March 9th, 2010
PHEWWWWWW!!! We have been feeling sick about this ever since the Sichem Osprey grounded on our favourite atoll on February 10th.. We were especially nervous when the tsumani went through. Hard to believe that the Eitzen product tanker managed by Glasgow-based V.Ships Shipmanagement ran onto the island at full speed and I can only speculate on what must have been going on (or not going on to be more accurate) in the wheelhouse. The double hulled, 25,431 dwt tanker is under Maltese flag with a crew of 19 and was heading from Panama to South Korea when the grounding occurred.
We could all too easily imagine the horrendous impact of 10,000 tons of xylene or soyabean oil on the 5,000,000 land crabs and 500,000 booby birds on the atoll, the green moray eels that are free-swimming EVERYWHERE you look (and even coming out of the water to chase the terrestrial land crabs!!! yes, I saw that with my own eyes 2 years ago!!), the endemic Clipperton angel fish on the outer reef and the Canadian geese bobbing around on the inner lagoon. It has been a frightening time and we are extremely grateful and happy about the good outcome.
Kudos and job very well done to the government of France, the French Polynesian authorities who administer the island and the salvors working under the supervision of Svitzer Salvange. Stay tuned for reports from our next Clipperton expedition. Captain Mike
Guest log –>> Roca Partida, Socorro Island. March 8, 2010. Rough seas but great diving conditions with water temps 76 degrees
Saw four nice hammerhead sharks at Roca Partida today, a little bigger than the fish in Kentucky! Getting back into the boat was like an amusement ride. Very exciting!
David
Although it was a bit like a washing machine at the surface, the depths were calm, clear and full of splendid animals! Had four great dives today, and we’re looking forward to four more tomorrow. Here’s to the continued hope of humpback whales!
Karen
Premiere journee a Roca partida, ce petit caillou perdu au beau milieu de nulle part…
Apres une premiere plongee pour apprivoiser le lieu, ce fut un veritable festival.
Jojo le merou (3m selon certains…) viendra vous accueillir a 30m sur la face ouest du rocher au milieu d enormes bancs de poissons en tout genre….
La pointe nord, quant a elle, est gavee de pointes blanches sur 15m et il vous faudra aller titiller les 40m pour trouver les marteaux…superbes rencontres!
La face Est sert plutot de dortoir a requins avec ses nombreuses etageres..
Bref un veritable festival…vivement demain qu on remette ca…
A visiter egalement : orgie entre murene et pointes blanches, une honte!!!! Pour la troisieme plongee, a voir la sieste des requins, sieste crapuleuse a 10 requins colles les uns contre les autres, surveilles par une grosse loche, qui nous suivait pour verifier si on ne les derangeait pas.
Tags: Hammerhead shark, humpback whales, Roca Partida, socorro island
Posted in Animals, Destinations, Guest Blog, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, Roca Partida, Socorro Island | No Comments »
March 7th, 2010
Swam with manta on every dive site, giant manta very friendly….
DAVID SPALDING, KY
Aujourd hui, 3eme journee de plongee, San benedicto island sur la chaudiere (the boiler) Le bleu du pacifique n est pas une legende, plongees avec le chant des baleines et le bolchoi des mantas… Antipalier avec les baleines en visuel dans une eau a 39 C (jacuzzi sur le pont du bateau 
) HLM de langoustes et de cigales…, Requins marteau , des galapagos (1), pointes blanches faisant le sieste (comme nous…). On a connu des moments plus durs…
les frenchies a bord
desole pour les accents ;mais clavier qwerty et americain,
San benedicto,aujourd hui: premiere plongee, defile de requins marteaux, j ai arrete de compter a 30… Deuxieme plongee, bcp de courant +++, manta et safari photo sur une pauvre raie torpille, Troisieme plongee, chants de baleines, baleines sans doute tres proches mais trop timides… par contre ballet de mantas sur la fin de plongee, courant +++4 eme plongee: seulement , 2 mantas, 1 requin marteau, 1 requin pointe blanche, langoustes et avec la bande son des baleines… cookies excellents….
mais qui ?
Location: The Canyon, San Benedicto Island, Socorro. Mexico
When the Nautilus Explorer goes looking for Hammerhead sharks and keeps finding Giant Mantas can you really complain?
