Today luck was with a few of our guests who jumped in off the back of the boat, sans scuba, to snorkel with some dolphins that had been playing nearby, and were given the dive of a lifetime by some passing humpback whales that made one close pass. Swimming with a young humpback whale escorted by bottlenosed dolphins is definitely one for the logbook.
Read MoreOn the second dive, the giant mantas made an appearance! We had relocated to a site called The Canyon, where we had numerous sightings of hammerhead sharks, most notably a very large and curious fellow who made several circles about the same cleaning station.
Read MoreFinally we went to a new site on the north east side of San Benedicto and found some interesting rock formations with lots of reef life and what appeared to be a moray eel the colour of a Clarion Angelfish. Definitely a place for further investigation. On the run home we came up with a list of possible names for the newly explored sites including Whale Sound, Booby Prize, The Act of Waiting on a Rock and Watching Barnacles although none have been adopted at this time. Maybe a few more dives on the sites will bring out the personality of the sites and the names will become obvious.
Read MoreThen off to Socorro to check in with the Mexican navy and dive Punta Tosca with the manta, tiger and hammerhead sharks on dive day 2 followed by Cabo Pearce on dive day 3. Our first dive at Cabo Pearce had great visibility and almost no current. It was a relaxing dive with a few sightings of dolphins and sharks off the outer point along with a group of Barberfish patiently waiting for something to clean. At times they even moved over to the scuba divers to see if they needed a clean.
Read MoreOn the trip out to the last dive guests were treated to the sight of a manta feeding on the surface at the dive site. We observed two separate incidents of interesting shark behaviour during the day.
Read MoreBut the dolphin encounters this season have taken a turn and evolved into something quite spectacular and consistent that we have only rarely seen before. The dolphins have been on hand to interact with our divers on virtually every dive day of the season so far. Video to follow and as you’ll see, the dolphins are coming up to scuba divers at their safety stops on the anchor line, hanging beside the divers, mimicking the divers, presenting themselves to be touched, rubbing themselves against the anchor line and just plain hanging out with our guests. It’s truly amazing and almost as if the dolphins have been taking lessons from the giant manta rays on how to behave around scuba divers.
Read MoreWe decided to try a new site on the north point of San Benedicto Island and it was GREAT!! We spotted 5 mantas on the surface before anchoring, and we saw them during the dive also. We also had 3 green turtles who stayed with us. Above us on this ridge we had huge yellowfin tunas and also dolphins. So we decided to do our last scuba dive of the trip here as well. On the safety stop one of our divemasters got his thumb bitten as a goodbye present from a Cortez Chub.
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