« Back to previous page
Shark frenzie during safety stop.
Photo by Steve Welch | During lunch, Steve, a diver from Texas, started to feel a tingling in his fingers which rapidly moved up his arm. A case of the bends was diagnosed and we had to quickly make our way back to the naval base on Socorro so he could be air lifted to the chamber in Cabo San Lucas. I was impressed with the swift manner in which the crew handled the situation. He arrived in Cabo that afternoon and we later learnt he suffered only a mild case of decompression sickness and made a full recovery. We were so relieved to hear the good news. He had been lucky. These occurrences makes you realize how important it is to keep a safe dive profile at all times but especially so in such remote locations like the Socorros. We couldn't dive the rest of the day but did get our passport checked and I got a dive buddy. |
Isla Socorro (Socorro Island)
On Sunday the Solmar V moved to Isla Socorro to dive at Cabo Pearce. This dive site makes you think you are on the underwater set of Indiana Jones. A really cool wall descends into the deep and interesting rock structures and ledges hold sleeping white tip reef sharks, huge lobsters, octopus and eels. During our safety stop we saw another Manta who, again, decided we weren't worthwhile sticking around for.
The afternoon dives were at a site called El Acuario (the Aquarium) which is on the Southwest site of Isla Socorro. It is also where you can find an underwater microphone put there by biologists researching the whale songs. Whale songs are important in the quest for more information about the whales and we were not allowed to mess with it. I never noticed the microphone but did see moray eels, octopus, lobsters, silkies and a big white-tip oceanic reef shark. In general you can say that all the marine life we saw looked bigger than anywhere else I've dived. Very large lobsters in crevices and gigantic tuna and jacks swam by.
Roca Partida
On Monday we made our way to Roca Partida which isn't more than a rock with two tops sticking above the water. It gets pretty interesting under the water however. Without a horizontal reference but strong currents and surge this is a site for experienced divers only. There were barber fish, eels, lobster, jacks, wahoo, silkies and again plenty of white-tip reef sharks sleeping in the crevices. We circumnavigated it clockwise and later on anti-clockwise. Another Manta swam by. They were definitively around. During our safety stop we swam away from the rock to avoid the surge and saw four dolphins who checked us out before taking off in a jiffy. What a great sight! We ended up doing the dive 3 times and there was always something new to explore. Great site! | 
Roca Partida in the distance. Photo by Steve Welch |
During a surface interval, Geronimo took us on another hair bending whale watching panga ride. They weren't feeling social unfortunately and kept ducking into the deep when we got too close. Always fun to go on a panga ride though.
As there is no anchorage at Roca Partida we began our voyage back to San Benedicto that afternoon to find a safe spot to spend the night. Tomorrow was the big day. We were finally going to dive where mantas are plentiful and friendly...
El Boiler (the Boiler)
Up bright and early, the day had come to dive the famous Boiler, a cleaning station for Giant Manta Rays. It was also Steve, the painter's birthday so we were all convinced it was going to be a great day. This dive site can only be anchored when the ocean is calm as there is no shelter. We were lucky, the sea was like glass and the sun was shining. Upon looking at the site you can tell why it is called "the Boiler." In the shallow area of of the dive site the water looks like it is boiling due to surge. Camera and video equipment ready and full of anticipation of what was to come we jumped off the boat. After swimming around for half an hour we got a bit disappointed. No Mantas! Where were they? Is somebody pulling a joke on us? We did see a large pod of dolphins which partly made up for the lack of mantas, but still...
Back on the boat we found out why. Kenneth, a six time veteran of the Socorros trip said he has never seen mantas early in the morning. They obviously are not early risers. Maybe they were still sleeping?
Dive Map of the Boiler | We couldn't wait to get the surface interval out of the way and jump in again to try our luck. And there they were! Three of them! Hovering above us. Waiting for us it seemed. We forgot all about Axel's rule # 1 and sprinted towards them as fast as we could.
Afraid to miss our chance and totally in awe we couldn't wait to get close. Who could touch one first? How to get the best photos?
Robert, "the manta chaser", was more successful than any of us at this. |
We're still not sure if it was his new fins or his never ending energy but wherever there was a manta, there was Robert! The rest of the day was complete and utter heaven. Beth & Steve, a well traveled couple from Chicago, had seen giant mantas at a site called "Manta Ridge" in Yap, but said it was nothing like the Boiler. This is definitely THE PLACE to see them. Great visibility and super friendly mantas who stay at the dive site all day and come up close to the divers and let us touch them. It doesn't get better than this.
