Location: Lava Flow, The Boiler, San Benedicto Island, Socorro/Revillagigedos, Mexico
Comments: Did an exploratory dive this morning along one of the lava flows on the east side of San Benedicto Island and it was great!! Super topography, great animals and happy guests. Then we moved on to The Boiler and staged 2 dives and had fantastic giant manta interaction with the scuba divers on both splashes. We have really lucked out on this trip with consistent and excellent manta ray sightings and interaction.
The only hiccup today was that the seas were still a tad rough to anchor the Nautilus Explorer in open ocean onsite at The Boiler. I chose to go with my backup plan and anchored the Nautilus in the lee behind a stunningly beautiful island surrounded by volcanic basaltic columns. The setting was absolutely breathtaking and we staged the dives using an aluminum skiff and an inflatable.
Over the last 4 years of operating around Socorro/Revillagigedos Islands, we have had the occasional problem with giant mantas swimming into descent, ascent and anchor lines. This is obviously upsetting to us so today I implemented my idea for a “manta rope.” We took a length of 3/4″ bright yellow 3 strand anchor line and spliced short chunks of horizontal streamers of yellow, blue and green rope into it. The idea being that the descent/ascent/anchor line will be so brightly coloured and “big” that the mantas can’t help but see it. In a perfect world, our highly intelligent manta friends may even be so fascinated by the manta rope that they will want to swoop, loop and fly around “their” rope. Fingers crossed.
–Captain Mike
Weather: Mostly clear skies, winds from the northwest 15 knots, 6 to 7 foot seas on the weather side of San Benedicto Island, air temperature high 70’s
Water: Water temperature 75˚F, visibility 75 – 100 feet.
