Trip Report Diving in Galapagos in October 2022

[Dan]

Summary
This is two, back-to-back, eight-day (17-24 & 24-31, 2022) liveaboard trips to Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, with Galapagos Master liveaboard. The itineraries, as shown in Table 1 and 2, include 7 days of diving to a total of 18 dives on each trip. We saw several kinds of sharks (Blacktip, Bullhead, Galapagos, Scalloped Hammerhead, Silky) including Whalesharks. Some animals that we captured in our cameras and jotted them down in my logbook include Barberfish, Eels (Fine Spotted Moray, Jewel Moray, Garden), Blennies (Throat Spotted, Panamic Fanged), Calico Lizardfish, Flag Cabilla, Green Turtles, Galapagos Penguins, Galapagos Sea Robins, Galapagos Seahorse, Groupers (Golden, Leather Bass), Guineafowl Puffer, Harlequin Wrasse, Hawkfishes (Dwarf, Giant, Longnose), King Angelfish, Mexican Hogfishes, Marine Iguanas, Mexican Goatfish, Mola Mola, Nudibranchs (Galapagos, Roboastra Leonis), Pompanos (Steel, African), Porpoises (Bottlenose Dolphins, False Killer Whales), Porcupinefish, Pacific Creolefish, Pelican Barracuda, Rays / Sting Rays (Diamond, Marbled, Spotted Eagle, Golden Cow, Manta), Rainbow Runners, Razor Surgeonfish, Red lipped Batfish, Scorpionfish, Sealions, Snappers (Blue-Gold, Whipper, Amarillo, Peruvian Grunt), Trevallies (Bigeye, Black, Bluefin, Cottonmouth), Yellowfin Tuna, Wahoo.

The 24-31 (4th week) of October trip was better than the 17-24 (3rd week) of October trip, in terms of seeing Whalesharks and Marine Iguanas. I saw about 10 Whalesharks and a lot (>10) of Marine Iguanas in the 4th week of October trip versus a Whaleshark and a Marine Iguana in the 3rd week of October trip. I think, the weather had a lot to do with the close encounters. On the other hand, during the 3rd week of October trip, several Hammerheads swam over my head, so close that I could see its teeth. My last experience in such close encounters was in September 2018 in Hammerhead cleaning station in Manuelita outside, Cocos. I am glad to be able to go on these two back-to-back trips.

Figure 1 and 2 show the Galapagos Master (Deep Blue) cruising routes (marked by black arrows) around the Galapagos Archipelago for the 3rd and 4th week of October, 2022, respectively. We did 1st day of diving in San Cristobal Bay (checkout dive), 2nd day of diving off west shore of Baltra Island, 3rd and 4th day of diving off east shore of Darwin’s Arch, 5th day of diving off east shore of Wolf Island, 6th day of diving in Cabo Douglas, off northwest shore of Fernandina Island and in Punta Vincente Roca, off northwest shore of Isabela Island, 7th day of diving in Cousins Rock, off northeast shore of Santiago Island. On the 8th day, the crew transfer us to our next destinations, either hotels or straight to the San Cristobal airport.

Figure 1: Galapagos Master 3rd week of October 2022 routes in Galapagos Archipelago

Figure 2: Galapagos Master 4th week of October 2022 routes in Galapagos Archipelago

Here are short videos of the highlight of what I saw during the 2 weeks of diving in Galapagos:

3rd week of October, 2022 trip video



4th week of October, 2022 trip video



Background
Galapagos Archipelago is about 1077 km (669 miles) west off Ecuador west coast, or about 1092 km (678 miles) away from Guayaquil, Ecuador, as shown in bottom red-dot, in Figure 3, below. It would take about 110-minute flight from Guayaquil (GYE) to San Cristobal (SCY). There are similar kind of diving destinations around eastern pacific besides Galapagos, i.e., Cocos, Malpelo and Socorro, which are also indicated by red dots on their geographic locations and names in Figure 3, below. Galapagos is the southmost diving destination amongst the four eastern Pacific diving destinations.

