Galapagos Aggressor - Captain's Logs

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain's Log: May 24 - 31, 2012

Galapagos Aggressor II

Log Date: Thursday, May 31, 2012
Entry By: Galapagos Crew




MAY 24th –MAY 31st 2012

First day - Thursday, we arrived to the yacht, after a briefing and light lunch, we prepared for the check out dive in a calm and nice place.

Water temperature 24C.

Visibility 10mt / 30ft.

Current was mild

We saw many juveniles sea lions playing around the divers, that was great, we saw sting ray, and couple of sea turtle.


Second day - Friday, we dove in Sta. Cruz and Santiago, Cousin Rock Islands.

Water condition was very good. Water temperature 24C.

Visibility 15mt / 45ft.

Current was medium

We saw sea turtle, many sea Lions, big school of cow noise golden ray, a group of mobulas very close, small school of eagle ray, white tip reef shark, sting ray. We also saw many sea turtle in a cleaning station posture.


Saturday, Sunday, Monday we arrived to Darwin and Wolf, one of the top ten dive sites on earth, condition was excellent.

Water temperature 26C.

Visibility was about 16mt /48ft.

Current was medium to strong

We had the opportunity to see giant school of hammerhead shark, Galapagos shark, silky, everywhere, during our dive we also had the opportunity to see small group of eagle ray, they were swimming and eating very close to us, for a while, during the safe stop there were many silky everywhere, dolphin under water and also in the surface, some of us had the opportunity to saw Whale shark.


Tuesday after spending time at north we finally arrived to Isabela for our last day diving on Pta. Vicente Roca.

Water temperature 21C.

Visibility 8mt/ 24ft.

Current slow

We had the opportunity to see many sea lions, penguins, flightless cormorant, many sea turtles, marine Iguanas, blue footed boobies in the water fishing, sea horse, small fishes, as red lip but fish, etc.


Wednesday We arrived to Santa Cruz Islands in order to make our land tour day, we visited amazing geological formation, as big collapse, lava tune, also we visit the giant tortoise in the wild, and once in town we visit the famous Charles Darwin Research station, we learned about the program of reproduction center of giant tortoises, land iguanas, and we saw the famous tortoise Lonesome George.


Thursday, San Cristobal airport.


Thanks for a great week: Peng, Xuefeng, Tan, Chao, Wei, Chang, Wei, Bingbing, Dong, wei, Shengkui, Ping, Shuyan, New Keong, from China.


Safe dives!

Gustavo Barba

Galapagos Aggressor Instructors

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II
June 14^th to 21^st, 2012

Hello divers around the world, welcome to Galapagos Islands! You will be diving in the most amazing biodiversity of marine life on earth located 600 miles away from the main land ECUADOR.

We started the dives in the southeast islands with the cold south equatorial current formed by the Peru Coastal (Humboldt) and the Peru Oceanic current, pushed by southeastern trade winds from June to December.

The dive sites are:
Isla lobos (San Cristobal).
Punta Carrion (Santa Cruz Island)
Cousin’s Rock (close to Santiago Island)

At the dive sites mentioned above we enjoyed sea lions, marbled rays, diamond sting rays, green sea turtles, white-tipped reef sharks, Galapagos garden eels, long nosed hawk fish, coral hawk fish, stone scorpion fish, anemones, hundreds of tiny fish such as the pink cardinal fish, blue striped sea slugs, Panamic horse conch along with a beautiful area of black coral. After enjoying our dives with this diverse sea life, we started the long navigation of 120miles away from here to move to the northern islands of Wolf and Darwin Islands.

Wolf Island - Dive sites: Land Slide, The Point, The Caves
The abundance of Creole fish is incredible here. You can’t take pictures of school of hammerhead sharks without having at least forty Creole fishes in the shot. Here you can also see how the food chain works as Galapagos sharks came close showing their strong body (9 feet long). In order to take pictures of a school of hammerhead sharks we swam into the blue (out of the rocks). We had the most exiting dives with dolphins crossing and surrounded us giving us an amazing show. After a moment a school of silky sharks came in being curious as well as the jacks were trying to get amongst the divers, barracudas and huge yellow fin tuna.

