With our last DM Blog we left you on the way to Socorro Island after a very successful day at Roca Partida.
Isla Socorro was absolutely beautiful and full of life. On the first day, after checking in with the Navy base at the island, we moved to Cabo Pearce where we enjoyed diving with a couple of friendly mantas. Mantas are absolutely spectacular and specially here in the way they interact with you, but what really made my day this day, was the last dive where I and a couple of the guests got to see a large school of Steel Pompano spawning; They would all swim in a whirlwind of action and then release dense clouds of eggs.
After Cabo Pearce we moved the boat to Punta Tosca on the same island where we did one and a half days of diving with the Mantas and the now famous pod of friendly dolphins. I must admit, Sten and Pedro had told me all about the times when they’ve encountered them in the past, but for me it was the first time that I saw real friendly and active interaction of the dolphins with the guests. I believe this is unique in the whole wide world and I am happy to be part of it.
Today we are back in San Benedicto Island and we spent the day diving at the Boiler with up to not one, not two, not three but 5 mantas together. I have no words that can possibly describe the diving today except to say that in my 27 years of diving this is definitely one of the best days. Heck, it was so good, that we are going there again tomorrow…. Stay tuned for the next DM Blog!
Surface Conditions: Partly Cloudy, Breezy, Warm 75-80F, Big Swell running.
Underwater Conditions: Viz Great +80′, Temp. 78F, Current mild to None, Surge.
You just have to dive with us to see the Sea for yourself,
Divemaster Peter Schalkwijk
Hey Sten, this is Karine and Patrick,
End of a plentiful week where the Canyon didn’t work and the Boiler made our day.
Well, we’ve seen giant Mantas every day – at one stage we had 5 of them swimming with us – , 100 hammerhead sharks on the last dive at the Canyon, clarion Angel, lobsters, but this is not the reason of me writing on the Nautilus blog. I wanted to tell you that I’ve seen your couple of good friends at Punta Tosca. Nobody knows how to find these animals the way the crew do on the Nautilus Explorer. The two dolphins were there, male and female, the one with a dent at the base of the dorsal fin and the other one with a peninsula shape on the top of the dorsal. I saw them last year in the same place and they did find us again on the same spot.
After 50 minutes of playing down below with Mantas, we ran out of air and got back to the boat. There they were waiting for us and after getting rid of the diving kit I went free swimming with those two.
Giant mantas or dolphins? or served Nautilus style: why not both, and plenty of them! DM and Guest Blog. Dec. 1/10.
