Galapagos Aggressor I Captain's Logs

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report July 26^th to August 2^nd, 2012

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

This week we started the dives in the southeast islands. Bruno, one of our guests, told me the first day that he would like to see killer whales. My answer was “Keep thinking you are in the right place to have wishes like this, because last week somebody told me that he would like to see a humpback whale and he did”. You never know what Galapagos has for you…

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 swimming with the sea lions, diamond sting rays, a green sea turtle that was resting in between the black coral, 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, and guinea fowl puffer fish in the different phases of gold to yellow and black to dark purple colors with white spots. Dusky chub fish where also around and they have one of the most expressive faces as they look at you as if they were smiling. After enjoying the sea life of this area we started the long navigation (120 nm between Cousin’s Rock and Wolf Island) to the northern islands of Wolf and Darwin.

Wolf Island - dive sites: Land Slide, the Point
The abundance of Creole fish is incredible! You can’t take pictures of a school of hammerhead sharks without having at least 40 Creole fishes in it. Here you can really see how the food chain works, as the Galapagos sharks came in really close showing their big and strong 9-foot long bodies. We dove in the blue in order to take wide-angle pictures of the school of hammerhead sharks. Monday we did one incredible dive that was shallow at only 42 feet. This gave us a nice goodbye, as we had a huge school of hammerhead sharks with some Galapagos sharks mixed in, along with powerful yellowfin tuna hunting prey and adding to the excitement.

Darwin Island - dive site: The Theater
This is the northern island where we enjoyed diving with hammerhead sharks, green sea turtles, many moray eels, thousands of Creole fish (it’s just impossible to have a picture without them in it). Here the dolphins swim close to the wall, seizing the shade in order to be more efficient in their hunting. We were very patient waiting for a whale shark to pass and we had our reward when we saw a big female right behind another whale shark. We also had hammerhead sharks in the sandy area cleaning station between the arch and Darwin Island. It was just amazing.

Punta Vicente Roca. Isabela Island
This area is where we found the most uniquely shaped fish, the ocean sunfish aka mola mola. It is also wonderful for small creatures like the red-lipped batfish, seahorses, nudibranchs, stingrays, torpedo rays, and green sea turtles everywhere. There are sea fans with many different colors spaced between the algae and black coral. On the surface we saw marine iguana swimming (and resting as they cling to the vertical wall) and flightless cormorant taking a breath then diving to feed. Penguins were standing on the rocks ready for us to take photos. We also saw blue-footed boobies standing up on the rocks, brown pelicans, and from the zodiac we saw so many green sea turtles being cleaned by the panamic fanged blenny. Here there is a big community that lives in harmony together.

Wednesday we made a land visit to Santa Cruz Island where we had great views of the Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild and the lava tunnels. We also visited the Charles Darwin Research station.

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

Thank you for choosing our hospitality on the Galapagos Aggressor I
Nelson Martinez
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report August 2 – 9, 2012

Thursday, August 2^nd. We started our trip with 10 guests: Mike, Michael, Keiko, Christine, Pamela, Ken, Ronaldo, Pilar, Andy, and Steve. After a short ride from the airport we got onboard in the afternoon. We had the welcome briefing and then we distributed the cabins and offered a light lunch. We moved to the diving site, Isla Lobos for our check out dive. Most of our guests were good divers so we had an easy check out dive where we had good visibility of about 30ft and water temperature of 80F.

Back onboard after the check out dive we introduce the crew and then we had our welcome BBQ in the dining room. Unfortunately the wind was a little too brisk to dine on the top deck for our first dinner. We started moving to the next island Punta Carrion around 22h00.

Friday, August 3^rd. After breakfast we had a dive briefing for our first dive. The conditions were good; visibility 30 ft. and we saw some white tip reef sharks, stingrays, and small schools of grunts. After the first dive, we moved to Cousin`s Rock. Here we saw sea lions, white tip sharks, some turtles, and a lot of small creatures. Our guests enjoyed this dive very much.

