Galapagos Aggressor - Captain's Logs

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report November 1 – 8, 2012

Hi there and regards from the most beautiful diving sites in the world "GALAPAGOS”. This week we welcomed Spot Project Group from Italy: Roberto, Marco, Barbara, Stefano, Corrado, Mauro, Paolo, Giuseppe R., Roberta, Ornella, Giuseppe V., Sergio, Paolo and Saverio.

On Thursday, we made our check out dive at Isla Lobos where we had the opportunity to play with juvenile sea lion that are very friendly. We also saw blue-footed boobies who were plunging suddenly into the water. You can hear them when they enter to the water and on the way up catching fish.

Friday, we enjoyed two dives at Punta Carrion where the average temperature is 68F/71F. We had a mild current. Here we saw a horn shark, green sea turtles, sea lions, and a spectacular school of devil rays just as soon as we got in the water. We were right on the top of them. We also saw scorpion fish and in a nice white sandy area filled with some bushes of black coral we spotted an eagle ray.

Cousins Rock, close to Santiago Island, is where we did one dive before go to Wolf I. We dove with many green sea turtles that were either resting on the bottom between the bushes of black coral or swimming around us, sea lions trying to catch Creole fish, and some barracudas. We also enjoyed the gorgeous topography.

Wolf Island is one of few places in the world where you can enjoy the most beautiful sharks such as Scalloped Hammer head sharks and Galapagos sharks. We were holding on the rocks and the Galapagos sharks surrounded us for a long time trying to show us how strong they are. Almost touching the lens, they were very curious and I think everybody got nice pictures.
Eagle rays - as soon as they realize that we were in the neighborhood they started coming and they really gave us a show. It is amazing how right in front of us they were breaking the barnacles. In case you didn’t know, eagle rays feed on mollusks and crustaceans, crushing their shells with their extremely hard flattened teeth. Green sea turtles, yellow fin tuna, barracudas, scorpion fish, almaco jack, trevally jack, steel pompano, grunts, snappers, and the most common fish here - Creole fish welcomed us to the biggest fishbowl in the world!

Sunday and Monday we spent at Darwin’s Island at the dive site at Darwin’s Arch. Here we saw the biggest fish of them all - Whale Sharks! Hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, black tip sharks, blue-spotted jacks (hunting all the time in groups) and the Creole fish were also here. This was an awesome, spectacular show of all of these creatures.

Tuesday we journeyed to Isabella Island, which is named in honor of Queen Isabella of Spain who sponsored the voyages of Columbus. It is one of the largest island of Galapagos; 4.640 square kilometers and with a length of 100 kilometers it is 4 times larger than Santa Cruz Island. Our dive site is Punta Vicente Roca, towards the northwest, where we were impressed by the heaviest known bonnie fish - the Pacific oceanic sunfish or Mola Mola. An adult could weigh 1,000kg. Mola Molas’ main diet is jellyfish and they have to eat a lot of it in order to develop and maintain their great mass. Here at Punta Vicente Roca we a have a good cleaning station with resident Mexican hogfish and king angelfish. Also here the sea lions are very friendly and swimming amongst us like they wanted to be in the photos too. We also spotted flightless cormorant that are always in a hurry looking for small fish, octopus, bull head sharks (here they are small – only 60cm long), schools of salemas fish, and the red-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini). The red-lipped batfish are carnivorous, eating small fish and small shrimps along with some mollusks, and they like the sandy bottom that we found at around 90feet depth. The topography is unique with an inside wall in which you can find anemones, sea fans, black coral, tiny fish, and variety of macro stuff. It is filled with very colorful sea life.

After we finished our diving we took a panga ride (dinghy ride) where we saw so many green sea turtle on the surface, penguins, blue footed booby birds, frigates birds, marine iguanas, flightless cormorant and had a chance to view the beautiful island land scape.

Wednesday, during our land tour in Santa Cruz Island we visited a private ranch to see the giant tortoises in the wild and the lava tunnels. We ended our tour at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Thursday our guests departed for the San Cristobal airport and their homeward flights.