Well it was a party at the Canyon today! We arrived at San Benedicto Island (Socorro) this morning under blue skies spotted with only a few clouds. We had briefed the dive and everybody was ready to go and see the Hammerhead sharks that the Canyon is so well known for. I was in the water first with a group of about 10 guests. We approached the cleaning station slowly and low so as not to frighten away the sharks. With the visibility pushing 100 feet (33 meters) I figured the guests were going to be in for a good Hammerhead shark show but alas no sharks met us at the cleaning station. Plenty of colouful fish and Morays and Stone fish but no sharks. Disappointed and with bottom time dwindling, we turned to leave the cleaning station and head back to the descent line. As soon as we turned around three beautiful Giant Manta Rays came sweeping past in a row as if to say “welcome back, we were waiting for you”. 2/3rds the way through the season I thought I knew what a friendly manta was but these Mantas exceeded my expectations yet again (and I think the guests’ too!) They were so curious in us. They gracefully circled back over and over again, closer and closer, visiting each diver individually and getting within inches sometimes of the divers. Wonderful!
We did three dives in total today and both the second and third we went looking for Scalloped Hammerhead sharks. Twice more we didn’t find Hammerheads (except for one or two well in the distance), and twice more we had all the Manta company we could hope for.
Tomorrow I am going to go looking for Giant Mantas. Maybe then I will see some Hammerhead Sharks.
Dan
Surface conditions: Slight breeze and slightly cloudy. Mostly sunny and 28 C in the air.
Tags: giant manta, Hammerhead shark, San Benedicto, socorro island
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March 2nd, 2010
Location: Roca Partida, Socorro island, Baja California, Mexico
Approaching Roca Partida in the morning we got a Tsunami warning via our Inmarsat communicating a earth quake outside of the coast of Chile on a scale of 8.8
We got the information that it would arrive around 1045 AM at our site. We are in this time very thankful of Nautilus Explorer’s well equipped communication possibilities. At this time we could as well warn a neighbouring dive vessel that did not have it and assist them getting out of problems. So they stopped their operation and got out on deep water.
We decided to stay 2 Nautical miles from Roca Partida at 10000 ft of water and wait it out while we waited for more information from our head office. We could not be in a safer spot and everybody was calm. What we where worried about would not be a big waves but a stronger current and better to be safe the sorry as they say. Well after a bit of drama in the morning we approach the rock and started diving. The visibility was actually poor for Roca Partida , but the action was there! Lots of sharks!! And the second day was even better. Big schools of hammerhead sharks. A bit deeper down big Galapagos sharks. And cruising silvertip sharks.
Some of our scuba divers came up shouting of happiness after been diving with a humpback whale a mother and Calf and had also film of it. The humpback whales came very close to us when we were out in the zodiac inflatables and we heard them singing the whale song on almost all dives. It is the male Humpback whale that stayes on his head and sing.
The last dive was probably the best one , the water got clear and we had so many sharks mostly hammerheads and we saw them over and over again. Last was a group of maybe a houndred. Nice ending! Divemaster Sten
Surface conditions: 3-5 ft swell , sunny and 30 C , very nice and calm
Underwater conditions: viz not so good, about 50 ft when better up to 90ft. slow easy current very little surge.
Tags: galapagos sharks, Hammerhead shark, humpback whales, mexico, Revillagigedos, Roca Partida, silvertip reef shark
Posted in Animals, Baja California, Captains Log, Destinations, Galapagos Shark, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, Roca Partida, Socorro Island, hammerhead, shark, silvertip reef shark | No Comments »
February 28th, 2010
The last dive of our Socorro trip was spectacular: a summary of what we have seen on the trip so far. At 30m a school of hammerhead sharks was waiting for us and on the way down two large silvertip sharks were following us accompanied by rainbow runners. At the same time two silky sharks were patrolling the surface. Finally even a huge giant Manta ray came to say goodbye before we ran into two huge Galapagos sharks. Altogether it has been a fantastic week of diving with an incredible last dive! For sure this has not been my last trip on the Nautilus Explorer! Jan from Heidelberg, Germany.