Saturday, August 4^th. At Wolf we saw many Galapagos hammerheads, silky sharks, a school of eagle rays, and many, many moray eels. The conditions were hard because we had strong currents. The visibility was around 50 ft and the temperature 73F to 75F. At the end of the day of diving we celebrated Pilar’s birthday today with a big cake!

Sunday, August 5^th. At Darwin the conditions were similar to Wolf, with visibility around 60 ft, water temperature 74F to 75F and a very strong current. We saw a lot of hammerheads sharks, three whale sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, and a giant school of big-eyed jacks. After the first dive we even saw a HUMPBACK WHALE swimming around.

Monday and Tuesday August 6^th & 7^th. We started our journey to the south towards Punta Vicente Roca - Isabela Island. We dove six times in one of the best places of Galapagos. The visibility was typically 20ft, and we saw Mola Mola, bullhead sharks, seahorses, salemas, sea lions, and harlequins of different colors that were so beautiful! We also saw many green sea turtles, a bat ray, along with a penguin and a flightless cormorant under the water. After the dive we offered a panga ride for a tour of the land by sea and everyone had a good time here.

Finally we moved to Santa Cruz for the last day, Wednesday 8^th. Completing our trip with a land tour we went to the highlands looking for giant tortoises in the wild and later we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Thanks for a great week!
Your Galapagos Aggressor I Crew

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report Aug 9 – 16, 2012

We started our trip with 12 divers: Mikael K, Mikael I, Lazslo, Alexsey, Toshi, Chantal, Jean- Claude, Andrew, Chuen, Valery, Vladimir and Constantine. After a short ride from the airport we got onboard, gave a welcome briefing and distributed the cabins. Then we offered a light lunch and moved to the diving site, Isla Lobos for a check out dive. As our guests were good divers they had no problems during the checkout dive. Here we had good visibility, approximately 30 ft and warm 80F water. After the dive here in Punta Carrion we relaxed and enjoyed our BBQ dinner. The winds continued to blow so again this week we ate in the dining room instead of on the top deck.

Friday. After our breakfast we had a dive briefing for our first dive. The conditions were okay and the visibility around 30 ft. We saw a few white tipped reef sharks, stingrays, and small schools of grunts. Right after this first dive, we moved to Cousin’s Rock where the dive was better. Here we saw some sea lions, white tip sharks, some turtles, and a whole lot of small marine creatures.

Saturday. At Wolf we saw many Galapagos sharks, Hammerheads, Silky Sharks, a school of eagle rays, and many moray eels. The conditions were hard with a strong current. The visibility was 50 ft and the water temperature 73F to 75F.

Sunday. At Darwin the conditions were similar to Wolf. We saw a lot of Hammerhead sharks and twenty Whale Sharks! Also dolphins, sea turtles, a big school of big eye jacks and after the first dive we saw a humpback whale. Our visibility was 60 ft; the water temperature 74F to 75F and the current was very strong.

Tuesday. We started our journey to the south to Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island. The visibility was close to 40ft and we saw Mola Mola, bullhead sharks, seahorses, salemas, sea lions, harlequins of many different colors, many green sea turtles of which one was very big, a bat ray, a penguin and a flightless cormorant under the water. After that we offered a panga ride for our guests to view the island by sea.

Finally we moved to Santa Cruz to visit the highlands where we were looking for giant tortoises in the wild. We then visited the Charles Darwin Research station.

This trip our friend, Toshiaki from Japan joined us for the seventh time and he will return again next year! Plus we had four friends from Russia who also joined us for the second time.
Thanks for choosing Galapagos Aggressor and hope to see you soon!
Walter Torres
Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report August 16 – 23, 2012

We started our trip with 16 guests: Tordy, Mark, Chuck, Alvaro & Summer, Alex & Martin, Jacek & Zaneta, Peter, Kevin, Jay, Karl, Angel, Wayne, and Shawn. After everyone boarded we moved to the diving site Isla Lobos for a check out dive. We had good visibility at around 30ft and water temperature of 80F.

Friday, after our breakfast, we had a dive briefing for our first dive. Here the conditions were okay with our underwater visibility at 30 ft. We saw a few white tipped reef sharks, stingrays, and small schools of grunts. Right after the first dive we moved to Cousin`s Rock where we saw some sea lions, white tip sharks, and some turtles.

