Dive Report - April 5th, 2015

Date:  April 5th, 2015
Location: Cabo San Lucas

Dive Sites:  Neptune's Finger and Land's End

Depth Range:  30-120 feet

Visibility:  20-40 feet

Temperature:  72 degrees

Current:  Mild

Waves:  Moderate

Wind:  Mild

Today the morning tour visited Neptune's Finger.  The divers wanted to make a deep dive following the top of the canyon wall.  The immersion started near the principal structure and the descended to their operating depth of 110 feet.  Through the descent we found numerous tropical fish escorting us to the maximum depth. On the canyon plateaus we found several guitar fish and stone fish tucked into the crevices and over hangs.  At 110 feet the divers still had a great view of the canyon below.  As you fly over the canyon walls, it is natural to wonder what could come from the depths of the seemingly bottomless void.  During the ascent, the group paused at one of the cleaning stations in 60 feet of water. This cleaning station is a small rock formation sitting off on it's own surrounded only by sand. Being the only structure in the area in mid-water, it is a good stopping point for larger fish to stop and get groomed by butterfly and barber fish picking parasites off, as well as a good spot to see a variety of moray eels.  On the outskirts of the rock amber jacks and bonitos cruised around hunting the fish that strayed from the station.

During past trips to Cabo San Lucas, the divers had enjoyed Land's End before.  However, they had yet to see it after the 2014 hurricane last fall.  The divers descended at Land's End in front of the cave like crevice that used to only be about 10 feet across.  The crevice is now in 50 feet of water and extends almost to the surface.  On the way into the cave we encountered a group of divers coming out.  They had found a large diamond sting ray in the cave and followed it out.  After exploring the recently excavated cave, we made our way through the narrow sea lion channel.  It is about 5 feet across and in the past it was only about 5-10 feet deep. After Hurricane Odile though, it's now almost 30 feet and a good spot to try and see some sea lions playing. After passing through the channel we explored the shipwreck and Land's End Pinnacle.  We encountered large schools of tropical fish, several octopi, more than 10 moray eels.

Dive Report - March 25th, 2015

Date:  March 25^th 2015
Location: Cabo San Lucas

Dive Sites:  Pelican Rock, Neptune's Finger, and Land's End

Depth Range:  30-105 feet

Visibility:  50-60 feet

Temperature:  72 degrees

Current:  Mild

Waves:  Mild

Wind:  Mild

Today the morning charter took a PADI Open Water class to Pelican Rock.  The conditions were amazing.  CJ was instructing the class and Casey tagged along with the group using his Hollis Prism 2 rebreather.  A variety of different species were schooling near Pelican Rock in both shallow and deeper water.  The resident white tip reef sharks and several sea  horses were also spotted. Near the top of the Sand Falls they encountered a pair of mobulas which, while common to Baja and the Sea of Cortez, are not common enough to guarantee sightings on every dive. On top of that they usually tend to keep some distance from divers unless they are in large numbers, so it was quite nice to get a chance to see them and so close for Open Water dive 1! The larger one was around 5-6 feet from wing-tip to wing-tip with a smaller one following behind, maybe 4 feet across. Casey was able to record several minutes of video while the mobulas soared through mid water above the top of the wall.  --- For more great information about Mobulas and Mantas check out                

http://www.mantatrust.org/about-mantas/gentle-giants/

In the afternoon CJ took out a group of certified divers to Neptune's Finger and Land's End. Neptunes Finger sits atop somewhat of a big sandy dome. Shallow areas can be as little as 15-20 feet, and slopes downwards. With almost 50-60 feet of visibility, the deeper part of Neptunes follows the top of the wall around 100 feet. It was fairly calm with not a lot of action going on. Halfway through the dive as we made our way to the mid-water cleaning statoin, we encountered the bait ball of Grunts coming in from the open blue with 6-8 Bonitos mixed in like usual! They stuck with the divers for 20+ minutes even following the group from 60 feet deep all the way up to 5 feet below the surface in the shallow side when the through the duration of the safety stop. Depending on where you are diving in general, the safety stops we make can be uneventful if you have nothing to focus on, so it was great to hangout and be a part of the school!

