Galapagos Aggressor I Captain's Logs

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report March 21 – 28, 2013
Crew on Board:
Captain Rufino, Chef Alfredo, Chef's assistant Jason, Waiter George, Engineer Vicente, Oiler Xavier, Panga drivers Omar and Junior, Dive Instructor & Video Pro Gustavo
Guests onboard:
Justin, Matthew, Tara, Ivana and Franco, Rupert, Theresa and Jasper. We celebrated Jasper and Justin’s birthdays onboard!

Land Excursions:
Friday PM. Hiking at Bartolome Island
Wednesday PM. Excursion to Santa Cruz Highlands where we saw Giant Tortoises in the wild and visited the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Weather Air/Water Temperature Visibility Current Sea Surface
Thursday 86/76 21f Mild Calm
Friday 86/78 38f Mild Calm
Saturday 86/82 52f Mild A bit Choppy
Sunday 84/78 52f Mild Calm
Monday 86/80 48f Moderate Calm
Tuesday 76/68 18f Mild Calm
Wednesday 86/80 36f Mild Calm

Sea Life & Special Sightings:
Pta. Carrion: Sea Lions, Sting Ray, Eagle Ray, Tropic Fish, Mobula, Golden Rays, White Tip Reef Shark, and Sea Turtle
Wolf/Darwin: Hammerhead Shark, Galapagos Shark, Silky Shark, Sea Turtle, Dolphins, and Barracudas
Cabo Marshall-Isabela Island: Mantas, Mobulas, Golden Ray, Hammerhead Shark, Sea Turtles, Barracudas, White tip Reef Shark
Cabo Douglas-Fernandina Island and Punta Vicente Roca-Isabela Island: Marine Iguanas, Bull-head Shark, Mola Mola, Mobula, Red-lip Batfish, Seahorse, Sea Lion, Sea Turtle
Cousin Rocks: White Tip Reef Shark, Sea Turtle, Sea Lion, Eagle Ray, and Tropical Fish

This week we enjoy every single dive and we also enjoy amazing sunsets!
Looking forward to have you onboard the Galapagos Aggressor!
Gustavo - Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report March 28 – April 4, 2013

Crew on Board
Captain: Jhon Carlos
Engineer: Enrique
Oiler: Xavier
Panga drivers:Freddy, Omar
Chef: Patricio
Chef Assistant: Jason
Bartender: Georgi
Dive Instructor/Guide: Gustavo

Guests on Board: Claudia y Uwe (Germany), Valery (French) who celebrated his 100th dive!, Christian (Switzerland), Vanessa (England), Maximiliano (Argentina), and Thomas (England).

Dive Sites
Thursday: Check Out dive at Punta Carrion at Santa Cruz.
Temperature Air/Water - 86/76F
Visibility - 38f
Current - Mild
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: Stingray, Sea turtle, Galapagos snake eels, tropical fish

Friday: One dive at Punta Carrion and two dives at Bartolome
Temperature Air/Water - 86/76F
Visibility - 38f
Current - Mild
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: Manta, stingray, sea turtle, school of eagle rays, white tip reef shark, group of Mobulas, golden ray, Galapagos snake eels, tropical fish. This time, the water was warm, and no thermocline.

Saturday: Five dives including one night dive at Wolf Island.
Temperature Air/Water - 84/76F
Visibility - 40f
Current - None
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: Hammerhead shark, Galapagos shark, silky shark, stingray, sea turtle, white tip reef shark, group of moray eels, lobster, octopus, dolphins on the surface, tropical fish.

Sunday: Two Dives at Darwin Island and two dives at Wolf.
Temperature Air/Water - 86/46F
Visibility – 42f
Current - None
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: Hammerhead shark, Galapagos shark, silky shark, stingray, sea turtle, white tip reef shark, moray eels, lobster, octopus, dolphins, tropical fish.

