Trip Report Sea of Cortez Loreto Great Circle Trip Sept 21 – Sept 28

[Pipehorse]

Sea of Cortez Loreto Great Circle Trip Sept 21 – Sept 28


Thank you all for your patience this trip report much longer than anticipated

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Impetus For This Trip:

Last year I was supposed to do a seven-day Loreto circle on the Nautilus Undersea Hunter. Last year the seven-day trip was truncated to five days because of a tropical storm. That trip report can be found here Sea of Cortez 2024 . The seven-day Loreto circle is really six and half days on the boat, boarding on Sunday night, departing the following Sunday morning. Six and a half days aboard, six days of diving four tank dives for a total of twenty-four dives. One of the twenty-four dives is a night dive. This year I intended to take a four-day trip followed by a seven-day trip. But the four-day trip got removed from the Nautilus schedule before I could even book it. Instead, I booked the seven-day trip and flew to Cabo San Lucas the same time I would have if I was doing the four-day trip as well. This gave me a chance to dive Cabo locally and hopefully dive Gordo Banks and Cabo Pulmo as well. I did not get to dive Gordo Banks. I did dive Cabo San Lucas three days, and Cabo Pulmo one day. Dive reports for those dives can be found here Diving Cabo San Lucas and Diving Cabo Pulmo Marine Park

Nautilus Explorer

Getting There:

My flight was uneventful this year. American Airlines from Fort Lauderdale connecting Dallas Fort Worth, arriving on schedule at Cabo San Lucas Airport. Used Sealine Cabo for the ride to Cabo, the same vendor as last year. I stayed at the Casa Bella next to the SeeCreatures dive shop





Getting Home:

The choice here is to stay an extra day and get an early flight out in the morning or leave in the afternoon of the day the LOB is disembarked. Leaving early in the morning means a hotel stay for a night. Leaving in the afternoon means a red eye back to the east coast of United States.

I left the same day as disembarking. Transportation provided by Nautilus to the airport, on to Cabo from disembarkation at La Paz. Most of the divers were flying out that afternoon. Disembarked the LOB at 0830, the bus was on the road by 0900. Arrived at the airport at 1145. Passed through airport immigration and airport security quickly without incident. Flying home was Cabo to Denver. Passed through immigration with Global Entry. No customs check. Denver to Orlando (red eye). Brightline train from Orlando to West Palm. Had a bit of run in with Brightline security. I bought a premium class ticket, which allows for checking of a bag for free. I checked the bag and thought I was finished. Fifteen minutes later over the PA, I am being paged by security. Long story short, checked luggage on Brightline is not really checked luggage, because it can be accessed. They had an issue with the never used blunt tip dive knife in a sheath attached to the BC. Whatever, I said this traveled back and forth to Mexico with no issues. I surrounded the knife. I wrote them up on travel advisor as disrespectful and incompetent. It’s okay, I had an extra knife at home that would fit that sheath.



The Boat:

For those unfamiliar with Nautilus operation, they have a local dive shop called SeeCreatures in Cabo San Lucas. Boarding of the liveaboards takes place in La Paz. Divers check in at SeeCreatures and take the bus (Nautilus owns the bus) to La Paz. I am guessing they do it this way because Cabo San Lucas is much closer to the airport than La Paz, and so it is just easy to use Cabo San Lucas. Staying at the Casa Bella next door is convenient, as the bus does not leave until 4pm and all that is necessary is to move your baggage next door to the dive shop when the time comes.

Casa Bella Courtyard

The bus ride to La Paz is about three hours. The bus drops everybody at a marina in La Paz. Passengers are taken out to the boat/ship on the dive skiffs. Hostess greets everybody with champagne. By the time the captain has given a familiar with the ship briefing and a safety briefing, the luggage has been transferred to the ship and stowed in the appropriate room. Dinner is served after those briefings about 8pm, and then hostess shows everybody to their respective rooms. There was an emergency drill of donning life preservers and moving out to dive area to board skiffs in case of emergency. I booked a two-bunk room, roommate unknown to me. However, as luck would have it, I did not have a roommate for this trip.

