Category: 2008 Blog

Dear F&F,
December 27, 2008

I feel like we are on a spiritual retreat, out here communing with the mantas. We have had so many wondrous experiences in a row. We do not take them for granted & are in complete awe with each creature that ventures near us. We just had another 45 minute highlight encounter. Chuck & Linda tied their dinghy up to ours where we anchored to dive & they snorkeled above us. After we came up & there were just the snorkelers, the same manta that played with us deeper, came up shallow to interact with them. I got back in the water & snorkeled with them while Scott followed us with the 2 dinghies.

Words cannot express the feelings of love & honor that we feel towards these beautiful beasts. Today\’s playmate was mouth to tail about 6-7 feet long, wing to wing 12 feet wide & we guess the weight is 1200 to 1500 pounds. And yet I feel so safe swimming under, beside, or over them. They really seem to like eye contact. The eyes are a blue grey to cobalt blue. They have an eyelid of sorts. It seems the eye rotates back under a protective flap. Scott has so much video footage that he is now switching to his still camera. He is loving every minute of such cooperative underwater subjects. Fish almost never pose like this! Today\’s manta just circled & circled & circled us, so close, eyeball to eyeball. Absolutely no fear.

Had lunch, pumped up the tanks & are ready to jump back in for the afternoon\’s possibilities.

Afternoon Report
Scott decided it was time to take the still camera in. He has plenty of great video footage to work with. He hasn\’t had much opportunity to use this digital camera & underwater housing up until now. Still photography is his main passion, but more challenging than shooting video. Video can be used in low light without strobes. Most of the time the still camera requires flash when underwater. When using the wide angle lens Scott attaches two hinged arms that each holds a strobe. When extended out fully the rig is 6 feet wide. That is a lot to drag around while swimming underwater. But Scott handles it with expertise.

As he was assembling his camera & housing he was sending out wishes to the underwater powers that be to have another friendly manta appear. He was not disappointed. I swam to secure the anchor while Scott started taking photos the minute we got down to our favorite 25 foot pinnacle. It was a different animal than the morning manta. Each has distinct markings. It was another very cooperative photography subject. I mostly stayed behind Scott so my bubbles wouldn\’t mess up his pictures. The manta swam circles around Scott giving him 120 opportunities to take breath taking shots. Back in the day when he used film, he got only 36 shots per roll, one roll per dive. Now the limitation is not running out of film, but running low on air. A picture speaks a thousand words, so I will sign off so you may go to the photo gallery and enjoy Scott\’s artwork. THESE PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED WHEN WE GET INTERNET ACCESS IN FEBRUARY, 2009.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 26, 2008

It\’s just past noon & we\’ve already had another amazing day. Scott spotted mantas on the surface just inshore of our boat at sunrise. We had a quick cup of tea & hopped in off \”Beach House\” with tanks. Chuck & Linda snorkeled & got to see 3 manta rays & 1 turtle. They were so excited & we were happy for them. We only saw 1 manta on scuba. The visibility was pretty low, still murky from past 2 days of rain & runoff.

After breakfast we put the dive gear in the dinghy & went out to our 25 foot mound. It is so easy to find now that we have it marked on the GPS of our depth sounder. We put on all the gear, did our backroll and along comes an all black (back) manta. All the mantas are gorgeous, but the all black ones look sleek, stealthy & spectacular. I grabbed the video camera from Scott so he could secure the anchor & while I took some footage. The current wasn\’t strong so I could swim along with the manta while filming. I give Scott tremendous credit for being our resident photographer, because I am not good at this kind of multi-tasking and he is. Framing the manta in the video screen, trying not to hold the camera steady while swimming, watching my depth, avoid swimming head first into a rock, trying to keep an eye on where Scott is. After he had secured the anchor, he came to take the camera duty away from me, but I encouraged him to go ahead & play with Mr. Manta while I continued filming. He had a great time: petting belly, going for a ride. Even grabbed hold of a remora! Chuck & Linda got to watch from the surface while snorkeling. That manta went away & a 2nd one came & played with Scott a long time. Scott had the camera in his hands then so I\’m sure we got some super close ups of its eye, mouth, etc. That one played with us a good 20 minutes. It was nice that they showed up early in the dive, while we had plenty of air. And they stayed pretty shallow the whole time, mostly 30-50 feet.

