Wind Dancer Captain's Logs

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report Jan 19 – 29, 2013
SEA LION ON THE ISLAND

Water temperature: 20C-26C
Air temperature: 25C-29C
Recommended wetsuit: 5 mil, unless you don’t get very cold.Some divers were diving with a 3 mil perfectly well, but the cold water this week is really unusual for this time of year.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Costa Rica and our crew was ready onboard waiting for our guests.The group arrived from San Jose just in time for an evening cocktail before Captain Mauricio started sailing. Glassy, beautiful, calm seas for the almost 34 hours that took us sailing to the island. We had some strange currents on our way and we spoke to the Okeanos Aggressor on the radio midway. They told us the water was chilly on the island and that they had a beautiful diving week, oh well,,,here we go.

We arrived our first day into Wafer Bay, recently called ‘WiFi’ Bay since we can connect to the island’s wifi when in here. However, I still think it was better when we could not go online, but I guess, its useful sometimes. We usually start in Chatham Bay, but there was a swell from north that stopped us from mooring there. Nevertheless, we started our diving in Manuelita Garden and first thing we saw was a hammerhead at no more than 3 meters depth. We checked our weights , took pictures, saw tons of white tips all over and we were ready for the next dive. Manuelita Outside had a very cold thermoclime at around 90 feet, so we stayed a little bit shallower. Galapagos sharks were the most seen sharks on this dive.

On our second day, we needed to stay again in Wafer Bay due to the weather.
Dirty Rock, Punta Maria and Viking Rock were our choices for the day. On the first visit to Dirty Rock we had a bit of current and all of a sudden a big school of hammerheads came over our heads when we were close to the outside pinnacle.
We also saw a good size school of jackfish that also was spinning right over our heads. Punta Maria had a strong current, probably due to the weather we are having this week, and the best part of it was the outside pinnacle also. Pajara was the highlight dive of the day and we saw once again - tiger shark!!!!!!!! The night dive today was at Manuelita, which is as usual one of the highlights of Cocos. Black snappers and white tip sharks fighting to see who gets the eels, the lobsters… No doubt the snappers are smarter!

On our third day we headed to anchor at Chatham Bay so we would be able to go to Alcyone from there. After having breakfast the first panga left and then we did (in the second panga). Along the way we stopped on the beach near the rangers house and there we found our friend ‘Leo’. We nicknamed our new friend like this since we don’t know if its a male or a female, and it is anyway a Leon Marino, ‘sea lion’.
Apparently he came from the Galapagos Islands and got lost, so we will look after him/her in here until he/she decides to leave again.

Alcyone was our choice twice this morning. First dive was full of life with a huge school of red snapper that when it left, let us see the big ball of jackfish. Then we had a turtle swimming between us and moray eels everywhere. I counted 8 at one time! Hogfish also and just tons of life together with a few hammerheads. The second panga however saw a school of 40 hammerheads, but we were not that lucky. But still it was a very beautiful and full of life dive. The water was as cold as 20 degrees so most of the divers went up pretty early on the dive. Manuelita Garden and Pajara were our choices for the afternoon dive. This site is always colorful, beautiful and gives you the time to take good photo and video shots.

We headed south to Iglesias Bay on the next day to dive Shark Fin and Submerged Rock. Shark Fin, also called Lone Stone had as usual quite a lot of surge, but it was very easy to dive with, so we had a beautiful dive with a colorful school of snapper, hammerheads and again tons of moray eels and a very shy turtle. Then off to Submerged Rock. Today it was an absolutely gorgeous dive full of life, especially on the arch where we spent most of our time. Two reasons because the marine life was just up there, and because the water was very chilly below 70 feet. The arch was for sure one of the week’s highlights and we all loved it!

We stayed diving in the south and Dos Amigos Grande and Pequena gave us both beautiful dives.We saw the most hammerheads in Pequena, but then Grande has that huge and beautiful swim through with all those rays flying over our heads.
Unfortunately the viz was not so good again due to the thermoclimes this week, but still we had a beautiful dive.

Punta Maria and Dos Amigos Pequena were our next choices. We had a beautiful dive in Punta Maria, especially when diving out on the pinnacle, but we couldn’t beat Dos Amigos this time. When we descended we stayed very close to the first cleaning station where the hammerheads were coming one right after the other. We hardly moved from this spot on this dive and for sure , it was the right thing to do.

