Location: El Canyon, The Boiler, San Benedicto Island (Socorro Island), Revillagigedos
Comments: Our first dive today was at El Canyon on San Benedicto Island and it was GREAT!! This site is nestled beside a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1952 and everything on shore is coated with a layer of ash and pumice that looks to be at least 75 feet thick. Our difficulty is that parts of the dive site are layered with the very fine ash and strong currents tend to pick it up and greatly reduce the visibility. It’s quite neat actually as the visibility will remain good around the underwater rock structures and the up current of the ash deposits with billowing “cumulous” clouds downstream. It reminds me very much of my flying days, soaring in and around clouds.
Anyways, the visibility this morning 80ft plus and our divers had some great hammerhead, silvertip and Galapagos shark sightings. Plus good old Lumpy, our tame leather bass with the broken jaw was there as always. I was very tempted to stay for another dive but flexibility is the name of this game and our guests wanted to move on to the Boiler on the west side of San Benedicto Island. We did three dives there in great visibility and saw unusually large schools of different kinds of jacks… No giant manta rays unfortunately but fingers crossed that we will see them at Socorro Island tomorrow.
The coolest stuff of the day?? Very loud humpback whales joyfully singing away for our divers (we heard them underwater for most of the day). A mom and calf humpback whale were circling around the Nautilus Explorer very close up during our lunch break. And a 10-foot tiger shark surface swimming between the transom of the Nautilus and the top of the pinnacle!
–Captain Mike
Weather: Clear, wind 10 knots from the west, 82°F, very low northwest swell even while anchored in the open ocean!!
Water: Visibility 80 – 150 feet!! Temperature 74°F.
