another great day of diving!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Last night after the navy inspection in Socorro island we sailed off to Roca Partida, after 9 hours of navigation we got to the rock, anchored and waited for sunrise to get into our wetsuits.
By 7:45am everybody was on deck, suited up and excited to see what the rock had prepared for us!
After the dive briefing we got on the pangas and off we went to explore the rock! After an easy back roll entry we were in the warm water, 77F/25C, and started descending on the east side of the rock and first thing we noticed was the great visibility we had, about 80ft/24m, when we got to 40ft/12m we went to check out the ledges were the white tip reef sharks lay down and it was crowded! About 15 white tip were there laying on top of each other, after a few pictures there we swam north and when we got to the north end it was full of fish, huge schools of creole and trigger fish, jacks and more white tips swimming around close to the rock, so we went off the rock in between all this fish and into the blue, after a couple of minutes we heard a familiar sound...bottled nose dolphins! We heard them and we started turning around but no sign of them until suddenly here they were, a pod of about 25 dolphins showed up in little groups at the time, and that's when the fun started! Dolphins were going up and down, swimming around the divers, while divers were trying to keep up with them doing their dolphins style swim, what a picture! It was just great, everybody was so excited and dolphins kept coming and coming for the rest of the dive, in total we spent about 30 minutes with them! While all this was going on we had a little school of bonitos swimming closer to the surface and a silky shark chasing them, we didn't know which show to watch, but at the end we decided to keep playing with the dolphins! By the end of the dive after a little break of no dolphins we started drifting south and on the way we found more dolphins! This time 3 of them came by to check us out, while some huge tunas cruised at about 60ft/18m looking for their morning pray, then it was time to surface, so safety stop and back on board the Solmar V.
For the second dive we went down on the north end of the rock, and again we were surrounded by thousands of fish, we were expecting some shark action but there was no big sharks, others than the white tips, so after waiting a few minutes there we headed south, on the way we found a few schools of jacks and more and more white tip reef sharks. By the time we got to the south west corner we felt a little current coming from that direction, so we went into it to see whats it could bring us, and after kicking away from the rock a few meters we had a school of about 50 hammer heads swimming at 100ft/30m, they were doing their classic pattern in circles and we followed them for a few minutes! It was just awesome!
On our third dive we decided to go look for the hammer heads again so we went down on the same south western corner where we saw them earlier, this time we got to 100ft/30m and no sign of them, we had to kick farther out into the blue and at about 120ft/36m, there they were, a smaller school this time, but still about 30 of them! As they saw us they started going deeper and we followed on top, but then they were to deep to take a good look so we turned around and started heading towards the rock. We didn't have to kick far before there they were again! They came very close this time and 2 of them actually passed right next to one of our divers! We had a few more minutes with them and then headed back towards the rock. On the way back we spotted a silver tip shark swimming under us and right after a school of bait fish being chased by a silky shark, but that was not all, when we got back to the rock, we swam south and there we found three huge yellow fin tunas that were on the hunt of some smaller fish, they swam right next to us in a very slow motion and then disappeared. So to resume not many sharks close to the rock, but great schools of hammerheads and tuna action! Stay tuned because we are staying in Roca Partida for another great day of diving!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Lots of action at Socorro Island!
Hi All! Jan. 09, 2015
A new day to go diving, everybody was excited listening to dive briefing about what Cabo Pearce, it's just like really listening to your favorite class! The sunrise happened very quickly, and by the time we were in the water we had plenty of light. During the whole day we enjoyed of 25˚C/77˚F, visibility was constantly changing from 10m to 25m/33ft to 80ft due to very strong current coming from South. As usual we set our stern anchor to make more comfortable the descent, right in the same area 12m/40ft deep there was an octopus changing color to blend in, which they do very well, after a minute it decided not to be shy any more, and continued to crawl on the rocks, slowly covering the area, using it's tentacles to feel what is there to move on. Nearby, spiny lobster detected anything approaching with it's antennas, flounders were also part of the show here, amazing who they can change colors as they go by areas in different colors like brown, purple, white, black etc. Anyway the manta cleaning station was not very active this morning so we took advantage of the current to find hammerheads on the northern edge of the dive site. There was only one first, but it was just a matter of waiting before another five showed up! Vis. wasn’t that great by this edge but good enough to see them for a short time, and watch how they swim on the side then turning making a big circle to come back in front of us! Then 2 mantas showed up as well, not so friendly for the moment, it seemed they needed time as well, not too long after however they were just like our best friends! Current still kicking hard so our safety stop was fun hanging onto the rope.
Our surface interval is always exciting doing panga rides by Jeronimo with his friendly grumpy face making every customer laugh, explaining about birds, lava formations etc.
