We had nice weather and flat seas on the crossing to Socorro. Not much to do but enjoy the flat seas plus just look out and see what was around. Sure enough, there was a pod of dolphins, a turtle on the surface, a whale spout, and a solo sea lion with both fins and tail up in the air, enjoying the calm seas and taking in the sun. We arrived at San Benedicto at about 6am and everyone was like “wow what a nice formation.” We started with the briefing at The Canyon and then away we went for the check out dive. I was in the first group and as we got in the visibility was not too good, about 30-40ft, but there was a lot to see! We had a big tiger shark greet us as we were cruising along the lava flow, the tiger shark was about 12-14ft long. I have never seen so many young silver tips, I counted 18 at one time, plus a dolphin, huge hammerheads and silkies! What a way to do a check out dive! Everyone was happy, not about the visibility, but the sightings we had. We headed over to The Boiler and we had two mantas play with us, plus dolphins and huge school of jacks. We all had a really good sighting of the dolphins chasing the jacks and snapping a couple on three occasions. Visibility was much better and the water temperature was 66˚F, a little cold but lots to see, so we didn’t get cold at all. We stayed for the rest of the day and at the end of the day, we celebrated the first day on the upper deck with taco night, woooooohhhhoooooo!! That’s it for now, I will keep you all posted.
–DM Juan
The first day was too good at The Boiler so we decided to stay for the next day, perfecto. We did a 7:30 dive with dolphins that were up early chasing the jacks. Because the dolphins were feeding we were not on their game plan at all so not much interaction. We had two mantas show up and everyone had a blast with the playful mantas. While on a surface interval, when everyone was ready for breakfast and we were pumping the tanks, I looked out and I saw something far off, a little too far for my sight. So I got the binoculars and spotted a pod of false killer whales heading our way. It was an easy sell to get everyone out in the zodiacs to get the best experience and snorkel with the pod. We have been having a great weather and excellent sightings underwater, plus whale snorkelling! That is it for me now, we will see what tomorrow brings us.
– DM Juan