Thierry: Nous avons passe les deux derniers jours a “Roca partida”, un tout petit rocher remontant d’un plateau continental situe entre 300 et 80 m de profondeur et surplombant l’ocean a 40 m, totalement isole du reste du monde, la terre la plus proche se trouvant a 320 miles (+500 km). C’est donc un endroit privilegie pour la vie sous-marine et nous n’avons pas ete decu. Nous y avons trouve a chaque plongee des groupes entiers de requins pointes blanches que je n’ai pas pu m’empecher de caresser, des requins marteau de belle taille (environ 2 m), des requins galapagos et des requins gris de taille comparable… Et meme un merou de la taille d’un plongeur dont on se demande bien comment il est arrive ici !! Les baleines n’etait pas loin de nous, et 3 de notre groupe ont meme pu les apercevoir pendant la plongee. Je suis alle a la “chasse a la baleine” entre les plongees avec les zodiacs, mais nous n’avons vu que leurs queues disparaitre sous la surface au moment ou nous etion
s dans l’eau juste a cote d’elle. Nous sommes maintenant en route pour Cabo San Lucas et 28 h de navigation !
Renaud, Marseille, France
This last 2 days have been amazing. Diving with no bottom, on this island in the middle on nowhere is an experience. Sharks by tens on every dive at every depth…I really enjoyed the white tips “nests”; pack of 20-25 sharks on top of each others sleeping and starting to turn around us every now and then. This morning for our last day we had a real surprise. We were going down the north edge with Peter and Thomas. At 30 m, 2 min into the dive we saw 2 big white things below us. We thought that it was a manta ray and went down, to our surprise it was a humpback whale and her calf…GREAT, a chance in a million. Pete taped 1 min video while they were both turning 2 meters away from us. The mother whale was at least 12 meter long and we swam few seconds together, then they disapeared as quickly as they appeared… We were now on 40 meters, ppO2 of 1.6, it was time to come up a bit. The rest of the dive was eventless ; white tips, hammerhead sharks… The usual suspects in Socorro liveaboard 
).
For my next trip, if you know a place where I can swim with an animal bigger than a humpback wale, let me know and I may join !
Michael, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Entschuldigt, dass der Rapport erst so spaet erfolgt, aber die Tauchgaenge haben mich derart begeistert und gefordert, dass ich an das Schreiben keinen Gedanken mehr verschwenden konnte. Der Grund hier her zu kommen, war das Tauchen mit Mantas. Meine Erwartungen und die Beschreibungen im Internet wurden exorbitant uebertroffen. Ich bin wirklich nicht als grosser Taenzer bekannt, aber unter Wasser mit den Mantas habe ich so manchen Tango und Walzer hinlegen “muessen”. Die Interaktion mit diesen Tieren ist unbeschreiblich. Selbst Bilder koennen dies nur schwer beschreiben, obwohl zum Beweis mehrere hundert Fotos geschossen wurden. Gott sei Dank gibt es auch die Moeglichkeit des Videobeweises. Von dem einzigartigen Erlebnis mit den Mantas abgesehen war das taegliche Zusammentreffen mit Hammerhaien, Galapagoshaien, Seidenhaien, Silberspitzenhaien und den Rudeln von Weissspitzenriffhaien unvermeidlich! Bilder/Videos sagen mehr als tausend Worte / wer sie sehen moechte, einfach anfragen!peters@intertrans.de
Susanne, Schifferschadt, Germany
Mir wurde vom Arzt leider 2 Wochen vor dem Trip untersagt zu Tauchen, dennoch bin ich mitgefahren. Hiermit moechte ich mich bei der gesamten Crew bedanken! Ich wurde zum Schnorcheln gefahren, die “Maedels” haben sich excellent um mich gekuemmert und der gesamt Aufenthalt auf der Nautilus Explorer war – auch wenn ich nicht tauchen durfte – ein voller Erfolg. Danke an alle, die dies ermoeglicht haben!
