We continued to enjoy Roca with great conditions just like our previous day!

Dive Report Jan 31^th, 2014.

We continued enjoying Roca with great surface conditions from our previous day, underwater it seemed that hammer heads were playing hide and seek but in the end we found them! Also the feeding frenzy with white tip sharks continued today.  We spotted two Mantas on second dive, one of them was very playful for a very long time, one of the dives today went far beyond our limit of bottom time because of the manta, which we liked it! The other one wanted to stay a bit away from divers, the current was there also from west, vis in letters blue water! We knew dolphins were some where nearby because they were singing, but never saw them underwater.

No third dive! Our guests instead wanted to chase some humpback whales, we tried several times but were not very successful although they were very close to the pangas, our last attempt was to chase a single one when we approached to it 5 to 7 dolphins were with, so that is the singing from our previous dive, any way we all got in to snorkel with dolphins, a silky shark was also there coming very close for a picture or two. Water temp 77 ˚F/25 ̊C.

Dive Inst

Pablo

We never felt alone while underwater since we had manta, fish, sharks, wahoo, tunas and more to keep us company!

Dive Report Jan 30^th, 2014.

We had an amazing day spent at Roca, with good surface conditions: sunny, mild breeze, 80 ˚F! Swells 3 to 4ft.  We noticed a bit of current from West, the water column from surface to depth was full of fish all types, Vis was well over 100ft/30m, water temp 77 ̊F/25˚C. At depth we checked out the north point a bit where we found 6 silver tip sharks, so we go pass the school of fish like into the blue, and it is amazing just to float neutral at this depth, you look behind lots of fish and the other side just blue! We drifted south encountering coming at us 8 Galapagos sharks, on the south point the current took us to a place to enjoy the rest of the dive in the company of a chevron manta.

Our surface interval was sunny, relaxing and kept us all awake, there were humpbacks in the area, and you can tell males chasing others while we think a female was just relaxing about 200ft away from Solmar V.

After our surface interval, while we were descending we reached a depth of 80ft/24m , and the wall of Roca was still beautiful. They were there, 50 to 60 hammerheads approximately along with black jacks, we did not chase them at all, and as a reward they stayed for long! Some of them swam straight at us posing for the pictures, then went into the deep we only saw shadows of them.  You have to be excited always about diving! The surface conditions were still great for a third dive!

The place to start was north point, just descending we noticed something going on, 15 to 20 white tips sharks were in feeding frenzy at only 40ft/12m, even better have never seen one to happen day time! In the same area we were eye witnesses to yellow fin tunas hunting for bait fish nonstop! Galapagos shark came up to check it out, so curious! To end up the dive we had once again the manta for a long safety stop, we never felt alone while underwater since manta, fish, sharks, wahoo, tunas were there.

Dive Inst

Daniel Zapata

On both dives we had encounters with 5-6 different Mantas at el Canon!

Dive Trip Report Jan 29, 2014

We couldn’t go to Roca last night due to weather conditions, so we stayed another day at San Benedicto.

We made the first two dives at El Cañon and realized the water temperature has just starting to drop a bit, now in the mid 70's but it cleaned the water up and the visibility was better than it was last trip. On both dives we had encounters with 5-6 different Mantas together swimming in line formation over the ridge, some of these Mantas we saw yesterday at El Boiler and now have moved to El canon, I think they were chasing us up to here to keep enjoying our bubbles! Also we saw 5 dolphins on the first dive that played constantly with the bigeye jacks as they like to do.

By the third and the fourth dive the Mantas weren’t there anymore, so instead hanging out by the anchor line waiting for more Manta shows, we went to the cleaning station where we found 6 juvenile silvertip sharks were cleaned by butterfly fishes. It seems that every time more baby silvertips are joining to the cleaning station.  This afternoon the wind has came down a bit which now the conditions are the ideal ones to go to Roca tonight, woo hoo!! 

Stay tuned for more adventures on the Solmar V!

Hasta la vista,

Erick Higuera.

7am in the water, and do you know why? Dolphins!

Dive Report Jan 28^th, 2014

We did 4 dives here at EL CANON!

Starting as early as 7am in the water, and do you know why?  Dolphins! While the dive briefing was going on dolphins were jumping in the water waiting for us! We had amazing dives here, all day, to name them some of the things we saw included: dolphins, white tips, Galapagos shark although was only one but it was big! A silky shark chasing a ball of striped bonitos, Juvenile Silver tip sharks in our last dive of the day, of course some hammer heads and mantas that were very friendly, they came to stay with our divers blowing bubbles on them, the vis was from 30ft to 50ft/ 10m to 15m, water temp 77 ˚F/25 ˚C, current was absent all day which made the dive very easy and comfortable to many.