The boat provides DSMBs and Nautilus Lifeline GPS locators to every diver that does not have one for the duration of the trip. No excuses for getting lost at sea.

Food on the boat was fine. Continental breakfast before the first dive, breakfast after the first dive, lunch after the second dive, snacks after the third dive, and dinner after the fourth dive. Dinners included steaks, tacos, pot roast, hamburgers, and fish. With assortment of vegetables and salad. Lunches were similar, a little lighter.



The Crew:

One captain, one engineer, one mate, one deckhand, one chef, one hostess, three divemasters/dive guides. The only crew not involved with supporting diving directly are the chef and the hostess. The mate and engineers would help with boarding, driving, and unloading skiffs. Captain would occasionally do some skiff driving. Dive guides were always diving, boarding, and unloading skiffs. One divemaster (Roger) and the hostess (Anna) were on the Undersea Hunter when I did the trip last year. My observation is that they all work their asses off to make an excellent experience for the divers. Well done!

Diving Logistics:

Diving is all done in two zodiac skiffs powered by 50hp outboard motors. Divers board the skiffs in full gear except for fins. Fins and cameras are passed to divers after they are in the boat. Divers put fins on while motoring to the dive site. Entrance was back roll off the skiff. Last year aboard the Undersea Hunter divemasters encouraged negative entries, but situationally it never seemed necessary, it just got the dive going all that much faster. There were only a few dives on this trip that negative entries were encouraged, and with only one divemaster. Ascents were usually started at the 52-minute mark at which point the divemaster would pop a DMSB. Ascend, do safety stop, and skiff would be standing by at the surface. Divemaster would board skiff first to help the driver. Divers would pass up cameras, weights, remove BCs, fins, then board the boat. All dive equipment is returned to the dive platform by crew, while divers get out of wetsuits. Divers would disconnect regulators, so that crew could attach whips for filling tanks. O2 analyzers were available for those using nitrox after fill was complete. O2 was between 31 and 32 every time, I left my computer at 31.

Divers were divided into three groups, (I was in group 2). Three groups of seven. Divemasters rotate between groups. The order Order in which each group boards the skiffs is rotated every day. I believe on the night dive and one other dive we had two groups, as some people were sitting dives out. Obviously, people traveling together would be in the same group. I was in the same group of people I was diving with Cabo San Lucas and Cabo Pulmo.

Note diver #6 in group 1 is @mattfish and #7 is his wife Rebecca. @mattfish who got me started on the whole Sea of Cortez thing a year ago. We did not plan to be on this trip together, just a happy coincidence.

 

[Pipehorse]

Dive briefings with nice drawings were presented for each new site. Don’t go blue was a common warning, i.e. don’t go swimming off and get caught in a current that drags a diver away from whatever land mass we happen to be diving. Territorial behavior of male sea lions was explained more than a few times. The point was, if the behavior was seen it would behoove one to heed the warning and back off out of the territory. We did get buzzed a couple times by male sea lions, but that was the extent of the display.

Dive Briefing For First Dive Aboard the Explorer

There were no assigned buddy requirements. The groups followed the divemaster and spread out according to the wants of each individual. The only time I had a buddy was on occasions where members of the group, and/or the divemaster, were surfacing before sixty minutes for whatever reason that might be.

Occasionally groups would cross paths underwater and it might become a bit crowded, but that situation always seemed to sort itself out in less than five minutes. Although on one dive I lost my group and joined another, not on purpose. Even on the sites where there were other LOBs, we were not in the presence of other divers besides our own group for long.



Dive Summary:

There were 24 dives in total, 4 dives a day in six days. Max depth was 124 feet on the first dive at Las Animas. Avg Max Depth was 65.1 feet. Avg depth of dives combined 42.5ft. Avg dive length was 58 minutes. Low sea water temp was 79f, high sea temp 87f at the surface for most dives.

