Hi everybody!
Today we are on our first day of diving at San Benedicto Island and the conditions told us that the best site for the day was "El Cañon”.
The conditions at the surface were a bit bumpy with big swells and strong wind, the situation under water wasn't as bad as thought with mild current facing from the northeast, and we started with lower than average visibility that got better as the day went on.
Taking in the marine life was quite impressive, for the first dive we had a group of dolphins showing off between our divers, they passed along with the first mantas of the day which was a good omen that it was going to be a good day to spot them! For the second and third dive we spent most of the dives blowing bubbles to the mantas and this group seemed to catch up the technique quite fast because they didn’t stop all day long, enjoying the mantas flaring and hovering above their heads enjoying the bubble bath provided by our regs. For some of them this was their first experience with such a great animal and at the end of the dives they were very excited about everything else to come!
For the last dive the sharks came out, including two silvertips, a bunch of white tips gather on the cleaning station, 5 hammerheads swimming quite shallow so we spotted them perfectly. Some baby Galapagos and some juvenile silver tips made their appearance with the silkys that never leave their places under the boat swimming between the stubborn black jacks and the blue jacks mixed with the creole fish.
The highlight definitely was the mantas but a especial mention to all the sharks! They were incredible and hopefully they stay like this for tomorrow, even without ideal conditions, if it is like today I´m pretty sure our divers will have a great day!
Rodrigo Marroquin
Dive instructor
Solmar V
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
A Mantastic day at El Boiler!
Hello
Today we dove at the famous El Boiler and as usual we had another mantastic day. The visibility was not so good in the morning but it changed throughout the day and at one point we had the best visibility we have had in this site for a long time around 100ft/30m the water temperature was 76f/25c. We had lots of mantas all day long on all of the dives but the best dive of the day was the second dive! As soon as we got in the water the humpback whales started singing and they kept doing it for the entire dive. At one point it got very loud so we swam into the blue to see if it would be the lucky day but we did not see any of them. After that we went back to the pinnacle and there were 8 mantas, 4 of them together being very friendly with the divers and enjoying their bubbles. On the third dive besides the mantas we had one curious hammerhead that came up shallow to check us out followed by a baby silver tip shark and also a big tuna that kept passing by. Now we head back to Cabo on another very smooth crossing and we will be back to the islands in a couple of days for more adventures.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today we dove at the famous El Boiler and as usual we had another mantastic day. The visibility was not so good in the morning but it changed throughout the day and at one point we had the best visibility we have had in this site for a long time around 100ft/30m the water temperature was 76f/25c. We had lots of mantas all day long on all of the dives but the best dive of the day was the second dive! As soon as we got in the water the humpback whales started singing and they kept doing it for the entire dive. At one point it got very loud so we swam into the blue to see if it would be the lucky day but we did not see any of them. After that we went back to the pinnacle and there were 8 mantas, 4 of them together being very friendly with the divers and enjoying their bubbles. On the third dive besides the mantas we had one curious hammerhead that came up shallow to check us out followed by a baby silver tip shark and also a big tuna that kept passing by. Now we head back to Cabo on another very smooth crossing and we will be back to the islands in a couple of days for more adventures.
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Friday, March 4, 2016
A mirky underwater world at Cabo Pearce of Socorro Island
Hi everybody!
Today we are at Socorro Island enjoying the magnificent view of the biggest island of Revillagigedo, ready for more fun dives with a curiosity about what are we going to encounter this time!
The day started early with an outstanding sunrise followed by the great vibe of the group on turn, so we unloaded the boats, anchored the SOLMAR V and prepared all the equipment to be ready for the dives. The dive site this time is “Cabo Pearce” so as usual we are expecting great manta interaction with dolphins and sharks in between, why not maybe a whale cause we have seen them very close to the rock!
The expectations were high after what we experienced at Roca Partida, so we just expected great diving conditions for this, unfortunately the visibility was not good with 10 meters/30 feet, murky water, sediment at the shallow part and no current which made that the particles stayed in the top layer making the first meters hard to see through. The temperature of the water was a little bit cooler than Roca, about 74 F/24 C with thermoclines along the reef where the sharks liked to hang out, especially the Galapagos that appeared frequently during the dives. We couldn’t see that much of the site but the white tips showed all the time resting in the sandy parts, flounders hiding between the rocks, parrotfish and creole fish swimming up and down in the blue (this time murky area) and the moray eels showing their mouths to the divers which always seems to intimidate. During the first and second dive we got to see mantas too, one in particular, a black one came across the divers to hover and swim along the reef; these guys didn’t showed up for the rest of the dives but some sharks came from the depths at the last dive. We could encounter dolphins for the last dive but it was hard to see them due the poor visibility, but some of our divers could spot them and swim between them which made the day even though we didn’t have the best conditions, but always is good to be in the water. Now we are heading to “El Boiler”, let´s hope we can see a lot of dolphins and have a “manta madness” tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor.
Today we are at Socorro Island enjoying the magnificent view of the biggest island of Revillagigedo, ready for more fun dives with a curiosity about what are we going to encounter this time!
