Strong current at Roca resulted in a vortex underwater!

Because of it's remote isolation, the conditions that Roca Partida can get challenging at times and is why our favorite dive site isn't for every diver.  It can occasionally be challenging but it's still a beautiful place to dive! We were only in the water for 20 minutes and we found galapagos and silver tip sharks! The horizontal current coming from the south was so strong that it created a vortex that even fish caught in it could not escape. It looked like it was alive because along the rock it was moving up and down like a snake! For the safety of our divers, we decided to cut our dive short and head to Socorro Island with enough time to get a dive off at the end of the day.  Conditions at roca were 100'+ visibility, 75F temp, with very strong current.

On our afternoon dive at Socorro Island, we found lots of fish and a silver tip shark!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Our first full diving day of this trip at San Benedicto Island

Hi everyone!
We had our first full diving day of this trip at San Benedicto Island. With water temp around 71/73 fª and visibility around 60 ft, we started at El Cañon were we did 3 dives. We had the chance to see Dolphins, Schools of Hammerheads and a Chevron Manta during these dives. We also spotted some lonely big Hammerheads around the sandy patches. For the last dive we decided to move to El Boiler, were we had a lot of jacks and Pacific Creoles schooling around the dive site. Now we are heading to Socorro Island, were we will go for the Navy
Inspection and 3 fantastic dives!
Until the next time
Ricardo Tamaño
Dive Instructor

Everything checked out on our first dive, followed by a bbq on the bow!

Buenas Tardes everyone!
We traveled most of the day and arrived at the fabled Isla San Benedicto around 4pm. We have a great mix of nationalies aboard this trip from all over the world. We have divers from the U.S., U.K., Turkey, Russia, and the Ukraine. Everyone was excited to get in the water during our "shake out dive" at El Fondeadero. The water was a little cool at 72F (22C) and 45 ft. vis (15m). We always do a checkout dive to make sure our gear is all operating properly, and it gives everyone a chance to get in the groove of things so the rest of the dives are pure enjoyment! The reef was covered in fish of all types, we even spotted a few scorpionfish and moray eels! A few divers were entertained by an octopus for awhile and there were lobsters all over the place. A pleasant dive and now we`re ready for the real thing tomorrow at El Canyon.
The sun is setting now and we`re just about to sit down to a delicious Mexican style bbq compliments of Chef Tony.
Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

Dolphins, mantas, sharks, and more on our last day at San Benedicto!

Hi All!

So this morning we decided to dive EL BOILER at San Benedicto Island. The first thing that came to mind as we were making our descent is how blue the water was,and with all the various types of fish that were there, it made this exact moment a very special one! As we made our way to the southern point of the dive site, we recognized an individual dolphin we had not seen in a while!  We nick named him "Nemo" because it's right pectoral fin is a bit small and very hyperactive! This energetic dolphin played with our divers, swimming circles around us, going up and down, chasing fish, and more! We were so happy to see it again! A 6' tiger shark brought a little bit of extra excitement during our safety stop, swimming right at our divers without turning away at all.  It was a beautiful gray color with its characteristic stripes, our eyes locked on and we couldn't look away!

During our surface interval we went bait balling and consistently found more dolphins and yellow fin tunas.  Our fun didn't stop there, our second and third dive were at the same dive site and we had manta action the entire time! She let us swim along and blow bubbles beneath her over and over! In between these dives some of our guests snorkeled with 5 curious Galapagos sharks off the stern of the Solmar V including a pregnant female!

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Our second day at the amazing rock in the middle of nowhere, Roca Partida.

Today was our second day at the amazing rock in the middle of nowhere, Roca Partida. It was a day filled with sharks and tuna. There has been a strange thermocline in the water surrounding Roca. The temperature has been ranging from 70 degrees F to 73 degrees F. This mixing of water seemed to bring lots of nutrients from a mixing currents and brought lots of action to the rock. Each dive today we watched a mixed school of 40+ galapagos, hammerheads, and silvertips swim circles around the rock. In addition. we had so many yellowfin tuna you could never come close to counting. The tuna were actively feeding and we even had a rare glimpse of them spawning. In the blue on the second dive, we found a huge school of 50 hammerheads swimming tightly together. Besides all the sharks and tuna we had an so many fish in the water column: cottonmouth jacks, black jacks, big eye trevally, triggers, creolefish and more. It was absolutely breathtaking. The Russians loved it! Another successful visit to our favorite rock.

Until Next Time,
Dave Valencia

Roca reminds us why it's our favorite dive site!

Roca Partida was once again off the charts, and reminds us just about every trip why it's our favorite dive site! We were surrounded by fish all around us 360°, from our bottom depth to the surface! Our divers had a great time, for some of them, this is their first time in the pacific ocean, so the amount of sharks we saw were a pretty big deal... and we saw a LOT of sharks! First of all it we had a parade of Galapagos sharks at all depths, females and males! Some of them were very big, and they can seem intimidating, but they're nothing to be afraid of!  We you find yourself in the middle of a school of galapagos sharks like we had, and all you have to do is relax and take in the beautiful streamlined sharks gliding right next to you! All of a sudden coming at us out of the blue was a massive school of bonitos chased by silky sharks! It's hard to describe the sensation of being surrounded by thousands of fish, and then seconds later the school has passed and they're gone.  During our safety stop we found a mobula ray swimming circles around us!  May the beautiy and freedom of sharks inspire your life, and we should always protect them!

Dive Inst.
Daniel Zapata 

Mantas, tunas, and dolphins at San Benedicto!

Hola!
We started our day diving at El Cañon, hoping to find hammerheads and other creatures, but they were missing! Maybe they were deeper beyond our reach or they were on the other site of the site, or maybe the thermocline, because it was chilly! Anyway, even though the sharks were absent, a black and chevron manta showed up and interacted with every single diver! Both mantas passed over everybody´s heads and posed like if they were models! 
By 10 am we spotted a bunch of birds in the horizon, flying in circles gooing all crazy, that is a baitball sign, we went after it, got up to were the birds were, launched the pangas and went to check it out. This time there weren´t sailfishes or a shark feeding frenzy, but there was a lots of yellowfin tunas and many dolphins!  After lunch we did the last dive of the day, but the current had picked up this time and brought up a murky upwelling that dropped the vis.
Tonight, we´ll be heading to Roca Partida, stand by and check our Roca Partida news!
Hasta la vista!
Erick Higuera