After the 2nd manta swam away I went up to the top of our 25 ft mound to say hello to the lobsters. I saw 5 today. They are so cute & silly looking. We are getting very familiar with all the critters on that particular reef.

Finally it was time to float the anchor up. Cool system Terry taught us: inflate a float bag clipped to the chain & it helps raise the anchor so you don\’t have to muscle it up. We just free drift with the current, holding onto the dinghy line 15 feet down for our safety stop. And here comes the last manta back again. Scott kept a hold of the dinghy while I went to give it more belly rubs & swim eye to eye with him. It is such a privilege. A wild animal, so trusting, so willing to interact with us. Amazing. We are absolutely in awe every time.

So that was just our morning! It\’s funny, on the one hand we want to rush right back out & do it again. On the other hand we feel so completely fulfilled that we don\’t want to go again. Just savor this experience. We are eager to look at the video footage. So we may or may not go again. We get a bit lazy about it in the afternoon. And there is always tomorrow.

If we don\’t dive again today, Scott will probably work on editing this video so we can share it with Chuck & Linda. He thinks he got some shots of them on the surface with the manta swimming below. I am sure they will be very excited to see this.

It is such a luxury to stay here as long as we want. Well until the end of our permit January 31 anyway. It is so much better than those 10 day live aboard dive vacations we used to do. So much more relaxing & I appreciate being on our own & not having to dive in a group. I am sure the animal behavior is different with just the two of us than with 20 divers in the water.

Afternoon Report
It was sunny & beautiful this afternoon so I nudged Scott into a 3rd dive. The early dive had been short & shallow & we\’d had plenty of surface intervals between them all, so out we went. To the same spot we had great manta encounters on the pre-lunch dive. Struck it lucky again! Before we even got the anchor secured a giant black velvet came swimming to us. I took over anchor duty to let Scott get to filming right away. We had 20 minutes of circling, swooning, swimming & belly rubs. Neither of us tried to go for a ride. We just enjoyed sharing its habitat & being up close. Then Manta #2 swims into view. So great to see 2 together. The 2nd one was also all black (on top, they all have some white on their bellies with various patches of black that are unique & enable you to ID them). The 1st one led the parade with the 2nd one playing chase. It was incredible to watch them swirl & swoop & each come so close to them we could easily touch them many times. Then they go swimming off into the blue & we float up the anchor & hang out at 15 feet for our safety stop. And wouldn\’t ya know it but #1 comes circling under us again! Oh the limitation of these tanks. Perhaps if we stay long enough we will grow gills!

Tired, but exhilarated we do our end of the day routine: haul the gear from the dinghy onboard the big boat. Rinse all gear in fresh water bin. Hang up gear to drip dry. Shower. And today make a salad then head over to our neighbors for the evening.

The wind & waves are in the best possible direction so it was a very good time to be on the monohull. I did not suffer from motion sickness, and discovered we knew mutual boat friends from \”Esmeralda\” and \”Beatrix\”. We had the nightly radio chat with Terry & Dawn (of sailing trimaran Manta) who are cheering us on while we enjoy \”their\” mantas. Another great day at the island.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 25, 2008

Day 9 – San Benedicto Island

Scott and Linda went out snorkeling this morning & they got to see 2 big turtles. She was very excited.

Scott & I did only 1 dive today. No mantas. No sharks. But lots of colorful fish & some lobsters & an eel, so always lovely to blow bubbles. It rained in the afternoon & the skies were dark.

We caught enough rain in our dive gear rinse bin to wash the gear in rainwater – cool. The sky looks \”wintry\” but it is 77 degrees. I am so happy with the warm, but not too hot, weather. It suits me just fine. The prediction is for some stronger winds tomorrow & bigger seas. So it may get less comfy here in the anchorage.