Come to the Galapagos Aggressor where you will share memorable moments you will have for the rest of your life. Our crew is always ready to show you the incredible sites both under the water and on the surface so you too can see how special Galapagos is.

Thank you for sharing your vacation with us!
Nelson Martinez
Dive Instructor SSI & PADI
Guide of the Marine Reserve Galapagos

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report November 15 – 22, 2012

Guests: Sonia, Christian, Ricardo, Frank, Marion, Thierry, Alain, Federico, Sophie, Armand, Michel, Martine, Roland, Myrielle, Oliver, Deborah.

Crew: Hector (captain), Lenin and Nicolas (divemasters & naturalist guides), Dario (panga driver), Omar (panga driver), Jose (chef), Jonathan (chef assistant), Francisco (barman), Manuel (machine engineer).

Conditions:
South: water temp: 60-70 °F. Visibility: 45 Ft. Current: 0 Knots
North: water temp: 65-75 °F. Visibility: 40 Ft. Current: 3 Knots
West: water temp: 58 °F. Visibility: 60 Ft. Current 0 Knots

Recommendations: Bring your 7 mm wetsuit or a dry suit is ok if you get cold easy, hood is recommended, maybe a double layer like a shorty or vest, don’t forget gloves.

This week of diving was lot of fun. We dove all over the Archipelago. We started our check out dive in shallow waters with no current. The dive site was in a nice channel between Santa Cruz and Isla Baltra. We had a sandy bottom and encountered sea lions, stingrays, sea turtles and some tropical fish. After this dive we got deeper and farther to the North and every dive just got better and better. We found schools of hammerheads, barracudas, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, king angels, salemas, lots of red lip batfish, marble rays, countless of species of tropical and colorful fish, lots of scorpion fish, octopus and lobsters hidden very well in the rocks, sea horses, dolphins and maybe ten different species of morays and eels. You can go crazy by just looking at the animals living on the reef. We also saw many species of white, black, soft coral, sponges and volcanic rocks. This was a great week!

This week the temperature of the water was warmer than previous weeks. Keep in mind that the next month is the beginning of the raining season and the weather is getting warmer every day, so you don’t need more than a light hoody or sweatshirt, but under water you can find thermoclines a couple degrees colder and don’t forget that there is one day of cold water diving towards the end of the charter.

Our last day in Santa Cruz Island was very nice as we ventured into the highlands. Here we saw lots of Galapagos giant tortoises and Darwin finches. Also the lava tunnels are always fun to go visit.

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

Eat, Sleep, and Dive Safe.

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

Nicolás Andrade & Lenin Barrera
Galapagos Aggressor II

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report Dec 13 – 20, 2012

This week we welcomed: Andrew & Diane (celebrating their honeymoon onboard), Skye, Christopher & Chelsea, Cara & Daniel, Todd & Tamara, Jean Michel, Nic, Richard& Carol, Margarita & Jorge.

Day one - Check out dive was in Islas Lobos, near to San Cristobal Island. This is a very calm place.
Water Temperature: 22C/72F
Visibility: 8mt / 24ft
Current: very mild.
We had the opportunity to see sea lions, school of salemas, and sea turtles. We also saw a stingray eating and few tropic fish.

Day two – Pta. Carrion - Sta. Cruz and Cousin’s Rock
Water Temp: 20C/ 68F.
Visibility: 12m /36ft
Current: moderate.
We saw a school of golden and Mobula rays, stingray, marble ray, and suddenly a big manta crossed over. White tip reef sharks, and juvenile Galapagos shark, few pacific green sea turtle, and many coral fish in a big area of black coral (greenish color). We also saw the juvenile sea lions hunting.

Day three, four and five - The further northern Islands of Wolf and Darwin Islands
Here is where the activity increases!
Water Temp: 24C/ 76F
Visibility: 15m, 45ft
Current: moderate-strong
We saw big schools of hammer head sharks, schools of Galapagos sharks, school of up to 10 eagle rays making circles (twice we saw them), and a big school of silky sharks on the safe stop. We dove with big school of bottlenose dolphins, and whale sharks - one that was big, about 8 m. and a juvenile.