Alcyone was the choice for our farewell morning dives. The water was much warmer and the visibility also was much better. Apart from the unususal 12 white tips that were stacked one of top of the other, we also encountered a big galapagos shark, tons of moray eels (they were just everywhere) and the usual groupers. Today we also found the hammerheads again coming close to the cleaning station. Due to the light, I would say, our second dive was even better that the first. Then as our very last dive we decided to give another try to Manuelita since the visibility seemed to be improving. There we had the silkys swimming directly towards us. They got so close some of us were seen almost hugging the rocks!!

A pretty exciting diving week in Cocos!
Ready for the next one?

Wind Dancer Crew

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captains Report Feb 2 – 12, 2013

Water Temp 75-80F
Visibility 50-60Ft
Wetsuits 5mm, thermoclines often

Crew: Captain Mauricio, Chefs Jairol and Esteban, Engineer Miguel, Steward Manuel, Panga drivers Luis and Anibal, Dive Instructor Carlos, Nightwatch Jehyler. Photos and Video: Carlos & Mauricio

This trip started with a slightly unsteady crossing, but by 7am on the first day at Cocos Island our guests were all up and wanting to get in the water. After our check out dive we moved to Manuelita Deep and well, our week couldn’t have started any better!

Our second day saw us diving Dirty Rock and Punta Maria and at both sites we saw the sight that Cocos is famous for - the schools of hammerheads flying gracefully above our heads. As we then turned around the pinnacle at Dirty Rock, we had to struggle to focus our eyes on the sight in front of us because more than a thousand big-eyed jacks were there! It was a humongous school! In our quest of continually looking for the hammerheads we were surprised to get a close up of turtles starting to mate right in front of our eyes! At that point we were diving two by two, but we had to move apart as the turtles didn't care we were in their way. They had other things to think about! We then encountered the Galapagos sharks in Punta Maria and today they were being cleaned really close to us. For the afternoon we thought we would take a relaxing macro dive at Viking Rock. We then ventured to Pajara Island, which also didn’t disappoint because we immediately saw a group of four hammerheads as we descended. We also saw eagle rays, marble rays and even two resting frogfish. All this action, with little current and the water temperatures around 27...wow!

Day three got even better. Alcyone was the first site and the hammerheads, gave us unbelievable excitement. They came in very close and passed very slowly and the divers had the opportunity for some fantastic close ups of these magnificent sharks. Manuelita didn't disappoint either. Immediately as we entered the water we were treated to a manta gracefully gliding around us. Again we had a chance for some awesome photos and video. Soon after the manta left us a group of about 20 really big hammerheads meandered past. The thermoclines we encountered were opening up some wicked encounters and our divers were also really happy. It's been a High-Five after each and every dive so far!

Day five and where do I begin. The sun came out today which was very welcome and diving continued to be great. We were on our safety stop where we ventured into the blue to see two graceful marble rays and two cheeky dolphins. It was another ‘High Five’ moment! A bit later, on our way back to Alcyone for the 2nd dive, we stopped the panga to take in a spectacular sight of three dolphins on the surface. They came really close to the boat and everyone needed a few to capture their breathe before getting into the water for our dive!

The diving this week has been wonderful with perfect conditions and terrific guests!

A big thanks to our divers this week: Teresa, Phil, Vadym, Yevgeniy, Kurt, Eric, Philippe, Yann, Fabien, Jean-Pierre, Paul, Jennifer, Abert, Judith, Stephan, Andres, Yuki, Shinichi, Lillian and Albert Lau for an awesome week of laughter and diving!

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report – Feb 16 – 26, 2013

Water Temp 75-80F
Visibility 50-80 Ft
Wetsuits 5mm, thermoclines often

Crew: Captain Mauricio, Chefs Jairol and Esteban, Engineer Miguel, Steward Manuel, Panga drivers Warren and Anibal, Dive Instructor Carlos, Nightwatch Jehyler

This trip started with a slightly rocky crossing, but by 7 am on Monday the guests were all up wanting to get in the water. We did our check out dive in Chatham Bay finding all the normal marine life. Our second and third dives we did at Manuelita where we found our first hammerheads.

Second day: Punta Maria was where panga group 2 spotted 10 Galapagos sharks. We also dove at Dirty Stone, Pajara Island and Viking Rock where we found two orange frogfish.

Third Day: Alcyone was the site today and we stopped here a couple of times because it is always one of the best sites to dive in Cocos Island.