Lunchtime: I found some hot dogs lurking in the fridge, maybe I opened the package a week ago. A few small white dots washed off easily. Certainly Mexican turkey hot dogs have gobs of preservatives so not too worried about food poisoning…

The afternoon project was helping Scott tweak the watermaker. The Spectra Newport 1000 is supposed to desalinate 40 gallons an hour. We got the big one so we wouldn\’t have to run the generator a long time to make a good quantity of water. But since he changed the vane pump, the output went down to 20 gallons an hour. No bueno. Kyle provided technical support by email, so Scott knew the potential remedy. He gave me a list of tools he would need & I went to our \”garage\” to fetch them:

3 Spectra wrenches (cleverly labeled by husband so wife can readily identify them)
1 crescent wrench (clever wife asks clarifying question: what size? Answer: 6)
Long phillips head screwdriver
90 degree hose tool
Hose clamp tool
Bucket
Yellow ratcheting phillips screwdriver

I tell you, I feel like I win a prize every time I come out of that garage with all the requested items. Knowing which drawers they are in, recognizing the correct item and delivering them to Scott in a timely fashion are just a few of my talents that makes him appreciate me as his boat wife.
After the adjustment on a difficult to get to screw, we test the unit & have full output. Another successful repair by the roving Spectra Watermaker technician!

Later on, I put back on my chef hat. From the pantry, I grab the 5th (out of 6) jar of \”Cuban Mojito Sauce\” from Trader Joes to saut with chicken & serve over pasta. I am sad not to have any Christmas CDs onboard & we can\’t get the Sirius radio to play well out here. Scott makes a playlist from our master music hard drive and after discovering the technical difficulty preventing us from hearing anything last night (mute button on the computer), we have a great time listening to Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra and many other wonderful voices belting out Christmas music. Propagation for connecting to ham radio email after dark is lousy. Scott indulges me to connect via satellite phone. (We have a limited number of pre-paid minutes and try to save them for retrieving large weather files and potential emergencies.) Correspondence to and from friends and family make it a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah as well.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 24, 2008

Last night about 1 am we awakened to rain coming down on us. We leave the roof hatch open. It stays warm enough at night to use only a sheet or no covering. Certainly no blanket needed. We are actually south of the Hawaiian Islands latitude, so we are truly in \”The Tropics\”. We scurried up, closing hatches all over the boat as fast as we could. We have 20. All of them must be closed to keep the inside of the boat dry when it rains. Wouldn\’t you know, the rain only lasted all of 15 minutes.

I didn\’t sleep that well afterwards so was a bit slow moving this morning – up at 6:50 am instead of my usual 6:30. Scott hailed Chuck & Linda s/v \”Jacaranda\” on the VHF radio. They have been en route to join us here for 3 days & nights. They were close by & about an hour later we saw them sailing into the anchorage. We let them get their anchor down then buzzed over in our dinghy to welcome them. We knew they would just want to go take a nap so didn\’t visit long.

We met Chuck & Linda once in the spring when we were at Tenacatita, in coastal central Mexico. Scott has talked to & emailed Chuck a lot since he is sometimes the net controller for the Amigo Net (boaters radio network). We look forward to getting more acquainted. I always enjoy hearing people\’s stories, what led them to pursue this lifestyle. Their boat is a 39 foot monohull & they don\’t carry much diesel which is why they were so slow getting here. They had very light wind for sailing & barely used their engine in order to conserve their fuel. They are hoping to buy some off the dive boats when they return in a few days. The commercial dive boats were so friendly to us, we are sure they will help them out with that if they can.

Chuck gave us a book on the Revillagigedos with good photos & information about this island, published 1971. There is a great shot of the volcano erupting in 1952 – a fishing boat m/v \”Challenger\” was here to see it! We enjoyed looking at the book over breakfast of scrambled eggs with bacon & the last of my banana/pecan muffins, toasted with cream cheese & jam. Yum!

We hung the laundry on the outdoor lines, filled dive tanks & were getting ready to start loading the dinghy for our first dive when the sky darkened & the rain came pouring down again. We did the Chinese fire drill, closing all 20 hatches. We decided the laundry could have another fresh water rinse so left it hanging. It is kind of fun to be snug inside, listening & watching the rain pouring. It lasted about an hour. The sun came out a bit, but there are a lot of dark clouds & it is pretty windy still. The underwater visibility is not good during & after rain so we are not diving for the first time since we have been here: 1 week.

We invited Chuck & Linda for Christmas eve dinner. Linda brought guacamole & crispy tostadas that we used as chips. I\’d had some broccoli that was a bit beyond solo presentation, so made it into soup. Linda\’s wild rice with almonds was a great accompaniment to our steaks.

The after dinner entertainment was a showing of \”his & her\” manta riding videos. They were inspired & eager to get in the water tomorrow.

Yesterday, since I knew they were coming, I baked a cake. Yellow cake mix with addition of canned pineapple & toasted coconut. Quite moist & sweet, no frosting needed. They brought a tequila liqueur we\’d never tried & enjoyed sips with dessert.