Day six- Punta Vicente Roca- Isabella
Water Temp: 18C/ 65F
Visibility: 15m /45ft
Current: very mild
We saw Mola Mola, sea horses, big school of black striped salemas fish, a lot of pacific green sea turtles (they were everywhere), many sea lions that are very curious. We also saw the famous flightless cormorant, and marine iguana swimming at the surface, along with penguins at the end of the dive that were just resting on the rocks.

Day seven- Puerto Ayora - Sta. Cruz
Once on land, we went to the highlands on Sta. Cruz in order to visit the “los Gemelos, the famous Giant tortoises in the wild, and we visited the lava tube, which is the remains of activity of the volcano eruption on the Galapagos.
We visited the Charles Darwin Research Station with the famous program of breeding giant tortoises. We also saw the land Iguanas. Our dinner was in town for the final night.

Day eight – airport - San Cristobal

Thanks for a great week and thanks for choosing Galapagos Aggressor!

Gustavo Barba
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

---------- Post added January 8th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ----------

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report Dec 27, 2012 – Jan 3, 2013

This week we welcomed onboard the Galapagos Aggressor II and entire family with Hannah, Lori, Bob, Bobbie, Stephen and Kellie Whitley, Daniel and Elizabeth Hals, Paul, Anthony and Gary, all from USA.

The week started with a check dive on a nice channel between San Cristobal and Lobos Island. Sea lions were playful and we spotted some stingrays also. That night we enjoyed the company of the captain and the crew for a warm welcome cocktail and a grill. The following days we had full diving days with 3 dives per day.

First day at Punta Carrion (Santa Cruz Island) we had fun again with sea lions, Mobula rays and small schools of grunts and snappers. Water was 70 F and in the afternoon we dove at Cousin’s Rock.

Next day we were at Wolf Island where the water was warmer (at 75F) and we had better visibility. We saw lots of hammerhead and Galapagos sharks, lots of Creole fish and many morays tucked under every rock.

Following day we got to the top of the diving sites in Galapagos and the world.... Darwin Island. Here we found schools of hammerheads and lots of silky sharks as well. We had fun diving there for almost two days.... Temperature was 78F approx. and visibility around 60 feet; the current was very gentle in some dives, and in others the current was not so calm.

Last day of diving we had great dives at Punta Vicente Roca (Isabela Island). The water was much colder. Here is one of the main cleaning stations for Mola Mola and maybe the best place to find sea horses, penguins, flight less cormorant and of course sea turtles.

Don’t forget that weather is getting warmer, with more sunny days and calmer water also. But you will find colder thermoclines and the last day of diving is quite cold -around 60F. So if you are like me, I get cold easily, I would recommend a dry suit (I wear almost every day), or a 7mm or more wetsuit.

We again had an amazing week in the Galapagos Islands and onboard the Galapagos Aggressor II.

Wishing all a joyous New Year!

Dive, eat and sleep safe.
Nicolás Andrade and Walter Torres

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor II Captain’s Report Jan 10 – 17, 2013

Our guests arrived to San Cristobal Island from the mainland of Ecuador and we met Lisa, Courtney, Vannessa, and Rod from the USA; Reinaldo from Venezuela; and Anna and Joakim from Sweden and Finland. They were a very nice group of divers and throughout the charter we had lot of fun both in and out of the water! We started with the captain’s briefing and then everybody had a chance to look around the yacht and get familiar with their liveaboard accommodations for the next week. They checked out their cabins and after a light lunch got their dive gear together.

Isla Lobos was the first dive site that was also the checkout dive. This site is a shallow site that has no current. Today the visibility was about 10ft (3m) and the colony of sea lions that live here made the dive very enjoyable. We took about 50 minutes to check our weights and play with the sea lion pups that were going in circles and playing with our bubbles. We had a fun time trying to imitate them and do what they were doing.

Today we enjoyed a very nice sunset while we had a welcome cocktail, during which we introduced all the crew. Our chef then invited everyone to enjoy their first dinner aboard, which was a delicious BBQ.