Saturday at Wolf we saw many Galapagos hammerheads, silky sharks, a school of eagle rays, and many moray eels. The conditions were challenging with a strong current, but the visibility was very good at better than 70 ft and the water temperature was between 74F and 77F.

Sunday and Monday we stayed at Darwin and we saw 12 Whale Sharks! Also a lot of hammerheads sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, and a big school of big eye jacks. The visibility was good at 60 ft and the water temperature was74F to 75F. Again we had a very strong current, which brought out the “Big Stuff”.

Tuesday we started our journey to the south to Punta Vicente Roca at Isabela Island. We dived three times here in one of the best places in all of Galapagos for diving. We saw many Mola Mola, bullhead sharks, seahorses, salemas, sea lions, harlequins, and many green sea turtles. After this, we all took a panga ride to view the land and sea creatures from the surface.

Before ending our week, we moved to Santa Cruz on Wednesday to land tour into the highlands for viewing the giant tortoises in the wild.

Thanks for a great week!
Walter Torres
Galapagos Aggressor I

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report Aug 23 – 30, 2012


Check out dive
Our check out dive was in Lobos Island, near to San Cristobal Island. This is a very calm and nice place with no current, visibility about 8m/24ft. and water temperature 18c/65F. We saw stingrays, salemas, sea lions, sea turtles, garden eels and tropical fish.

CENTRAL ISLANDS
SANTA CRUZ (Punta Carrion)
SANTIAGO (Cousin’s Rock)

Conditions: Current was medium to strong, especially at Cousin's Rock. The water temperature was cooler than the past weeks – 16C/ 58F, but we had great visibility. We saw many sea turtles and the sea lions were fishing. Sightings of stingrays, marble rays, a couple of eagle rays, a white tip reef shark, big school of barracudas, and lots of small coral fish in a big area of black coral (the coral actually was a greenish color) made this a great dive...!

NORTHERN ISLANDS
WOLF - DARWIN

Darwin and Wolf are considered one of the best dive sites on earth and we had a great time here. The visibility this time was 6m/18ft and the water temperature was an ok 22C/ 74F. For the most part we had a moderate current, but it began getting strong in Darwin, with an unusual very strong down current. We saw a few small school of hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, and a big school of eagle rays in very close to us. On every safety stop we saw a few curious silky sharks, and we had whale sharks on almost in every single dive. Unfortunately the conditions were very hard because of the strong down current but the huge schools of fish like big eye jacks, tunas, wahoos, bonitos, barracudas, etc. loved it.
One day when we were all on the panga we saw school of bottlenose dolphins with their babies on the surface.

WESTERN ISLAND
ISABELA Pta. Vicente Roca

This is in the North West part of the Galapagos Islands, close to the equator line. Here we made three dives per day. The Cromwell Current affects this entire area, bringing an upwelling and with it dense nutrition to the surface. But this current also brings colder water and these are cold dives, about 16C/58F. We enjoyed the calm current and great visibility, about 25m/75ft.

We saw a few big Mola Mola that were very close to us in a cleaning station position. We had seahorses everywhere, bull sharks, red-lipped bat fish, sea lions, flightless cormorant, schools of salemas, dozens of sea turtle, king angel fish, Mexican hog fish, harlequin wrasse, pompanos, and bonitos. We even saw big marine iguanas eating under the water. After one of our dives we did a panga ride along the cliff where we spied penguins, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas relaxing, hunting and swimming, sea lions, pelicans, and resident blue footed boobies.

LAND TOUR DAY
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND

Once we finished diving we ventured onto land where we went to the highlands on Sta Cruz in order to visit the “los Gemelos”, which are two big collapses of a lava chamber that are in a crater shape. We also visited the famous giant tortoises in the wild on a private farm and we visited the lava tube that is what remains of the last volcano eruption on the Galapagos. After this we went to Pto. Ayora to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station with its famous giant tortoise-breeding program. Here we also saw the land Iguanas. Afterwards our guests had plenty of time to visit the quaint town of Pto. Ayora where they shopped for souvenirs in the local shops.