All dives fell into three geological categories. Pinnacles, seamounts, and steep slope rocky shorelines giving way to sand and gravel bottoms. Pinnacles had varying degrees of slopes made of boulders and rocks, giving way to sand and gravel bottoms. Steep slope rocky shorelines had greater degree of slope than the pinnacles leading off to sand and gravel bottoms.

I conducted REEF surveys on every dive. Fish populations were similar across dive sites. With a few exceptions. La Reina had a large school of Bigeye Scad, and a smaller school of Machete. La Lobera had a large school of Mexican Barracuda, that cooperated for video nicely this year, they did not last year. One Spotted Eagle Ray at Piedra Blanca and another at Point Sur Isla Danzante. The first site at Las Animas had Scalloped Hammerheads, and schooling Black Skipjacks.

Given that we usually had good visibility, and it was my first visit to many of these dive sites, my personal range of focus was spent wider angle much more than macro. However, nudibranchs are plentiful, if one takes the time, they are not all that difficult to find. There are hard and soft corals present. But they are randomly situated on rocks and boulders throughout the dive sites. There is black coral on the Fang Ming. Lots of Black Coral at Piedra Blanca, what looked like a field of Black Coral on the west side of Isla Del Carmen. Encountered a few octopi but did not a single squid for the entire trip. During the night dive we got on some crazy looking worms, and one beautiful species of sea anemone Alicia beebei.

Other species of note were Green Sea Turtles, California Sea Lions, and Guadalape Fur Seals. Green Sea Turtles were occasionally observed at various sites. The exception was La Reina where on the third dive I counted nine Green Sea Turtles, somewhat less than last year. California Sea Lions were present at five of ten diving sites. Guadalupe Fur Seals were present at one site. Sometimes the sea lions would make a quick pass to take a look at divers. Other times they were extremely playful, especially if engaged by a diver rotating or spinning about. The Guadalupe Fur Seals were more eager to frolic with divers than the sea lions.

Miscellaneous:

Last year I brought a 5mm wetsuit and a hooded vest. Based on the experience of last year I brought a new 3mm wetsuit hooded vest, a beanie hood, and a 1mm shorty. Most dives I used the 3mm regardless of temperature. A few dives I was in just the shorty, and a few other dives just a rash guard. I think the only time I used a hood was for the night dive.

Standard tank on the boat is aluminum 80. On request I was given a steel 15 liter. Total overkill with regards to gas, I finished some dives with as much as 1800 psi remaining. They have 12-liter tanks, I would go with that the next time.

In the report from last year, I marked many positions with pictures of google maps. If a site for this trip is the same as last year, check out last year’s report for an exact location.



Dives on the Explorer.

9/22 Day 1 Dive 1 El Corralito –Westside of Isla Espiritu Santo Near Playa Corralito



This was checkout dive. More I think for the divemaster to check out the divers than for the divers to check themselves out. It was a shallow site no deeper than 40ft. Large boulders extend out from the shoreline, with a sandy/gravely slope extending out past where the boulders end. Given that this dive started at 1100am, and we had boarded the boat 15 hours earlier, it was nice to finally get in the water. There were plenty of fish to count. Diving among bus size boulders is always interesting, given in southeast Florida we don’t have anything like that.

Dive 2 Fang Ming - Westside of Isla Espiritu Santo Near Playa Corralitos

The dive was an artificial reef named Fang Ming. A ship confiscated by the Mexican Government in 1995 for attempted immigrant smuggling. It was sunk in 1999 on the west side of Espiritu Santo Island. It is in 72 feet of water upright and intact. It is located inside of a national park, fishing is not allowed. Sea temp was a constant 85f, compared to 81f on year prior. Max depth was 70ft, avg depth 50ft, visibility in 50ft range. The results of no fishing are large Leopard Groupers, in the 30”-36” range. The Amarillo Snapper, while not as large as the grouper, is in the 24” range. The highlight of this dive for me was the same as when I did it last year. Longnose Hawkfish hanging out in the Black Coral. This is the only site I observed Longnose Hawkfish.