The timing of things has really worked out beautifully since we arrived here. It was great that the commercial dive boats were here the first 2 days to give us information about the dive sites. Then it has been wonderful having several days here all alone. And now it seems festive to have company for the holiday. I used my red brocade tablecloth, otherwise I don\’t really have any decorations. Just being together is a celebration.

It is raining again! Somehow most of my laundry got dry between squalls. How wonderful to have clean sheets & with genuine \”ocean breeze\” smell.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 23, 2008

We took the dinghy around to the dive site called \”The Boiler\”. It was much flatter seas so a more comfortable ride than when we went out with the commercial boats. Today we had a hard time finding the shallow site to anchor on. We had tied up to the commercial boat the other day so we had a little bit of a clue on land bearings, but it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
We used the GPS and found the coordinates that Terry had given us. We saw swirling water that we imagined was \”boiling\” but no luck. The depths were 130 feet, too deep for setting our anchor & not the right area. We were really starting to sweat in our wetsuits & getting discouraged. Then Scott remembered putting it in as a waypoint on our depth sounder when we were tied up to Nautilus Explorer. Whammo it appears from the deep: 20 feet, just as advertised.

The shallower rock & reef mounds like this are home to all kinds of sea life & called \”cleaner stations\”. The little fish clean, or pick at the bigger fish. Kind of like other animals grooming each other.

We did our backroll into the water out of the dinghy, made sure the anchor was secure & right away a manta came to check us out. I petted his belly & then thought he swam away, but he was still over my head. I accidentally collided with his wing as he started to swim, so my mask flooded a bit. No big deal, but the current was strong & I didn\’t want to get blown away from the reef. So I swam & took the video camera away from Scott & let him play with the manta while I taped it. He got to join the \”Manta Rider\” club! Very exciting.

The first ride the manta swam away from me and the reef, so Scott let go & swam back to me. The manta came swimming right behind him, \”Hey – let\’s keep playing!\” So he took another ride & this time the manta stayed more near me. Every time Scott let go & swam to me, the manta swam right up to him again. He took 4 different rides over 20 minutes total. Spectacular! They are so playful & curious. We can\’t help but compare them to playful puppies. Giant playful 1500-2000 lb. puppies!

Even when we were finally too low on air to stay down, the manta stayed right under us as we were doing our safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Beautiful. Amazing. Unbelieveable. Scott is the photographer in our family, but the video footage I took does capture the experience. Scott was so stoked. He felt very special. As he should!

We had taken 2 tanks & sandwiches hoping to get 2 dives in at the boiler. We took nearly an our surface interval but then the current shifted & we had to jump in to move our anchor so the line wouldn\’t get chafe on the coral. Some waves started breaking on top of the reef (thus the name \”The Boiler\” – the current can really swirl around & the water gets all churned up). The current was really strong & I had to do a \”combat crawl\” on the reef to move forward against it. We got the anchor re-secured to a safe location & then enjoyed watching some white tip reef sharks. But no mantas & the visibility wasn\’t that great so we only stayed half an hour. I always feel like I am in Navy Seal training when the dive conditions are strenuous. I don\’t get scared, but it does occur to me that most people would think we are nuts.

We are certainly getting way more exercise these days. It is plenty to do 2 dives a day. We don\’t want to push the nitrogen levels & we are pretty tired after #2. Schlepping all the gear in & out of the dinghy, plus the actual diving. Then rinsing & hanging the gear at the end of the day. There are always some chores to do. Today I get to do laundry later when we run the generator. The watermaker is still not 100% but we filled up our tanks enough to spare water for the wash. Yippee, clean sheets & towels! In the evening we look at the days video footage & re-live every moment.

Today is 2 years ago that Suzanne died. Scott hadn\’t mentioned it in the morning, so I did not remind him. After his special manta riding time, I asked him if he had thought about it. He had not (or at least tried not too), but gave special thanks to have such a great experience on this day. It is sobering think how the time passes & people come & go from our life. We feel so privileged to have this chance to live this life, especially at our relatively young age. There are challenges, but so many wonders under the sea.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 23, 2008

We took the dinghy around to the dive site called \”The Boiler\”. It was much flatter seas so a more comfortable ride than when we went out with the commercial boats. Today we had a hard time finding the shallow site to anchor on. We had tied up to the commercial boat the other day so we had a little bit of a clue on land bearings, but it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
We used the GPS and found the coordinates that Terry had given us. We saw swirling water that we imagined was \”boiling\” but no luck. The depths were 130 feet, too deep for setting our anchor & not the right area. We were really starting to sweat in our wetsuits & getting discouraged. Then Scott remembered putting it in as a waypoint on our depth sounder when we were tied up to Nautilus Explorer. Whammo it appears from the deep: 20 feet, just as advertised.