Monday: Five dives at Cabo Marshall at Isabela Island.
Temperature Air/Water - 86/74F
Visibility – 45f
Current - Moderate
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: School of mantas, school of Mobula, golden rays, white tip reef shark, yellow fin tuna, sea turtle, lobster, octopus, school of salemas, tropical fish.
We saw many mantas; they were all over, especially around the bay. After the dive, we took our snorkel and mask and we snorkeled with them; it was so easy to see them everywhere.

Tuesday: Two dives at Cabo Douglas, Fernandina Island and two dives at Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island
Temperature Air/Water - 76/68F
Visibility – 60f
Current - Mild
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: Marine iguanas, sea turtle, sea lions, sea slugs, sea horses, stingrays, flight less cormorant, and penguins on the surface. The visibility was great and sea lions were playing with us all the time as we found a special a group of juveniles. Although it wasn’t too sunny the marine iguanas were in the water around 11 am, so we could see them everywhere eating underwater. There were hundreds of them along the coast.

Wednesday: One dive at Cousin Rocks.
Temperature Air/Water - 84/76F
Visibility – 50f
Current - Mild
Sea Surface - Calm
Sightings: Sea turtle, white tip reef shark, sea lion, school of eagle ray, indo pacific bonitos, tropic fish. We had good visibility with a school of eagle ray that were all the time around the dive site and we could see them during the entire dive. It is now the mating season of some sharks and we saw them in a part of the courtship. It was really amazing to capture this on film. Also, there was a group of white tip reef sharks (up to 8) sleeping.

Land Excursions
Friday: PM. Hiking at Bartolome. Here we enjoyed a great sunset with the horizon of a volcanic landscape.

Wednesday: PM. Santa Cruz Highland tour (giant tortoises in the wild) & Charles Darwin Research Station. We visited the famous giant tortoises and because now they are in the mating season, we took precautions in order to do not disturb them. While we were approaching we had the opportunity to see some of them mating. It was a very great moment to see these giant animals copulating. Visiting the CDRS we also learned about one of their most important programs of breeding the giant tortoises.

Thanks for joining the Galapagos Aggressor this week!

Gustavo - Dive Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report April 4 – 11, 2013

Thursday we welcomed our guests at Baltra airport. Joining us this week, where we had a lot of fun both in and out of the water are Neil, Christine, Sibylle and Henry. We started with the briefing about procedures onboard and diving. After a nice light lunch, everybody looked around the vessel to get familiar with the onboard layout and check their rooms. Then everyone got their dive gear together and we had a check out dive in a shallow spot called Punta Carrion. After a nice sunset we had the welcome cocktail and we introduced all the crew. Then the Chef invited everyone to the first dinner, which was a delicious BBQ, we enjoyed it!

The second day in the morning we dove at Carrion Point, 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 sea turtles, morays and a lot of small creatures camouflaged into the black coral. Though the visibility wasn’t very clear we still had a lot of action. A 7mm wetsuit was perfect. The water temperature was a comfortable 76F, but don’t forget your gloves because you will need them full time. Around 16:30 we started our cruise to Wolf Island.

We arrived at Wolf early and just in time for breakfast. At 7:45 am we had the dive briefing and the first dive at the site called Land Slide. The dive was good and the visibility was approximately 60 ft. We saw hammerhead sharks and a nice school of Galapagos sharks. We returned for the second and third dives and the diving continued to be great.

On Sunday we were at Darwin Island. The visibility was very good and the water was a warm 82F. We found similar activity to what we had at Wolf Island. We went diving at the Arch and we saw many hammerhead sharks. For the second dive we also saw lots of moray eels, some lobster and many, many different tropical fish. Right after the dive we started sailing to Cabo Marshall. Here we saw manta rays, big schools of barracudas, sea lions, and white tip sharks. The visibility was good at 50 ft. and the water temperature around 75F.

The next day we enjoyed diving with marine iguanas and Mola Mola, along with many sea lions at Fernandina, which is at Isabela Island. The water was little cold between 62F to 66F and the visibility was 50ft.

On Wednesday we had the land visit to Santa Cruz Island.

