This morning, our guests aboard Trip 647 on the Nautilus Explorer woke up to views of the ever-impressive volcanic San Benedicto Island to start our first day of diving. Protected in the south side of the island at El Canyon, we enjoyed calm conditions, mild current and 25C water.
Throughout the day, we experienced great interactions with some of Socorro’s best marine life among El Canyon’s unique topography – whitetip reef sharks cruising in the current, curious juvenile silvertips, massive moray eels, silky sharks glinting beautifully in the sun, and of course some very, very close passes and ballet dances with giant manta rays at all stages of our dives.
Giant oceanic mantas on a check out dive is definitely not a bad way to start a trip! Between the impressive passes around Manta Rock and “mantastic” safety stops in the blue, no diver was left out on the manta sightings for our first day.
To end a beautiful day, we watched yellowfin tuna jumping out of the water at sunset as they hunted, and enjoyed delicious taco night by chef Enrique. We’ll be dreaming of mantas (and probably tacos) tonight, excited to wake up to Socorro tomorrow 🙂
– Divemaster Maya, Australia
