Location: Agua Verde
Weather: Clear Skies, Light NNE Wind, NNE Swell (1-2ft)
We finished two more dives yesterday afternoon at Las Animas. The clear highlight was the seal and sea lion activity. All guests had a great time with them. After dive 4 we got underway and ran up to Agua Verde and arrived to anchor in the bay in perfectly calm conditions. We had a nice, restful, night at anchor.
We woke up today to more perfect conditions. almost no wind or seas at all. We made our first dive at Roca Solitaria–right at the entrance to the bay–and it went very well. Lots of ref fish of many varieties, as well as some colorful invertibrates. Both groups saw spotted eagle rays and one group got a glimpse of a mobula. It was a good dive overall. Dive two took us about 4 miles south of Agua Verde into the bay of San Marcial. There are some submerged rocks there in the middle of the bay that we wanted to dive. As soon as we got in the water I could hear dolphins in the distance but nothing ever came close to us. On the dive, we saw a few jawfish, one large southern stingray, and more cortez anglefish than I have ever seen at once. When we surfaced from the dive we were surrounded by dolphins, still at a distance, but everywhere. We got all divers into the RHIB and we set off to get a closer look. We had a group of at least 100 moving south along the coast so we got into a good position and put the group back in the water with fins and masks. Over the course of about 20 minutes, almost everybody got a very close look at them as they passed around and under. And there was some amazing acrobatics on the surface. I saw one leap at least 20 feet high over and over. It was incredible. After the surface swim we got back on the RHIB and made some fast passes by the pod, which by then we could see stretched almost to the visible horizon –I would easily estimate 1000+ individuals—and got some good bow and wake riders before turning back toward home.
We got back about an hour late for lunch, but everybody agrees it was worth it! Because of the delay, we will plan for just one more afternoon dive and then will offer a night dive after dinner.
Water temperature: 85°F
Visibility: 50-80ft
- Captain Jon Shephard