The shallower rock & reef mounds like this are home to all kinds of sea life & called \”cleaner stations\”. The little fish clean, or pick at the bigger fish. Kind of like other animals grooming each other.

We did our backroll into the water out of the dinghy, made sure the anchor was secure & right away a manta came to check us out. I petted his belly & then thought he swam away, but he was still over my head. I accidentally collided with his wing as he started to swim, so my mask flooded a bit. No big deal, but the current was strong & I didn\’t want to get blown away from the reef. So I swam & took the video camera away from Scott & let him play with the manta while I taped it. He got to join the \”Manta Rider\” club! Very exciting.

The first ride the manta swam away from me and the reef, so Scott let go & swam back to me. The manta came swimming right behind him, \”Hey – let\’s keep playing!\” So he took another ride & this time the manta stayed more near me. Every time Scott let go & swam to me, the manta swam right up to him again. He took 4 different rides over 20 minutes total. Spectacular! They are so playful & curious. We can\’t help but compare them to playful puppies. Giant playful 1500-2000 lb. puppies!

Even when we were finally too low on air to stay down, the manta stayed right under us as we were doing our safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. Beautiful. Amazing. Unbelieveable. Scott is the photographer in our family, but the video footage I took does capture the experience. Scott was so stoked. He felt very special. As he should!

We had taken 2 tanks & sandwiches hoping to get 2 dives in at the boiler. We took nearly an our surface interval but then the current shifted & we had to jump in to move our anchor so the line wouldn\’t get chafe on the coral. Some waves started breaking on top of the reef (thus the name \”The Boiler\” – the current can really swirl around & the water gets all churned up). The current was really strong & I had to do a \”combat crawl\” on the reef to move forward against it. We got the anchor re-secured to a safe location & then enjoyed watching some white tip reef sharks. But no mantas & the visibility wasn\’t that great so we only stayed half an hour. I always feel like I am in Navy Seal training when the dive conditions are strenuous. I don\’t get scared, but it does occur to me that most people would think we are nuts.

We are certainly getting way more exercise these days. It is plenty to do 2 dives a day. We don\’t want to push the nitrogen levels & we are pretty tired after #2. Schlepping all the gear in & out of the dinghy, plus the actual diving. Then rinsing & hanging the gear at the end of the day. There are always some chores to do. Today I get to do laundry later when we run the generator. The watermaker is still not 100% but we filled up our tanks enough to spare water for the wash. Yippee, clean sheets & towels! In the evening we look at the days video footage & re-live every moment.

Today is 2 years ago that Suzanne died. Scott hadn\’t mentioned it in the morning, so I did not remind him. After his special manta riding time, I asked him if he had thought about it. He had not (or at least tried not too), but gave special thanks to have such a great experience on this day. It is sobering think how the time passes & people come & go from our life. We feel so privileged to have this chance to live this life, especially at our relatively young age. There are challenges, but so many wonders under the sea.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 20-22, 2008

I have to limit my computer time because I can very suddenly get a headache & nauseous if the weather gets a bit bumpy here at the anchorage. I thought I\’d be over that by now, but the motion sickness still jumps up & bites me sometimes. Almost every other activity (cooking, cleaning, filling tanks, rinsing gear, loading dinghy etc) I am fine with – just reading & writing are a problem.
The ham email connections are not possible early morning or evening. So we are trying to make sure to connect between the morning & midday dives.

We got scolded by the sailmail administrators for using too many minutes. Fortunately we have the Iridium satellite phone. The pre-paid minutes cost about $1.50 each but it only takes about 2-3 minutes to send & receive several emails. The ham radio connections are often very slow out here as we are behind a 1200 foot volcano cone. Sometimes it takes us 10-15 minutes to get in 1 email. Frustrating, but the price of being off the grid and out here on the wild side. We have had a series emails with our CPA working on end of the year stuff. We hope next year will be simpler & we can anticipate things better.