The second day, in the morning, we dove at Carrion Point, which is located in the northeast corner of Santa Cruz Island. We enjoyed the dive with Mobula rays and a lot of tropical fish. In the afternoon we moved to Cousin’s Rock where we saw many sea lions, sea turtles, morays and a lot of small creatures that were well camouflaged into the black coral. Though the visibility wasn't very clear we had lots of action. A 7mm wetsuit was perfect as the water temperature was between 23C and 15C (76 and 61F). Don't forget your gloves; you will need them full time.

Around 16:30 in the afternoon we start moving towards Wolf Island. We arrived to enjoy an early breakfast at around 07:45 am. Afterwards, we had the dive briefing and our first dive at The Point. The dive was good with visibility around 60 ft. Here we saw our first hammerhead sharks and a school of Galapagos sharks. We came back for a second dive and again the dive was great! After a 3rd dive at Wolf Island we moved to Darwin Island to spend the night. We anchored and waited for a castaway boat that was making its way there. Around midnight he got close enough for us to maneuver to pick him up and to make sure he was ok.

Sunday at Darwin Island we had the same conditions we had found earlier at Wolf. The visibility was very good, and the water was a warm 81ºF. We went diving at the famous Darwin’s Arch and saw a whale shark the second we touched the water. We also encountered lots of hammerhead sharks, many moray eels, some lobster and many different varieties of fish.

After diving at Darwin Island we started sailing to Punta Vicente Roca, which is northwest of Isabela Island. Here the visibility was actually quite good for this place; 45 feet at least. Our guests enjoyed looking at the small staff like the red-lipped batfish and seahorses, but we also had large schools of salemas, many green sea turtles, and the beautifully colored harlequin wrasses. We then saw the penguins feeding, along with the flightless cormorants that were also feeding. Some blue-footed boobies were spotted diving for food, the sea lions were playing and of course, the giant Mola Mola were passing by and getting cleaned. Especially here in this dive site, if you have a dry suit it’s a good idea to bring it as it is much nicer to be warm than cold for one hour as here the water temperature was 61F (15C).

The last day of diving we went to Marshal Cove in search of the Manta rays, but today unfortunately the visibility wasn’t good because there was lot of invertebrates in the water that made the water green and limiting our visibility to around 9ft (3m). But even with these challenges we found one manta ray and a massive school of barracudas. When they passed over us we felt like we were in a night dive!

The last day of the cruise we spent at Santa Cruz Island for our land excursion where we visited a reserve of giant tortoises. Here it is very nice and relaxing to see these lazy giants in the wild. We then walked inside a giant lava tube, and we also went to the famous Scalecia forest that is unique in the world and a habitat that is in critical danger of extinction. Afterwards we moved to the Darwin Research Station that is also a breading Center for giant tortoises. The rest of the day we had some free time to pack and do some shopping in town, or just walk a little bit and to start getting ready to go back into real life.

Thanks to our fun guests for joining us this week onboard the Galapagos Aggressor II.
- Nicolás Andrade

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report January 24 – 31, 2013

Hello Divers!
This is Gustavo and through this short captain’s logbook I would like to share a little part of the wonderful world of Galapagos Islands during this week.

On Thursday, our check out dive was in Isla Lobos; near San Cristobal Island. This is a very calm and nice place.
Temperature: 22C/72F
Visibility: 8mt/24ft
Current: very mild
Here we had the opportunity to see a nursery of sea lions - up to 15, school of salemas, sea turtle. We also saw stingrays eating and few tropic fish. It was a perfect spot to check our weights and gear.

Punta Carrion, Santa Cruz and Cousin’s Rock
Water temp: 20C/68F
Visibility: 12mt /36ft
Current: moderate
We saw school of barracuda, a few stingrays, marble ray, a few Mobula, white tip reef shark, juvenile Galapagos shark, a few pacific green sea turtle, and coral fish in a big area of black coral (greenish in color). We also saw a couple of juvenile sea lions fishing.

Wolf and Darwin Islands, - Great Activity!
Water Temp: 24C/ 76F
Visibility: 15mt/ 45ft
Current: moderate-strong
We saw a big school of hammerhead sharks, school of Galapagos sharks, school of up to 8 eagle rays swimming in circles, big school of silky sharks on the safety stop. On the surface we saw a big school of bottlenose dolphins.