Fourth Day: Whale Shark was the surprise today for panga group 1 – and they took pictures and videos. We did try to dive Alcyone again, but the current was even stronger and we then went to Submerged Rock.

Fifth Day: Dos Amigos was the spot for hammerheads and the arch was filled with masses of colorful fish.

Sixth Day: Alcyone still had very strong currents, but at Lone Stone we found eagle rays. Manuelita Channel was very relaxing instead and we even spotted a camouflaged scorpion fish.

Seventh Day: We finished our diving at Alcyone and Punta Maria. A wonderful way to end our week with some of the best dives.

Thanks to our divers this week Dirk, Kerstin, Sandy, Daniel, Wade, John, Nadia, Patricia, Jorilyn, Craig, Ryan, Jacqueline, Peter A, Gabriel, Jean, Guillaume, Thomas, Peter K, Georg, Thadaea, Sarah for an awesome week of laughter and diving!

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report March 2 – 12, 2013
Water temp: 26-30°C

Wetsuit: 3 mil


Hi again divers!
This week our guests came from England, Italy, Vasc Country, Germany, Australia and France
Our crossing to the island took around 32hours.

We started our week in Coco Island with the checkout dive in Chatham Bay. The visibility unfortunately was not very good because we had a strange storm just a few days ago… BUT even with these conditions, we saw many white tips and one tiger shark!!!!

The second and third dive we went to Manuelita Deep. There we saw at 30m (100 feet) many hammerheads sharks swimming in the sand in groups of around 15 sharks. We also saw eagle rays and two Galapagos sharks!! What a first day!

In our second day we went to Punta Maria and it was simply incredible. We found a strong current there and that was good, because the sharks love swim against current. We saw four Galapagos sharks very close to the pinnacle!!! And black tips as well!!!!! We were in the bottom, at 25 meters (90 feet) holding to the rocks and just looking around, amazing!!!!!!! Then, we went to Dirty Rock, which is one of the best sites in the island. We found our first school of hammerhead sharks - 20 or even more!!!!! What a day! At night our guests enjoyed a delicious dinner onboard the beautiful Wind Dancer.

Third day in the paradise and the water was pretty warm this morning (30 °C). We dove in Alcyone and here we were lucky because we saw many marble rays and an enormous school of jack fish swimming very close to us!! We swam threw them, actually “inside” them, spectacular! We went to Manuelita Deep in our third dive…. We saw in only dive more than 5 tiger sharks…. Amazing! Probably they are mating and that’s why we found so many together.

No clouds in the sky in our fourth day in Cocos and an excellent temperature. The water these days is 29°C. We went to Dos Amigos Grande and Dos Amigos Pequena in the morning. In the small one (Dos Amigos Pequena) the dive was spectacular… a school of more than a 15 hammerheads was there! And very close!!! We also saw two big manta Diablo! Everyone was happy J In the afternoon we went to Manuelita Deep again… and again we found hammerheads and one big Galapagos shark in the west side of the rock. We spend the night in Wafer Bay.

We went to Alcyone again in our fifth day in the island. The water was pretty warm that day but it didn’t put us off seeing some hammerheads and many white tip sharks. In the blue we also saw 5 or 6 tunas swimming really fast!! At the end of the dive during our safety stop we swam with two dolphins!!!!!!! On the evening the night dive was again spectacular and again the white tips sharks were there in Manuelita. Another delicious dinner in the Wind Dancer and time to go to sleep…
Good day of diving for our sixth day. Our guests wanted to go to Dirty Rock and Punta Maria again – so we did. Again the hammerheads were there and in the safety stop a couple of dolphins came to us very, very close!!!!!!!! Later we went ashore to the island where we visited the ranger’s station and walked across the original bridge!

Our third dive of the day was in Manuelita and we saw the Really BIG Tiger Shark!!!! Just 10 meters from us (30 feet). It was huge!!!! I think more than 4 meters (15 feet) and our divers were really excited to see it!!!!!!!!! In the night, hundreds of white tip sharks hunting were waiting for our divers in Manuelita during the night dive!!!! After another day of great diving, our crew was waiting for us in the sun deck with an excellent BBQ for the dinner. Our guests just didn’t expect a BBQ in the middle of nowhere – and they really enjoyed it!

The last a day in paradise we went to Alcyone and once again it was spectacular. The last dive was then in Manuelita Deep with many marble rays, two Galapagos sharks and one tiger shark again. It was the icing on the cake with our last dive!!!!