We have continued to enjoy diving, seeing mantas on most of our dives. We haven\’t had as close an encounter as that first Manta Magic but it is still lovely to be here. Often in the early mornings there are mantas feeding at the surface very near our boat. We have gone in on scuba with then, but they seem busy & not that interested in us at that time of day.

The Clarion angelfish is native to this archipelago. About 6-12 inches long, it is mostly orange with some green on its face.

We\’ve seen wahoo swimming near the surface. They are nearly 2 feet long, shiny silver & known to be delicious raw with wasabi. We have heard you can ask for permission to fish for your own use, but since this is a marine preserve, we are not fishing. Just taking photos & admiring all the critters we see.

We see a lot of green moray eels swimming out in the open here. In the Sea of Cortez they were mostly tucked in a rocky corner. Maybe they know it\’s a marine preserve here and feel safe to swim openly. Also seen but less common, are the black with white striped zebra eels. Both types have these funny \”nose horns\” that give their faces a comic \”Puff the Magic Dragon\” look.

We always enjoy seeing octopi & had a nice time with one large one fairly out in the open. They will explore your bare finger with the suction cups on their many legs. They are not interested if we have gloves on, so we remove them. Sometimes they tug on your finger pretty strong, wanting to bring a potential tasty morsel near their beak. I get a bit timid then & let Scott play. We would never eat an octopus, they are thought to be as smart as dogs.

We had two dives with parading hammerheads at \”The Canyon\” area. There were at least 30 to 50 sharks swimming at 100 feet deep. We have been wearing our shark shields but not turning them on. We have not really had a \”live test\” of the units. But today when one hammerhead seemed to be swimming closer & closer to Scott\’s video camera I turned mine on & swam near to protect Scott in case the shark got a little too interested. Fortunately we got some great footage with no danger at all. It is very exciting to swim with sharks in the wild.
Scott & Terry Kennedy have nightly chat dates on the ham radio. Terry is so jazzed that we are here & trying to give us all kinds of detailed information on where to go. One spot of water looks kind of the same as another from the surface. We are enjoying doing our own exploring & have found one particular \”cleaner station\” that is a pinnacle 25 feet underwater at its top and about 60 feet at its base.

The only repair we\’ve needed to do so far is on our main watermaker. One part started to leak. Fortunately we had a spare & Scott installed it with minor assistance from me fetching tools. It is not a 100% success yet because our output is lower than it should be. He called the company via the satellite phone & got some suggestions on how to troubleshoot it. I hope we get it fixed soon because I need to do some laundry & would love to change our sheets & towels. We use a lot of fresh water rinsing off after every dive. We don\’t like feeling all salty or sitting on the interior furniture with salty bodies. We also rinse all our dive gear every day because the salt water is so corrosive.

Another couple, Chuck and Linda on s/v \”Jacaranda\” are drifting along on their way towards here. They don\’t carry much fuel so are trying to sail & not motor & they are not having enough wind. The commercial dive boats won\’t be back until Dec 27. I really treasure the peace & quiet, both above & below water. But it will be fun to have company.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 19, 2008

Today is Friday. We arrived at San Benedicto Island 2 days ago. On our 2nd dive today all our dreams came true.

Jeronimo Jara drives the panga for the \”live aboard\” dive boat, \”Solmar V\”. He came over this morning to introduce himself & offer information about the dive sites here. He helped us to identify land references to locate a site called \”The Canyon\” and the underwater pinnacles that we could anchor our dinghy on. We had already been invited by \”Nautilus Explorer\’s\” dive master, Sten to join their group at 7:45 am; they too were very helpful with local knowledge and had taken us to a site yesterday called \”The Boiler\”. We had some concerns about how the commercial dive operators would feel about us, but have found both boats to be very kind & willing to share information freely.

We were thrilled to see our first hammerhead sharks on the early dive. They swam fairly deep along a ridge. Not close enough for Scott to get any good video footage. But we saw 5 or 6 and were really jazzed. Still waiting for a manta ray!