Punta Vicente Roca, Isabella - This is in the northwest part of Isabella Island, close to the cero line, (equator line).
Water temp: 14C/ 58F
Visibility 15m /45ft
Current: very mild
We saw Mola Mola, seahorses, big school of black-striped salemas fish, bull-head shark sleeping, a lot of pacific green sea turtles (they were everywhere), and many sea lions that were very curious of us. We also saw the famous flightless cormorant, marine iguana swimming in the surface, and we also saw penguins at the end of the dive resting in the rocks.

Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz
Once on land we went to the highlands of Santa Cruz in order to visit the “los Gemelos, the famous giant tortoises in the wild. We trekked to the lava tube, which is the remains of activity of the last volcano eruption on the Galapagos. We then visited the Charles Darwin Research Station with its famous program of breeding giant tortoises. Here we also saw the land Iguanas.

Thanks for joining us onboard the Galapagos Aggressor!
Gustavo Barba
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report June 13 – 20, 2013

Our guests this week were from all over the world with some from the United States and others guests joining us from South Korea, Australia and Argentina. We welcomed aboard: Hartmut, Michael, Steven, David, Seth, Suzanne, Robert, Greg, Camille, Raul, Carlos, Lilly, Lun, Dorothy and Ellen.

Crew: Captain Hector, Dive Masters and Naturalist Guides Gustavo and Nicolas, First Mate and Panga Driver Giovanni, Sailor and Panga Driver Dario, Chef Alfredo, Chef Assistant Javier, Bartender Francisco, and Engineers Vicente and Manuel.

Conditions:

South	Water Temp: 70-74 °F	Visibility: 45 ft	Current: 1 Knot
North	Water Temp: 75-78 °F	Visibility: 45 ft	Current: 1 Knot
West	Water Temp: 58-64 °F	Visibility: 45 ft

Recommendations: Bring your 7 mm wetsuit or dry suit. Hood is recommended, and maybe a double layer like a shorty or lava core.

This last week of diving was lots of fun. We went diving all over the Galapagos archipelago and we saw everything you can see if you came to the Galapagos Islands to dive!

We started with our check out dive interacting with sea lions and seeing some tropical fish. This dive was in a channel between Santa Cruz and Baltra. Then, from that point on every dive just got better and better. We found schools of hammerheads, barracudas, eagle rays, golden rays, Galapagos sharks, some whale sharks, king angels, salemas, lots of red-lipped bath fish, marble rays, countless species of tropical and colorful fish, seahorses, scorpion fish, and quite possibly ten different types of morays and eels.

This was a great week, some dives with great visibility and other not as good, but that didn’t matter because we found lots more underwater marine activity, and at least 100 hammerheads per dive! Sometimes a couple of hammerheads would get together in the same picture, and sometime the same shark passed us over and over again. We were also lucky to have our walk on Bartholomew Island with a beautiful sunset to enjoy and lots of animals to watch.

This week the temperature of the water was colder than the previous weeks. In Santa Cruz Island in the highlands there were a lot of Galapagos giant tortoises, and the lava tunnels are always fun to go.

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

Eat, Sleep, and Dive Safe.

Thank you very much for joining us!
Galapagos Aggressor crew

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report June 20 -27, 2013

On Thursday we welcomed our divers aboard the Galapagos Aggressor. Joining us this trip are Barry, Brandon, Sack, Caren, Alicia, Kiel, Jon, Dennis, Agata, Janusz, Candy, Greg, Paula and Danielle who are from a variety of different places: USA, Canada, Poland, Australia and Germany.

We had a great week! We started with a check out dive at the northeast side of Santa Cruz Island at Punta Carrion. The water temperature was 66F and our visibility was around 15 feet. We saw a few stingrays, turtles, octopus and tropical fish. Our dinner this evening was served at the top deck while our guests enjoyed a nice cocktail to go with their grilled meal.