Figure 3: Eastern Pacific diving destination geographic locations

Since I live near Houston, Texas, it was an easy 6-hour nonstop flight from Houston to Quito (the capital city of Ecuador) with United Airlines. From Quito (UIO), I flew with Avianca to San Cristobal (SCY), via Guayaquil (GYE).

This is my second time in Galapagos. My first time was in December, 2016, How is diving in Galapagos in December? | ScubaBoard. So, I know what to expect as far as the water temperature and what wetsuit thickness I should bring. The water temperatures in Galapagos then were about 16-25 °C (61-77 °F). I was comfortable with my 7mm full wetsuit with hood down to 17 °C. Below that, I could only stay down in that 13-17°C freezing water for < 30 minutes, which was enough to see the Marine Iguana and Red-lipped Batfish in Cabo Douglas, Mola Mola and Bullhead Shark in Punta Vincente Roca. So, I stick with the same 7mm wetsuit. It turned out to be the same case in October 2022, as you see in Table 1 and 2, above.

The Liveaboard
Galapagos Master (Deep Blue), as shown in Figure 4, is 32m (105-foot) long ship with 8 cabins, catering for up to 16 guests, along with two rigid inflatable boats (RIB) or more commonly called panga, see Galapagos liveaboard diving for more detail info.

Figure 4: Galapagos Master (courtesy of Master Liveaboards)

It runs by 11 crews (a captain, 2 engineers, 2 chefs, a cabin mate, a host, 2 panga drivers and 2 divemasters) for 16 guests. Both trips had 15 guest on each trip. So, they work very hard to maintain day-to-day operation of the boat and to serve the 15 guests.

The boat layout is very functional for divers. Galley, dinning, and entertainment (Main Room) areas are on the main deck. Camera station and dive deck are outside on the back of the main deck. Four guest cabins are in the upper deck and four cabins are in lower deck. Above the upper deck is a sundeck with open air sitting area for people to relax in between dives. I stayed in the lower-deck cabin in 3rd week of October trip and in the upper deck cabin in 4th week of October trip. I prefer the upper deck cabin, away from engine room, with window view and walkway, where I can hang my wet rashguard on the railing right outside the cabin.

There are plenty of closet space and drawers to store belongings for 2 divers. The hosts did a great job of keeping our cabin cleaned and orderly.

Figure 5 shows Main Deck areas. Main room is where we have dive briefing. Dining room has 4 dining tables with 6-person sitting on the port side and 10-person sitting on the starboard side. Dive deck is on the back of the Main deck.

Figure 5: Galapagos Master main deck layout (courtesy of Master Liveaboards)

Setting up our dive gears and getting on to panga were pretty typical liveaboard with pangas. Once we kit up our dive gears at our assigned stations in the dive deck and ready to board on the panga, the deckhand would take our fins and cameras. We then walked to port side gate and stepped down to starboard side of the panga with deckhand assistance, sat on either side of the panga and scooted to the back of the panga. Once everyone was onboard, the deckhand would then handed over the fins and the cameras and off we went to the dive site.

The panga can take 10 people (including DMs and the panga driver). There were 15 divers on both trips. We were divided into 2 groups of 8 and 7 divers (Group Sharks and Orcas), led by a DM / group. Dive briefings were conducted in Main Room on the night before the dives. 20 minutes before diving, a bel rang to remind us to head back down to dive deck to suit up.

For water entry, the DM would count to 3 and we all backrolled into the water together at the same time. Each group would descend together following the DM.

The meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner) were served buffet style. The food were excellent. Special dietary meal were served to those who asked for it.

The diving details is reported in the next post.

