We stayed at El Boiler all day on our first full day of diving at San Benedicto!

Hi folks,
Today was the first full dive day of the trip and we started diving early in the morning at El Boiler, actually we spent the whole day doing 4 dives there.
The first dive was done at 7:00 am and while we had the briefing, the resident pod of bottlenose dolphins awaited our return, already swimming around the boat as if they were all anxious to hang out with us! Anyways, as soon as we descended along the stern anchor line, these playful dolphins escorted us all the way down to the anchor! We were just about to get into position when 4 Mantas showed up swimming immediately over everybody’s bubbles, while some of the divers hung out with any of these four Mantas, others drifted along the pinnacle with a single dolphin that stayed in the typical vertical position like if she was mimicking us! Wait until you see Adil’s video trip report to see this amazing behavior, he captured it all with his camera for about a 45 min of non stop action with dolphins and mantas that we could see them all at the same time and perfectly thanks to a great visibility of 100’/30m, the water temperature is still around 78F/25C, but his time the current was blowing hard from the South. I think that is why they do this unique behavior every single time they encounter us at any of the dive sites in the Archipelago.
By the second dive the water conditions had dropped drastically, the current had picked up even stronger and brought murky water of about 30’/10 m, even so, the mantas stayed around and we could still see them.  This time, they kept hanging out away from the pinnacle. I guess because of the strong current and a very deep and also strong surge. Even the mantas not only us have a hard time trying to keep up within tough water conditions.
By the third dive the current had stopped but the visibility was still limited, however 3 Mantas kept us busy wasting our air due to the huge amount of bubbles that we all divers gave them. The bigeye jacks were piling up this time and close to the pinnacle, which gave us great opportunities to take dozens of pictures.
By the fourth dive, the visibility was still the same as the third dive, and at the beginning of the dive, we didn’t see any mantas at all, so we swam around of the pinnacle looking for some hammerhead sharks, finding only one at a distance. When we did all the way around, 5 mantas were already delivering incredible close up passes to every single diver! That is how El Boiler received us on this first day of the trip.
Tonight we’ll head to Roca Partida, we have to use the chance while the weather is still in good conditions.
Thanks for tuning in, stayed tuned for the next Roca Partida report.
Nos vemos!
Erick Higuera

We found a lot of life on our checkout dive at Las Cuevas!

Hi All    Dec 10, 2014 
San Benedicto Island.
We had a beautiful journey traveling south to this Volcanic Island, the Ocean treated us with no swells since our departure yesterday from Cabo San Lucas, a vis ahead of us of miles, no wind and some clouds that made the island look like it had just rained. 
Las Cuevas was our check out dive of the day, one of the things that made our dive very exciting was to find blue water in this area, as we are descending we found a water temp of 27.2˚C/81˚F and just to keep was working out a bit of current from north that made our dive easy to drift back to the anchor line after have done the 2 swim-throughs that for many was something remarkable! The white tips were part of the welcome to the dive area by being all over, a silky shark was also part of it swimming above the divers, hiding behind the big boulders area at 20m/66ft of water a very good sized green turtle saw us go by! It swam away slowly swimming leaving a trail of fine sand that was covering its shell as it continued moving ahead. Not shy at all were the green morays that were out of home swimming free, it seems sunset time is party time! Lobsters did the same thing, they were out walking backwards doing what seems to be a confrontation of antennas against antennas and front legs fight! Other areas were covered with lots of reef fish finding shelter in the green and brown hard coral. Sandy areas are also the home for giant electric rays, there are many all over so stay out of reach! You really feel it so we have to remember to be careful and calm down electric ray, we are just passing by! More white tip sharks swimming around us to make that shocking experience go away, the giant Diamond head rays crossed our trajectory leaving the trail of sand that was covering it while on the bottom. Back in the swims through the white tip sharks are resting on the bottom left and right side of it, we took the time to stay inside of the it, its amazing how just by having a solid structure of rock over our heads is enough to separate the noise from the surface! Its so quiet in there! Fish and lobsters don’t move inside, well they do it to let us go by, once out of it we were back in our noisy atmosphere, there were more sharks in the area 2 juvenile silver tips were making some circles around us    Tou know they play the game as usual... You see them they swim away, you don’t see them they come closer and so on…..
Well by the end of the dive an area of green water, less vis was moving in by then we are doing our safety stop using descend and ascend line, out of the water the sunset was gorgeous combined with red wine and a delicious Mexican BBQ in open area as the bow of the Solmar V, prepared by our Chef Tony.
    Dive Inst
    Daniel Zapata

Back to San benedicto!