Darwin Island - Dive site: The Theater
This is the northern island where we enjoyed dives with hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, green sea turtles, many moray eels, thousands of Creole fish (impossible to have a picture without them). Between the arch and Darwin Island there is a sandy area where the hammerhead sharks and eagle rays come because it is a big cleaning station – we all enjoyed viewing this very much. We then started our journey to the south.

Roca Redonda - This rock is between Wolf and Isabella Island. It is a beautiful area to enjoy with school of hammerhead sharks, huge school of barracuda, harlequin wrasse in different colors like yellow, black, white and a combination of colors, schools of king angelfish, Galapagos sharks and sea lions. Here you can admire how the warm gas comes out from the bottom of the ocean producing a white algae.

Punta Vicente Roca (Isabela Island) – This area is wonderful for small creatures like, the red-lipped batfish, seahorses, green sea turtles everywhere, flightless cormorant and penguins hunting underwater, stingrays, fans with different colors, algae and spectacular black coral. The topography here is totally different because the colors of the rocks and the slope.
On the surface here we saw marine iguanas swimming, flightless cormorant taking a breath to make apnea, penguins swimming or standing on the rock ready for our photos, blue-footed boobys standing up on the rocks, frigate birds and noddy terns. There is a big community living in harmony together here.

On Wednesday we had a land visit on Santa Cruz Island with a great view of the Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild, lava tunnels and a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station.
Recommendations: 7mm wet suit and boots, 3 – 5mm gloves and hood. A 7mm semi-dry suit might be better for some, as the waters in the southern islands are quite chilly.

Thanks all of you that choose our hospitality on the Galapagos Aggressor II and thanks for giving us the opportunity to make your dreams about Galapagos a reality.

The Galapagos Aggressor II crewmembers had a great time with all of you great divers and we hope you come back again!

Nelson Martinez
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II
Captain’s Report August 2^nd to 9^th, 2012

Welcome onboard the Galapagos Aggressor II. We started our dives in the southeast islands of Galapagos at the following dive sites:
Isla lobos (San Cristobal).
Punta Carrion (Santa Cruz Island)
Cousin’s Rock (close to Santiago Island)
Water temperature: 71F/21C

We enjoyed dives here with sea lions and diamond stingrays, along with a green sea turtle that was resting in between the black coral. Also white-tipped reef sharks, Galapagos garden eels, long nosed hawkfish, coral hawkfish, stone scorpion fish, anemones, hundreds of tiny fish such as the pink cardinalfish, blue striped sea slugs, guinea fowl pufferfish in the different color phases of gold to yellow and black to dark purple with white spots, as well as a school of eagle rays. After enjoying dives with the sea life of the area we started the long cruise to the northern Islands of Wolf and Darwin.

Wolf Island -
Water temperature: 75F/24C
Dive sites: Land slide, the Point
We saw Galapagos sharks that came very close to us showing their big (9 ft) and strong bodies. We swam into the blue in order to take pictures of the school of hammerhead sharks. On Monday we did one dive in Wolf, before departing to Darwin, and the sharks were very, very close. Plus we had a school of 15 eagle rays directly above us.

Darwin Island -
Water temperature: 75F/24C
Dive site: the Theater
This is the northern island where we enjoyed diving with the hammerhead sharks. It is great to see them close to the bottom, over the white sandy area moving their body back and forth from the left to the right. Here we also saw Galapagos sharks, one or two black tipped sharks, green sea turtles, many, many moray eels, and thousands of Creole fish – it’s just impossible to take a picture without them in it. We patiently waited the arrival of a whale shark and we were rewarded because we saw a big female passing by us right behind another whale shark. It was just amazing!

Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island -
Water temperature: 60F/15.5C
Here we witnessed another proof of how amazing the diving in Galapagos is, because we would never imagine we could find so many Mola Mola in one dive! We were filming the first sunfish aka Mola Mola, which was five feet in size, and three more suddenly appeared! We also had one manta ray right above us and close to the wall we had six more. We had even more on the next dives. Can you believe that? Yes, dive after dive you will have surprises. The Mola Mola were in the typical cleaning position, which is face up. This means, “clean me up” to the resident Mexican hogfish. This area is wonderful for small creatures like the red-lipped batfish, shrimps and seahorses. We also encountered stingrays and green sea turtles everywhere along with many beautiful fans of different colors, black coral and algae that the marine iguanas were eating on the rocks where the wave breaks. Here the topography is totally different because of the colors of the rocks and the slope.

On the surface we saw marine iguana swimming, flightless cormorant resting on the rocks in the nesting areas, penguins standing on the rocks ready for us to take photos of them, along with blue footed boobies and brown pelicans. Here all the marine creatures live in harmony together.
We finished our week with a land visit to Santa Cruz Island on our final day. Here we had great views of the Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild and lava tunnels along with a visit to the Charles Darwin Research station.

Thank you to our guests for choosing our hospitality aboard the Galapagos Aggressor II and for giving us the opportunity to make your dreams real about Galapagos.

All of the crewmembers of the Galapagos Aggressor II had a great time with all of you great divers and I hope you come back again.

Nelson

Recommendations: 7mm wet suit (or semi-dry suit) and boots, 3mm gloves and hood.

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report August 9 – 23, 2012

Hello Everybody! This is Gustavo and through this logbook we would like to show you a little part of the wonderful world of Galapagos Islands we experienced during this special two-week cruise.

CENTRAL ISLANDS DIVING
SANTA CRUZ (Pta. Carrion- Guy Fawkes)
SANTIAGO (Bartholomew - Cousin’s Rock)
Our check out dive was in Itabaca Channel. This is a very calm and nice place with no current, visibility about 10m/33f and the underwater temperature 20C/68F. We saw a stingray, salema, sea lions, sea turtles, garden eels, and a variety of tropical fish.

We next moved to Cousin’s Rock where the current was medium to strong. We saw sea turtles, sea lions, stingrays, marble rays, eagle rays, and even a few stingrays. Also, white tip reef sharks, a school of barracudas, and a lot of small coral fish swimming in a large patch of black coral, which is actually a greenish color here. A manta ray passed by followed by a school of bonitos. It was a great dive...!

WESTERN ISLANDS
ISABELA (Cabo Marshall, Pta. Vicente Roca - Caleta Tagus)
FERNANDINA (Cabo Hammond - Pta. Mangle - Pta. Espinoza)
ROCA REDONDA
We next moved to the North West part of the Galapagos Island, close to the equator line where we made three dives per day. This area is greatly affected by the Cromwell current, which brings upwellings and nutrition to the surface, but also bringing the cold water from the deep. These are cold dives, about 18C-64F. For the most part the current was very mild and the visibility was good, approximately 12 mt/40ft. The exception was Cabo Hammond where there was big surge dropping the visibility to 6mt /18ft. due in part to the great amount of plankton in the water.

What we saw was amazing. We had Orcas on the surface, but underwater we saw mantas, Galapagos sharks, white tip reef sharks, bull sharks, an amazing school (up to 14) of Mola Mola, a big school of Mobula rays, schools of barracuda, moray eels, yellow fin tuna, seahorses, red lipped batfish, sea lions, schools of salemas, sea turtles, king angel fish, Mexican hog fish, harlequin wrasse, pompanos, bonitos, big eyed salemas, Peruvian torpedo rays, tiger snake eels, and even marine iguanas eating under the water.

We also enjoyed a panga ride where we got a closer view of the orcas, minke whales, penguins, flightless cormorant, swimming marine iguanas, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, and even more sea lions.