 

[Dan]

The diving
As shown in Table 1 and 2, we did a 18 dives / week of dive trip, including;

• a checkout dive (Dive 1) in San Cristobal Bay on the first day,
• a morning dive (Dive 2) off west shore of Baltra Island on the second day,
• two days of four dives / day (Dive 3 to Dive 10), off east shore of Darwin's Arch, on the third and fourth day,
• four dives (Dive 11 to Dive 14), off east shore of Wolf Island on the fifth day,
• two morning dives (Dive 15 and Dive 16) in Cabo Douglas, off northwest shore of Fernandina Island and an afternoon dive (Dive 17) in Punta Vincente Roca, off northwest shore of Isabela Island,
• a morning dive (Dive 18) in Cousin Rock, off northeast shore of Santiago Island.

Daily schedule would be posted in the Dining room’s whiteboard. A bel rang 20 minutes before the scheduled dive. Typical 4-dives / day schedule (for Darwin’s Arch and Wolf Island dives) was as follows:

06:30 – Wakeup call
06:45 – Breakfast
07:40 – Get ready
08:00 – Dive 1
10:00 – Dive 2
12:00 – Lunch
13:40 – Get ready
14:00 – Dive 3
16:00 – Dive 4
18:00 – Cocktail hour
18:30 – Dinner
19:30 – Dive briefing

Day 1
This was a 20-minute checkout dive to make sure our gears worked properly, including proper amount of dive weight used, preferably slightly overweighted enough to stay at the bottom with no air in BCD without swaying back and forth by surging current. We spent a few minutes on the 5-6m depth sandy bottom of San Cristobal Bay (0°53.610’ S, 89°36.880’W) kneeling in front of DM to demonstrate for having the proper dive weight. This is a good practice for most of the diving time in Galapagos, which is kneeling or sitting on the rock and watching the fish parade go by for at least half of the dive time.

After 20 minutes of checkout dive, each of us would practice launching our Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) under DM watch. Then each of us would practice on getting onto the panga, 3 divers at a time hanging on the rope on the port side of the panga. The procedure for getting on the panga are as follows:

• Handing to panga driver the DSMB first, camera next (if you carry one).
• Removing dive weights, handing them to the panga driver.
• Removing your BCD, handing it to the panga driver. He’ll lift it off the water by grabbing the tank valve and you help him by pushing the bottom of the tank up to the panga side.
• Remove your fins, handing them to the panga driver.
• Pull yourself to the ladder & get on the panga, sit on the side and wait for the rest of the divers to get on the panga.

Usually DM would get on the panga first and then assist the panga driver to take your gear off the water quicker. Once all the divers are account for, then the panga would cruise to mother boat, Deep Blue.

Water temperature was about 20°C. Visibility was about 10m. We saw Sealions zipping by us.

After dinner, Deep Blue cruised northward for 6 hours to Baltra Island.

Day 2
Dive 2 was in late morning, off west shore of Baltra Island (0°24.817’ S, 90°17.319’W), after returning from a land tour of North Seymour to see Cormorant, Blue footed Booby, Land Iguanas and Sea lions.

The dive site underwater topography is shown in Figure 6, below. We would practice a negative entry and meet at 5m depth before proceeding to the bottom. At the end of the dive, we would practice launching DSMB one more time.

Figure 6: Baltra Island dive site topography (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboard)

In this dive site, we saw two types of nudibranchs (Galapagos, Roboastra Leonis, as shown in Figure 7 & 8), Galapagos Sea Robin (as shown in Figure 9) on 18 October, but none seen on 25 October. Other animals seen and noted in my logbook are Diamond Stingray, Galapagos Shark, Longnose Hawkfish, Mojara Grunt, Pacific Creole fish, Scorpionfish, Jewel Moray and Calico Lizardfish.

Figure 7: Galapagos Nudibranch of Baltra, Galapagos

Figure 8: Roboastra Leonis Nudibranch of Baltra, Galapagos

Figure 9: Galapagos Sea Robin of Baltra, Galapagos

Water temperatures were 17 and 20°C on 18 and 25 October, respectively. The visibility was 5 and 10m on 18 and 25 October, respectively.

We only did one dive in Baltra since it would take 18-hour cruise to Darwin and would like to arrive early enough for 4 dives / day in Darwin.

Day 3 and 4
We had 4 dives / day for two days on the same dive site, off east shore of Darwin’s Arch (1°40.372’ N, 91°59.382’W).