See you next week, safe diving.

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report March 16 – 26, 2013

Water Temp 75-80F
Visibility 60-80Ft
Wetsuits 5mm, thermoclines often

Crew: Captain Mauricio, Chefs Jairol and Esteban, Engineer Miguel, Steward Manuel, Panga drivers Warren and Jehyler, Dive Instructor Anibal, Night watch Jehyler.

This trip started with a slightly unsteady crossing, but definitely ended on a high note! By 7am on our first day at the island all our guests were up and wanting to get in the water. Once our check out dive was completed we moved to Chatham Bay where it couldn't have started any better with rays and white tips as soon as we entered the water. There were plenty of great photos taken!

Our second day we saw not one, but two Tigers Sharks! We also had big schools of hammerheads that seemed like they were flying gracefully above our heads. When we then turned around the pinnacle we had to struggle to focus our eyes on the sight of more than a thousand big-eyed jacks! It was a huge school and such a spectacular sight. Again we started looking for the hammerheads, but we were surprised to a close up of two turtles starting to mate right there in front of our eyes! We had to move apart as the turtles didn't care we were in their way; they had other things to do! I also counted five Galapagos sharks around a school of yellow fin tuna.

The afternoon we thought we would take in a relaxing macro dive at Viking Rock and Pajara Island, but excitement returned at Viking Rock when 2 huge Galapagos sharks came really close and several hammerheads swam by. Pajara Island also didn’t disappoint, as we witnessed a group of 8 hammerheads as soon as we descended. We then encountered eagle rays, marble rays and finally we relaxed after finding two serene frogfish. All this action, and with easy currents and water temperatures of around 27 C...wow!

Day 3 got even better. The trip to Alcyone was well worth the high waves because when we descended we came upon a school of well over 20 hammerheads. Unbelievable excitement! They came in close and slowly and the divers had a chance for some fantastic close up shots of these magnificent sharks. Manuelita was next and was great also as immediately when we entered the water we were treated to 2 eagle rays gracefully gliding around us. Again our divers had a chance for some awesome photos and videos. Soon after the eagle rays swam along a group of about 20 really big hammerheads meandered right past us. The thermoclines we’ve been encountering lately are opening up some wicked encounters and the divers have been extremely happy. It's a ”High Five” after each and every dive so far!

Day 5 and where do I begin. The sun (that has been hiding) came out today and was a very welcome sight. Our first dive today at Alcyone was breathtaking! Schooling hammerheads, that just kept coming and coming. Then when we were on the safety stop, we ventured into the blue together to the sight of five marble rays along with two quite cheeky dolphins. It again was a “High 5” all round!

Later, on our way back to Alcyone for a 2nd dive, we stopped the panga to take in a spectacular sight of three orcas right on the surface - and really, really close to the panga. We needed 5 minutes before getting ourselves into the water just to capture our breath!

The diving for this week has been wonderful, the conditions perfect, and our guests terrific. Thanks to our divers this week: Mihal, Maria, Valeriu, Artur, Cristina, Adrei, Egor, Vladimir, Corneliu, Pascale, Claude, Alexandru, Galina and Miguel for an awesome week of laughter and diving!

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report April 13 – 23, 2013

Hammerheads, Tiger Sharks and a Whale Shark!!!!!!!!

This week our guests came from Germany, United States, Denmark, Argentina, Belgium, Australia and France. Our crossing to the island took around 36 hours. Water temp: 26|°C

The first day at the island we had our check out dive at Chatham Bay - Manuelita. The visibility was nice and we saw a lot of marine life here…. eagle rays, white tip sharks and many marble rays. For the second and third dives we dropped in at Manuelita again, but this time on the deep side. Still we had good visibility and we dove with two Galapagos sharks. We then looked out into the blue and saw our first school of hammerheads…. but the excitement came at the end of the dive when we were face to face with a Tiger Shark!!!!!!! And it was just our first day at Cocos Island!

The next morning we moved the boat from Chatham Bay to Wafer Bay so we would be closer to dive Dirty Rock and Punta Maria with the pangas. In Dirty Rock we dove with hammerheads that seemed to be almost everywhere!!!!! We just stayed close to the rocks and the hammerheads came to us again and again… sometimes in big groups! In Punta Maria we had some action with the Galapagos sharks, and as usual the pinnacle was simply amazing as we swam among hundreds of white tips and we even found two black tips sharks. The third dive was in Pajara, the perfect place to do a relaxing dive… beautiful reef coral tables, many lobsters hiding… and much more!!!!