NORTHERN ISLANDS
WOLF - DARWIN
Darwin and Wolf are considered two of the best dive sites on earth and we had a great time here. Visibility was pretty good at about 15mt /45f, the water temperature was a nice 26C/79F, and there was a moderate current.

We saw everything! Big schools of hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, a big school of eagle rays that came in very close, and many silky sharks; especially on the safety stops. Also during one of the dives we had the opportunity to see a school of bottlenose dolphins with their babies, and we saw in every dive at least two Whale Sharks! This northern side of Galapagos is really amazing with many different species of fish including big eye jacks, tuna, wahoo, bonito, barracuda. etc.

LAND TOUR DAY
SANTA CRUZ
Once we finished our diving we ventured on land going into the highlands on Santa Cruz in order to visit the “los Gemelos”, Spanish for “The Twins”, which are two big volcanic depressions on the highest part of Santa Cruz. We also visited a private farm to view the famous giant tortoises in the wild. Here also is a lava tube, which is what remains of a previous volcano eruption on the Galapagos. After our farm visit we went to Pto. Ayora to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, which is famous for its program of being a breeding center of giant tortoises. Here we also saw the land Iguanas. After this our guests had plenty of time to visit the town of Pto. Ayora and buy some souvenir in the local shops. Later, we enjoyed dinner in a local restaurant.

San Cristobal Airport. On our final morning our guests checked out and we sent their luggage ahead to the airport with a guide. This gave them time to shop for last minute gifts at the airport or get an Internet connection before the flight departs.

We definitively a great week! Thanks to Gregor, Christian, Bernard, Diete, Stefan, Ralf, Uta, Thomas, Klaus, Kai, Hans-Jochen, Helge, Heike and Maritta for joining us aboard the Galapagos Aggressor II for this special extended itinerary.

Gustavo Barba

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report August 23 – 30, 2012

Our guests the week were from all over the globe: Clara, Raul, Aimee and Huascar from the Dominican Republic, Azucena and Javier from Spain, Mita, Christopher and Chris B. from the United States, Samuel from Israel, Janis from Letonia, and Craig from Australia.

Our crew this charter: Captain Hector, Divemasters and Naturalist guides Richard and Nicolas, First mate and panga driver Giovanni, Sailor and panga driver Dario, Chef Jose, Chef’s assistant Javier, Waiter Francisco, and Engineer Manuel.

CONDITIONS:
South: water temp: 60-70 °F Visibility: 45 Ft Current: 0.5 Knots
North: water temp: 65-75 °F Visibility: 40 Ft Current: 2 Knots
West: water temp: 60 °F Visibility: 60 Ft Current 0.01 Knots


RECOMMENDATIONS: Bring your 7 mm wetsuit or dry suit, hood is recommended, maybe a double layer like a shorty or vest. Don’t forget your gloves.

This last week of diving was lot of fun. We dove all over the Archipelago and we saw just about everything you can see if you come to the Galapagos Islands to dive for a week.

We started with a check out dive playing with sea lions, stingrays, sea turtles and some tropical fish in a nice bay between San Cristobal and Isla Lobos. We then travelled far to the north and every dive just got better and better. We found whale sharks, schools of hammerheads, silky sharks, dolphins, tunas, barracudas, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, king angels, salemas, lots of red lipped batfish, marble rays, countless species of tropical and colorful fish, octopus and lobsters (hidden very well in the rocks), seahorses, scorpion fish, Port Jackson sharks, maybe ten different species of eels, and so much more ... You can go crazy by just looking at the variety of animals living on the reef, along with the many species of white coral and the volcanic rocks. I can only say that this was a great week. Some of our dives had great visibility and others were not so good, but that didn’t matter because we then seemed to find more activity.

This week the water temperature dropped and was colder than the previous weeks. Remember that next month is the coldest month of the year, so consider bringing your dry suit.