After a snack, filling tanks & checking email we went out for our 2nd dive of the day. Jeronimo guided us to anchor in a good place along the ridge. We swam out watching for hammerheads swimming in the canyon as we had in the morning. We saw a few in the distance. It was overcast & they blend in with the blue/grey water in the distance. You really have to keep a sharp lookout. We had been down to 80 feet deep for about 20 minutes and decided it was time to start swimming back to our anchor. That\’s when I saw it: our very first manta ray. Scott quickly focused his video camera as the animal swam toward us. I was so thrilled just to be seeing one, I held very still as not to scare it away. It swam right to me, looking at me. We had learned that they do not let everyone approach them. They must choose you; like what they see in your eyes. I smiled. My eyes wide open.

Then everything we learned from Terry Kennedy this past summer came to me: Approach from below, pet the belly. (Feels like sandpaper!) Slowly swim on top up from behind. Cup your hands gently & hold on for the ride of your life. I did it! It let me! It seemed to like it! I felt like I was in one of Terry\’s videos. Actually I was in Scott\’s video! He caught the entire encounter on tape beautifully.

The manta could have spun out from under me, swam deep or gotten rid of me in any number of ways. But it actually seemed quite happy to let me hang on. Like another remora. (Remora fish attach themselves to mantas & sharks. Getting a free ride & food remnants. This one had 2 which is classic.) I was mesmerized. I didn\’t know or care where it flew me. I was riding a manta ray! And before I knew it, we were right by our dinghy\’s anchor again. Terry had told us that they are very smart & will not take a diver too deep and will return you to where you got on. All true. It would have carried me longer & further, but alas, I was running low on air & thought it wise to dismount after my 5 minute ride. I patted it with gratitude and blew kisses as it swam away. And then it turned back as if wondering why I got off.  It swam near us as we raised our anchor & swam to our dinghy.

Amazing. Wondrous. Words cannot do it justice. This is the moment that we have dreamt about. We are still pinching ourselves & in awe that we had this experience. Scott\’s 10 minute video needs little editing. I am sorry you will have to wait until we get internet access to view it. But it is spectacular.

WE WILL POST THIS VIDEO AS SOON AS WE GET BACK TO THE MAINLAND OF MEXICO IN FEBRAURY.

And we have only just begun� Was this a one time event? Will this manta be our new best friend? Will we see more? We are so happy for this day. This one experience makes our whole year in Mexico worthwhile. And if we had not met Terry in the Sea of Cortez this summer, we would not have decided to come here. It was his stories & his videos that inspired us to venture to these off the beaten path islands. We have him to thank for teaching us about \”adventure diving\”. We got all the right gear & took to heart everything he taught us. Thank you Terry for this gift, for sharing your knowledge and your mantas with us.

We understand & respect that the commercial dive operators discourage their divers from approaching the animals. They hare 20 people & it would be overwhelming. We are 2. \”Our manta\” approached us. This is why we got our own boat to do our own program. The commercial boats go to 3 islands in a week. We will stay right here 2 weeks or more and then visit Soccoro which is known for spectacular sharks and manta encounters as well. Stay tuned for more exciting tales from s/v \”Beach House\” in the coming month.

Scott & Cindy
(aka Manta Rider)

Dear F&F,
December 18, 2008

It is difficult without exact GPS waypoints to know where a good dive spot is versus a nothing spot. The commercial dive boat, \”Nautilus Explorer\” had showed up in the evening & we dinghied over to say hi & get some local knowledge. Owner of Reefseekers Dive Company (Ken Kurtis), in Los Angeles, had taken a group with this boat last April. We introduced ourselves knew some crews names & could relay his greetings. Everyone working on Nautilus Explorer was very friendly & invited us to follow them to their next dive site. So we did. It was a rough 30 minute ride (due to 3-4 foot swells) in our dinghy to a site called \”The Boiler\”. It was worth it to tag along with this boat that knows the area so well. We tied our dinghy off to their big boat & dove in.

The water temp was 80 & very clear. There is an underwater pinnacle & very interesting terrain of stacked rocks that is home to many fish. We saw our first Mexican sharks! Three white tipped reef sharks. We did not try to scare them away with our shark shields (worn, but turned off) as these are not a dangerous type. Two were resting side by side on the bottom & 1 swimming slowly along the rock. It was so great to be in the water again. The charter boat has about 20 divers onboard. They gave us bread & fruit in the morning & cookies in the afternoon. Very kind & much appreciated. A good first outing.