On our second dive the rule was let see what we see not fighting the current! So everybody agreed with a, "Yeaaaaaa! Good idea! And here we go!" We were hiding sort of behind a rock at 14m/50ft deep, nice no current, enjoying the company of 3 friendly mantas, we wish we could be like them in the current, they don’t move a wing, they are stationary above our heads and the current doesn’t blow them away! So while some enjoyed the manta action, others decided to go around the rock a bit into the current on the south edge to hold onto it, how lucky we were by getting there on time to see 2 different schools of hammer heads counting more than 80 sharks! The good thing is the current took all the bubbles on the other direction so we had a clear view of all sharks, a plus was to have them swimming over our heads, I counted myself 1 minute 30 seconds until they all were gone into the blue, of course on the way back to the anchor we had the playful mantas again!
On our third and fourth dives we finally had a break on the current, zero of it! Knowing about the hammer heads on previous dive we all decided to go find them, it was easy to navigate along the reef, the mantas were not in the cleaning stations they were here half way to the end of it making wide circles over the rocks, we also found lots of Pacific creole fish, lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, that by the way also know where there is no current to lay on the bottom to not get blown away! A huge Diamond head sting ray had a perfect circular bite on the back side of the wing, I guess we know what it means shark bite! Vis. in this area was just great, we are at 24m/80ft deep and we see the bottom like if it was so close but it is not. To get down there is 50m/160ft of water! Hammer heads here and there, not as many during our afternoon dives, but we had more mantas that were as playful as always, and I can say a good way to finish a day of diving was with the encounter we had with a tiger shark! Not so close but the stripes were there!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
A new day to go diving, everybody was excited listening to dive briefing about what Cabo Pearce, it's just like really listening to your favorite class! The sunrise happened very quickly, and by the time we were in the water we had plenty of light. During the whole day we enjoyed of 25˚C/77˚F, visibility was constantly changing from 10m to 25m/33ft to 80ft due to very strong current coming from South. As usual we set our stern anchor to make more comfortable the descent, right in the same area 12m/40ft deep there was an octopus changing color to blend in, which they do very well, after a minute it decided not to be shy any more, and continued to crawl on the rocks, slowly covering the area, using it's tentacles to feel what is there to move on. Nearby, spiny lobster detected anything approaching with it's antennas, flounders were also part of the show here, amazing who they can change colors as they go by areas in different colors like brown, purple, white, black etc. Anyway the manta cleaning station was not very active this morning so we took advantage of the current to find hammerheads on the northern edge of the dive site. There was only one first, but it was just a matter of waiting before another five showed up! Vis. wasn’t that great by this edge but good enough to see them for a short time, and watch how they swim on the side then turning making a big circle to come back in front of us! Then 2 mantas showed up as well, not so friendly for the moment, it seemed they needed time as well, not too long after however they were just like our best friends! Current still kicking hard so our safety stop was fun hanging onto the rope.
Our surface interval is always exciting doing panga rides by Jeronimo with his friendly grumpy face making every customer laugh, explaining about birds, lava formations etc.
On our second dive the rule was let see what we see not fighting the current! So everybody agreed with a, "Yeaaaaaa! Good idea! And here we go!" We were hiding sort of behind a rock at 14m/50ft deep, nice no current, enjoying the company of 3 friendly mantas, we wish we could be like them in the current, they don’t move a wing, they are stationary above our heads and the current doesn’t blow them away! So while some enjoyed the manta action, others decided to go around the rock a bit into the current on the south edge to hold onto it, how lucky we were by getting there on time to see 2 different schools of hammer heads counting more than 80 sharks! The good thing is the current took all the bubbles on the other direction so we had a clear view of all sharks, a plus was to have them swimming over our heads, I counted myself 1 minute 30 seconds until they all were gone into the blue, of course on the way back to the anchor we had the playful mantas again!
On our third and fourth dives we finally had a break on the current, zero of it! Knowing about the hammer heads on previous dive we all decided to go find them, it was easy to navigate along the reef, the mantas were not in the cleaning stations they were here half way to the end of it making wide circles over the rocks, we also found lots of Pacific creole fish, lobsters, green moray eels, white tip sharks, that by the way also know where there is no current to lay on the bottom to not get blown away! A huge Diamond head sting ray had a perfect circular bite on the back side of the wing, I guess we know what it means shark bite! Vis. in this area was just great, we are at 24m/80ft deep and we see the bottom like if it was so close but it is not. To get down there is 50m/160ft of water! Hammer heads here and there, not as many during our afternoon dives, but we had more mantas that were as playful as always, and I can say a good way to finish a day of diving was with the encounter we had with a tiger shark! Not so close but the stripes were there!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata, Solmar V.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Strong current at El Canon and lots of mantas at El Boiler!