We are back in San Benedicto, last day of diving of this trip and the dive site of the day is  “El Cañón”. We started the day with an stunning sunrise, everybody was very excited to get in the water and go explore the dive site,the sea was really really calm  as we were protected by the island from the wind.
6:45 dive briefing and 7am vamonos! The first dive couldn't been better, we had warm water, 80F/26C and strong north east current which means a very good chances to see hammer heads!
So as it was very calm we dove of the swimming platform of the Solmar V, a giant stride into the water and down the descent line we went. As we got to the rock, we had to hide to be protected from the current and started swimming towards the east corner of the dive site, on the way a chevron manta came to say good morning, but it disappeared as quick as it showed up.  We kept swimming and about half way to the east corner we stopped and hold on to the rocks, we had a lot of jacks, creolefish and other reef fish swimming around us and after waiting a few minutes patiently a school of probably about 50 hammer heads showed up! What a show, they started coming very close to us, a couple even swam in between some of our divers and this kept going for a few minutes, as we were running out of bottom time we started slowly crawling on the rocks back to the anchor, and hammer heads were still there, all swimming the same direction we were going, got to the anchor and we still had some hammer heads in front of us, and also a black manta went by! What a way to start the last day of the trip!

For the second dive we still had the same current so same plan! We went down the line and this time we didn't even have to swim too much, we just kicked a few meters off the anchor and there they were again! They kept circling in front of us! And again a black and a chevron manta showed up by the end of the dive to pose for some pictures!
For our third dive of the day current switched and now it was coming from the south south east, this change stirred the sand up and visibility was not great, about 40ft, but we still saw some cool stuff. So after the descent we swam to the other side of the dive site and there holding on to the rocks we had the chance to see two silver tip sharks circling several times in front of us, next to us on top of the rocks we had 4 white tip reef sharks facing the current and a lot of reef fish, waited and waited but no hammer heads came this time, so we let go off the rocks and drifted along the rocks, on our way we saw a solo hammer head that came very close to us and a massive school of big eye trevallys to end up our dive with 4 mantas that were kind of dancing with each other!

Because of the low visibility we decided to move and end the trip diving “El Boiler”, so after lunch we moved and the last dive was really nice, the visibility was better than at “El Cañón”, around 70ft/21m,and on this dive we just went down to play with the mantas, 5 of them showed up and played with us for the entire dive, man these mantas love their bubble baths!

Now we are heading back to Cabo and this group is having a blast, they are in the salon drinking margaritas, prepared by our steward Luis, playing music, joking with the dive masters...sorry I have to go and have fun... I will write to you again soon!

And just to clarify, the crew is not drinking, we have to keep the boat a float!

Antonio
Dive Instructor

We spent our diving day with giant mantas, dolphins, and more at Socorro Island!

Hi All! 
Beautiful green Socorro Island with its Volcano on the West side to an amazing sunrise in East side.
Cabo Pearce so good we stayed for all 4 dives today, we all enjoyed of a little bit of everything under good dive conditions, water temp 27.2˚C/81˚F, moderate visibility and a strong current from North.  We had to swim into the current for a little bit of time to get to North Edge, but it was only a matter of time before we were there at 27m/90ft holding on to the rocks, then you feel how strong the current is traveling, and just minutes later what we were really hoping to see appeared in front of us! Hammerheads doing two things: Schooling in as many as 50 to 60 individuals and swimming a bit on the side, current doesn’t bother them as they showed up they turned around into the current to swim off in front of our eyes, they make look so easy to swim into it! So good 20 to 30 seconds of it was enough to get out of the water screaming of excitement for many happy divers! To end our dive we drifted for short time during our safety stop.
Of course we had Manta action too, as usual in the shallow water cleaning station around 12m/40ft some Mantas were having fun in the current as well, letting it take them away a bit then return to cleaning stations to play more! Bright orange clarion angelfish were in a rush to get to the Manta first to do the job done and clean all parasites from it!
Dolphins were part of the fun as well, a bit later along in the day we had some mild wind causing minor swells, and the dolphins were surfing those swells! Others were doing high jumps, underwater the best thing was to be able to swim alongside with them, so close doing eye contact. They passed on to you the idea of smiling while swimming and by chirping they are letting you know you they are in the area so keep eyes wide open or you miss them which you definitely don’t want to! 
Juvenile Galapagos sharks were very curious, they like to play the game you don’t see me I come closer, now you see me I go away! Over and over that even make you laugh rather than worry!
Lobsters, green moray eels, and flounders are really good at blending in as well as scorpion fish! Octopus were also something that kept us really busy finding them while Mantas got here, the reef gets so busy with life around sunset time, life coming from different depths, you just hover as we did over the reef and enjoy a wonderfully pleasant moment underwater surrounded by all kinds of life.
For the most part sunny day with air temp of 33˚C/93˚F.
So Cabo Pearce is one of those places can make memorable dive experiences!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata.