The day started early with an outstanding sunrise followed by the great vibe of the group on turn, so we unloaded the boats, anchored the SOLMAR V and prepared all the equipment to be ready for the dives. The dive site this time is “Cabo Pearce” so as usual we are expecting great manta interaction with dolphins and sharks in between, why not maybe a whale cause we have seen them very close to the rock!
The expectations were high after what we experienced at Roca Partida, so we just expected great diving conditions for this, unfortunately the visibility was not good with 10 meters/30 feet, murky water, sediment at the shallow part and no current which made that the particles stayed in the top layer making the first meters hard to see through. The temperature of the water was a little bit cooler than Roca, about 74 F/24 C with thermoclines along the reef where the sharks liked to hang out, especially the Galapagos that appeared frequently during the dives. We couldn’t see that much of the site but the white tips showed all the time resting in the sandy parts, flounders hiding between the rocks, parrotfish and creole fish swimming up and down in the blue (this time murky area) and the moray eels showing their mouths to the divers which always seems to intimidate. During the first and second dive we got to see mantas too, one in particular, a black one came across the divers to hover and swim along the reef; these guys didn’t showed up for the rest of the dives but some sharks came from the depths at the last dive. We could encounter dolphins for the last dive but it was hard to see them due the poor visibility, but some of our divers could spot them and swim between them which made the day even though we didn’t have the best conditions, but always is good to be in the water. Now we are heading to “El Boiler”, let´s hope we can see a lot of dolphins and have a “manta madness” tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Schooling Hammerhead and Galapagos sharks, friendly mantas and more on our 2nd day at Roca!
--March 02, 2016.
Hi All from Roca Partida!
Camera and coffee in our hand, we are enjoying the another beautiful sunrise, it took 2 minutes 20 seconds to be fully seen. As the sun came up, our excitement for today got bigger and bigger to go scuba diving! The surface of the ocean is treating us nicely, as a bunch of dolphins were leading the way to Roca!
Today we had fun doing three different dives. The conditions were the ones we like! The visibility was over 100ft/30m, water temp. was 75F/24C, current for most part was coming from North West, embracing the Rock and creating fantastic dive conditions, the advantage of diving nitrox 28 let us enjoy more time with all the fascinating creatures!
Just below the surface of the water once again we were amazed by number and variety of
fish seeking shelter around the rock, as we were making our descent, we didn't stop pointing out the sharks in the area! 45 Galapagos shark were circling the rock at 21m/70ft, they kept coming at us, swimming by slowly before disappearing into the blue! Roca is not really a place for mantas but we counted 7 giant mantas and today they were just as playful as the ones we typically find at EL Boiler!
This is our 2nd day at Roca and the sharks did not disappoint at all!
Yellow fin tunas showing off and displaying hunting skills chasing mostly pacific creole fish, the chirping of dolphins we can barely hear got all of us excited, it seems that in a blink of an eye 20 friendly dolphins were swimming around us!
On another dive we spotted about 80 hammerheads that stayed on the deeper side, but we had some that came closer, within our recreational dive limit. Silky sharks accompanied us while we were drifting doing safety stops too, they did not want us to feel like we were alone in a vast amount of salt water, then the mantas came along too to reinforce the good time we are having!
Around Roca every ledge was tightly packed with lots of white tip reef sharks, no room for one more! Those walls of Roca very nice decorated by Mother Nature, with lots of hard coral in tone of greens and browns, green moray eels hiding, lobsters, and barber fish do not let an opportunity go by without getting some benefit out of it by making cleaning stations here and there. Their best clients are of course Pacific Creole Fish, but the trumpet fish also come in for a quick parasites removal!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Hi All from Roca Partida!
Camera and coffee in our hand, we are enjoying the another beautiful sunrise, it took 2 minutes 20 seconds to be fully seen. As the sun came up, our excitement for today got bigger and bigger to go scuba diving! The surface of the ocean is treating us nicely, as a bunch of dolphins were leading the way to Roca!
Today we had fun doing three different dives. The conditions were the ones we like! The visibility was over 100ft/30m, water temp. was 75F/24C, current for most part was coming from North West, embracing the Rock and creating fantastic dive conditions, the advantage of diving nitrox 28 let us enjoy more time with all the fascinating creatures!
Just below the surface of the water once again we were amazed by number and variety of
fish seeking shelter around the rock, as we were making our descent, we didn't stop pointing out the sharks in the area! 45 Galapagos shark were circling the rock at 21m/70ft, they kept coming at us, swimming by slowly before disappearing into the blue! Roca is not really a place for mantas but we counted 7 giant mantas and today they were just as playful as the ones we typically find at EL Boiler!
This is our 2nd day at Roca and the sharks did not disappoint at all!
Yellow fin tunas showing off and displaying hunting skills chasing mostly pacific creole fish, the chirping of dolphins we can barely hear got all of us excited, it seems that in a blink of an eye 20 friendly dolphins were swimming around us!
On another dive we spotted about 80 hammerheads that stayed on the deeper side, but we had some that came closer, within our recreational dive limit. Silky sharks accompanied us while we were drifting doing safety stops too, they did not want us to feel like we were alone in a vast amount of salt water, then the mantas came along too to reinforce the good time we are having!