On Friday we had an early morning dive at Punta Carrion with many marble rays, mobula rays, grunts, snappers, sea turtles and many other fish. Then we moved to Bartolome Island where we did two more dives. The current was very strong, but we had a fun dive with many golden rays, marble rays, mobula rays, grunts, snappers, our first sighting of a hammerheads shark, sea turtles and many other tropical fish. We also had a land visit to the lighthouse on top of the island after having a great walk going up almost 300 steps. Our guests had a great time taking pictures of this beautiful volcanic landscape, along with some resident penguins, boobies, and herons.

Saturday we got to Wolf Island and had four amazing dives. The water temperature was 74F with a cooler thermocline and visibility was 30 - 45 feet. Lots of hammerheads passed right in front of us, and lobsters seemed to be everywhere we looked. Also we encountered some morays, some Galapagos sharks, a couple of black tips and creoles.

After our dives at Wolf we moved to Darwin’s Arch in Darwin Island. Here all four dives were good and we saw hammerheads very close, some Galapagos sharks and also some silky sharks.

The following day we moved back to Wolf Island again and we had easier dives, with many more things to see. The highlight actually was during a safety stop when we were close to the reef and spent some time playing with the sea lions.

After a relaxing, long sail we arrived on the east side of Fernandina Island in a place called Cabo Douglas. Here we had magnificent dives in the morning looking for marine iguanas feeding under water and some batfish. We found them along with a school of salemas and some torpedo rays. We spent the afternoon at Isabela Island at a place called Punta Vicente Roca. Here lots of Mobula rays were passing along the bay, along with Mola Molas, seahorses, bullhead sharks and many playful sea lions. The water temperature was 58 F at the bottom and our visibility was very clear and around 90 feet. We also saw a couple of giant turtles passing by making it a very enjoyable dive.

On Wednesday we did one morning dive in a beautiful place called Cousins Rock with 68 F water temperature and 50 feet of visibility so we could appreciate the wonderful fish life. In the afternoon we had a very nice trek to the highlands of Santa Cruz with seeing the giant tortoises and visiting the lava tubes and a couple of craters. Afterwards our guests enjoyed shopping on town followed by a nice dinner at a local restaurant.

Thank you to our wonderful guests for coming to the Galapagos Islands aboard the Galapagos Aggressor.

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report June 27 – July 4, 2013

Guests: Heins, Elfriede, Lee, Marilyn, Austin, Asia, Dale, Murray (joining us for the 3^rd time), Chris, Allison, Felipe, Kidane, Nancy S, Nancy D, Lucia, Miguel.

Crew: Captain Hector, Dive Masters and Naturalist Guides Walter and Ruben, First Mate and Panga Driver Dario, Sailor and Panga Driver Omar, Chef Jose, Chef Assistant Alfredo, Waiter Francisco, Engineer Vicente

Conditions:
South: water temperature: 64 °F - 66°F, Visibility: 40 ft, Current: 0 Knots
North: water temperature: 70-72 °F, Visibility: 40 ft, Current: 3 Knot
West: water temperature: 62 64 °F, Visibility: 60 ft, Current: 0 Knots

Recommendations: Bring your 7 mm wetsuit or a dry suit if you get cold easy, hood is recommended, maybe a double layer like a shorty or vest. Don’t forget gloves, as they are very important.

This last week of diving was lot of fun. We started with a check out dive in shallow waters between Santa Cruz and Isla Baltra. There was no current and we had a sandy bottom with sightings of stingrays and some tropical fish. After this dive we journeyed farther to the north and every dive just got better and better. We found schools of hammerheads, barracudas, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, whale sharks, king angels, salemas, marble rays, countless of species of tropical and colorful fish, lots of scorpionfish, octopus and lobsters that were hidden very well in the rocks, seahorses, dolphins and maybe ten different species of moray eels. Our dives in the west we enjoyed looking at the marine iguanas feeding underwater and we encountered many Mola Mola. We also saw many species of white, black, and soft corals, sponges and volcanic rocks.

Our last day in Santa Cruz Island was very nice as we trekked into the highlands where there were lots of Galapagos giant tortoises, and Darwin finches. Our guests also enjoyed a walk through the lava tunnels that are always fun to go to.