Our last day spent in Santa Cruz Island was very nice. In the highlands there were lots of Galapagos giant tortoises and Darwin finches. The lava tunnels were also a treat to view. Galapagos was amazing, as always, offering the best diving, snorkeling and cruising destination in the world!

Eat, Sleep, and Dive Safe.
See you next time and thank you very much for joining us!
Nicolas & Richard
Galapagos Aggressor II

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report August 30 – September 6, 2012

Hi divers around the world. Welcome to the Galapagos Islands where you will be diving in the most amazing biodiversity of marine life on earth, located 600 miles away from the main land of Ecuador.

After our group of divers settled into the Galapagos Aggressor II we started with our check out dive the first afternoon. We continued our next dives in the southeast islands. This is where the cool South Equatorial current, formed by both the Peru Coastal (Humboldt) current and the Peru Oceanic current is pushed by southeastern trade winds from June to December.

The dive sites are:
Isla lobos (San Cristobal).
Punta Carrion ( Santa Cruz Island)
Cousin’s Rock (close to Santiago Island)

In these dive sites we enjoyed encounters with the sea lions, diamond stingrays, a green sea turtle resting in between of the black coral, white-tipped reef sharks, Galapagos garden eels, long-nosed hawkfish, coral hawkfish, stone scorpionfish, anemones, hundreds of tine fish such as the pink cardinal fish, blue-striped sea slugs, a beautiful area of black coral, guinea fowl puffer fish in their different color phases of gold to yellow and black to dark purple with white spots, and schools of eagle rays. After enjoying diving in this area, we started the long navigation (120 miles between Cousin’s Rock and Wolf Island) away from here and moving to the Northern Islands of Wolf and Darwin.

Wolf - dive sites at Landslide and the Point
You simply can’t take pictures of the schools of hammerhead sharks without having at least forty or more Creole wrasse in them. They are seemingly everywhere! The Galapagos sharks came in close once again, showing their powerful bodies – many were at least 9 feet long. To take clear photos of the hammerheads we dove into the blue. After venturing to Darwin, we stopped here again on Monday to do one more dive.

Darwin Island - dive site at the Theater
This is the northern island where we enjoyed diving with even more hammerhead sharks, green sea turtles, many moray eels, thousands of Creole fish, and even dolphins that are often spotted swimming close to the wall (hiding in the shade it seems) in order to be more efficient in their hunting for food. We very patiently waiting the arrival of even one whale shark and we got our reward because we saw a big female passing by us and then another whale shark behind her. It was just amazing! Between the arch and Darwin Island there is a sandy area where the hammerhead sharks come to because it is a big cleaning station. Once again it did not disappoint.

Punta Vicente Roca (Isabela Island)
This area is where you can find the most uniquely shaped fish, better known as the Ocean Sunfish, or commonly called here Mola Mola. We spotted one being cleaning by the Mexican hogfish that was slightly camera shy. We also had numerous sightings of red-lipped batfish, seahorses, green sea turtles were everywhere, stingrays, torpedo rays, and nudibranchs. The topography is totally different here because of the colors of the rocks and the slope from the island that is covered with fans of different colors, algae and even black coral. On the surface we spied marine iguanas swimming, flightless cormorants, penguins, blue-footed booby birds, brown pelicans, and brown noddy terns. From a ride in the zodiac we saw many green sea turtles being cleaned on the surface by the panamic fanged blennies.

Wednesday was saved for a land visit to Santa Cruz Island. Here we had a great view of the Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild and the lava tunnels. We also took a tour through the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Recommendations: 7mm Wet suit (or semi-dry) and boots, gloves and 3mm hood 3mm

Thank you to our guests this week from Dive Dream in Germany for choosing our hospitality aboard the Galapagos Aggressor II. All of the crewmembers had a great time with you and thanks for giving us the opportunity to make your dreams real about Galapagos. We hope you come back again.