Around Roca every ledge was tightly packed with lots of white tip reef sharks, no room for one more! Those walls of Roca very nice decorated by Mother Nature, with lots of hard coral in tone of greens and browns, green moray eels hiding, lobsters, and barber fish do not let an opportunity go by without getting some benefit out of it by making cleaning stations here and there. Their best clients are of course Pacific Creole Fish, but the trumpet fish also come in for a quick parasites removal!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata
Solmar V.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Galapagos sharks, dolphins, and mantas at Roca partida!
Hello
Today we dove Roca Partida once again, and the conditions were excellent very calm waters no waves and almost no wind the water temperature was 76F/25C and the visibility more than 130ft/40m!
The good news is that the sharks are still around on the first dive was when we had the best experience this time as soon as we got down close to the rock about 100ft/30m deep a school of at least 30 Galapago sharks passed by very slowly at the end of the dive a couple of dolphins passed by quickly. On the second dive the sharks were still around but a bit deeper but we still got to enjoy the big schools of jacks and some tunas that were passing by. The third and last dive of the trip started a bit slow but at the end when we were drifting in the blue water a school of 10 Galapagos came right at us in shallow waters followed by two mantas that made us company on the safety stop.
Tomorrow we will be diving Roca Partida again hopefully with some more sharks!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Today we dove Roca Partida once again, and the conditions were excellent very calm waters no waves and almost no wind the water temperature was 76F/25C and the visibility more than 130ft/40m!
The good news is that the sharks are still around on the first dive was when we had the best experience this time as soon as we got down close to the rock about 100ft/30m deep a school of at least 30 Galapago sharks passed by very slowly at the end of the dive a couple of dolphins passed by quickly. On the second dive the sharks were still around but a bit deeper but we still got to enjoy the big schools of jacks and some tunas that were passing by. The third and last dive of the trip started a bit slow but at the end when we were drifting in the blue water a school of 10 Galapagos came right at us in shallow waters followed by two mantas that made us company on the safety stop.
Tomorrow we will be diving Roca Partida again hopefully with some more sharks!
Thiago Mendonca
Dive Instructor
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
We're back at San Benedicto!
Hi everybody!
Today we started our day early in the morning with great diving conditions, clear blue sky and the best attitude to have a day full of experiences underwater. The dive site on turn this time was “El Cañon” of San Benedicto Island.
We unloaded the zodiacs, prepared the diving equipment and got ready to explore this magnificent environment always ready to be surprised by the thrilling shark or the friendly manta but, this time the first thing we saw were the bottlenose dolphins! A big group made their appearance at surface and all the divers were very excited about it!
Along the day the diving conditions were good, with no current to mild after the second dive but nothing to worry about, our divers enjoyed thanks to the amount of life underwater thanks to this. We had visibility of 60 feet/20 meters for the first three dives, only for the last one dropped to 30 feet/10 meters; the water temperature 75 F/ 24 C that made pleasant dives with few layers on.
We had sharks most of the dives; on the first and second we could see some groups of hammerheads on the edges of “El Cañon” with some of them coming into it so the divers could spot them perfectly! As the dives went on the mantas showed up, coming across the divers feeling the bubbles and chasing the divers almost crushing them against the sand just to enjoy the bubbles! As usual we got to see silky sharks under the boat in between the big groups of jacks and creole fish. The place was full of life especially in the corners of “El Cañon” were all the life gathers and shows why this is one of the best sites of the trip! Today we are leaving San Benedicto heading towards Roca Partida, lets hope we can have the best dive of the trip!
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor
Solmar V
Today we started our day early in the morning with great diving conditions, clear blue sky and the best attitude to have a day full of experiences underwater. The dive site on turn this time was “El Cañon” of San Benedicto Island.
We unloaded the zodiacs, prepared the diving equipment and got ready to explore this magnificent environment always ready to be surprised by the thrilling shark or the friendly manta but, this time the first thing we saw were the bottlenose dolphins! A big group made their appearance at surface and all the divers were very excited about it!
Along the day the diving conditions were good, with no current to mild after the second dive but nothing to worry about, our divers enjoyed thanks to the amount of life underwater thanks to this. We had visibility of 60 feet/20 meters for the first three dives, only for the last one dropped to 30 feet/10 meters; the water temperature 75 F/ 24 C that made pleasant dives with few layers on.
We had sharks most of the dives; on the first and second we could see some groups of hammerheads on the edges of “El Cañon” with some of them coming into it so the divers could spot them perfectly! As the dives went on the mantas showed up, coming across the divers feeling the bubbles and chasing the divers almost crushing them against the sand just to enjoy the bubbles! As usual we got to see silky sharks under the boat in between the big groups of jacks and creole fish. The place was full of life especially in the corners of “El Cañon” were all the life gathers and shows why this is one of the best sites of the trip! Today we are leaving San Benedicto heading towards Roca Partida, lets hope we can have the best dive of the trip!
Rodrigo Marroquin,
Dive Instructor
Solmar V
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
We ended our latest trip with a manta filled day at San Benedicto!
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
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
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