The Giant Pacific Mantas (Mantas hamiltoni) are huge, averaging 22 foot in wingspan and remind me of stealth bombers. Always accompanied by one or more remoras, also known as suckerfish, they seemed to enjoy our company as much as we did theirs. What impressive animals they are! Your heart just stops looking at them flying around the water. Fisherman in the old days used to call the giant manta ray "Devilfish" and were afraid of them. This because it seemed like they have two "horns" and would at times jump high up in the air. These horns are their "cephalic lobes" which they use to sweep plankton into their mouth. They also contain their eyes. It is an incredible feeling to have a Manta swim by and look you into the eye. You wonder what they are thinking...
 | Read more about these mantas on the Manta Mexico Web site. "Manta Mexico" is a long-term research project designed to help the scientific community and the people of Mexico learn more about these magnificent animals that live along the West Coast of Mexico and in the Sea of Cortez. The pigment markings of a manta change very little over time and have been used to identify individual mantas for a period of more than twenty years. Using these markings Manta Mexico researchers, in cooperation with other marine biologists doing similar work, may be able to answer some basic questions about these amazing animals. Currently the exact life span of a manta is unknown, as is their age of sexual maturity. We learnt from Axel that only the female mantas that let you touch them. The males swim around to keep an eye on things. | | One of many mantas at the Boiler. Photo by Steve Welch | |
Three mantas were with us during the entire second dive. They kept swimming around, making flips, approaching us, hugging the divers bubbles as if it gave them a pleasant massage. They seemed so friendly, gentle and totally unbothered by our presence. We took turns posing with them, rubbing their bellies and enjoying swimming along side of them. We ran out of air, we ran out of film. The dive couldn't last long enough. What a a treat! We couldn't get enough. We also couldn't avoid drifting off the dive site as we had been told NOT to do during the manta briefing. When we finally did surface, far away from the boat, the pangas were right there to pick us up. Thank you Geronimo!
We did a total of four dives at the Boiler and could have stayed two weeks it was so much fun! The conditions were excellent and everybody got the best photo and video footage.
That evening we watched the results. And they were the best! We couldn't stop talking about this wonderful day. Kevin, a dive instructor/fire-fighter from Hawaii had already edited his footage into an amazing video with music. I must have watched it three times it was so good! He runs Kapalua Dive in Maui together with his wife Eden. Steve Welch had some great shots and contributed the amazing photos in this article. | .
Giant manta looking at us. Photo by Steve Welch |
You will be seeing his photos throughout Dive Global in the future. We also couldn't stop teasing Robert about his record breaking successful approaches of the mantas! The mantas didn't seem to care and kept coming around for more, posing for the camera it seems and there must not be a better place in the world to get footage of these amazing animals.
It was Steve Daugherty's birthday (so many Steve's on board!) after all and we celebrated by Hector playing "catch the fish" with the silkies after dinner. They won in the end but it was great entertainment for all of us.
It was too rough at the Boiler the next day so we had to say goodbye to our newfound friends and headed back to El Canon on the other side of San Benedicto. Our first dive was uneventful the visibility was bad and we didn't see anything at all at depth. We were spoiled from yesterday and it felt anti-climactic to be diving without our beloved mantas. Coming up the anchor line the Silkies were waiting for us again. They obviously hadn't forgotten the game last night. Hector starting throwing some fish around and this resulted in a frenzy. Two Silkies swam in between the divers continuously looking for food. This made for great footage. A very large Galápagos shark joined us on the second dive to check out what the commotion was all about. He didn't go for the food however and preferred to stay in deeper waters as we moved up the anchor line for our safety stop. Phew, he was a little intimidating so big! It was a great sight to see three silkies following Hector around like a puppy dog. You do wonder what the long term effect of this shark feeding will be but thank you Hector for making our safety stops so lively!
Our last day of diving came to an end to soon. There are no five dives a day on the Solmar, four was the most we did and only on a couple of days. As we needed 48 hours to make the crossing back and forth and even more time going from one island to another there really isn't as much diving as you generally expect from a liveaboard trip. The giant mantas of the Boiler, the dolphins, the whales and all the incredibly healthy marine life made the trip so worthwhile, as did our fun loving group of divers and crew. We just had the best time!
| | 
Pod of dolphins around the Boiler.
Photo by Steve Welch | We took
one last panga ride in the afternoon to check out the interesting geological formations of San Benedicto. The island is impressive up close and reminded me of being in the Galápagos. We passed by beautiful tide pools, saw boobies, crabs and picked up floating rocks from the volcano. Too bad you are not allowed to go on land for a closer look.
That afternoon we started heading back to Cabo San Lucas. The sea was flat this time and made for a smooth crossing. Again whales, dolphins and seals came close to the boat. We passed the last day sunning ourselves on the upper deck, exchanging addresses and feeling incredibly lucky that we had the opportunity to experience the underwater world of the Socorros. And with such a great group of divers! |
We arrived back in Cabo around 8pm that night and made it an early night. None of us felt like joining the hustle and bustle of spring break Cabo after such a serene week. The next morning we said our goodbyes. Another great trip had come to an end. As I sat in the airplane on the flight back to Los Angeles I gazed down upon the hills of Baja and the sea that surrounds it, I thought about all that I had experienced during the past week. I have to say that this was the most successful liveaboard trip I've ever been on in terms of the boat, the weather, the marine life and my fellow divers. What an unforgettable experience.
Continue to next page »
|