Longnose Hawkfish at the Fang Ming


Dive 3 Canonero (C-59) - Westside of Isla Espiritu Santo Near Playa Corralitos

Originally the USS Diploma an Admirable-class World War ll minesweeper built in Tampa, Florida saw Pacific service in 1945 at Okinawa, Guam, Saipan, and Japanese waters. Transferred to Mexican Navy in 1962 renamed ARM DM-17; renamed ARM Cadete Francisco Marquez (C-59) in 1994. Sunk intentionally to create an artificial reef.

It was sunk upright but now lies on its side curtesy of a hurricane. Max depth 65ft, avg depth 48ft, visibility 50ft with lots of white particulate. Given its proximity to Fang Ming, I thought it would be much the same. Less fish, and less Black Coral. The highlight of this dive was Mushroom Sidegill, a bright yellow colored sea snail or false limpet.

Drawing For Dive 3 Canonero


Dive 4 Suwanee (Night Dive) - In the channel between Isla Espiritu Santo, and the mainland of Baja.

This reef is marked by a small buoy, and it is difficult to locate at night. The dive was planned for 8pm and we did not get in the water until 9pm. Max depth 33ft, avg depth 26ft, sea temp 85f-83f. It was interesting shallow water reef, with way more hard coral than I have seen on any other dive in the Sea of Cortez. I would like to do this as a daytime dive sometime in the future. Lots of relief with small ledges to examine. There were small anchovy/sardine type fish constantly colliding with the dive lights. I switched over to red light to prevent the little fish from being attracted to the light. There were many Green Moray eels out an about. One Green Sea Turtle. Lions Paw Sea Cucumbers were out in force. As were many sea hares. Most of the fish were just trying to sleep as best they could without pesky scuba divers shining lights in their eyes. Species of note was a Rainbow Scorpionfish, I don’t think I had seen one prior to this dive. I was not thrilled with doing the one-night dive of the trip on the first day of diving. Apparently, others felt the same way, because I think we only had a total of 12 people for this dive.

Highlight of Day 1: Longnose Hawkfish in Black Coral on the Fang Ming

 

[Pipehorse]

9/23 Day 2 Dive 1 La Reina – Five miles due north of Isla Ceralvo

La Reina is a pinnacle. It is not large enough to see on googlemaps. Of all the pinnacles visited, it has the least amount of slope. It has two tiny peaks with a canyon/valley in the middle. This site is close enough to La Paz, so that day trips can be done here. It can get crowded at times. We did all four dives of day two at this site. There were some divers on the boat that expressed dismay at diving the same site four times. The alternative was to do it three times and go to another site. The other site probably would have been La Reinata. That is what we did aboard the Undersea Hunter last year. I think La Reina is a much better site, and the divemasters confirmed this to me. I am not sure how the captain reached the final decision to stay at La Reina, but I was happy about it.

The Little Speck On The Horizon Right Of Center Frame Is La Reina, From My Port Early Morning

I think the visibility was the best on the first dive near 100ft. Max depth 61ft avg depth 35ft. Sea temp was 86f-84f. No thermoclines, no green water. I believe we did not venture inside the canyon/valley on the first dive of the day. We observed a large school of Bigeye Scad, a smaller school of Machete, many green morays, and a few sea turtles. With one turtle swimming directly at me as if on cue for a Nat Geo moment.

Dive 2

Sea temp 86f-84f. Visibility 90ft. Max depth 57 feet, avg depth 37 feet. We went through the canyon on this dive. A few sea lions were putting on a little show. Sea lions seemed to enjoy being in the narrowest put of the channel. I found it a little claustrophobic. Once through canyon we made our way onto the slope beyond. More turtle encounters more green moray encounters. I believe this is the dive where the spawning octopus were observed.

