Sometimes, just sometimes, surface intervals are more wonderful than the diving itself. It only happens once in a blue moon and please don’t misunderstand me, surface intervals often provide amazing experiences, but rarely are they better than the diving. Recent diving off of Cabo San Lucas in the Sea of Cortez showcased just how amazing they can be.
Not the world’s greatest picture, but you can see some of the numerous rays underwater.
Day one of three days diving. The sun is hiding behind some clouds, but it’s warm. The boat is moving swiftly along to our first dive site and lulled by the gentle rocking of the boat on the smooth surface of the water, I doze on the bow. The boat idles and the sudden smack of a large body hitting the water jolts me upright. We’ve stumbled across Mobula Rays, launching themselves from the depths to the surface. Only a few leap at a time, but I’m enthralled. So enthralled in fact that my fellow divers tell me to look down just below the water’s surface. I immediately understand why. Just below the boat there are hundreds of rays gathering.Of course, I’ve seen this happen before on nature documentaries but to see it in person, well, sight is unbelievable to witness and it’s impossible to not be fascinated by these massive animals jumping feet into the air, as though they are attempting to fly.
Day two and it’s grey and cloudy. The weather is still warm but the sea is rocky. It’s two hours by boat to an underwater sea mount in the hopes of finding hammerheads. Sadly, no such luck. The waves have gotten worse during our few hours out in the open ocean, causing the boat to rock tumultuously and creating a similar effect to a roller coaster. It’s tricky getting back into the tiny boat from the water. A
As we start our two hour boat ride back from the remote sea mount, we are joined by whales. At first just one or two. Then after a few minutes, more appear. Suddenly, we’re accompanied by more than 5 whales. And they’re curious. They are very close to our small boat, and every few minutes one will spyhop —- stick is head/upper body out of the water to check us out.
Pretty soon, they’re breaching with a bit of frequency and we’re treated to our own private show. Time and again we watch in awe as the whales throw their whole bodies out of the water —- each breech for spectacular than the last. This goes on for sometime until finally, they head off into the blue.
All thoughts of the less than stellar dives have been pushed from our thoughts, replaced by the humpbacks that just left us.