Whale sharks, mantas, and schooling hammerheads, Roca Rocks!

Second day at Roca Partida, the conditions kept the same as yesterday, water temperature 78F/25C and a visibility of 100’/30m. In the first dive we encountered 2 Mantas that kept circling around the pinnacle the entire dive, if some divers missed them, all they had to do is wait because the Mantas were going to come back around. Down deep the White Tip Reef Sharks still patrolled the south point with couple of Galapagos Sharks. We all hoped to see one of the Whale Sharks we had seen yesterday on the last dive, however didn’t show up.
Not until 4 of our guests that were low on air earlier than the rest of the group, headed away of the rock to complete their stop, so while doing it, the 30’/10 m Whale Shark cruised by underneath the feet just to give them a brief pass for later disappeared in the blue. Lucky divers, sometime is good to end the dive early and drift away into the blue, you never know what you can find out there!
Second dive, conditions were the same, however this time three Mantas, two Chevron and one Black one chased each other delivering a synchronized dance at the north point. Two of them took off and only one stayed around receiving bubble massages by some of the divers. We all gave up of hanging and waiting if the Whale Shark showed up this time by the rock but never did, so we tried to change our luck and headed towards the south point to check if we found her there, but instead of a Whale Shark, about 50 Hammerhead Sharks showed up from nowhere and hung out with us for about 5 min. Time to come up and end the dive.
We decided to try one more time the south point in the third dive in case if we could find the Hammers, no luck this time, but there were several Silkie Sharks that kept pursuing a small group of Bonitos that tried to escape from them, everybody got entertained shooting the persecution. This time one the Chevron Mantas swam by but didn’t show any interest in us.
So far in the season, Roca has been really good in Mantas and Whale Sharks sightings since the season started, so as always, Roca rocks!
Tonight after dinner, a beautiful sunset and a bunch of delicious Luis’s Margaritas, we’ll head to Socorro Island to looking forward to diving with friendly Dolphins and Mantas getting clean by dozens of Clarion Angelfishes at the famous cleaning station of Cabo Pearce, and who knows, maybe another spotty Shark?
Thanks for tuning in, stand by for the next adventures with the folks of the Solmar V!
Hasta la vista!
 Erick Higuera

We had everything on our first day at Roca Partida!

Here we are again at Roca Partida, yesterday after diving “El Boiler” we decided to navigate to Roca Partida as the weather report was indicating we were going to have a couple of days of good weather. The crossing was not smooth, but not super bad either, and this morning we woke up next to the rock, the water was calm, a light breeze was blowing from the north and everybody was excited and ready to dive!
7:45 dive briefing and off we went on the pangas, as we entered the water we noticed it was quite clear and warm, about 80ft/24m visbility and 79F/26C at depth, a light current from the north made it easy to dive all around the rock, were we were expecting to find sharks but unfortunately they were hanging out in deeper waters, any way we did spot a few, on the first dive as soon as we descended to 95ft/29m we had 2 sharks, one Galapagos and one silver tip that circled the same area a couple of times before disappearing into the blue waters, after that we went looking for hammer heads on the south west side were we saw a big school of big eye trevallies, and as we know they usually hang out more less close to the schooling hammer heads thats were we went, after hovering patiently at 105ft/35m we had 2 hammer heads that came very very close to us, especially one that swam right underneath the divers while the other one waited a little deeper, after a few minutes of watching them we started ascending a bit and at 60ft/18m another hammerhead came close to the group for a few seconds. So then we went north, were we found a lot of schooling jacks and creole fish, so we started ascending to our safety stop and for our surprise there were 2 silky sharks chasing a little school of striped bonitos, nice end for the first dive of the day!
For our second dive we had a little bit more current coming from the north west this time the highlight was a bunch of white tip reef sharks swimming in circles on the north west corner and a chevron manta that came across the group 3 times during the dive, by the end of the dive it just stayed with us and got really friendly, it came to get here bubble bath several times before we had to start heading back to the surface. So by this point the dives were good, but not really what were expecting so we said that the third dive will be the dive to make the decision to either stay another day in Roca or go to Socorro island...and for our surprise we went on our third dive of the day and... We had everything! We went down on the north west corner and descended to 120ft/36m were we were hovering with the rock on our back and in front of us a wall of fish, creole, black jacks, cotton mouth jacks, big eye trevallies, trigger fish, all kinds and in between them, SHARKS!!! Galapagos, a lot of silkys, silver tips, white tips, everything right in front of us, even a few big yellow fin tunas chasing bait fish! After about 15minutes into the dive, WHALESHAAAAARK! A juvenile of about 25ft/8m swam about a meter away from the group, very slowly, we stayed there hoping it was going to come back but nothing, so we started swimming south along the west wall and here comes a chevron manta, slowly swimming a little above the group, everybody was paying attention to it while the whale shark was actually in between us and the rock!...it actually almost run over one of the divers! So second time we see it and everybody is doing happy dances underwater haha....so we kept going slowly drifting with the current and when we hit the south west corner there was another whale shark probably a 20ft/6m one, this time swimming bellow us at about 90ft/27m! So I guess you can imagine what the decision was after this dive...we are staying one more day in Roca Partida hoping to see this majestic whale sharks once again!