Thursday, our guests departed for the mainland at San Cristobal Airport.

Thanks for a great week: Simonetta, Manola, Ana, Elizabeth, Kathie, Lorenzo, Francesca, Daniel & Patricia, Michael & Gloria, and Mark & Insun.

Gustavo Barba - Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

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

Thursday 6^th - We started our trip with 15 guests from Russia: Sergey, Alexandr, Oleg, Valeriya, Alexander G, Olga, Dmitry, Vladimir, Sergei K, Pavel, Mykola, Darina, Viacheslav, Tatiana, and Vitaly. We welcomed them at the airport at 12:30 and after a short ride from we got onboard the Galapagos Aggressor I. After the welcome briefing we distributed the cabins and offered a light lunch. We then moved to the diving site, Isla Lobos for our check out dive where we had good visibility (30ft) and a warm 80F water temperature 80F. After the dive it was time to introduce the crew and everyone enjoyed our BBQ on the top deck.

Friday 7^th - After breakfast we had a dive briefing for our first dive. Here the conditions were OK with visibility 20 ft. We saw stingrays, small schools of grunts, and more. Right after the first dive we moved to Cousin’s Rock, where the dive was great. We had good conditions and we saw some sea lions, white tip sharks, turtles, and a lot of small creatures.

Saturday 8^th WOLF
At Wolf we saw many Galapagos and hammerheads sharks, eagle rays, and many moray eels. We had a strong current and the visibility was around 30ft. Our underwater temperature was between70 to 72F.

Sunday 9^th and Monday 10^th DARWIN ISLAND
At Darwin the conditions were similar to Wolf. We saw a lot of hammerheads sharks, three whale sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, and a really big school of big eye jacks. Strong current, visibility of 60 ft and an underwater temperature of 74 to 75F

Tuesday 11th PUNTA VICENTE ROCA (ISABELA ISLAND)
We started our journey to the south, Punta Vicente Roca (Isabela Island). We dove three times here, as this is one of the best places in Galapagos. The visibility was 60 ft. We saw many Mola Mola, bullhead sharks, seahorses, salemas, sea lions, and harlequins of different colors - beautiful! Also, many green sea turtles, a bat ray, a penguin and a flightless cormorant under the water. After this dive we offered a panga ride to view the topside environment.

Wednesday 12^th We moved to Santa Cruz Island where we visited the highlands looking for giant tortoises in the wild. We later we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Specials:
We celebrated Darina’s birthday; 24 years old – and her 100 dives. This trip was the first time that all our guests saw Mola Mola and they were all very happy.

Recommendations:
The average temperature at Punta Carrion and Cousin´s Rock is 68F to 70F, and the average temperature at Wolf & Darwin is 74F to 76F. We recommend bringing a 7mm wetsuit.
The temperature at Punta Vicente Roca is 60F to 63F, we recommend a 7mm wetsuit, a 2mm or 3mm lycra and a hooded vest or we also recommend particularly for this dive site, wearing a semi dry suit.

Thanks for choosing Galapagos Aggressor!
Walter Torres
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

Guest´s comments:
“It was a wonderful trip for everybody from our team. We saw a lot of unbelievable things, but we were really surprised with meeting Mola Mola, whale sharks and so-o-o much underwater activity. We´d like to say many thanks to the crew and all the team for the wonderful time spent at Aggressor.”
Darina Z.

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report September 20 – 27, 2012

Check out dive -
San Cristobal, Isla Lobos This is a very calm and shallow site that is home to a colony of sea lions. There is no current here, visibility was about 10m/33f and the water temperature was around 20C/68F. We saw stingrays, salemas, a big male sea lion, sea turtle, other sea lions playing and an assortment of tropical fish.

Central islands
Santa Cruz (Pta. Carrion - Cousin’s Rock)
Water temperature 20C /70F. Visibility 12mt /36ft. Current: medium to strong, especially at Cousin's Rock. We saw sea turtles, sea lions, stingrays, eagle rays, white tip reef sharks, school of barracudas, a lot of small coral fish in a large area of black coral, school of bonitos and lots of tropical fish, good dives...!