After an extended safety stop due to our deep dive at Neptune's, we headed towards Lands End. We could see numerous sea lions playing near the surface as we pulled up. We also noticed that the swell and surge had slowly been increasing throughout the day and while there didn't appear to be any current it was noticeable enough, we adjusted our initial dive plan to avoid possible problem areas between the rocks and wall. Due to all the movement in the water in the area the visibility had dropped dramatically too with lots of sand and particles floating everywhere. Combine the turbidity of the water with the sun starting to set behind the end of the peninsula  and the whole dive had a feeling of twilight. Even still we saw large gatherings of snapper and leopard grouper actively swimming around in the haze between schools of grunts and goatfish. When we got close to the far side of the point we could hear the familiar barking sounds of the sea lions. We came upon the alpha male and a group of females with a few smaller pups playing along the bottom and spent the last half of the dive watching them fly and roll playfully around us! Not a bad way to end the day!

Until next time! Eat! Sleep! Dive!

Dive Report - March 22, 2015

Date:  March 22^th 2015
Location: Cabo San Lucas

Dive Sites:  Neptune's Finger & Pelican Rock

Depth Range:  35-107 feet

Visibility:  20-50 feet

Temperature:  72 degrees

Current:  Mild

Waves:  Mild

Wind:  Mild

When one of our dive club members, Roxanne, called up saying it had been too long since she'd gone diving we knew we had to take her to Neptune's Finger. Even with the vis was barely 20-25 feet there back on the 17th and 18th, there was just loads of life active and surrounding you. Now the vis s 40-50 feet and still rocking! Grunts, Jacks and Bonitos doing their daily dance!

Dael was at Pelican Rock with his Open Water Student working on skills, so CJ and Roxanne jumped in there and made our way through both Pelican Rock down to North Wall. While the visibility was noticeably less in these spots compared to Neptune's it was a great dive! No current, We saw 2 yellow pacific seahorses and a sea turtle, whitetip reef sharks in both sites, eels and spent a good 5 minutes with an octopus who was moving out and about!

The water is slowly cooling off again as well as clearing up. Soon we'll start to see more cold water sea life coming back in. All and all though another great day of diving!

Dive Report - March 18th, 2015

Date:  March 18^th 2015
Location: Cabo San Lucas

Dive Sites:  Neptune's Finger & Pelican Rock

Depth Range:  50-110 feet

Visibility:  20-30 feet

Temperature:  68 degrees

Current:  Mild

Waves:  Moderate

Wind:  Moderate

Report: 

Today Nautilus Dive Tech conducted certified diver tours to a couple of the local sites in the Bay of San Lucas.  Dael led the group and Casey accompanied the divers using his Hollis Prism 2 rebreather.

On the first dive the group descended near Neptune's Finger and made a reciprocal heading/ multi-level dive.  The principal rock and the surrounding cleaning stations had a lot of activity.  Although the visibility could have been better, there was still a lot to see.  The group encountered several lobsters, jeweled moray eels, green moray eels, a large stone fish, guitar fish, schooling tropical fish and an extended visit by the bait ball of grunts.  During our ascent we saw several bonitas feeding on the bait ball.  In shallow water we road the surge during our safety stop playing chase with a school of moorish idols.

For the second dive we had hoped to dive Land's End bu the swell was more than 5 feet.  We opted to head back in to Pelican Rock for our second immersion.  During the shallow repetitive dive we met up with the resident white tip sharks, spotted an octopus, and found a sea horse.  Some of the group aborted the dive early due to a marginal camera housing leak...fortunately the patient (camera) survived to dive another day!

Check back from time to time for more trip reports and information about what sights there are to see here in Cabo San Lucas!

Dive Report - March 17th, 2015

Date:  March 17^th 2015
Location: Cabo San Lucas

Dive Site:  Neptune's Finger

Max Depth:  165 feet

Visibility:  30 to 50 feet

Temperature:  62-72 degrees

Current:  Moderate

Waves:  Moderate

Wind:  Mild

Report: 

Today Nautilus Dive Tech conducted an extended range tri mix dive to a local site in the submarine canyon.  Cabo San Lucas is an excellent location to conduct technical diver training.  The logistics allow for deep dives close to support facilities.  Several sites allow for decompression stops to be made near natural references all the way through the 10 foot stop.  The area has seven different deep dives available with in 10 minutes of the harbor.  

Today the swell was about 4-5 feet.  In shallow water the group experienced moderate current and significant surge.  The tidal exchange has been dramatic the last few days.  In shallow water the visibility was limited due to the swirling sand, but after 20-30 feet it cleared up nicely.  The group saw several diamond rays foraging in the sand together, a large school of moorish idols, schooling damsel fish, schooling goat fish, trigger fish, bonitas, sierra mackrel, and a giant bait ball of grunts.

Nautilus Dive Tech offers all levels of technical diver training.  For more information please check out our training page and contact us at:

http://nautilusdivetech.com/training

info@nautilusdivetech.com