We hope to have you onboard the Galapagos Aggressor soon!
Walter Torres

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor Captain’s Report April 11 – 18, 2013

This week we welcomed Lester, Leslie, Clarence, Sergey, Anastasiya, Alexandre, Ivan, Alan and Jonathan. We enjoyed a check our dive at Punta Carrion, which is a shallow dive site with no current. The water temperature was around 75F. Afterwards we all relaxed with a welcome cocktail and crew introductions. For dinner we were treated to a delicious BBQ.

The second day we dove at Carrion Point, located in the northeast corner of Santa Cruz Island. We began the dive with a big school of Mobula rays, white tip sharks, many turtles and a lot of tropical fish. Then between dives we had the opportunity to snorkel with ORCAS! In the afternoon we moved to Bartolome Island where we saw sea turtles, morays, eagle rays, marbled rays, barracudas and a lot of small creatures camouflaged into the black coral. The visibility was between 50 to 60 ft. and the water temperature was 76 F.

Don’t forget to bring your gloves; you will need them full time.

Later in the afternoon we started cruising to Wolf Island where we arrived early. After our dive briefing we dropped in for the first dive at The Point. The dive was good, the visibility was approximately 60 ft., the water temperature was 79 F and we saw hammerhead sharks, a school of Galapagos sharks, and eagle rays. We returned for dives number two and three and had wonderful dives for both.

Sunday we moved to Darwin Island and again the visibility was very good. Here it was a warm 82F and we encountered similar activity to Wolf. We dove at The Arch and we saw many hammerhead sharks, lots of moray eels, some lobster and many different tropical fish.

Right after our final dive here we started sailing to Cabo Marshall. Once we dropped in the water there we saw manta rays, big schools of barracudas, sea lions, and white tip sharks. The visibility was only around10ft and the water temperature 75 F. The following day we ventured to Fernandina Island and Isabela Island and enjoyed the dives with the feeding marine iguanas and Mola Mola. We also saw many sea lions. Here the water was cold and between 64 to 66 F, but the visibility was a very nice 50ft.

Thanks for this amazing week onboard the Galapagos Aggressor!
Walter Torres - Galapagos Aggressor Instructor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

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

7mm wetsuit was perfect
Water temperatures vary between 23-19 C or 76-65 F
Don't forget your gloves, as you will need them on the dives.

Our guests arrived this past Thursday to Baltra Island. We welcomed Mathew and Kristy from the USA, Darren from South Africa, Chris and Lindsey from Canada and Fabio, Patricia and Robert from Switzerland. This cruise we had a small and very nice group of divers leading to lots of fun both in and out of the water. Once aboard we started with the safety briefing and then our guests got familiar with the yacht, checked their rooms, and then got their dive gear together. Afterward we sat down to a nice light lunch.

Our first dive was a check out dive at Punta Carrion. This is a shallow, calm site where we had visibility of about 15ft. Everyone relaxed and took about 50 minutes to check their proper weight. After a nice sunset everyone enjoyed a welcome cocktail and the crew was introduced. The chef then invited us to our first dinner onboard, which was a delicious BBQ that everyone enjoyed.

The second day we dove at Carrion Point in the morning. This site is located in the northeast corner of Santa Cruz Island and we enjoyed the dive with Mobula rays mixed amongst a lot of tropical fish, a few hammerhead sharks, and some sea turtles. In the afternoon we moved to Bartolome Island and there we saw many sea turtles, morays and a lot of small creatures camouflaged into the black coral. After two dives we went for our land hike at Bartolome and we went all the way to the top. Here is where you find a lighthouse and one of the prettiest views of Galapagos. After this, we started our journey to Wolf Island.

We arrived the following morning at Wolf Island where we first had a dive briefing and then our first dive at the site called The Point. Visibility was around 45 ft and we saw more hammerhead sharks and a school of Galapagos sharks. We stayed for our second and third dives because of the favorable conditions and the diving continued to be great.

Sunday we ventured to Darwin Island. The visibility was very good, the water a warm 70F and we encountered similar activity that we had found earlier at Wolf Island. We dove at The Arch and saw hammerhead sharks, lots of moray eels, some lobster and many different tropical fish.

