This week at Cabo Pulmo conditions for diving have been outstanding, the blue water has finally arrived and bottom temperatures have been increasing with each new day! Today we recorded 75' Fahrenheit at depths beneath 40 feet while in the shallows we basked in 81' F; a 3mm full wetsuit easily sufficient for all! Swirling tornados of Big Eye Jacks blocked out the light as they passed by overhead; we lay on our backs looking up and blew rings of air with our bubbles through their midst. Large Sea Bass cruised by to check us out, huge schools of Yellow Snapper, Burrito Grunts and Panamic Porkfish shimmered in the distance, visibility was 100+ feet, our journey towards them constantly interrupted by the constant distractions encountered on the way. Two of our guests broke from the group to make their safety stop, back on the panga they described a "field of rays, we stopped counting at fifty, I've never seen anything like it!". My safety stop was pretty special too, I looked beneath me to see two Diamond Stingrays leading four Cownosed Rays and a Smoothtail Mobula Manta. I was so fixated on them I failed to see another Mobula Ray until it was maybe three feet away from me, it seemed that it was just as intrigued by my presence as I was to see it, in fact it startled me, so close did it pass by!
We made our first night dive of the year at Cerro Verde on Tuesday, why we don't get more requests for these I just don't know as we had a great time. Waiting until darkness fell, we descended into the blackness, our flashlights like light sabers penetrated the inky darkness, revealing hidden life with every swish. Arriving at the sand patch at fifty feet a huge dome shaped rock, which wasn't there last time I checked, aroused my curiosity. Stealthily we edged closer and I realised my mistake, the largest Leatherback turtle I think I have ever seen was enjoying a nap and with a dismissive flick of it's fins, rose off the sand and effortlessly moved away to find another resting place. Bizarre looking sea cucumbers draped themselves over boulders, an Octopus munched on a Sea Urchin and thousands of sea lice balled together in the glow of our lights so we switched them off to really experience what it feels like to be at the mercy of the night. Bio-luminescence lit up all around us as we moved our hands, the phosphorescent light creating a myriad of tiny stars all around us. We proceeded to launch into a frenzied underwater dance, like teenagers at a rave, we created our own little solar system; who needs hallucinogens when you can do this, what a laugh! Finally it was time to rise to the surface where we lay back in our BCD's and took in the splendour of the full moon.
Mark Rayor
No comments:
Post a Comment