Happy New Year to all of you Scuba stallions out there! Hope you all rang in the new year with your chosen ones.
We have just started our first Socorro Islands trip of 2014, having just wrapped up a great first day of diving at San Benedicto. We departed Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of Baja California on the night of the 4th and had an absolutely beautiful transit south to San Benedicto with calm seas all the way and enjoying a dolphin escort about halfway down and again as we arrived at the island. We started this morning with a checkout dive at the Canyon. A mild current and 80ft plus of viz made for perfect conditions to dust off the old gear and clear the brain. Most people saw a couple giant mantas and a scattered hammerhead around as well down there so not a bad way to kick off the trip. After our first dive we moved up to the north west side of the island and spent the rest of the day diving the famous manta site the Boiler. Historically in our time diving these islands the Boiler has been the most consistent for great giant manta interaction. A large pinnacle rising up from about 120ft to within 10ft of the surface the Boiler is an impressive dive site in itself. Add in playful mantas and you can’t go wrong. Today on all 3 of our dives there we had at least 4 giant pacific mantas interacting with all the divers. Lots of eye contact, lots of hovering just over the divers, close in circling, swimming away then turning and swimming directly toward the individual diver, lots of lovin’…manta lovin’. If you’re the type of diver who needs more than just good ol’ manta lovin’, we also enjoyed a pod of pacific bottlenose dolphins cruising around us on our first dive at the Boiler, which is another common occurrence there.
If you’re into smaller stuff there is no shortage of things to see on the rock itself, from octopus to peacock flounders, morays and even nudibranchs if you’ve got the macro fever, as well as loads of reef and pelagic fish.
Heading to Roca Partida tonight for some great shark diving tomorrow.
– Captain Gordon Kipp
Diving conditions: water temp 24C, viz 80ft+, mild current Surface conditions: sunny and a warm 28C, light breeze and calm seas
If you need more than just good 'ol manta lovin', we also enjoyed a pod of dolphins swimming with us on our first dive of the trip