Cabo Marshall was next on our itinerary and we had great dives. Here we found lots of white tipped sharks, a few different species of morays, and 5 or 6 gigantic yellow fin tunas. We next ventured to Cabo Douglas, Fernandina Island - home of marine iguanas. The water was around 68 F and we found lots of resident iguanas that were in the water feeding on the algae. We also spotted some harlequin wrasses and lot of fish that like the cool and very rich water flowing in from the west.

Right after we finished this last dive we started sailing to Punta Vicente Roca, which is located northwest of Isabela Island. Here our divers enjoyed looking at the small stuff such as red-lipped batfish and seahorses. We also saw many green sea turtles, a bullhead shark and admired the beautiful color of the harlequin wrasses. The flightless cormorants, some blue-footed booby birds diving for food and sea lions playing also entertained us in the water.
But, if you have a Dry Suit you might wish to bring it because here especially it is much nicer to be warm than cold for an hour. Water temperature was 18C or 68F.

The last day of the cruise we did a morning dive at Cousins Rock. We had perfect visibility and great activity with lots of turtles, barracudas, octopus, pipefish, morays, oceanic milkfish and more. After diving we moved to Santa Cruz Island for another land tour. We began with a visit to a reserve for giant tortoises. It is very nice and relaxing to see those lazy giants on the wild. We then walked inside a giant lava tube and also went to the Scalecia Forest that is unique in the world and a habitat in critical danger of extinction. After that we moved to the Charles Darwin Research & Breeding Station for giant tortoises. The remainder of the day our guests had some time to pack and do some shopping in town or just walk a little bit.

Thanks to our guests for a great week. We hope we have a chance to welcome you soon onboard the Galapagos Aggressor.

Nicolás - Dive Master

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report May 2 -9, 2013

Crew on Board - Captain Rufino, Engineer Vicente, Panga drivers Freddy and Junior, Chef Patricio, Chef Assistant Jonathan, Bartender Georgi, Dive Instructor Guides Gustavo and Nelson

Guests on Board - Mathias (Ecuador), Otto (Switzerland), Thomas & Petra (Germany), Herve (France), Xialin, Jiabei & Chun (China), Denis (Russia), Diana (Russia), and Denis (Russia).

Thursday - Check out dive at Punta Carrion at Santa Cruz.
Temperature - Air/Water: 86/74F
Visibility: 38f
Current: Mild
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: Stingray, sea turtles, Galapagos snake eels, tropical fish.

Friday - One dive at Punta Carrion and two dives at Bartolome.
Temperature - Air/Water: 86/74 F
Visibility: 38f
Current: Moderate
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: Manta, stingrays, sea turtles, school of eagle rays, white tip reef sharks, group of Mobula, golden rays, Galapagos snake eels, and tropical fish. This week the water was warm and we experienced no thermocline.

Friday we also spent the afternoon hiking at Bartolome. Here we enjoyed a wonderful sunset over the horizon of this volcanic landscaped island.

Saturday - Five dives, including one night dive at Wolf Island.
Temperature - Air/Water: 82/74F
Visibility: 40f
Current: Moderate, strong
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: Hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, white tip reef sharks, group of moray eels, lobster, octopus, and dolphins on the surface along with many tropical fish.

Sunday - Two dives at Darwin Island and two dives at Wolf.
Temperature - Air/Water: 82/72F
Visibility: 42f
Current: Moderate
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: Hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, white tip reef sharks, moray eels, lobster, octopus, dolphins, and tropical fish.

Monday - Five dives at Cabo Marshall at Isabela Island.
Temperature - Air/Water: 82/72F
Visibility: 45f
Current: Moderate
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: School of mantas, school of Mobula, golden rays, white tip reef sharks, yellow fin tuna, sea turtles, lobster, octopus, school of salemas, tropical fish.
Today we saw many mantas and they were all over, especially around the bay. After the dive we took our mask and snorkels and enjoyed snorkeling with them. It was so easy to see them everywhere.