Tags: galapagos sharks, giant manta, Hammerhead shark, humpback whales, Nautilus Explorer, shark, silky shark, silvertip sharks, Socorro, socorro island
Posted in Animals, Galapagos Shark, Giant Mantas, Guest Blog, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, Nautilus Explorer, Silky Sharks, Socorro, shark, whitetip reef shark | No Comments »
February 27th, 2010
Before this trip, I have only seen giant manta from the distance and very shy. Now I know that they like to play, seem to be ticklish from our air bubbles and enjoy our company. You feel like being their entertainment, not the other way round. In africa you go on a safari and watch the “big five”. At Socorro and San Benedicto Island, the big five are the whales, giant mantas, hammerhead sharks, silkies and dolphins and we keep seeing them all. Great trip.
Thomas
Close encounter with the hammerhead scouts, turning everywhere around us, almost in touching distance and than ten minutes later – THE WALL!!! Loads of Hammers passing by in the blue! Later on at the the Boiler: Dancing with Mantas to the sound of humpback songs… An average day at the Revillagigedos
Lachsi, Silki, Maski (Los tres uoevos suizos)
Jan: Flooding your camera is not that bad if you do it in front of 50 hammerheads!!
Thierry: Ce matin, nous sommes alles nous reveiller “au milieu” des marteaux. Une bonne dizaine de ces grands animaux sont venus vraiment au raz de l’a-pic sur lequel nous attendions gentiment ! La 3eme plongee de la journee nous conduit une fois encore a nager avec les raies mantas. 3 puis 5 sont venus nous rendre visite et bien que timides, elles se sont tout de meme laissees caresser… La derniere plongee de la journee a eu lieu dans le jacuzzi pour ma part.
C’etait une journee riche en rencontres sous-marines, dommage que les baleines soient restees juste en dehors de notre portee. Elles n’ont fait que sauter autour du bateau et ont chante pendant notre 3eme plongee , de meme pour les dauphins, qui sont venus jouer a l’arriere du bateau quand nous mangions. Pour couronner le tout, nombre d’appareils photos ont ete noyes, y compris le mien… Il faudra compter sur les photos des appareils qui auront survecus au voyage !!
Melpi Evangelia Piyi(Greece)
Day 2: For the first dive we went down to the ‘cleaning station’ and we came across a group of at least 10 white tip sharks, hanging out in the sand and all over the place! The reefs around were full of nice colorful fish and a pair of black mantas swimming above our heads. In the evening we saw the green light of the sunset meaning good luck for the rest of our trip What more can we ask for ?
Renaud Vincentelli, Marseille,
Plongee 6
A peine au fond, nous retrouvons un groupe de 10 requins pointes blanches en train de tourner. Pendant que nous les regardons se rapprocher de nous, une raie manta arrive. Elle est bientot rejointe par une deuxieme. Elles passent entre nous tranquillement, la plus grande fait 5 metres. Je me retourne, les mains ecartees posees sur le ventre d’une manta je nage a l’envers qqes secondes. A travers la peau je sents le coeur qui bat, sensation incroyable, probablement le meilleur souvenir de ce debut de croisiere avec la rencontre avec les requins marteaux. Ces requins sont plus gros et bien plus impressionnants que les autres rencontres jusqu’ici.
Vivement demain !
Tags: dolphins, giant manta, Hammerhead shark, humpback whales, San Benedicto, Socorro
Posted in Animals, Destinations, Giant Mantas, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, San Benedicto, Silky Sharks, Socorro, The Boiler, dolphin, hammerhead, whales | 2 Comments »
February 24th, 2010
The San Benedicto Island Experience: Circling mantas (harassing Mike, meditating with Christophe), turtle nibbling on Christophs fin, hammerhead sharks on a cleaning break, patrolling silkies, silky tete-a-tete out in the blue with Christoph, underwater soundtrack featuring the humpback symphony orchestra of San Benedicto island – and on the surface: snorkeling with the (humpback) family… Do not come over the calf or you will freak out the mother, Christophe!