Northern Islands
Wolf – Darwin The northern Islands of Wolf and Darwin have amazing dive sites. Here we were diving with the big animals. We saw a large school of hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, and during the safety stops, we encountered a few silky sharks. The schools of bottlenose dolphins were everywhere. During this week we had the opportunity not only to see one whale shark, but several whale sharks at the same time; three or four in every dive. Water temperature was 24C /75F, the visibility 18m /60ft.

Western Island
Isabela (Pta. Vicente Roca) Isabela is in the northwest part of the Galapagos Islands, close to the equator line. We made three dives here, where the Cromwell Current affects the entire area, bringing a cold upwelling and nutrition to the surface. But these are also very cold dives, about 15C/59F, but with great visibility. We had a very mild current.

Here we saw mantas, a big school of Mobula rays, schools of barracuda, eels, and we even spotted some orcas at the surface, but what was really amazing was watching the Mola Mola that seemed to be everywhere! We probably had more than 20 in a single dive that were being cleaning by the tropic fish. It was really fantastic to watch, because the Mola Mola don’t even move; they stayed in a stationary position. We also saw lots and lots of seahorses, bull head sharks, red lipped bat fish, sea lions, flightless cormorant, schools of salemas, sea turtles, king angel fish, Mexican hog fish, penguins, harlequin wrasse, Galapagos sharks, pompanos, bonitos, big eyes salemas, marine iguanas eating under the water, Peruvian torpedo rays, and tiger snake eels.

We also took a panga ride where we enjoyed watching some of the topside activity with Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas sleeping on the rocks and swimming, sea lions, pelicans, and blue footed boobies.

Puerto Ayora-Sta. Cruz Once on land we went to the highlands on Sta. Cruz to visit the “Los Gemelos”, which are two large volcanic depressions of a lava chamber, like a crater shape. We also visited the famous giant tortoises in the wild at a private farm, and then we visited the lava tube that is what remains of the last volcanic eruption on the Galapagos. Afterwards we went to Puerto Ayora to visited visit the Charles Darwin Research Station that is world famous as a breeding center of giant tortoises. In the afternoon our guests wandered around town shopping for souvenirs in the local shops and later enjoyed dinner at one of the popular restaurants.

San Cristobal Airport Guests check out.

Thanks to our guests for sharing a great week with us: Paule, Rudy, Luc, Ronny, Astrid, Adrianus, Leonid, David and Karen.

Gustavo Barba
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

GALAPAGOS AGGRESSOR I Captain’s Report October 8 – 18, 2012
Special 10 Night Charter

Monday 8^th
We started our special 10 night charter with 12 guests aboard: Kai (joining us for the seventh time), Maria A., Maria V., Mike, Amit, Malini, Michel, Claudine, Tamara, Armand, Ray, and Zhang. We did our check out dive at Isla Lobos, San Cristobal.

Tuesday 9^th
Today during our dives we saw a school of Mobula rays, sea lions, many turtles and some tropical fish. Water temperature was 63 Fº

Wednesday 10^th
We did three dives at Pinta Island where we saw many tropical fish and turtles.

Thursday & Saturday 11^th -13^th
We did six dives in total at Wolf Island and we were treated to sightings of schools of hammerheads, some Galapagos sharks, eagle rays, many moray eels, and turtles.
Visibility 60ft, Water Temperature 72F, and strong current

Friday & Sunday 12^th -14^th
We did six dives between the two days at Darwin`s Arch. Many whale sharks were seen along with schools of hammerheads, some oceanic black tip sharks, dolphins, many moray eels, and turtles. Visibility 60ft, Water Temperature 72F, and strong current

Monday 15^th
Today we did two dives at Punta Espinosa, Fernandina Island and it was spectacular! We saw many marine Iguanas feeding under the water. The water was a very cold 57 Fº and the visibility was around 20 ft.