Tuesday - Two dives at Cabo Douglas, Fernandina Island and two dives at Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island.
Temperature - Air/Water: 76/70F
Visibility: 60
Current: Mild
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: Marine iguanas, sea turtles, sea lions, sea slugs, seahorses, stingrays, flightless cormorant, and penguins on the surface. The visibility was great today and the sea lions were playing with us the entire time; especially a group of juveniles. Although it wasn’t too sunny, the marine iguanas were already in the water around 11 am, so we could see them everywhere eating under water. There were hundreds of them along the coast.

Wednesday - One dive at Cousin Rocks.
Temperature - Air/Water: 84/74F
Visibility: 50f
Current: Moderate
Sea Surface: Calm
Sightings: Sea turtles, white tip reef sharks, sea lions, school of eagle rays, Indo-pacific bonitos, and a multitude of tropic fish. We had good visibility today and we had a school of eagle rays that stayed with us the entire time, we could see them during whole dive. Now is the mating season of some sharks and we were fortunate to see them in part of their courtship. It was really amazing and we were able to capture some of it on video. We also encountered a group of around eight sleeping white tip reef sharks.

Wednesday afternoon we went ashore for the Santa Cruz Highland tour and to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station. We visited the famous giant tortoises in the wild and because now they are in the mating season we took precautions in order to not disturb them, but we did have the opportunity to see some of them mating. Visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station we learned about their program of breeding the giant tortoises. Today we took our time on the tours (approximately 2 hours) because the temperature is very warm this time of year, over 98F.

Thanks for joining the Galapagos Aggressor this week!
Gustavo
Dive Instructor
Galapagos Aggressor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Galapagos Aggressor I Captain’s Report May 30 – June 6, 2013

This week we had a great group of divers and we had lots of fun both in and out of the water. Once everyone boarded and we enjoyed a nice light lunch we started with the safety and orientation briefing, then everyone checked out their rooms and got their dive gear together in preparation of an awesome week of diving to follow.

We started our diving right away with a check out dive at Punta Carrion, as this is a shallow dive site with little current and today the water temperature was 70F. We then enjoyed the nice sunset followed by a welcome cocktail while we did our formal crew introductions. The Chef then invited our guests for the first dinner, which was a delicious BBQ. Our guests were very satiated, content and happy.

The following day in the morning we dove at Carrion Point located at the northeast corner of Santa Cruz Island. Here we enjoyed the dive with a big school of white tip sharks, many turtles and a lot of tropical fish. Then we moved to Bartolome Island where we saw sea turtles, morays, eagle rays, barracudas and a lot of small creatures camouflaged into the black coral on our dive - it was great! The visibility was between 40 and 50 feet and the water temperature was 70F.

About 16:30 we started our cruise northward to Wolf Island where we arrived in time for breakfast. We listened to the dive briefing at 07:45 and then enjoyed our first dive at The Point. Visibility was around 60 feet and here we saw our first hammerhead sharks, a school of Galapagos sharks, and graceful eagle rays. We continued diving here as the conditions were good and the dives were great. The water temperature was a balmy 74F.

Sunday we ventured to Darwin Island and we encountered the same conditions and activity as we had earlier at Wolf. The visibility was very good and the water remained a warm 73ºF. We went diving at The Arch and we saw many hammerhead sharks. Additionally, in the second dive we saw a lot of moray eels, some lobster and many different varieties of tropical fish.

The following day we cruised to Fernandina and Isabela Islands where we enjoyed diving with the feeding marine iguanas, spying the giant mola mola and being entertained by the many sea lions. Here the water was a little cold, as it was between 64F and 66F, but our visibility was good at around 50 ft.

One of the highlights of this week was spotting the Killer Whales for the first time this season and it was a first time our guests had ever seen them! Wow!

We would like to thank our guests for joining us this week and we are looking forward to having you onboard the Galapagos Aggressor soon!

P.S. Don’t forget your gloves, as you will need them full time.
Instructor Walter Torres