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

Eat, Sleep, and Dive safe.
See you next time and thank you very much for joining us.

Guest comment:
Chris & Allison, Perth, Western Australia

“What an amazing week aboard the Galapagos Aggressor. We were in a double Room #6. The vessel is very comfortable and well equipped. The crew is amazing; we had great dive masters (Walter & Reuben) who delivered all our wildlife dreams & expectations (and more)! Great food and service from the galley crew. And the boys on deck kept the dive operation running smoothly. Hector the captain is also always there on the deck, and proud of his hot tub, which he keeps always ready for us :kiss2:. All the dive sites selected by the team were mind blowing, each with a different dive and experience to offer. Hopefully we will be able to come back again. Thanks to everyone on board .”

---------- Post added July 12th, 2013 at 04:31 PM ----------

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report July 4 – 11, 2013

This week we had a very special occasion onboard as Brian proposed marriage to Casey underwater at The Arch of Darwin Island. This is the first time that this has ever happened onboard and all of our guests cooperated with the celebration! The very same day we also saw Orcas - aka Killer Whales. Four (4) of them crossed right next to the yacht!

Conditions:
South: water temp. 64-66°F, Visibility: 50 Ft. Current: 0 Knots
North: water temp. 70-72°F, Visibility: 60 Ft. Current: 3 Knots
West: water temp. 60-64°F, Visibility: 20 Ft. Current: 0 Knots
Recommendations: Bring your 7 mm wetsuit or a dry suit if you get cold easy. Hood is recommended along with a double layer like a shorty or vest. Don’t forget gloves, as they are very important.

This past week of diving was a lot of fun. We started with a check out dive in the shallow waters of the channel between Santa Cruz and Isla Baltra. There was no current and a sandy bottom with stingrays and some tropical fish so our guests could easily check their weights and gear. After this dive we cruised farther to the North and every dive just got better and better. We found schools of hammerheads, barracudas, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, whale sharks, killer whales, king angelfish, salemas, marble rays, countless species of tropical and colorful fish, lots of scorpion fish, octopus and lobsters that were hidden very well in the rocks, seahorses, dolphins and many different species of eels.

During our time in the west we enjoyed looking at the marine iguanas feeding underwater and the many Mola Molas. You can go crazy by just looking at the things living on the reef and underneath the many varieties of soft corals, sponges and volcanic rocks.

Our last day we visited Santa Cruz Island and our guests enjoyed the highlands where they saw and interacted with lots of Galapagos giant tortoises. Additionally, they saw Darwin finches and walked through the lava tunnels that are always fun to go to.

Thanks to our guest this week for joining us: Rosemarie & Carl, Brian & Casey, Jason & Evangeline, Alvaro & Ana Maria, Leonardo & Leticia, Ronald & Windy, Michael, Jonathan, Richard and Elizabeth.

Eat, Sleep, and Dive Safe.
See you next time and thank you very much for joining us!

Your crew: Hector (Captain), Walter and Ruben (Dive masters and Naturalist guides), Junior (First mate and Panga driver), Omar (Sailor and Panga driver), Jose (Chef), Alfredo (Chef assistant), George (Waiter), and Vicente (Engineer).

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report July 18 – 25, 2013

Hello divers, this is Gustavo and Richard from the Galapagos Aggressor and this week we had a great group or divers, a great time, and a wonderful week full of action. The weather was very good with great visibility and we encountered a lot of hammerheads and whale sharks, especially at Darwin and Wolf.

Crew on Board
Captain: Jhon Carlos
Engineer: Vicente
Oiler: Xavier
Panga drivers: Junior and Dario
Chef: Jose
Chef Assistant: Javier
Bartender: George
Dive Instructor Guide: Richard and Gustavo

Guests on Board:
Raquel and Ana (Spain), Tiffany and Peter (USA), Sally and Graham (UK), Toru (Japan), Randy (USA), Jayson and Jeff (USA), Michael and Larry (USA), Tony and Franc (USA), Anna and Andrew (USA).