The dive site underwater topography is shown in Figure 10, below. We did negative entries most of the time to avoid being swept off by current. Everyone did well in all of the dives in both trips. Divers who consumed a lot of gas were wise enough to rent 15L tank. We stayed together and did the safety stop together with our DM. At the end of the dive, only DM was lunching DSMB.

Figure 10: Darwin’s Arch dive site topography (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboards)

The 4th week of October trip was better than the 3rd week of October trip, in terms of seeing Whalesharks. I saw about 10 Whalesharks and in the 4th week of October trip versus a Whaleshark in the 3rd week of October trip. Figure 11 shows a big mama Whaleshark seen on the 4th week of October trip. The weather had a lot to do with the close encounters. On the other hand, during the 3rd week of October trip, several Hammerheads swam over my head, so close that I could see their teeth, as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 11: Big mama Whaleshark seen in Darwin’s Arch dive site on 26 October, 2022

Figure 12: Scalloped Hammerhead Shark swam over my head in Darwin’s Arch dive site

One of my goals to dive in Galapagos is to see a wall of hundred hammerheads. I have been trying to see that in Banda Sea (Indonesia) twice, Red Sea (Egypt) twice, Cocos (Costa Rica) three times, Malpelo (Colombia) once, Socorro (Mexico) three times, with no luck. The diving in the 3rd week of October, 2022, gave me close to the goal (25 hammerheads), as shown in Figure 13, below.

Figure 13: Wall of Hammerheads seen in Darwin’s Arch dive site on 19 October, 2022

Other animals seen and noted in my logbook are School of Bigeye Jacks, School of Blue-Gold Snappers, Blacktip Shark, Dolphin, Pod of False Killer Whales, Garden Eels, Galapagos Sharks, Green Sea Turtle, Fine Spotted Moray, King Anglefish, School of Leather Bass, Mexican Hogfish, school of Pelican Barracuda, school of Rainbow Runners, school of Razor Surgeonfish, Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks, Scorpionfish, Silky Shark, Sea lion, Steel Pompano, school of Whitemouth Jacks, school of Whipper Snappers, large school of Yellowfin Tuna.

Water temperatures varied from 23 to 25°C on all the dives on both trips. The visibility was 10-15m on the Dive 3 and 4 of 19 October, respectively. Then the visibility got better (20m) afterwards.

After finishing the last dive (Dive 10) in Darwin’s Arch, we cruised for 3 hours down to Wolf Island.

Day 5
We had 4 dives (Dive 11 to Dive 14) on this day in two dive sites, Land Slide (1°23.920’ N, 91°48.673’W) and Shark Bay (1°23.920’ N, 91°48.673’W), off east shore of Wolf Island, as shown in Figure 14, below. Underwater topography of Shark Bay dive site is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 14: Dive sites around Wolf Island (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboards)

Figure 15: Shark Bay underwater topography (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboards)

We did negative entries most of the time to avoid being swept off by current. Everyone did well in all of the dives in both trips. We stayed together and did the safety stop together with our DM. At the end of the dive, only DM was lunching DSMB and none was swept away by strong current to the blue.

We saw many Spotted Eagle Rays in Land Slide. Other animals seen and noted in my logbook are Amarillo Snappers, African Pompano, Black Jacks, Blacktip Shark, Bluefin Trevallies, Flag Cabrilla, Fine Spotted Moray, Galapagos Shark, Golden Cowray, Golden Grouper, Guineafowl Puffer, Giant Hawkfish, Green Sea Turtle, Mexican Goatfish, Pelican Barracuda, Razor Surgeonfish, Scalloped Hammerhead Shark, Sea lion, Silky Shark, Yellowfin Tuna, Wahoo.

Water temperatures varied from 23 to 24°C on all the dives on both trips. The visibilities were 10-15m on 21 October. The visibilities got better (15-20m) on 28 October.

After finishing the last dive (Dive 14) in Wolf Island, we cruised for 16 hours down to Fernandina Island.