Maski, Silky, Lachsi
Evangelia: Upon arrival to San Benedicto Island we saw from the boat many humpback whales coming up to the surface and swimming around, then a giant manta passed right under us and then 5-6 dolphins were swimming and jumping out of the water, making the 24 hour trip already sooooo worth it!!! A small whale kept jumping out of the water and everyone was cheering, it was really fun! The dives were also very cool: on the second dive we saw the friendliest manta and it was playing around with everyone, swimming with us doing circles, many of the divers were touching it and tickling it and it really seemed like it was having fun! It was like a puppy playing with us, very funny and cute. But at the same time it was so graceful and beautiful the way it was swimming it was great And on the third dive we saw a big silky shark swimming right past us, ignoring us completely (thankfully ) and another silver tip shark. They were really beautiful. We also saw a couple of mantas passing below us and many moray eels, one of them was swimming and was quite big! over all it was a great day 
No humpback whales sightings in the water yet though we could hear them singing very loudly during all the dives, maybe tomorrow! Talk to you again in a couple of days. Filakia.
Thierry: Apres 24 h de navigation dans un ocean calme mais qui faisait tout de meme bouger le bateau d’un bord a l’autre , nous avons atteint l’ile de San Benedicto ce matin vers 10 h a 240 miles (450 km) au sud de Cabo San Lucas. A 11 h notre premiere plongee nous faisait rencontrer une 15aine de requins marteaux et une raie manta. Pour la seconde plongee, nous avons ete accompagnes par la raie manta pendant toute la duree de la plongee. Bien sur les 2 Frenchies (Renaud et Moi) n’avons pas pu nous retenir de la caresser a chacun de ses passages au ras de nos tetes, j’ai meme un peu plane sur elle. Enfin la 3eme plongee de la journee fut plus calme, puisque nous n’avons rencontre qu’un requin marteau et un requin pointe grise. Cela dit nous etions berces pendant la plongee par le chant des baleines. Depuis notre arrivee ce matin, elles sont tout autour de nous. Elles sautent joyeusement autour du bateau et viennent ensuite se promener le long du bateau. D’ailleurs 3 perso
nnes ont meme eu la chance d’aller nager avec elles. Dommage que je doive proteger encore un peu mes oreilles car j’y serais bien alle aussi, ce sera pour la prochaine fois
Bref le voyage commence sous de bons hospices. Le bateau est vraiment agreable, l’equipage, excellent, est toujours a nos petits soins aussi bien pendant les plongees qu’entre elles. Nous avons meme un jaccuzi a disposition. La meteo est parfaite pour l’instant, et devrait le rester pendant la semaine ce qui nous permettra de rester 4 jours ici, puis d’aller passer les 2 derniers jours encore plus loin sur le site de Rocca Partida. La suite dans 2 jours, lors de la prochaine connexion satellite….
Tags: giant manta, Hammerhead shark, humpback whales, San Benedicto
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February 23rd, 2010
This morning we arrived at San Benedicto Island at 1000. It had been almost 24 hours since we left Cabo San Lucas and our 21 divers were anticipating the first dive at the “Canyon”. We had another “rolly” ride with an unusually big swell on the beam of consistent 8 – 9 feet or so. Sometimes bigger. It’s very unusual to get 2 rides in a row to Socorro in a big beam sea as things are generally much calmer. No worries though and guests were fine thanks to the beautiful ride of the Nautilus. As we approached the north end of San Benedicto Island I could see several humpback whale spouts about a half a mile ahead. Soon the guests were lined up down the side of the boat as we cruised past them. There were 2 or 3 whales on each side of the boat, breaching and sounding with their tales in the air. As if that wasn’t enough, several dolphins began traveling along beside us, doing what dolphins do best; Jumping and playing in the bow wave. There were even 2 giant mantas visible on the surface. It was the perfect beginning to the day. What better than a Whale and dolphin escort? The days dives have proved to be equally rewarding for the guests, with a good showing of mantas, hammerhead sharks,(15 in a school) and some silky sharks. With 5 more dive days to look forward to,it has been a great start. Captain Ted
Reaching up San Benedicto closeby Socorro Island this morning gave us a warm welcome! Before even reaching our dear canyon on the south end of San Benedicto we got a company from a group of Bottle nose dolphins and we passed two mantas that where on the surface and just before anchoring we had a show of a breaching humpback just beside the boat. I don’t know what was most entertaining to watch our guest shouting of excitment on the sun deck or the animals that greeted us. We set up our gear and go in to the water, actually the first dive gave us a bit of current and made that most of us did not get so far a way from the boat. The other two dives gave better result and we came in to hammmerheads sharks and a very friendly male giant manta. I recognice him from before, he has been seen several times here in the Canyon and is very friendly, And followed us back to the Nautilus Explorer. We also spotted some very curious silky sharks and silver tip sharks. We could hear humpback whales a lot and three of our guest got to see them in the water just from the back of our boat . A Calf, not much bigger then 12 ft and its mother with an male escort. Some snorkelers very excited coming back to the Nautilus Explorer. Divemaster Sten
Surface conditions: Today was windy but mostly sunny, 27 C in the air.
