Enroute from Socorro Islands to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Humpback whale season has officially started here at the Socorro Islands this year. They started appearing at the islands in small numbers earlier in the month of January, but their numbers have increased noticeably in the past week.
Around the midway point of this current expedition we arrived at Roca Partida on a very pleasant morning to be greeted by a mother and calf humpback circling the rock. After our first dive of the morning we decided to take an inflatable boat out to try our luck at snorkeling with the whales. We were rewarded on our first attempt, with mother and calf allowing us to swim along with them for several minutes before disappearing into the blue. They did not go far however, and throughout the rest of the day we enjoyed many more snorkeling encounters with them. The calf was very small and appeared to be no more than 1 month old! On a couple occasions we could see the calf feeding from her mothers underside, beautiful! Later in the day on a couple of dives, several lucky divers encountered them on their safety stop.
After that amazing day at Roca Partida we traveled to Socorro itself and had two great days of giant manta interaction, as well as a great afternoon at Pta Tosca with a pod of playful dolphins.
We wrapped up the diving for this expedition at San Benedicto yesterday with a day at the Boiler. Although we did not see any mantas yesterday we did have some great diving, enjoying huge schools of jacks, white- tip reef sharks, a few hammerheads and even a tiger shark on the last dive, all with the beautiful orchestra of humpback songs playing in the background.
We are currently enroute to Cabo San Lucas and enjoying a beautiful crossing with no more than a breath of wind and a flat sea.
Captain Gordon Kipp
Surface conditions: Light winds and mostly calm seas. Sunny with cloudy periods. Air temp 25-29C.
Diving conditions: Water temp 23C (74F), visibility 40-60ft, current moderate to very strong at Socorro.