Day 6
Details of Day 6 is on the next post (this post has reached the text & picture limits).

 

[Dan]

Day 6
We had 2 morning dives on this day in Cabo Douglas (0°17.765’ S, 91°39.104’W), off northwest shore of Fernandina Island and an afternoon dive in Punta Vincente Roca (0°03.124’ S, 91°33.603’W), off northwest shore of Isabela Island, 2 hour cruising from Cabo Douglas.

The first morning dive (Dive 15) in Cabo Douglas was to see Red-lipped Batfish. The underwater topography of Cabo Douglas is shown in Figure 16, below.

Figure 16: Underwater topography of Douglas (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboard).

We did positive entry here as visibility was poor from the surface to 5m depth then it became clearer at the bottom and no current to be concerned of usually. Once everyone gave OK sign at the surface, we then descent together following the guide (DM).

Once we reached the sandy bottom and spotted a Red-lipped Batfish, the strategy was for divers to make a circle around the fish, so when it saw a diver camera, it tended to turn its back on the camera (especially the one with video light blasting on the fish). When that happened, it would face to another diver’s camera on the other side. I got lucky to be the other diver, who was able to capture that moment, as shown in Figure 17, below.

Figure 17: Red-lipped Batfish of Cabo Douglas

Other animals seen and noted in my logbook are Diamond Stingray, Peruvian Grunt, Harlequin Wrasse, Throat Spotted Blenny.

The second dive (Dive 16) of the day was on shallow water (< 5m) near the shore, as shown in Figure 18, to see Marine Iguana grazing on Algae. The sea on 22 October was a bit rough, surgy and cloudy. I only saw only 1 Marine Iguana. The weather on 29 October was better (sea was calmer, less surgy, sunny and warmer). We saw a lot of Marine Iguanas grazing on Algae then, as shown in video clip, below.






Water temperature was 15°C on 22 October and 17 °C on 29 October. The visibilities were about the same, 10m, on both times.

Figure 18: Area to see Marine Iguana (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboards)


After lunch we went on a two-hour cruise to Isabela Island, dove in Punta Vincente Roca (PVR), off northwest shore of Isabela Island, as shown in Figure 19, to see Mola Mola and Bullhead Shark. Topography of the dive site is shown in Figure 20.

Figure 19: Drone view of Punta Vincente Roca (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboard)

Figure 20: Underwater topography of PVR (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboard)

Day 7
We had our last dive (Dive 18) in Cousins Rock (0°14.165’ S, 90°34.463’W), off northeast shore of Santiago Island. Above and underwater topography of Cousins Rock is shown in Figure 21, below.

Figure 21: Topography of Cousins Rock (courtesy of Ivan Zavala of Master Liveaboard)

We saw school of Pelican Barracuda on 23 October and Galapagos Seahorse on 30 October. Other animals seen and noted in my logbook are a school of Blue Gold Snappers, a school of Burrito Grunts, Flag Cabrilla, Fine Spotted Moray, King Angelfish, Galapagos Nudibranchs (Galapagos & Roboastra Leonis), Marbled Ray, Panamic Fanged Blenny, Porcupinefish, a school of Razor Surgeonfish, Scorpionfish, Sea lion, Throat Spotted Blenny, Manta Ray.

Water temperatures was around 20-21°C on both trips. The visibilities were 10 -15m on both trips.

After finishing the last dive (Dive 18), we cruised for 2 hours down to Santa Cruz Island for an afternoon sightseeing in Puerto Ayora and guided tour of Giant Tortoise restoration program in Charles Darwin Research Station, Giant Tortoise Restoration in the Galápagos Islands | Galápagos Conservancy

Day 8
After breakfast, the crew transferred us to our next destinations, either hotels or straight to the San Cristobal airport.

Conclusions
My impression of the diving and the trip are very positive. If you want to see school of Hammerheads, big mama Whalesharks, squadron of Eagle Rays, in close encounter, Galapagos is the place to go, especially to see Marine Iguanas grazing on Algae. The liveaboard is stable and very well organized. I’ll be back!