We started our third day of diving with a clear sky less wind and smaller swell, but still a strong current at El Cañon. On the first dive here it took us some time to get down the decent line, but once we got to the reef we were able to find some protection from the current. After that we waited there for about 15 minutes to see if we could see some of the hammerheads we saw yesterday, we were about to let go of the reef and start to drift, when a black manta passed by and stopped right in front of the group and right after she left three big hammerheads came to check us out while the rest of the school was a bit further away just at the edge of our sight. Then it was time to start going shallower, so we let go of the reef and started our drift we didn’t see much until the safety stop where another manta decided to hang out with us making us do a longer safety stop.
The current was still very strong after we came out of the water so we decided to go to the other side of San Benedicto to see how El Boiler was. We had good dives at El Cañon , but we were ready for some more mellow dives. When we got to El Boiler everyone was happy to see that there was absolutely no current, so we got ready and went in the water. Right at the decent at about 15ft/5m we already had 2 mantas going around us but they were still a bit shy. We went by the wall which was filled with white tip reef sharks, lobsters and green morays heading towards the blue and that’s where we had 8 mantas playing with the whole group for almost 40 minutes. When we came out of the dive the captain asked us if we had seen or heard whales because he had seen them pretty close by.
The third and fourth dives were very good too with less mantas but still very playful. The highlight was when one group of twelve divers was trying to get a group picture and they had to pose for a bit longer because they realized one of the mantas was right on top of them trying to get in the shot, and it did!
The day ended with another beautiful sunset followed by a delicious Mexican style barbecue, and now we are on our way to Isla Socorro planning to get there still at night and starting our first dive right after the sunrise!
Thiago Mendonca.
The current was still very strong after we came out of the water so we decided to go to the other side of San Benedicto to see how El Boiler was. We had good dives at El Cañon , but we were ready for some more mellow dives. When we got to El Boiler everyone was happy to see that there was absolutely no current, so we got ready and went in the water. Right at the decent at about 15ft/5m we already had 2 mantas going around us but they were still a bit shy. We went by the wall which was filled with white tip reef sharks, lobsters and green morays heading towards the blue and that’s where we had 8 mantas playing with the whole group for almost 40 minutes. When we came out of the dive the captain asked us if we had seen or heard whales because he had seen them pretty close by.
The third and fourth dives were very good too with less mantas but still very playful. The highlight was when one group of twelve divers was trying to get a group picture and they had to pose for a bit longer because they realized one of the mantas was right on top of them trying to get in the shot, and it did!
The day ended with another beautiful sunset followed by a delicious Mexican style barbecue, and now we are on our way to Isla Socorro planning to get there still at night and starting our first dive right after the sunrise!
Thiago Mendonca.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Schooling hammerheads, tiger shark, mantas and more at San Benedicto!
Hello Hello!
First full day of diving on this trip and what a way to start it!
The dive site of the day was “El Cañón”, yesterday evening it was all cloudy and gray here at San Benedicto, but this morning we knew we were going to have a great day when we saw the clear sky and sunshine! The water temperature was 77F/25C and the visibility around 70ft/21m, the current was exactly as we wanted it, coming from the east and quite strong, that means better chances for hammerheads! As we finished the dive briefing we saw dolphins right off the back of the boat, so we jumped into the water as quickly as possible and as soon as we hit the anchor we could hear them but couldn't see them. So we went down the rocks on the north side of the dive site to hold on to the rocks waiting for a big school of hammer heads, we spotted a couple. So we moved towards the cleaning station and stopped about half way there when we spotted the dolphins swimming at the surface! They decided to not come and play this morning, so we kept on going east and when we got to the cleaning station we had about 8 hammerheads! Then the waiting game started, so we held on the the rocks looking into the blue waters and after waiting a few minutes there they were, a school of about 30 hammerheads showed up! Gliding through the blue waters and circling in front of us a couple of times, and while all this was right in front of us, we had 2 chevron mantas right behinds us! So we had to look at both shows! It was just the best way to start the day! The dive was so good that one of my divers came to me and said “Antonio I don't need to dive anymore, lets just go back to Cabo, we have seen it all!”
For our second dive the current was still the same, from the east and strong, so we had the same plan to hang out at cleaning station where this time we found up to 12 hammer heads at once, they were swimming in smaller schools but this time they came a lot closer to us, and posed for great videos and pictures! Then action stopped for a bit until a tiger shark that came up from the deep a couple of times and got quite close to the divers before disappearing again into the deep. Then we let go of the rocks and drifted south along the edge and there they where a group of 10 hammerheads swimming right underneath us before we turned around to see the 2 mantas we had next to us! So we left the bottom and started going up with their great company, a black and a chevron manta came along on the drift for a few minutes and once we got to our safety stop they went back on their own way.