Tuesday 16^th
In Pta. Vicente Roca, Isabela Island, we dove 3 times. This is one of the best places for diving in Galapagos. The visibility was okay today at approximately 70feet. We saw a few sea lions hunting fish. We also saw 3 Mola Mola, or Oceanfish that were very close to us. This was the very first time any of our divers had seen them in the water and because they were so close everybody got good pictures. We also saw schools of king angelfish, blue sea slugs, sea horses, turtles, salemas, two tigris, bullhead Galapagos shark, harlequins of different colors - they were so beautiful, many green sea turtles, and so many kinds of corals. The conditions were different here than in the other places with good visibility, but very cold water (55F) under the thermocline was 72F above. The current was low. Immediately after the last dive of the week we started moving to Baltra.

Wednesday 17^th
We visited Santa Cruz Island highland and Puerto Ayora.

Thursday 18^th
San Cristobal airport
Thanks for joining us in this special 11-day trip. Congratulations to Maria A. who completed her 800th dive with us!

Walter Torres
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report October 18th-25^th, 2012

This week we welcomed: Cailtin from Australia, Cornelis & Caroline from United Kingdom, Sarah & Koenraad from Belgium.

Thursday: San Cristobal
The checkout dive was in San Cristobal, Isla Lobos. This is a very calm and nice place with no current, visibility about 12m/36f and water temperature 20C/68F.Here we saw stingrays, many sea lions, sea turtles, garden eels, and tropical fish.

Friday: Santa Cruz (Pta. Carrion), Santiago (Cousin’s Rock)
Here we saw many sea turtles, sea lions eating, big school of barracudas, a lot of small coral fish in a big area of black coral, and many tropical fishes, good dive...!
Here the temperature was about 21C/70F, visibility 12mt/ 36ft.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday: Wolf & Darwin
Darwin and Wolf are considered one of the best dive sites on earth. We had a great time over here. Visibility was good at 15mt /45ft, temperature was 22C /74F, moderate current that was getting strong at the end of the dives. We found enormous schools of hammerhead sharks that were out in the blue, but also near to the cliff in the shallow water. Galapagos sharks were everywhere! Big school of eagle rays and Whale sharks surprised us almost in every single dive. Also during one dive we had the opportunity to see dolphins hunting for food in a very large school. During our safety stops we also encountered a few curious silky sharks, school of big eye jack, tuna, wahoo, bonitos, barracudas, etc.

Tuesday: Isabela - Pta. Vicente Roca
Isabela is in the northwest part of the Galapagos Island close to the Equator Line. We made three dives per day. The Cromwell current affects all this area, bringing upwelling and nutrition to the surface but also bringing colder water, about 16C/58F. The current was very mild, and we had great visibility at 25mt. We saw many big Mola Mola that allowed us to get very close as they were in a cleaning station position. Seahorses were everywhere and we encountered bullhead sharks. We also went quite deep (about 30 mt/ 90ft) to see the famous red-lipped batfish. We also saw sea lions, flightless cormorant that were fishing, big schools of salemas, many sea turtles, king angel fish, Mexican hogfish, harlequin wrasse, steel, pompanos, bonitos and we saw the also the famous marine iguanas eating under the water. We did a panga ride along the cliff where we viewed penguins, flightless cormorant, marine iguanas eating under the water and swimming, sea lions, yellow fin tunas, pelicans, blue footed booby, etc.

Wednesday: Santa Cruz
Once on land we went to the highlands on Santa Cruz in order to visit the “los Gemelos”, which are two big collapses of a lava chamber. We also visited the famous giant tortoises in the wild at a private farm. We then visited the lava tube that is all that remains active from the last volcano eruption in the Galapagos. After we visited the farm we went to Pto. Ayora to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station home to the famous program of breeding giant tortoises. We saw the land Iguanas and then our guests had time to visit the town of Pto. Ayora.

Thursday: San Cristobal airport

Thanks for a great week!
Gustavo Barba
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

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Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report October 25^th to November 1^st, 2012

Check out dive -
Our check out dive was in San Cristobal, Isla Lobos. This is a very calm and nice place with no current, visibility around 12m/36ft, and water temperature 20C/68F. Here we saw a couple stingrays, many sea lions, sea turtles, garden eels, and tropical fish.