Underwater conditions: About a 20 m or a 80 ft viz, Bit of current the first dive the others mild current and 24 C, 75 F.
Tags: bottlenose dolphin, dolphins, giant manta, Hammerhead shark, Nautilus Explorer, San Benedicto, Socorro, socorro island
Posted in Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Giant Mantas, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, Manta, Nautilus Explorer, San Benedicto, Silky Sharks, Socorro Island, The Canyon, bottlenose dolphin, dolphin, hammerhead, silvertip reef shark, whales | No Comments »
February 21st, 2010
Today the guests and crew of the Nautilus Explorer are nearing the end of an 8 day adventure trip to Socorro Island. Well, San Benedicto Island and Roca Partida to be more accurate. Later tonight we will arrive back at Cabo San Lucas. This his has been an adventure for our guests, and for myself as well. I have spent many years working on small cargo vessels, tugs, fishing boats and an expedition passenger vessel on the British Columbia coast. Spending as much time as I have on the water, it’s not hard to start thinking that you have seen it all, at least in terms of sea life. Whales, porpoises, orca, sea lions are almost an every day occurrence around Vancouver Island but here, it is different. Yesterday we were at Roca Partida. I was standing by in the skiff while the scuba divers were down. Looking down into the clear water, I was amazed at the amount of reef fish I could see. It was as if there was a layer of them. All shapes and colours. I heard a splash, and looked up to see a group of bottlenose dolphins charging toward me and passing close by the side of the skiff. At the same moment, a pair of humpback whales came out of the water and landed on their backs a few hundred yards from me. Taking all this in, I was thinking, “This is what I am seeing up here. I wonder what they are seeing down below”. I didn’t have to wait long for the answer. As one of our guests (a lady from Germany) came up the ladder at the back of the skiff, she pulled off her mask and yelled” the whales are singing”. Over all, it has been a trip with regular sightings of Giant Mantas (up to 4 at the once) Hammerhead sharks, (sometimes a school of them) and all sorts of other creatures. For me the greatest pleasure is to see that kind of excitement in someone’s face after a dive. Captain Ted.
What a week we have had! Dancing Mantas, Singing Whales, Hunting Tunas, Playful Dolphins, and sharks so close you could nearly reach out and touch them. At San Benedicto, we dove our usual dive sites, The Canyon and The Boiler, and we also did a couple of exploratory dives: one along the cliffs and one on the northern point of the island. These dives, although interesting proved that The Canyon is where the action is happening right now; multiple friendly Mantas, large schools of Hammerheads, Humpbacks singing so close that your body vibrates and you just know that they have to be right there… about to materialize in front of you. Roca Partida is full of life. Nearly every dive, we had the playful Bottlenose Dolphins coming in to zoom around the divers and blow bubbles at them. One diver, kicking like a dolphin himself, got the dolphins so excited; all five dolphins started spinning around him like a top. This week we had mantas too! At least three different mantas were seen during out stay at Roca Partida. There were a couple of different tuna schools circling the rock, a school of hundreds of smaller tuna and another school of giants. These big fish are strong and powerful. It is a treat to see their quickness and grace as they send the schools of smaller fish fleeing as they hunt. Several different species of sharks were sighted on every dive: sleepy White Tip Reef Sharks, Schooling Scalloped Hammerheads, well-fed Galapagos Sharks, Daring Dusky Sharks, Sleek Silky Sharks, and Graceful Silvertip Sharks. Towards the end of the day, with light levels were starting to fade, just off the southern cleaning station, a Giant Manta was coming in to be cleaned. A curious Silky shark had been hanging around as well. In a quick flash, the Silky Shark made a dash for the top of the manta, trying to bite off one of the Remora that was peacefully riding there. With a quick flip of her wings, the manta rolled her body up and out of the shark’s way. Just then, a Bottlenose Dolphin came in to aid the manta and began chasing the Silky Shark. The three circled for a moment, and then the shark retreated into the blue. The manta went back to the cleaning station and peace was restored once again. When the divers surfaced, they could not believe what had just happened. Every dive has been unique special.