Nelson Martinez and Richard Vera
Galapagos Aggressor Instructors

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report September 6 – 13, 2012

Welcome to the World Heritage, Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin developed The Origin of Species and where he couldn’t get into the water like we do now. You will be diving in the most amazing biodiversity of marine life on earth located 600 miles away from the main land of Ecuador.

Diving in the southeast islands:
Isla lobos (San Cristobal)
Punta Carrion (Santa Cruz Island)
Cousin’s Rock (close to Santiago Island)
In these sites the average temperature is 66F and highest is 71F. Where we encounter thermoclines it could be colder. This week we had a mild current.

At the dive sites mentioned above we enjoyed the sea lions, which are playful, encircling us and showing their aquatic skills. It was difficult to miss the numerous Green Sea Turtles, either swimming out in the blue or resting on the mossy slopes. Diamond stingrays, long nosed hawkfish, coral hawkfish, stone scorpion fish, big eagle ray were also sighted. After enjoying the sea life in the area, we started the overnight navigation moving 120 miles away to the Northern-Western Islands of Wolf and Darwin, one of the jewel diving sites in the Galapagos.
Cesare, a professional photographer was with us this charter and found at times the conditions were challenging to get the perfect shot of the sea life, but luckily at the northern Islands (Wolf and Darwin) the conditions were great. I was so happy seeing him with a big smile!

Wolf Island - dive sites: Land slide, The Point
Here the abundance of Creole fish is so incredible; it almost creates a wall from the rock edges we hang onto as we watch the marine life pass us by. The Creole fish almost obscure the view of the schools of Hammerhead Sharks, but no worries, we saw school after school of Hammerheads coast by us in the deep; like 28 meters, 90 feet. The Galapagos Sharks were shallow; like 15 meters, 50 feet and at times we felt surrounded. Eagle Rays were also seen swimming out into the blue and coming back in to see us. They gave us a spectacular show, passing just in front of us and almost touching our heads. We also saw Pacific bonito fish and trevally jacks. While we were waiting and hanging on the rocks an octopus was waving one of his arm like he was calling us. During one of our safety stops there suddenly appeared one of the most amazing animal for me - DOLPHINS! They were jumping above the surface and coming right to us and a couple of them were looking very friendly at us like saying” Welcome to the underwater paradise”.
There is an occasional current and surge here, so gloves are necessary to hang onto the rocks. The water temperature here also averaged 73*F/ 23*C. Unfortunately the visibility was not ideal this week; nevertheless the activity was fantastic.

Darwin Island - dive site: The Theater
This site at the northern island is named “The Theater” because it is just like being in a theater where we are able to watch the marine life such as moray eels, scorpion fish and green sea turtles pass us by. We were as still as possible in the water current. At first I thought our divers were slow swimmers - until the first Whale Shark was spotted! And they were off into the blue like ”Speedy Gonzales” going as fast as possible for a closer view! This moment was a special moment for everybody as they had been waiting for many years for this spectacular sight. I was so happy looking and filming them. Wow, did they celebrate this special moment; waving, dancing, kissing each other, and having a big hug under water. We were very fortunate to see a few Whale Sharks that were pregnant females. We also saw bottlenose dolphins. One passed behind us while we were waiting for a whale shark, and then many were near the surface during our safety stop. There is a sandy area here that is a big cleaning station for the hammerhead sharks. This spot makes for great photos, as you can clearly see the silhouettes of the hammerheads against the sand. The second dive we didn’t see any whale sharks, so for our next dive we hired a specialist in searching whale sharks - our bartender Francisco. And he did for us. He was our “amulet” finding whale sharks. The temperature was a little warmer going from 73*F to 77*F / 23*C to 25*C.