CENTRAL ISLANDS DIVING
SANTA CRUZ (Pta. Carrion)
SANTIAGO (Cousin’s Rock)
With a moderate current our dives were good, especially at Cousin's Rock. Temperature was around 21C /70F and visibility 12mt /36f. We saw many sea turtles, juvenile sea lion eating, schools of Creole fish, big schools of barracudas, a lot of small coral fish in a big area of black coral, and many tropical fish. A very good dive...!

NORTHERN ISLANDS
WOLF - DARWIN
In this amazing place we had amazing wild life under the water. We found enormous schools of hammerhead sharks, both in the blue but also near to the cliff in shallow water. Again this week the Galapagos sharks were everywhere. Schools of eagle rays were very close to the divers, crossing back and forth amongst themselves. Whale shark surprised us one more time and we saw them on almost in every single dive at Wolf and Darwin Islands. During some dives we had the opportunity to see dolphins hunting. At Darwin we were surprised by a group of Orcas near to the Island. They were eating just behind a few dolphins. We had the chance to film them from the panga and it was an amazing spectacle! This northern side of Galapagos is really a place of amazing dives.

Darwin and Wolf are considered one of the best dive sites on earth and once again we had a great time here. Visibility was good at 15mt /45f, temperature was about 22C/ 74F, moderate current but getting stronger on some of the dives.

WESTERN ISLAND
ISABELA - Pta. Vicente Roca
We saw many big Mola Mola that were being cleaning by small tropic fish. Seahorses seemed to be everywhere, bullhead sharks, red-lipped bat fish, sea lions, and again the flightless cormorants that were fishing. At the end of the dive we spotted a big school of salemas, what seemed like hundreds of sea turtles, king angelfish, Mexican hog fish, harlequin wrasse, steel, pompanos, bonitos, and we also saw the famous marine iguanas eating under the water. We made three dives per day. The Cromwell current affects this area bringing an upwelling of nutrition to the surface but also colder water, about 16C/58F. The current here was very mild and the visibility was good at 25mt approx.

After the diving we did a panga ride along the cliff where we saw penguins, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, sea lions, yellow fin tunas, pelicans, blue footed booby, etc.

LAND TOUR DAY- SANTA CRUZ
Once back on land we went to the highlands in Sta Cruz in order to visit the “los Gemelos”. We also visited the famous giant tortoises in the wild, the lava tube, and after we visited the farm we went to Pto. Ayora to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station. After that our guests had time to visit the quaint town of Pto. Ayora where they had a chance to buy some souvenirs in the local shops. For dinner we recommend a local restaurant in town for our guests to enjoy some local cuisine.

San Cristobal Airport Guests check out.

Thanks to all our guests for a very good week..!
Gustavo Barba
Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

CREW: Rufino (Capitan), Walter T. and Nicolas A. (Dive masters & Naturalist guides), Junior (first mate and panga driver), Freddy (first mate & panga driver), Alfredo (chef), Patricio (chef), George (bar), Vicente (machine engineer), Manuel (chief engineer).

CONDITIONS:
South: water temp: 65-70 °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: 45-60 Ft.
Note: The temperature of the water was warmer than previous weeks.

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

Our week of diving was lot of fun as we welcomed aboard Mitch, Bambi, Judy, Michael, Jarek, Ralf, Christian, Nina, Romy, Guiliana and Fiona. We went diving all over the Archipelago and we saw everything you can see if you came to the Galapagos Islands to dive.

We started on a checkout dive with sea lions and tropical fish in a nice bay between San Cristobal and Isla Lobos. From this point on every dive just got better and better. We found schools of hammer heads, barracudas, eagle rays, golden rays, Galapagos sharks, whale sharks… so many I have no idea, king angels, salemas, lots of red-lipped batfish, marble rays, countless species of tropical and colorful fish, seahorses, scorpion fish, and maybe ten different types of morays and eels.

I can only say that was a great week as some dives had great visibility and some had at least five whale sharks per dive!! Sometimes we had a couple together in the same picture and sometime the same shark passed us over and over again. For me I had one of the best dives I have ever had in Darwin Island!

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!
Nicolas Andrade & Walter Torres