Surface Conditions: Wind- Slightly Breezy, Sky- Clear to Partly Cloudy, Swell- Mild.
Underwater Conditions: Visibility- 40-100’, Temperature- 74-75 F, Current Slight to non-existant.
Tags: bottlenose dolphin, galapagos sharks, giant manta, Hammerhead shark, humpback whales, Nautilus Explorer, Revillagigedos, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, sealions, shark, silky shark, silvertip sharks, Socorro, The Boiler, The Canyon
Posted in Animals, Cabo San Lucas, Captains Log, Destinations, Galapagos Shark, Giant Mantas, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, Nautilus Explorer, Orca, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, Silky Sharks, The Boiler, The Canyon, bottlenose dolphin, sealions, shark, whales, whitetip reef shark | No Comments »
February 19th, 2010
Christof: Roca Partida, wurde uns als “wahrscheinlich einer der besten Tauchplaetze der Welt” an gekuendigt. D.h. die Messlatte lag schon mal sehr hoch. Doch jetzt nach 8 Tauchgaengen and der Felsnadel mitten im Pazifik koennen wir dies nur bestaetigen. Wo wird man schon bei 50% der Tauchgaenge von Delfinen begleitet? Was heisst eigentlich begleitet? Die Delfine unterhielten uns zum Teil den ganzen Tauchgang und taten alles erdenklich um auf unseren Videos die Hauptrolle zu spielen. Da blieb den vielen Haien leider nur noch die Nebenrolle. Auch wenn wir hier an dieser nur 100m langen Untiefe sechs verschiedene Haiarten (Weissspitzen-, Silberspitzen-, Dusky-, Silky-, Galapagos- und Hammerhaie) gezaehlt haben. Manchmal auch alle bei einem Tauchgang. Mantas kreisen auch um den Felsblock, sind jedoch deutlich weniger zutraulich sind wie in San Benedicto. Kein Wunder, nach dem wir beobachten konnten wie ein Silkyshark einen Mantas attakiert und nur durch das beherzte Eingreifen eines Delfins sich retten konnte. So bleibt fuer die Tunas, Wahoos, Muraenen, Octopusse, etc. nur die unbefriedigende Statistenrolle. Fuer die musikalische Untermalung sorgen bei diesen traumhaften Tauchgaengen die leider ausser Sichtweite (unter Wasser) vorbeiziehenden Buckelwale mit ihren Walgesaengen. Zurueck an der Oberflaeche, gilt aber dann wieder ihnen die groesste Aufmerksamkeit wenn sie zum Teil direkt an der Nautilus Explorer vorbei ziehen oder ihre Sprungkuenste unter Beweis stellen.
….. “wahrscheinlich einer der besten Tauchplaetze auf der Welt” … BLG an Alex
Mario: Den Ausfuehrungen von Christof habe ich eigentlich nichts hinzuzufuegen, ausser dass ich heute das erste Mal mit Buckelwalen fruehstuecken durfte. Dank des herrlichen Wetters war ich nach dem ersten Tauchgang zum Fruehstuecken aufs Oberdeck gefluechtet, um in der Sonne liegend mein Muesli und Kaffee zu geniesen. Doch “leider” wurde ich durch Buckelwale “gestoert” – ein unvergessliches Erlebnis! Obwohl ich erkaeltet war und eine Platzwunde am linken Ellenbogen hatte, konnte mich nichts vom Tauchen abhalten. Vorallem wusste ich, dass jeder weitere Tauchgang ein Highlight bieten wuerde. Ich werde noch lange brauchen, bis ich die Erlebnisse und Eindruecke dieser Reise verarbeitet habe. Was fuer ein Trauma! ) @Micha liebe Gruesse aus Mexiko, 2 Buckelwal-B’s. Gruesse auch an alle Mitglieder des Tauchclub Octopus Rosenheim. Bilder und Videos werden unter tco-ro.de veroeffentlicht.
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