Location: Los Puertos, San Jose del Cabo (Cabo San Lucas), Baja California, Mexico.
Comments: Well, we’re back at the “virtual marina” of Los Puertos, San Jose del Cabo boarding our next group of guests. I’m getting ready to turn the reins over to Captain Dave in a couple of hours and sadly, will be off the boat for the next month. I already can’t wait for my next Socorro Island voyage at the end of March, followed by our expedition to Clipperton Island in April.
We are all VERY excited about journeying down to Clipperton on the first ever non-scientific diving trip there. I recently had a nice chat with the Captain of the San Diego-based Royal Star when he was in the Revillagigedos and he mentioned that the shark population at Clipperton Island is rebounding nicely after being decimated by illegal longline fishermen in 1998 – so our fingers are tightly crossed on that one.
I know that I am going to really miss the giant mantas of Socorro, San Benedicto and Roca Partida while I’m on my days off. I’ve written about it many times but these guys truly are amazing and almost always seem to get emotionally tangled up with our divers. I know that might sound crazy, and I certainly get a lot of funny looks from our guests when I do my initial briefing on mantas and try to describe (a) how I interact with the mantas by moving my arms around like cephalic fins, (b) how the mantas seem to communicate back with us with their cephalic fins, (c) how incredibly intelligent and emotionally aware these giant “fish” are (I can’t think of any other large wild animal that chooses to interact with humans the way manta rays do) and, (d) how usually even the most hard-bitten scuba diver comes away from a Socorro trip having been emotionally touched by these critters. Safe diving.
–Captain Mike
Weather: Scattered clouds, calm winds, calm seas, 76°F and a lovely afternoon.
Water: Water temp and visibility unknown.