 

[drrich2]

Love that close-up hammerhead shark. The Galapagos is the destination that comes to mind when I think of almost crying due to wishing the viz. was a lot better so I could better see and take snapshots of the horde of life around me. My one trip (on Humboldt Explorer) was Jan. 2020, outside whale shark season, and we didn't see any, so I also envy you that.

Glad you detailed the workflow of getting back on the panga. Before my trip, I was annoyed at the idea of 'only' 4 dives/day vs. Caribbean liveaboards I've done, but the added workload of getting in and out of the pangas, and the re-boarding process with handing up weights and some gear, adds considerable effort to the day. Toward the end of our week, 4 dives/day was wiping me out.

There are a number of reputable liveaboard in the Galapagos; I hear the Galapagos Master mentioned fairly often. What led you to pick it over other options? Just curious, since a number of boats are well-spoken off. Seems like the Calipso got a lot of attention and praise.

Richard.

 

[Dan]

There are a number of reputable liveaboard in the Galapagos; I hear the Galapagos Master mentioned fairly often. What led you to pick it over other options? Just curious, since a number of boats are well-spoken off. Seems like the Calipso got a lot of attention and praise.

I am glad you asked that question. Initially I wasn't planning on going back to Galapagos this soon and even with Galapagos Master. I would like to try other liveaboard too when I return to Galapagos. Three years ago, Tim Yeo of Bluewater Dive Travel | Scuba diving travel agency - Book Liveaboards and Resorts offer me a Black Friday, 50% off deal, on French Polynesia Master for May 2020 trip. I took the offer, but the trip got cancelled due Covid and other (unspecified) problem. I tried to reschedule the trip to later date unsuccessfully. After two years of waiting for any news on the status of this cancelled trip, I reached out to Tim about it and he basically told me that French Polynesia Master may not be there any longer and offered me other Master Liveaboards destination as replacement to the French Polynesia Master. I looked over their list of destinations and concluded that Galapagos would be the next best alternative for me. Since the French Polynesia trip was for 10 nights and the Galapagos trip was for 7 nights, Master liveaboards offered me two of 7-night trips on Galapagos Master. So I accepted the offer. By having them on back-to-back trips, it would save me a roundtrip flight to Galapagos.

 

[KPD]

Great report Dan! I'd nominate you for the Pulitzer Prize of Diving, when such a prize is created. Keep up the good reports.

 

[Dan]

The second dive (Dive 16) of the day was on shallow water (< 5m) near the shore, as shown in Figure 18, to see Marine Iguana grazing on Algae. The sea on 22 October was a bit rough, surgy and cloudy. I only saw only 1 Marine Iguana. The weather on 29 October was better (sea was calmer, less surgy, sunny and warmer). We saw a lot of Marine Iguanas grazing on Algae then, as shown in video clip, below.



Water temperature was 15°C on 22 October and 17 °C on 29 October. The visibilities were about the same, 10m, on both times.

According to this BBC Earth video clip, below) the Marine Iguana could only dive down in that freezing water for 30 minutes, before their muscle would cease and they drown. With 7mm wetsuit at that freezing temperature, I could not last for more than 30 minutes either . BRRRR

 

[Dan]

On the other hand, during the 3rd week of October trip, several Hammerheads swam over my head, so close that I could see its teeth. My last experience in such close encounters was in September 2018 in Hammerhead cleaning station in Manuelita outside, Cocos. I am glad to be able to go on these two back-to-back trips.

I looked back to my old video clips of close encounters with Scalloped Hammerheads and combined them with the recent close encounters with them in Darwin's Arch and made a short video, as shown, below.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Dan, (and others), check with Greg @aquabluegreg of Liquid Dive.

He's got a new boat on offer!

 

[Dan]

Dan, (and others), check with Greg @aquabluegreg of Liquid Dive.

He's got a new boat on offer!

I booked a lot of trips through him, Palau, Cuba, Raja Ampat, Visayas, Sea of Cortez, etc.