There are 2 commercial boats that bring new batches of divers to 3 islands of the Revillagegidos every 8 days. They spend 2 days here at San Benedicto, 2 days at Socorro (where we\’ll head in a few weeks) and 2 days at Roca Partida which we will not go to with our boat. It does not have an area we would feel safe to anchor our boat while diving. Although we understand it has a great variety of sharks, whales, and mantas, so a favorite with the commercial boat customers.

This is the first day I\’ve felt like I could read & write & even now it is a bit challenging because the boat is moving a lot. I didn\’t sleep too well again. I have to get used to the motion at anchor again.

Scott will take the video underwater tomorrow. We will go with the other boat to a site just a 5 minute dinghy ride from where \”Beach House\” is anchored called, \”The Canyon\”. They said they saw 2 manta rays there this morning. We are very excited to see the mantas. You have no way of knowing from the surface of the water what is underneath. Last night we turned on our stern (back of boat) underwater lights to see what fish would be attracted – quite a few mid size fish, but no sharks or mantas.

I made banana muffins because all my bananas got ripe at once. I think I could have left the onions & potatoes out of the fridge & should have put in the mangos & tomatoes; still learning. There is another private sailboat planning to come here, but they will not arrive for a week.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
December 15-17, 2008

The distance to our destination was such that no matter how we calculated our possible speed & distance we would be underway 2 days & 2 nights in order to time a daylight arrival. Going to an island unknown to us, it is only prudent seamanship. Before exiting the marina, we took the time to calibrate our autopilot & main navigation system compasses to be more synchronized & accurate.
There was only 5 knots of wind but we knew as soon as we were abeam of Cabo Falso off Cabo San Lucas, we would get more breeze & pick up speed. It tried our patience some to slog along so slowly under sail. We have been used to motoring a lot in Mexico since there is frequently not enough wind to sail. Or it is strong & coming from the wrong direction. Anyway, we were motivated to conserve our fuel so we sailed at an embarrassingly slow 3-4 knots for about 3 hours. Then we decided to just get going & motored on 1 engine for 2 hours. Then a beautiful breeze came up off our starboard beam and we really got going.

We did 4 hour watches timed to have Scott awake during the radio nets. The first night he talked to two ships on VHF radio that we saw crossing RIGHT in front of us. We really like the AIS (automatic identification system) that shows us these ships on our navigation screen long before they can be viewed by eye.

Despite my scopolamine patch I, became motion sick if I tried to read or write. Sea legs: no problem. Sea head & stomach: not so good. So I just enjoyed the sky, ocean & Sirius radio. I drank hot tea, cocoa & thought of fun snacks I could eat to reward myself for the passing of an hour. Scott has only rare seasickness in very boisterous seas. So he occupied himself with reading & writing emails, both personal & for requested weather reports.

The 2nd night we deliberately slowed down, sailing with the main up only, to insure a daylight arrival.
Overall we had fine conditions and a very comfortable trip. The only incident was a loud thumping noise on the starboard side as if something was hitting the boat. We weren\’t sure if we had hit something or if our newly rebuilt starboard transmission was having some sort of problem. We did several \”back downs\” to see if we could shake whatever we might have caught on our sail drive or dagger board. Eventually all seemed well. We ran the motor for an hour just to make sure.

Our second day and night were very slow, but by design we covered the last 1/3rd of the trip (total 249 miles. We could see Isla San Benedicto in the dark 20 miles away. It was Land Ho! Isla San Benedicto is a dormant volcano which last erupted in 1952. The most recent eruption created about an additional 20% of the islands land mass and looks just like the Hawaiian lava fields. This island chain is on the \”Rim of Fire\” which goes around the entire Pacific Ocean. The island looks like the moon – volcanic, no vegetation. There are quite a few booby birds which look cartoonish. The weather is ideal: mid 80s day & mid 70s night. The water is 80 degrees!

After a 2 hour nap we did an under the boat dive to check what our anchor was set in and see what we could see. It was just sand, 45 feet deep, we didn\’t see much, a few boring fish. We took it easy, just settling in. My brain & body decided I should still keep watch, so I was awake most of midnight to 3 am. Scott snored away peacefully. It takes me a while to get over these passages. We are eager to discover all the wonders that are in store for us here. Late that night, the commercial live aboard dive boat, \”Nautilus Explorer\” arrived outside the anchorage. We had spoken with them on the radio two days before and they told us they would be back here soon. We were anxious to find the manta rays and hammerhead sharks!

Scott & Cindy