CENTRAL ISLANDS - Punta Carrion (Sta. Cruz), Bartolome & Cousin Rock
Temperature Air/Water: 80F/68F
Visibility: 38 ft
Current: Mild
Sea Surface: Calm

Sightings: Stingray, Galapagos snake eel, sea turtle, school of eagle rays, white tip reef shark, group of Mobula, golden ray, hammerhead shark, sea lion, tropical fish.


NORTHERN ISLANDS - Darwin & Wolf
Temperature Air/Water: 82F/74F
Visibility: 40 ft
Current: Moderate
Sea Surface: Quite Choppy (strong wind)
Sightings: Whale shark, hammerhead shark, Galapagos shark, silky shark, stingray, sea turtle, white tip reef shark, group of moray eels, eagle ray, lobster, octopus, dolphin on the surface, sea lion, tropical fish.

WESTERN ISLANDS - Fernandina & Isabela, Cabo Douglas and Pta. Vicente Roca
Temperature Air/Water: 74F/64F
Visibility: 35 ft
Current: Mild
Sea Surface: Calm

Sightings: Marine iguanas, sea turtle, sea lions, sea slugs, seahorses, stingrays, flight less cormorant, salemas, penguins on the surface.

The visibility was great. The sea lions were playing with us the entire time, as there was a special group of juveniles. Although it wasn’t very sunny, the marine iguanas were in the water around 11am and we could see them everywhere eating underwater. There were hundreds of them also along the coast.

Land Excursions:
Hike to Bartolome Island Highland, which is one of the most amazing prehistoric wonderlands and has a typical volcanic landscape. We enjoyed a great sunset while there.

Santa Cruz Highland Tour & Charles Darwin Research Station: We visited the famous giant tortoises in the wild and it was a very great moment to see these giant animals copulating. We then visited the CDRS with its breeding center of the giant tortoises.

Thanks for joining the Galapagos Aggressor this week!

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report July 25 – Aug 1, 2013

Hello Divers! This is Gustavo and Nelson, your dive instructors on board during this week. We had a great group and a wonderful week full of action. The weather was very good with great visibility and a lot of hammerheads and whale sharks, especially in Darwin and Wolf.

Guests on Board:
Sunny (Canada), Randy (USA), Janet and David (Canada), Carlos and Anna (Brazil), Alex (Germany), Sven (Germany), David (USA), Dario (Italy) Renatta and Daniella (Brazil), Jerry (USA), Bob (USA), Katrin and Lazlio (Hungary).

CENTRAL ISLANDS - Punta Carrion (Sta. Cruz), Bartolome & Cousins Rock
Temperature Air/Water: 72F/64F
Visibility: 35ft
Current: Moderate
Sea Surface: Moderate
Sightings: stingray, manta, Galapagos snake eel, sea turtle, school of eagle rays, white tip reef shark, group of Mobula, golden ray, sea lion, tropical fish.

NORTHERN ISLANDS - Darwin & Wolf
Temperature Air/Water: 78F/70F
Visibility: 40ft
Current: Very Strong
Sea Surface: Very Choppy (strong wind)
Surge: Strong Surge
Sightings: hammerhead shark, Galapagos shark, whale shark, silky shark, stingray, sea turtle, white tip reef shark, moray eel, eagle ray, lobster, octopus, dolphins on the surface, sea lion, tropical fish.

WESTERN ISLANDS - Fernandina & Isabela, Cabo Douglas and Pta. Vicente Roca
Temperature Air/Water: 72F/68F
Visibility: 45ft
Current: Mild
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: marine iguanas, red-lipped batfish, mola mola, sea turtle, sea lion, sea slug, seahorse, stingray, flightless cormorant, salemas. The visibility was very good and the sea lions and marine iguanas were in the water around 10:30 am, so we could see them everywhere eating under the water. Again there were hundreds of them along the coast.

Land Excursions:
Hike on Bartolome Island, Highland Tour Santa Cruz Island and visit to Charles Darwin Research Station.

Thanks for joining the Galapagos Aggressor this week.

Crew on Board:
Captain Hector, Engineer Manuel, Panga drivers Junior and Dario, Chef Jose, Chef Assistant Javier, Bartender George, and Dive Instructors and Guides Nelson and Gustavo.