Then for the third day we went to Alcyone. This site is one of highlights of Cocos and today we had a very good dive with one school of hammerheads, octopus everywhere, marble rays, a spectacular school of jack fish, snappers, tunas, everything was there!!!!!! Of course we dove there again in our second dive of the day!!

We dove in Dos Amigos Grande on our fourth day. The arch was amazing because the visibility was spectacular and the divers with cameras had a great time spending a lot of time there! We encountered many white tips, one black tip shark, hammerheads and many, many marble rays. It was awesome!!!!!!

Three dives for our fifth day with one at Alcyone that was filled with lots of hammerheads and the yellow fin tunas were hunting around. Dirty Rock was the site for the second dive. We had schools of hammerheads getting very close, at least a dozen silky sharks and a school of thousands of trevally.

We went back to the dive sites at Dirty Rock and Punta Maria during our sixth day. Again in Dirty Rock the dive was spectacular… hammerheads seemed to again be everywhere you looked!!!!! Sometimes in schools of 30… Then in the afternoon we went to Manuelita and guess what? The tiger sharks were there waiting for us again!!! BUT, Do you want to know what happened during our safety stop? A wonderful whale shark came to us!!!!!!!! It was amazing!!!!

The last day we went back to Dirty Rock and to Manuelita. In Dirty Rock the dive was great once again as the hammerheads were everywhere. We even encountered one manta, tuna and so much more! What a last day in paradise!!!!!!!!

See you next week and safe diving to all of you!

 

[Dancer Fleet]

TIGER SHARK, DOLPHINS, HAMMERHEADS AND.... WHALE SHARKS!!!!!

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report April 27 – May 7, 2013
Water temp: 26°C (79^oF)

This week our international group of guests came from Japan, United States, England, Scotland, Germany, Belgium and France. Once we left the port in Puntarenas our crossing to Cocos Island took around 34 hours.

On Monday, our first day of diving, we did a check out dive at Chatham Bay. It was really nice and colorful as we saw not only spotted eagle rays, but also we found one red frogfish towards the end of the dive. Our guests also saw their first (of many to come) white tip sharks resting on the bottom. After this initial “Get Wet and Check Our Gear Out” dive we went to Manuelita Deep. This is where we spent the rest of the day and returned for our second and third dives in the different drop spots surrounding Manuelita.. Just 10 minutes after we jumped into the ocean one BIG tiger shark came close to us and stayed swimming around us for a while!!!!!!! We also saw hammerheads, Galapagos sharks and much more!!!!

Our second day at the island, we went to Punta Maria and Dirty Rock for our morning dives. At Punta Maria we saw more than 9 Galapagos sharks!!!!!! They stayed there for a long time, seemingly just for us!!!! In the pinnacle, as we were swimming against the current, we dove with many, many white tips sharks!!!!!!! They were everywhere!!!!!!! In Dirty Rock the dive was even better with many marble and eagle rays, thousands of white tips and the hammerheads were everywhere!!!! At the end of the dive, we saw the biggest school of jack fish I have ever seen!!!!!!! Something else? Sure! A spectacular lunch was waiting for us back on the Wind Dancer

When you are going to Alcyone, you always know anything (and everything) can happen there. And it was true again as we ventured there on Wednesday! We saw school of hammerheads, many marble rays… and a Whale Shark that was maybe 8 meters or more (24 feet). Also the hammerheads were there swimming around us and following our bubbles into the blue…. The divers were impressed! On the panga ride back to Wind Dancer we also saw many dolphins frolicking in the water!!!!!

Thursday, our fourth day at Cocos Island, we went to Dos Amigos Grande (Big) and Dos Amigos Pequena (Small). As always, Dos Amigos Grande was great with the Arch again teaming with marine life; we even spotted one Diablo (Manta) while we were there. But, not to be underrated, Dos Amigos Pequena was spectacular as we dove with Galapagos sharks, eagle rays, and schooling snappers. The fish life was everywhere we looked … Amazing!!!!!!!

Later in the week we went back to Dirty Rock and Punta Maria again. In Dirty Rock again the hammerheads were everywhere, and again.... Whale Shark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In Punta Maria the Galapagos sharks, maybe 10 this time, were still there!!!