Punta Vicente Roca:
This bay is on the eastern side of Isabela Island. Diving here is quite different from Wolf and Darwin, but still wonderful! The colder waters here (63*F/17*C) are for small creatures like the red-lipped batfish, anemones of different colors (black, white yellow…), colorful seahorses, small flounders, green sea turtles everywhere, fast penguins, flightless cormorant, schools of black stripped salemas, stingrays, fans with different colors, and lots of algae. Here the topography is totally different because of the colors of the rocks and the slope. There is a huge vertical wall where you can also see beautiful black coral. Our first dive we didn’t see the Ocean Sunfish (Mola Mola), but again we made a deal for the second dive with our specialist in finding big animals, Francisco and again our amulet worked. We then saw the most amazing round-shaped fish, the Mola Mola - and five of them! They allowed us to approach very close and take pictures.
On the surface we saw flightless cormorant, blue-footed booby birds, noddy terns, and many marine iguanas on the rocks that were resting and absorbing the heat from both the rocks and the sun. We also spotted fins jutting out of the water that were from the Mola Mola along with the playful sea lions. What a spectacular show. We thank Mother Nature for giving us this unique show and opportunity to be here.

Wednesday we did our land visit on Santa Cruz Island. We had a great view of the Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild and the lava tunnels.

My wetsuit recommendations in Galapagos water:
Wet suit and boots 7mm, gloves and hood 3mm, if you can get a 7mm semi-dry suit will be much better and anything else that you could make you warmer.

Thank you all for choosing our hospitality aboard the Galapagos Aggressor II. All of the crew members had a great time this week with our great divers!

We hope you come back again!
Nelson
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

GALAPAGOS AGGRESSOR II Captain’s Report September 20 – 27, 2012

This week we welcomed aboard Devon, Bob, Sarah, Gregory, and Tommie from the USA, along with Guy, Geert, Jacques, Marleen, Chris and Diederick from Belgium.

CREW: Hector (captain) Ruben and Nicolas (dive masters & Naturalist guides), Dario (sailor), Jonathan (sailor), Jose (chef), Alfredo (chef assistant), Francisco (steward), Vicente (engineer). Photos by Richard Vera

CONDITIONS:
South: water temp.70-74 °F. Visibility: 45 Ft. Current: 1 Knot.
North: water temp. 75-78 °F. Visibility: 60 Ft. Current: 1 Knot
West: water temp. 58-64 °F. Visibility: 20 to 45 Ft. Current: none

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Bring your 7 mm wetsuit or dry suit, a hood is recommended, maybe a double layer like a shorty.

This week of diving was lot of fun. We journeyed all over the archipelago and saw everything! We started with a check out dive in the waters between San Cristobal and Isla Lobos where we had the chance to play with sea lions and view some beautiful tropical fish. Each and every dive just got better and better. We found schools of hammerhead sharks, barracudas, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, and whale sharks like I have never seen. There were so many… I just have no idea! We also saw king angelfish, salemas, red lipped batfish, marble rays, countless species of tropical and colorful fish, seahorses, scorpionfish, and maybe ten different types of morays and eels.

I can only say that it was a great week. Some of our dives we had great visibility and others the visibility was not so good, but it did not matter because we found lots of activity. We also had at least ten whale sharks per dive, sometimes three together at the same time, and sometimes the same shark passed us over and over again.

Personally, this week had one of the best dives I have ever had in Darwin Island. At Santa Cruz Island, where we do a land tour into the highlands, there were lots of Galapagos giant tortoises and the lava tunnels are great fun to visit.

Galapagos was amazing like always, and one more time – it is the best diving destination in the world.

See you next time and thank you very much for joining us.

Eat, Sleep, and Dive safe.

Nicolas & Ruben
Galapagos Aggressor II

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Hi there divers of the world! If you are planning to come to Galapagos Islands this will be an unforgettable dive experience because we always have wonderful dives like we had this week.

We journeyed to different dive sites like Punta Carrion at Santa Cruz Island, Cousin's Rock that is close to Santiago Island, Wolf, Darwin, Punta Vicente Roca at Isabela Island. We saw beautiful black coral, eagle rays that were constantly checking us out and coming in closer and closer, hammerhead sharks, dolphins passing by us while we were doing safety stop and the world’s most amazing big fish. Whale Shark!

