San Benedicto dives at the Boiler and Punta Norte April 7, 2018

After three great dives at Roca Partida Andrea Marshall, organizer and leader of this "Ray of Hope" expedition (http://www.queenofmantas.com/ray-of-hope-expeditions/ , https://www.facebook.com/queenofthemantas  and the Southern Sport's dive master, Jenny, convened us for a quick discussion and decision on what the trip would do next.  The boat's captain gave us two choices based on knowledge of the weather forecast and the plans of the other two boats we were sharing the Roca Partida dive site with.  We could stay another day at Roca Partida and share the site with one of the other two boats (one boat was soon going to depart for the number one dive site in the Revillagigedos Islands, "The Boiler" off San Benedicto Island) or we could depart and beat the other boat to "The Boiler" which would give us the choice on dive times to share with the other boat...Since we hadn't seen any Mantas at Roca Partida, though they can show up anytime, we chose to go to the most likely site for more Manta sightings, "The Boiler" at San Benedicto Island, so off we sailed.

Happily "The Boiler" lived up to its reputation.  It is a stunning huge pinnacle that when viewed from some directions reminds you of the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec Step Pyramids.  The top of the pinnacle is too shallow to dive safely because the swell causes turbulence with breaking waves hence the name "The Boiler".  We saw a variety of sharks and quite a number of different Mantas during two days of diving this site before it got too rough to comfortably dive the site on the final day.

                                         Our group dropping on "The Boiler", stunning blue water.

                              My first view of  the Boiler dive site.  Tremendous visibility.

    The Boiler with Andrea Marshall in the foreground with her large domed camera and collapsible pole spear for taking tissue samples from Mantas.  Frequently the Manta barely flinches when sampled.

                                        Beautiful Blue Fin Travalle.

                                         White Tipped Reef Shark

                                          Flag Cabrilla....I just can't resist taking pictures of posing grouper.

                                          Cottonmouth Jacks

                                                Look at the scale of the Boiler, look at the visibility.

    A large Green Moray and White Tipped Reef Sharks

                                On our second dive of the morning we were happily visited by Mantas!

The following dive I had the most fantastic Giant Manta encounters of the trip.  Sometimes Mantas will hover right over your head taking a bubble bath in your exhaled bubbles, I had a couple do this repeatedly right up close.  Then I also enjoyed having them tightly circle me, I will never forget it!  When you look at a Manta up close you can see that it is looking back and studying you, with curiosity, Mantas have the largest brains of any fish and are social animals.  What would have been really, really, cool would be if I took pictures of all this.  Incredibly, I believe the first time with this great DSLR Canon in a Nauticam case that I've had since 2010, my camera wouldn't focus and shoot because both the plastic dome and my lens had condensation on it!  I practiced my French to no avail...After thinking about what happened I realized it was a compounding of errors.  I always seal up my camera and draw a vacuum on it to check the seal and leave it sealed up for the day and then open it up and download pictures and put in fresh camera and strobe batteries each evening and then take a practice shot to make certain everything is working ok....Well I did all of this but then what happened was the other dive boat broke our agreed upon diving schedule but I didn't know this had happened, and the delay in our next dive kept growing, and I spaced on the fact that I had, being eager to make sure we caught our dive departure schedule with no delay, loaded my camera on the panga in advance and it had sat there basting in the mid day sun, a major major boo boo....Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment....I do have great memories from the dive and that will have to suffice...

Happily we had more dives to come!

To see more pictures from these dives please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7lV13bdQZfbMtD1w2