That night our guests enjoyed a BBQ on the upper deck of Wind Dancer. It was the perfect way to say goodbye on our last night in “the most beautiful island on earth” (Jacques Cousteau). Our guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves, spending a nice time eating and laughing into the night with the sky full of stars….

The next day was our final day at Cocos Island and we did two dives; one in Alcyone, and the other one in Dirty Rock. In Alcyone we saw many hammerheads and even one Galapagos shark, but we also saw dolphins again and one tuna!!! Our last dive of the week in Dirty Rock was crazy! Schools of hammerheads that seemed to go on and on with more in each group!!!!!!! We also had Galapagos sharks and a giant school of jack fish... spectacular last dive!!!!!!

See you soon in the most beautiful island ever!
Safe diving!

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Whale Shark, Tiger Shark and Hammerheads!!!!!

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report June 8 – 18, 2013

Water temp: 25^oC / 77^oF

This week our guests joining us were together as a group from Underwater Phantaseas in Colorado. Our crossing to the island took around 34 hours.

Our first day at the island we had our check out dive at Manuelita Garden where the underwater world was really nice and colorful. We saw eagle rays, marble rays, and spotted our first hammerheads. Then, just at the end of the dive, we came face-to-face with a female tiger shark - and this was only the check out dive! For our second and third dives we ventured to Manuelita Deep and we encountered many more hammerheads, marble rays and guess what??? Whale Shark!!!!!!!! Our guests were pretty impressed because it was only their first day in Cocos and they were seeing everything they came to see.

The next morning me moved the boat from Chatham Bay to Wafer Bay and from this anchorage we loaded up the pangas and dived Dirty Rock and attempted Punta Maria. In Dirty Rock we had of some hammerhead action coming in groups of 10 to 15. Unfortunately Punta Maria had an extremely strong current that made us unable to dive it today. The night dive at Manuelita Shallows, probably one of the best night dives in the world, was no exception tonight as we witnessed the seemingly hundreds of white tips feeding in packs.

When you are going to Alcyone you always know that anything and everything can happen there…and it was true again on Wednesday! We saw one of the largest jack fish schools ever and the hammerheads were also there swimming all around us, even following our bubbles in the blue. Many almaco jacks and even a few tunas were spotted.

The following day we dived in Dos Amigos for our first and second dives. The arch at Dos Amigos Grande was full of life. Here we saw many hammerheads and even one Galapagos shark. In Dos Amigos Pequena the north side had the action with many snappers, groupers, a black tip shark and another small group of hammerheads. The third dive today was in Pajara with its spectacular coral reef and one “morena” that was huge.

Friday we dived again at Alcyone with schools of hammerheads and yellow fin tuna that were hunting. Dirty Rock was our next dive site and the schools of hammerheads were getting closer, along with some dolphins, and at least a dozen silky sharks along with a school of thousands of trevally. When we went back to Dirty Rock we saw more than 50 hammerheads swimming just within one meter of us.

For our final day at the island we went to Alcyone, Dirty Rock and Manuelita. Dirty Rock was simply amazing, as the hammerheads just seemed to be everywhere! The current was strong, but that’s what brought out the fantastic marine life. And at Manuelita, in our last dive in Cocos... another whale shark came to us again!!!!!

Safe Diving to all of you!

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report June 22 – July 2, 2013

Average Water Temperature: 78 F (24 Celsius)
Average Visibility: 60 ft (20 mts)
Wetsuits: 3mil, maybe more if you get cold easily.

Crew this week: Capt. Mauricio, Chefs Jairol and Eteban, Engineer Miguel, Steward Manuel, Panga Drivers Jehyler and Richard, Divemasters Carlos and Anibal.

Our crossing to the island this week was wavy, but once we reached Cocos Island and after the first day of diving the seas started to get better and better.

We started with a check out dive at Manuelita Gardens that went fine with lots of fish to be seen. The water was warm and the visibility was very good. As the sun was out and the sky was clear our underwater conditions were almost perfect, and we were all happy to be here. Our next two dives, also around Manuelita, were also very good and we saw our first hammerhead sharks of the trip along with some marble rays. On the third dive, as we made it around the rock at Manuelita Deep, a huge manta ray came straight to us. It came so close that I was able to get some good video of it.

To start our second day at the island we dove both Dirty Rock and Punta Maria. There were many hammerheads at Dirty Rock and some nice, big, healthy Galapagos sharks in Punta Maria.