Dive 3

Sea temp 86f-84f. Visibility 80ft. Max depth 68ft avg depth 46ft. We made our way around to where scattered remains of the wreck are located. On this afternoon there were more than a few sea turtles taking naps near or the wreck. Lots of Green Morays but did not find any Fantail Pipefish among the morays. I did a little research and found nothing about this wreck. Given the riveted construction of the boilers the ship could have been built anywhere from 1880-1930. The prop has is bent, that says to me it was spinning and hit something. Given lack of radar, and bad weather, it is easy to see how this wreck might have happened a century ago

Dive 4

We set up to go through the canyon again. About half the group made it right away, the rest of us were caught in a current moving us away from the canyon. I dropped to a depth of 35 feet and pulled myself along the rocks until I could turn the corner and get out of the current. The rest of group managed to do the same and made it into the canyon. As early in the day there were some sea lions frolicking in the narrow space. We continued through the canyon to the southeast side of the pinnacles. The schools of Machete and Bigeye Scad were there but did not lend themselves good videos or photos.


Highlight Day 2: Green Turtle swimming right to me, video below.






9/24 Day 3 Dive 1 El Bajo – Three hours cruising on the Explorer south of La Labore

I usually like to figure out the position of a dive site by looking at the surroundings and then looking at google maps. I dropped the ball on this one. The best estimate is three hours south of La Labore at the Explorers cruising speed.

El Bajo is a seamount. The attraction here is schooling Hammerhead Sharks. The presence of the sharks is tied to the thermocline. This was earliest dive start of the trip. My computer as the dive starting at 0728. The idea is to get down near the thermocline and look for the sharks. Unfortunately, the thermocline did not cooperate on this day. I go to the bottom at 109ft. The water was blue, clear, and 84f at 109ft. I could see looking out in front of me there was a green layer thermocline much deeper than where I was. The group circled back closer to the seamount. We did see a marlin or perhaps a sailfish above during the dive. At depth I observed the only Zebra Moray of the trip. The dive was short, given the objective of sharks was not met, and the next dive site was some distance away.

9/24 Dive 2-4 La Labore – 1.5 miles due west of Isla San Francisco

La Labore is a pinnacle located 1.5 miles due west of Isla San Francisco. The slope from exposed rocks is not that steep, and large boulders are strewn about leading to a sand/gravel bottom at 55ft. Max depth for three dives 56ft. Sea temp was constant at 85f for all three dives with a visibility of 70ft. As was the case with La Reina there were some divers aboard that were unimpressed with site and expressed disappointment at the thought of diving it three times. I suggested to the divemasters that there is another site close by, and I showed the divemasters a picture of that site from last year’s report. Unfortunately, there was not enough collective/institutional knowledge aboard to know the exact location. So we did this site three times.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of current at this site and it’s easy to move along slowly if one wishes. There were some sea lions about, and a few came and took a look. But there was not a lot of interaction with sea lions on these dives. From last year I remembered a divemaster said this was a good place to find Pacific Seahorse usually clinging to gorgonians. I looked but did not find any seahorse on these three dives, or any of the others dives for this trip. The resident school of Mexican Barracuda cooperated as if the video was an actual collaboration, between them and me. Other species of note Blue Spotted Jawfish, Longnose Pufferfish, Pink Cardinalfish, Mexican Goatfish, Blue And Gold Snappers.



Highlight Day 3: Being surrounded by the school of Mexican Barracudas






Part of day 3 was a wine cheese cocktail hour on a Playa San Francisquito, located on Isla San Francisco. It is a beautiful cove beach. Smaller pleasure craft were taking advantage of that quiet cove. It was a nice night with a crescent moon, a nice end to a good day of diving.

 

[Pipehorse]

9/25 Day 4 Dive 1-3 Piedra Blanca – Isla Coronado (on the northeast side I think)

I went to google maps to see if I could find this location. When looking at Isla Coronado there are several candidates. Piedra Blanca is a peninsula. Most of peninsula on Isla Coronado are oriented with the pointy end to the east, or northeast. Except Gorilla Head which has the pointy end to the northwest. Problem is, I don’t remember the boat moving from Piedra Blanca to Gorilla Head. Nevertheless, I positive of the Gorilla Head location because it appears on google maps as “Cara en la piedra” (face in the rock) and has an image on google maps. Anyway, I have marked what I thought was Piedra Blanca on the map below, but I could be wrong.

Site Drawing For Piedra Blanca

Visibility was 50-60ft at best. Max depth 68ft avg depth 42ft. This site did have a thermocline at shallower depth, surface temp 86f, bottom temp 82f. Geologically this site was real hodge podge. No necessarily just a slope with boulders that gives me to slope without boulders. Some sections of it were like other sections had small walls descending to 80 or 90 feet. Lots of gorgonians and black coral at this site, but no Pacific Seahorses on the gorgonians, or Longnose Hawkfish in the black coral. Species of note include Finespotted Jawfish, Spotted Eagle Ray, Octopus, Juvenile Blue Spot Jawfish, Humphead Damselfish, and two species of nudibranch.

Kind Of Looks Like It Could Be A Gorilla's Head

Dive 4 Gorilla Head aka Cara en la piedra – Isla Coronado on the northwest side

Visibility 50-60ft sea temp 86f at the surface, 81f at 66ft max depth. Avg depth was 35 ft. This site had less geological variability than Piedra Blanca. Species of note include, Panamic Cushion Stars, Bradley’s Sea Star, Chocolate Chip Sea Star, Brown Cheek Blenny, Little Arabian Cowrie, Green Morays, Blue and Yellow Chromis, Calico Lizardfish, and Longnose Puffers.

Highlight Day 4: Finespotted Jawfish

Finespotted Jawfish


Day 5 Dive 1 Westside Isla Del Carmen close to the south end of the island - (I don’t think this site had a name) – For reference it was across from the north point of Isla Danzante. This was the furthest north the boat traveled, not far from the town of Loreto. I believe this site and the following sites are all accessible from Loreto, but we did not encounter any smaller dive boats.

Visibility for this dive was 80ft. Sea temp at surface 86f, min sea temp at depth 79f (I believe the lowest temperature of the trip). Max depth 79 ft, avg depth 40ft. This was a typical sloping shoreline with lots of boulders. Although I did not count more than 40 species at this site, the fish biomass was impressive. Species most present were Panamic Sergeant Majors, Scissortail Damselfish, Mexican Goatfish, and Pacific Creolefish all numbered well into the thousands. Divemaster wanted to know if there was a category of more than abundant for my fish survey, something like abundant squared. At maximum depth of 79ft was a field of Black Coral, stretching as far as the visibility in both directions. Unfortunately, I did not have time to stay at depth and examine this more closely. I am sure a myriad of fish and invertebrates could be found among the black coral.

I think it was after this dive that the park rangers showed up and wanted to see everybody’s passports on board. I guess this is routine, given this site is within the boundary of a national park.


Day 5 Dive 2 Point Sur Isla Danzante- South end of Isla Danzante

Before I go on, I just want to mention how desolate (a good thing) and quiet it was here. The only ambient noise was created by us and maybe some birds. It was not windy, and the water was calm so even the noise created by wind and water was minimal. Something I had to stop and appreciate for a moment in between all the diving.

Lots of boulders with a gravelly slope at this site. Lots of Panamic Sergeant Majors like the last dive. Two new fish species for me on this dive; Wavyline Grunts and Gulf Opaleye. Of species of note, Latin Grunts, Spottail Grunts, Pyramid Sea star, and Leiaster teres (another species of sea star).