Antonio
Dive Instructor

A great first day at El Boiler of San benedicto! Whale shark, hammerheads, dolphins, mantas and more!

 Isla San Benedicto
As early as 7:00 am and we are in the water for the first dive of the day at El Boiler!  There was a bit of surge, lots of bi-color parrot fish, yellow trumpet fish, jacks, and we could hear the chirping of dolphins, so we know they're in the area.  Layers of a thin horizontal rock are shaping El Boiler and becoming home for octopus, lobsters, and green moray eels!  As we make our way to the western side of the dive site we were led by a black manta, before being joined by one dolphin, then five dolphins, a current from the north brought with it lots of fish.  We were just admiring the fish when a second giant manta swims over our heads so slowly, and out of the blue more dolphins come into the area!  14 dolphins and 4 mantas were our numbers, we had an amazing time watching mantas, dolphins, divers, fish, white tip sharks all together, the interaction was absolutely great!
We are enjoyed of a so nice and relaxing surface interval in a sunny day, a bit windy under air temp 27.7˚C/82˚F. Underwater we were still enjoying of 27.2˚C/81˚F we go on a second dive so as soon as we dropped down a dolphin was already there to lead our way, giving us time to keep up with it until we arrived at the West side of the rock! Soon after we are surrounded by lots of cotton mouth jacks changing to a darker color, bicolor parrot fish, at a depth of 33m/110ft a black manta swims slowly making contrast against light brown color of the bottom, it didn’t take too long for the manta to come up to our depth, then another 4 coming from different directions! In the mean time dolphins kept chirping and showing up here and there, 36 minutes of dolphins and mantas time together plus 24 more of manta interaction, vis was 24m/80ft approx. Current still from North just a bit, a yellow fin tuna chasing creolfish made them swim as fast as bullets seeking protection among the rock! 
The third dive was one of those dives that leaves you asking how can you fit so many thing into a small area!  So as we are making our way down to the rock a no more than 4.5m/15ft long whale shark comes straight to us, it was so friendly, slowly swimming, no rush, I guess life is good to it! The massive shark swim off before later returning to stay for a bit longer this time among us in shallow water! From another point in the rock but happening at the same time we had 10 mantas in sight all together, each one from 3.6 to 4.8m/12 to 16ft wing span from 18m/60ft to surface! Below those 18m/60ft of water near the bottom 15 to 20 very robust hammer heads just passing by! And another area which had a really good vis also 8 dolphins came in to join the manta game, at 9m/30ft approx. second ledge of El Boiler is covered with lots of hard coral as well as about 22 white tip reef sharks swimming back and forward on the edge of it, lobsters, Moorish idols, green morays, jacks etc, adorning the rock, after seeing all, the mild current from North made drift some of us, on safety stop we were accompanied by 5 juvenile silver tip sharks.
Our final dive of the day we are on search for more hammer heads, just 4 out the school is what we found at 27m/90ft which was the limit of blue and green water on this dive, which also means water temp just changed from 27.2˚C/81˚F to 23.8˚C/75˚F, in our way back to shallow water of course more mantas to hang out with.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata