We started this 13-day expedition by heading north from Cabo San Lucas and into the Sea of Cortez looking for some quality time with the playful sealions that make their home near the capital of Baja California Sur, La Paz. Just north of Isla Espiritu Santo lies Los Islotes, a small island that is home to a rookery for a population of California Sealions. We did lots of dives there over a day and a half, enjoying some great interaction with the very curious and playful young sealions. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with airplanes and ships – complex machinery in hostile environments with so many moving parts – we did have some mechanical troubles which forced us to spend an extra day of diving in the Sea of Cortez while we waited for a part to be expedited to us in La Paz. Our team on shore put in an amazing effort to track the part down and get it to us during a big holiday week in Mexico with only one day of diving sacrificed to get everything running again.
So here we are again in the Socorro Islands after a very pleasant transit from Cabo San Lucas to our first stop, Roca Partida. We had 4 great dives today here at Roca enjoying all the animals it is famous for, most notably the scalloped hammerheads, big galapagos sharks, hundreds of white-tipped reef sharks, silky sharks and some really, really big yellow-fin tuna. Giant schools of creole fish, steel pompanos, cotton-mouth and black jacks add to the amazing underwater vista here. There are also still a few remaining humpback whales in the area, the stragglers at the end of the north bound migratory train. We enjoyed some great whale-watching from the zodiac with mother and calf breaching together repeatedly several times. Tonight we head for the big island of Socorro in search of the Giant Pacific Manta and some once-in-a-lifetime interaction with those gentle giants of the Pacific.
Captain Gordon Kipp
Surface conditions: mostly sunny, air temp 25-28C, wind light
Diving conditions: Water temp 25C, visibility 60-100ft, current moderate to strong
Mechanical problems keep shore staff hopping and really supporting us – Captain's Log – April 30, 2011. Socorro and Sea of Cortez