Point Sur


Dive 3-4 El Faro – Near the north end of Isla Danzante

On dive 3 we headed north which took us away from any boulders and turned into gravely slope, that many small Reef Stingrays residing on it. On dive 4 we headed south and it more interesting boulders piled atop of boulders area. Many sea stars, one Snowflake Eel, Skeleton Shrimp hiding in Feather Hydroids, Variegated Sea Urchins, and more than a Stone Scorpionfish.

Highlight Day 5: The multitude of fish during the first dive.

9/18 Day 6 Dive 1 Isla Las Animas – Due East of Isla San Jose

Isla Las Animas is located 12.15 miles due east of the northern tip of Isla San Jose. Isla Las Animas is shaped approximately like a rectangle 500ft wide x 1340ft long. The long side is oriented north south. First two dives were on the southeast corner, where the Scalloped Hammerheads should be found hanging out in the thermoclines.

Max depth first dive 123ft, avg depth 67ft, surface temp 86f, thermocline temp 80f. We descended quickly, and it could be seen that the thermocline was not uniform. It had a vertical component just not a horizontal component. Closer to the seamount the water was blue all the way down to depth, further away the thermocline was at a depth of about 75ft. My reason for going to 123ft was to try and see Cortez Gardens Eels as well as the hammerheads. But the bottom was another 20ft at that point, so no Cortez Garden Eels for the fish survey this year. They would swim just a little out of the thermocline and then back in, just a few at a time. Always it seemed just far away to limit good exposures on the camera. As I ascended, I did a slow spiral circling around the group to bring up the rear. Emi the divemaster had the group moving along the edge of the thermocline, I looked down, and there they were, about 40 hammerheads! On briefing they warn us not to make noise as the hammerheads are easily spooked. I was waving my arms around trying to get anybody’s attention. Finally, Emi looks over his shoulder, and I point downwards. At which point the rest of the group could seem them swimming below us. It was nice to see the schooling hammerheads, however the Black Skipjack Tuna were far more cooperative for video than the hammerheads. There must have been three to four hundred of them swirling around us in blue water.

Dive 2

The second dive was conducted similarly to the first dive, and just a little further north. Max depth for the second dive was 84ft, with a minimum sea temperature of 85f. We did not get that close to the thermocline. But a few hammerheads obliged us by swimming into blue water somewhat close to us, before quickly turning around towards the thermocline again. Thick not quite polarized schools of Pacific Creolefish and Scissortail Damselfish collided to put on a nice show at the end of the dive.

Dive 3

Called the cave because of a cavern like structure at a depth of 68ft, that leads to a smaller cave that is easy to penetrate. I stayed outside on cave, the rest of the group went in and came back out in about 5 minutes time. From there we proceeded south along the wall of the island with a curious and playful sea lion with us for most of the dive. She took a particular interest in my video lights. She was so close most of the time it made getting good video difficult. She would come down and play for a minute or so then bolt back to the surface. The sun was directly overhead, a minute later she would come dive bombing at us with sun directly behind her. I have no doubt if she is hunting fish during the day she does the same thing. One time I lost sight of her, and she grabbed the back of my BC and shook it. Roger the divemaster would pull the sleeve of his rash guard over his hand, extend it towards, and she would take his hand in her mouth. I like a good interaction but that is a little too close for me.


Dive 4

The last dive of the day and trip was further to the east and close to the Guadalupe Fur Seals. Max depth 53ft, avg depth 35ft, surface sea temp 85f, sea temp at depth 85f, duration 60 minutes. There were some Guadalupe Fur Seals about and they did frolic and play but not so much as I remember from last year. I also remember at least a dozen of them in the water with us last year, while I think we only had four on this dive. Any chance to dive with fur seals or sea lions is a good dive, and it was nice way to end the trip.



Highlight Day 6: School of Black Skipjack Tuna