Dive Inst

Pablo    

First thing we saw on our checkout dive was a massive Galapagos Shark!

Dive Report Jan 27^th, 2014

To increase the excitement of our new group on board to go diving as we got closer to Isla San Benedicto two different times two different pod of dolphins made up of 20-30 dolphins were riding the bow of Solmar V doing all sort things like big jumps, swimming belly up keeping up with our speed which was 9nt/h, surfing swells, etc. and we had them for a long time!

Once we got to the island it was time to setup and go diving! Our check out dive took place at EL CAÑON, Vis was about 30ft/ 10m, water temp still 77 ̊F/ 25˚V, no current at all! As we went down on the rope and over the ridge, the first thing that appeared in front of us was a big 8' Galapagos shark! Although we knew it would be unlikely that we would see hammerheads because it was so late in the day, other  sharks were, like white tips and juvenile silver tips! And in the afternoon the best spot to find them is at a spot we call the corner, and they just swim circles over this rock! So just take your seat and wait for the best shot! As we were moving more into the dive, lobsters, green moray eels, lots of fish, one thing I did not want to forget to mention is a frog fish! Yes we found one, very colorful, light purple, white, and some other colors, at only 3.0” it is really difficult to find and it was a very special treat on our first day!

Dive Inst

Daniel Zapata

We counted 9 different mantas on our last day at San Benedicto!

DIVE REPORT JAN 23RD, 2014

We started our last day of the trip doing our first dive early in the morning hoping to find the pod of dolphins that gave us a show on the first day of the trip. At the beginning of the dive several dolphins played at the surface, when we got in the water only 4 stayed around just for a brief time, suddenly something happened that made them to took off like crazy and didn’t come back again.

At the corner of the cleaning station, several juvenile Silvertip Sharks were getting cleaned by Butterfly Fishes, this time the current was not blowing to bring up some hammerhead sharks, but still few here and there, and a few cruised along the ridge.

After the first dive we went offshore in the quest of some possible baitballs, we found some but they had just yellow fin tunas that swam so fast that we could not keep up with them after several attempts, it was time to go back to scuba diving. We had two more dives before we set sail for Cabo.

The water conditions around San Benedicto were not the ideal, there have been huge swells coming from south and north and have been crashing on the beach thus removing the sand that has gone offshore drifting trough the dive sites limiting the visibility to only 20-30’/6-10m, so we took the chances and anchored at El Boiler hoping to enjoyed some more mantas before to go back to Cabo San Lucas.

So, going down along the stern anchor and as soon as we reached the anchor, oh yeah, the Mantas were around! Even though the visibility was limited the friendly mantas kept coming back and forth, we just needed to stay in one spot and wait for them. We saw a total of 9 different playful mantas that closed this trip with a golden ribbon!

Hasta la próxima amigos!

Erick Higuera

Back to San Benedicto!

DIVE REPORT JAN 22^ND , 2014

Today we started our scuba diving adventure at San Benedicto. We arrived this morning after two days at  “Roca Partida” and the first dive site we stopped at was “El Boiler”, the weather conditions were not the best, water temperature around 77ºF/25ºC and visibility less than 30 feet/10 meters, but still our divers were able to see the dolphins and a giant manta around the rock. At the end of the dive the current got pretty strong so for the second dive we had to use the stern line to descend to the rock. The visibility was poor and because of the current, some of the divers stayed close to the rock and some others drifted with the current. A family of three divers found a giant manta and she stayed with them around 30 minutes, very friendly and playful with the bubbles.

For the third dive of the day we moved to “El Cañon”, the visibility was better here and the current wasn’t bad. We were following the rock formation looking for mantas and sharks. A group of three white tip sharks were hanging out on the sand, so the divers had the opportunity to take some good pictures of them. Also we saw octopuses, a spotted moray eel, a zebra moray eel and lobsters hidden on the rocks. The last dive of the day we did it on this same dive site, for this dive the visibility was better, around 40 feet so we decided to go further out following a school of jacks, kicking against the current for a bit but we had our reward, a hammer head shark came towards us and a couple more were below.

This is our dive adventure today, we hope tomorrow the weather conditions improve a bit as we have another fantastic day of diving ahead of us!

Pablo

DM onboard the Solmar V