For our third dive the current got really really strong so the way down and the way out to the cleaning station, it took a little longer and we actually had to literally crawl all the way out! If you'd let go off the rocks then that was the end of your dive as the current was so strong, this time at the cleaning station we had a lot of jacks, white tip reef sharks, juvenile silver tip sharks, lobsters, green morays, but no hammer heads.
On our last dive of the day current went down a little and this time was a little easier to swim without holding on to the rocks all the time. Half way out to the cleaning station we saw 2 big hammer heads cruising by and once at the cleaning stations were had a lot of white tip reef sharks, 2 juvenile silver tip sharks and schools of 2 and 3 hammer heads visiting the rocks, suddenly all the fish moved away and there was a huge Galapagos shark just cruising by in the middle of hundreds of fish! By the end of the dive we started drifting there we found 2 mantas a black and a chevron that came and play with us, posing for the cameras very gentle.
Now we have a great atmosphere on the boat, had a great dinner prepared by chef Tony and we are going to spend the night here in San Benedicto to dive “El Cañón” in the morning, we wanted to go to Roca Partida, but the wind and the swell is not favorable so we will spend another day here next to the great volcano!
Stay tuned to know how our second day goes!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
First full day of diving on this trip and what a way to start it!
The dive site of the day was “El Cañón”, yesterday evening it was all cloudy and gray here at San Benedicto, but this morning we knew we were going to have a great day when we saw the clear sky and sunshine! The water temperature was 77F/25C and the visibility around 70ft/21m, the current was exactly as we wanted it, coming from the east and quite strong, that means better chances for hammerheads! As we finished the dive briefing we saw dolphins right off the back of the boat, so we jumped into the water as quickly as possible and as soon as we hit the anchor we could hear them but couldn't see them. So we went down the rocks on the north side of the dive site to hold on to the rocks waiting for a big school of hammer heads, we spotted a couple. So we moved towards the cleaning station and stopped about half way there when we spotted the dolphins swimming at the surface! They decided to not come and play this morning, so we kept on going east and when we got to the cleaning station we had about 8 hammerheads! Then the waiting game started, so we held on the the rocks looking into the blue waters and after waiting a few minutes there they were, a school of about 30 hammerheads showed up! Gliding through the blue waters and circling in front of us a couple of times, and while all this was right in front of us, we had 2 chevron mantas right behinds us! So we had to look at both shows! It was just the best way to start the day! The dive was so good that one of my divers came to me and said “Antonio I don't need to dive anymore, lets just go back to Cabo, we have seen it all!”
For our second dive the current was still the same, from the east and strong, so we had the same plan to hang out at cleaning station where this time we found up to 12 hammer heads at once, they were swimming in smaller schools but this time they came a lot closer to us, and posed for great videos and pictures! Then action stopped for a bit until a tiger shark that came up from the deep a couple of times and got quite close to the divers before disappearing again into the deep. Then we let go of the rocks and drifted south along the edge and there they where a group of 10 hammerheads swimming right underneath us before we turned around to see the 2 mantas we had next to us! So we left the bottom and started going up with their great company, a black and a chevron manta came along on the drift for a few minutes and once we got to our safety stop they went back on their own way.
For our third dive the current got really really strong so the way down and the way out to the cleaning station, it took a little longer and we actually had to literally crawl all the way out! If you'd let go off the rocks then that was the end of your dive as the current was so strong, this time at the cleaning station we had a lot of jacks, white tip reef sharks, juvenile silver tip sharks, lobsters, green morays, but no hammer heads.
On our last dive of the day current went down a little and this time was a little easier to swim without holding on to the rocks all the time. Half way out to the cleaning station we saw 2 big hammer heads cruising by and once at the cleaning stations were had a lot of white tip reef sharks, 2 juvenile silver tip sharks and schools of 2 and 3 hammer heads visiting the rocks, suddenly all the fish moved away and there was a huge Galapagos shark just cruising by in the middle of hundreds of fish! By the end of the dive we started drifting there we found 2 mantas a black and a chevron that came and play with us, posing for the cameras very gentle.
Now we have a great atmosphere on the boat, had a great dinner prepared by chef Tony and we are going to spend the night here in San Benedicto to dive “El Cañón” in the morning, we wanted to go to Roca Partida, but the wind and the swell is not favorable so we will spend another day here next to the great volcano!
Stay tuned to know how our second day goes!
Hasta la vista!
Antonio Romero
Dive Instructor
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