Location: Boiler, San Benedicto
Weather: Overcast skies Winds NW 5-10 Seas W 1-3
Status: Water Temp – 75F Vis – 75 plus
It’s good to be back at the Boiler!!!. We hit some current along the crossing and we had a later morning ETA into San Benedicto. There is an eerie sense of the weather. Overcast skies with a warm breeze mixed with colder air are a left over reminder of the storms that came through. The water is blue and the first dive back was well worth the wait. Three mantas came swimming up to the guests and dolphins were lingering around during the later part of the dive. A big yellow fin tuna made an appearance swimming just on the break of the visibility. The second dive was a memory maker. There is always at least one dive on each charter that you will always look back on and say I remember that time on the Nautilus when… it was this dive that dreams came true. The radio call from our Bosun Hernan came across sounding very hopeful. A pod of 10 -15 dolphins were on the site. The second dinghy raced out with excited divers. We reached the dive site to see the dolphins just on the opposite side of the Boiler. The dinghy was placed perfectly and splash, we hit the water with a pod of 8 dolphins right next to us. What happened next was just magical. The wide eyed dolphins came in for a look as we descended. All heads turned downward as the dolphins dove below us gathering in a tight group. We free-falled into the blue waters to reach the pods just off the lava ridge at 75 feet. Several dolphins dive bombed us from above and came within arms reach of every one. One of the dolphins decided to hover vertically right in front of one of the guests for 2 or 3 minutes. More dolphins came from out of the blue to join in and now we had 4 to 5 dolphins squeaking and clicking in the group. Within five minutes the dolphins swam out into the slight current. We thought the interaction was over. We headed up to the manta cleaning station and we saw a chevron manta passing below us then make a sweeping turn headed in our direction. With a roundabout turn it gave a quick waft of it’s wing past us. Our heads were turned towards the manta only to be turned again as the dolphins snuck behind us and three were hovering again as our divers swam right up to them. For another 15 minutes all of our attention was consumed by the playful connection and eye to eye contact that each diver had with the dolphins. If that wasn’t enough we had two more mantas com into view and a large yellow fin tuna. White tip reef sharks with an ominous green moray eel rested on a ledge. People will never forget that dive and it’s only the first two dives in the Revillagigedos. Guests are happy, crew are happy. All is happy.
– Capt. Lowel