As soon as we entered the water in the northern islands we experienced our first Whale Shark passing just underneath us! This was awesome because our guests specifically wanted to see whale sharks and we saw many during our dives. Sometimes two at the same time and we saw at least 18 in 5 dives – it was fantastic!

Green sea turtles, jacks, snappers, seahorses were seen along with another fish that is quite big with a rounded shape. The Oceanic Sun Fish or Mola Mola is easily 1.5 m in diameter plus each fin is 70 cm. At one point we saw three together! Yes, we saw at least 20 Mola Mola in Punta Vicente Roca where this week we experienced very good visibility, beautiful topography and abundant sea life activity that made it easy to forget the low water temperature of 18C / 60F.

We’d like to thank our guests for a great week: Kenneth, Terry, Fabrice, Richard, Jackie, Gustavo, Gaby, Noriko, Nicholas & Jamie, Foo Dan & Chooi Hoon, Mikhail and Marcos.

Galapagos Aggressor II crew

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report October 11 – 18, 2012

Hello and regards from the most beautiful diving sites in the world - "GALAPAGOS”.
But first let me tell you a little about diving in the Galapagos Islands:
The Galapagos Islands have three main currents that you have to consider when you are planning to dive in Galapagos this time of year:

• The Humboldt Current system, with its permanent upwelling cells off Peru, is the most productive in bringing in the marine life. A second particularity lies in the presence of a very intense, extensive shallow zone that is very low in oxygen. Its final particularity is its position under the direct influence of the ENSO mechanism (El Niño Southern Oscillation). The impact of El Niño can only be interpreted by taking into account the system as a whole, on very diverse temporal and spatial scales. The water temperature at this time of the year is between 68F to 72F/20C to 22C.
  • Sites affected by this current: Isla Lobos, Punta Carrion (Santa Cruz island), Cousin Rock (next to Santiago Island)
• Panama Current brings the water in from the north. The water temperature is between 73F to 75F/23C to 24C.
  • Dive sites affected: Wolf and Darwin Islands
• Cromwell Current brings the water in from the west. The water temperature is between 57F to 63F/14C to 17C.
  • Dive site affected: Punta Vicente Roca (Isabella I.)

This time of year we are going to being diving in all three of these currents so my strong recommendation is to choose the right wet suit for diving according to these water temperatures. I also recommend wearing a semidry suit and under it anything that you think is going to help you with the lowest temperature mentioned above (57F/14C).

Our most recent trip we welcomed enthusiast adventurers from the United States, Australia and Canada. We enjoyed dives with sea lions, green sea turtles, scorpion fish, octopus, schools of barracudas, grunts, snappers, colorful sea stars, black coral, sea horses, red lipped bat fish, sting rays, marble rays, horn sharks, harlequin wrasse (yellow, white, black, orange and a mixture of colors), huge schools of black stripped salemas fish, penguins hunting as group of up to 10, flightless cormorant, anemones, corals or many different colors (green, brown, purple), fans, hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, black tip sharks, whale sharks and the most amazing amount of Creole fish in front of us. It was like a big curtain dropped there and it was nearly impossible take a picture without them filling the frame. We also had beautiful white sandy areas where Galapagos garden eels live.
During the panga (inflatable boat) ride we enjoyed viewing from the surface (or snorkeling with in the water) blue footed booby birds, marine iguana that were sunning and swimming, penguins, and flightless cormorant that we could see holding their breath to dive into the water. We also had many green sea turtles - that seemed to be everywhere and what a spectacular show of the Orcas!

The topography in every dive site is a totally different formation and at the end of the trip no one was ready to leave the boat.

During our land tour on Wednesday we visited a private ranch in order to see the giant tortoises in the wild, the lava tunnels and then we ventured to the Charles Darwin Research Station.
Thanks to our guests for joining us this week.

Nelson Martinez
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor