Our first dive today was at West Race Wall and the scuba diving there equals world famous Browning Wall (which means that it is pretty darn good). My only surprise of the day was the dearth of sea lions basking in the sunshine on the rocks. I’m used to seeing hundreds of animals here. Instead, we saw a total of 5 stellar sea lions and no California sea lions. Not sure what to make of that.
Read MoreWe had a moderately rough crossing from Isla San Franciscito to Los Islotes (close to Espirito Santo) but were rewarded with an amazing sighting of a baby blue whale. At Los Islotes, we surprised some underwater harvesters fishing illegally. Unfortunately, they took off before we could get a good picture of them. Our divers had a couple of great dives and saw lots of neat stuff including California sea lion pups who came over to play with the divers.
Read MoreToday’s dive sites included the wreck of the ferry Salvatierra and Suwammee Reef with its enormous biomass of fish, sea lions and cormorants. This is where Peter Schalwyk, one of our favourite divemasters, shot his famous sequence of a determined cormorant chasing and finally catching a bait fish.
Read MoreI’m not sure why, but the white sharks don’t seem to like the wind or choppy surface conditions. I have noticed this before – the sharks disappear when it’s windy and the reappear as soon as everything calms down. We know that their visual acuity is similar to ours, and I’m guessing that they have trouble observing and checking out potential prey against a backdrop of wind and chop? I’ve tucked into the lee of the island as best I can and I am anchored quite close to the shoreline.
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