Murphy's law...

visibility: a wonderful 60 feet and over...
currents: changing by the day, from strong to very mild,
surface conditions: in the morning perfect, in the afternoon a bit of wind,
water temperature: on the surface 87º, on depth 83... a warm bath!

Is it Murphy's law or not. A gigantic Pacific Manta is swimming now in the bay of Cabo Pulmo for several days; slowly, relaxed, circling around and minding it's own business, not caring about the ecstasy of divers around her. A beautiful sight, enormously but gracious like a ballerina, maybe 10 feet wide, hundreds of pounds of muscle dancing through the clear water... and no camera around. Then several days in a row we went down with photo and video cameras and no sign of the creature, probably camera shy! Today Pilu went diving again with photo camera, no video and guess what, no sign of the manta... It's not fair and we hate Murphy, but what spectacular dives we had last few days and weeks. With or without the manta, there's life everywhere, up and down, in mid water, under rocks, around corners: there is always something moving and in this clear water it cannot hide...

The picture is not ours, we 'borrowed' it from: www.sheppardsoftware.com

Woooowwwww, life is beautiful!!!!

At last it’s summer.

The air temperature has been high now for four months, high as in over 100ºF. In the beginning this is okay, but after some weeks it wears you out! Diving in May and June was still very refreshing, with a water temperature of around 73-75º. How nice to be able to really cool down!

Now we cannot hide anymore; the water temperature is on the surface around 88 and on the bottom 85º. It’s nice to go in, you don’t get ‘overheated’, but it doesn’t cool down anymore. After the dive, back in the boat, pulling in the equipment of our guests, is enough to have the thermostat going crazy again; to keep the ‘engine’ within limits, sweat is breaking out. All day wet, if not of the sweating, it’s of the diving, or because you hide under the shower (again). Luckily for life on land every afternoon we have a bit of a breeze, sometimes (early night) it can be more forceful. Unfortunately without any rain and thus with a lot of dust.

So under water it’s better, a lot better and beautiful, very beautiful. The ‘wind’ under water is quit forceful too. The current is strong, takes you through the reef in too short time, floating from school to school. The fish are having trouble with it too and are looking for cover, rocks, walls and overhangs, every bit of cover is taken and nobody wants to leave their shelter. A school of yellow tale snapper, not as big as normal, since the rock doesn’t give enough slack for the whole group, so not four or five big schools of snapper, but maybe fourteen or sixteen, the pork fish, the burrito grunt, the goat fish occupying huge areas, close to the bottom, almost touching the sand. The moray eels not coming out in the open more than necessary, just their heads and a bit of body peeping out of a rock. Only the big fish, the grouper and the dog snapper seem to be able to withstand the water and the flow of it. Slowly moving over the reef, nose into the current, constantly swimming but not moving an inch. And then there is a diver, fining to stay with all this life, trying to take it in and to not miss anything... Wow, men and woman, what a luck to be part of this, to be able to enjoy so much life and to be able to get so close to it... What a great job we’ve got!!!

visibility: about 60 feet,
currents: still a nice push, arm-chair-diving...
water temperature: at the surface 87º, at the bottom 82
surface conditions: almost flat calm, just some waves on the shore

This week we are having a family over doing their Open Water Diver courses and they are having a good time. Not only because of the good conditions, but also because they have the feeling to do their skills in an aquarium and their dives, well in a fish soup. It's true, the amount of life is huge now, still a lot of winter fish, but it's also the end of spring. Under water, that is, because on land it's already hot, hot, steaming hot for months. The water is simply beautiful, clear blue, embracingly warm and full of fish, ready for the summer to arrive.
On land the wet season started with some rain in the beginning of August, first rain since May (2008, that is!). Took the heat out and cleared up the air a lot, made breathing easier again. Hope the rain doesn't affect the water too much, because I can go diving again. My (dog bite) wounds are licked and healed. Yes, going down again, with camera...
Tomorrow they do their last 2 dives in the course, and we celebrate the arrival off one more family of 4 more divers in the community; welcome Susan, Rex, Geneva and Ian and congratulations...