Our third day we visited the famous dive site, Alcyone and this underwater mountain was full of hammerhead sharks, marble rays and white tip sharks. The water was cold on the bottom so all the white tip sharks came up so they were swimming in formation just above the rock. There must have been a couple dozen sharks just swimming around and around. On our way up and doing our safety stop, we drifted away from the descent line, and just after most of us surfaced a couple of dolphins came around… that’s what diving is all about……….choosing the right destination and....bit of luck.

The following days we kept looking for action and that’s how we ended up back at Dirty Rock and it was the best hammerhead shark dive of the week with huge schools of these magnificent animals. That same afternoon we went to visit the resident frogfish in the shallow side of Manuelita and we found two black ones and also an orange frogfish.

For our last day at the island we went back to Alcyone, as this was the place where all the good stuff was this week. Again the hammerheads were around and about, but also we encountered another friendly turtle and lots of other sharks, along with the marble rays. But the best part came during our safety stop, as a few dolphins came around and stayed for quite a long while. They swam up and down, around, and amongst us. Also a silky shark was spotted swimming by. What an awesome dive this was!
The night dives this week were really awesome. There was the feeding frenzy of the white tip sharks in Chatham Bay, and of course my old favorite Manuelita, but the highlight of the week really was the night we did Chatham Bay. We all got all excited about it, and none of our guests could stop talking about it the rest of the week.

This week we had people calling themselves both the “Wine Divers” and the “Goose Divers”. It was a very friendly group of people and some of them have been here before.

Stay tuned for more.
Thanks to all of our guests this charter: Frank, Bruno, Brittany and William, Lucille, Jennifer, Seth and Judith, Peter P, David, Christian, Peter W, Peter V, Linsay, Patricia, Deby, Sarah, Annie and Olivier for a great week of diving!

Safe Diving and Pura Vida.
Captain Mauricio

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Wind Dancer Captain’s Report July 6 – 16, 2013
Whale Sharks, Schools of Hammerheads, and more Whale Sharks!!!

Water temp: 26C (79F)

This week our guests came from Brazil, Canada, Germany United States, and France. Our crossing to the island took around 34 hours.

What a great diving week in Cocos we had!!!

Our first morning at Cocos Island we had our check out dive in Chatham Bay. It was really nice and colorful. We saw eagle rays, white tip sharks resting on the bottom and one red frogfish at the end of the dive.

The second day we went to Punta Maria and Dirty Rock in the morning. In Punta Maria we saw more than 10 Galapagos sharks in the pinnacle swimming leisurely against the current along with many white tips sharks. They were everywhere! In Dirty Rock the diving was even better with many marble rays and eagle rays, simply thousands of white tips and a huge school of hammerheads!

But that’s not everything... because towards the end of our dive we saw a Whale Shark!!!!! A female, maybe 8 meters (17 feet) in length.

Third day and we went to Alcyone, where you know that anything and everything can happen there. And it was true again! We saw school of hammerheads, many marble rays, and the hammerheads were there swimming around us and following our bubbles in the blue. The divers were impressed! Then when you think you already saw everything... we spotted hundreds of tunas chasing sardines very fast!!!!!! And again... Whale Shark!!!!!!

The fourth day we went to Dos Amigos Grande (big) and Dos Amigos Pequena (small). The big arch at Dos Amigos Grande was full of life and one lone manta (Diablo) was spotted, but the second dive in Dos Amigos Pequena was spectacular!!! We dove with Galapagos sharks, eagle rays, snappers and much more. The marine life was everywhere!!!!… Amazing!!!!!!!

Later in the week our guests wanted to go to Dirty Rock again and we did. We saw the biggest school of hammerhead ever!!!!! Thousands of these great creatures swimming against the current.... and again we spotted a whale shark!!!!

A BBQ in the upper deck of the Wind Dancer was the perfect way to say goodbye on our last night in “the most beautiful island on heart” (Jacques Cousteau). Our guests had a nice time eating and laughing into the star-filled night.

Our last day in the island we did two dives, one in Alcyone and the other one in Dirty Rock. In Alcyone the water temperature was pretty cold down there, and it gave us a good opportunity to see the seemingly lazy white tip sharks trying to hide from the cold water!!!

We hope to see you soon in the most beautiful island ever!

Safe diving!
Wind Dancer Crew