Diving Galapagos 2006

by Alan Coley

BACKGROUND

Lindsay and I wanted to dive the Galapagos on the back of reading some amazing trip reports of encounters with Whaleshark. We booked the trip through DiveQuest and chose the Peter Hughes liveaboard Sky Dancer. This was the only boat that we could find that offered a 10 night trip meaning that, weather permitting, we would spend more time at Wolf and Darwin. The latter being the best place to see Whaleshark.

ITINERARY

We left the UK on Sunday 22nd October flying KLM via Amsterdam and Bonaire to Quito. This isn't the quickest route but we wanted to stop off in Bonaire on the way back to see friends and do some more diving. We had 3 days in Quito since we wanted to see the city plus we were told that trying to do the trip as a through connection was very risky because of the frequency that the airlines lose luggage. And sure enough when we arrived in Quito we were told that all of our dive gear was still in Amsterdam. It turned up the following day.

On Thursday 26th October we flew from Quito to the Galapagos (via Guayaquil) and joined Sky Dancer. Our route on Sky Dancer took us from San Cristobal to Espanola to Baltra to North Seymour to Wolf to Darwin. Then, back to Wolf to Isabela to Santiago and around the south of the island to Santa Cruz and back to San Cristobal. On Sunday 5th November we flew back to Quito.

SKY DANCER

This is the best liveaboard we've been on. Go to Their Website and click on Sky Dancer for the detail. It's a well sorted out boat with a spacious dive deck and 8 big cabins - 4 on the upper and 4 below. It's worth paying the extra money for an upper deck cabin. The food was really good, all drinks are included and the crew were great. They dished out hot snacks at the end of every dive and always helped you off with your gear before giving you a hot towel. And after the very last dive of the trip they not only washed all our gear but they took it up to the sundeck and hung it out to dry. Spoilt or what?

We had 2 Ecuadorean dive masters - Edwin and Quique. They were both great divers, really keen to find stuff and very knowledgeable. Edwin also led the land trips and he was just as clued up ashore as he was underwater.

And how about the following for a "don't try this at home" trick. The O ring blew on Quique's tank at around 18 metres. Instead of scuttling across to the nearest diver, aborting the dive and ascending whilst breathing off someone else's alternate, he calmly took off his BCD. He then turned the air down to a trickle so that it didn't all escape and he could still breath. He ascended to the rib, changed the O ring whilst still in the water, put his gear back on, descended and finished the dive. And he did all of this diving with a small tank. Show off!

THE DIVING

All diving on Sky Dancer is done from the 2 ribs that she carries, therefore diving in 2 groups of 8 divers. So, you kit up on the dive deck, climb into the rib which takes you to the dive site and then backward roll into the ocean.

We'd read various reports that the diving was "challenging" and even though we've logged 400 dives each, we were a bit apprehensive. It transpired that quite a few other people felt the same. However, we not only survived but rate this as the most stunning diving we've done. BUT. There are strong currents, big surges, a lot of diving out in the blue and some cold water. One lady had just completed 50 dives and she struggled, missing several dives. In contrast another guy who claimed several hundred dives also found it difficult and missed dives. His problem might have had something to do with his technique - he looked in the water as if he was riding a bicycle and he seemed to think that safety stops were best done sitting back in the rib.

As an indication of how respectful the crew are of the conditions they fitted everyone's BCD with air horns, gave an SMB to any diver that hadn't got one and issued every buddy pair with an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). The EPIRB transmits automatically once activated - and doesn't work like a mobile phone as thought by one of divers.

The water temperature varied. Up at Wolf and Darwin we were getting 25 and 26 degrees Celsius. Within the main archipelago it was 19 to 22 degrees Celsius. However, since a lot of the diving is a question of hanging onto a rock and watching what goes past you do spend a lot of time stationary in the water with the consequence that you chill quicker than if you were swimming around the dive site. So, in true wimp fashion we were very happy to be wearing 5mm shorties over 5mm full suits plus hoods in the main archipelago.

If you go to Galapagos buy a pair of Kevlar coated gloves. It was the only new bit of kit that we bought and were we so grateful! The rocks that you will need to hang onto in the currents are razor sharp and a couple of people shredded their normal gloves and had to make daily running repairs with duck tape. The trip was top and tailed with four land trips - two at the beginning and two at the end. These are a great opportunity to see sea lions and the resident birdlife really close up. On the final day there was a visit to the see the giant tortoises breeding programme on Santa Cruz. Hence on the 27th and 28th October and on the 3rd and 4th of November we did 2 dives a day. On all other days we did 3 or 4 dives. In addition there were 2 night dives, one towards the beginning of the trip and the other after Wolf and Darwin.

Most of the diving is around 20 metres, so it's perfect conditions for Nitrox and we dived on it throughout the trip. In any event, we subscribe to the school that believes you feel better and less tired breathing Nitrox especially if you're doing 4 dives a day.

THE DIVE SITES

DAY 1
Dive 1 - San Cristobal - La Pedrial
This was a check out dive in the bay where Sky Dancer was anchored. The briefing said that occasionally all sorts of stuff turned up here. The highlight would have been 3 Galapagos car tyres if 4 sea lions hadn't shown up and demonstrated just how useless and hopelessly adapted humans are for diving. They really took the mickey, looping around us and doing cartwheels.

DAY 2
Dive 2 - Espanola - Gardener Island
With its flat sandy seabed near the rocky shoreline, this was clearly where the Diamond Stingrays hung out. We had 50+ through the dive including c.25 feeding where an anchor chain was dragging and scouring the sand. Not huge numbers of fish here but a reasonable selection of species including King Angelfish. Three sea lions joined us for a while, one of whom seeming to be particularly keen on trying to achieve close eye contact with the divers.

Dive 3 - Espanola - Bajo Gardener
Dropped off the rib near rocks to the north east of the island and drifted with the current to the east. The highlight was that weirdo of the fish world - Red Lipped Batfish. What a freak - can't swim, can't walk and seriously ugly.
Good numbers of fish here including a huge shoal of thousands of Skipjack Tuna, hundreds of Burrito and Galapagos Grunts plus smaller numbers of Almaco Jacks and Pacific Creolefish. Two Green Turtles cruised by as we began our ascent.

DAY 3
Dives 4 & 5 - North Seymour
Same profile for 2 fantastic dives. Rib dropped us close inshore and we went with the current south to north until reaching a point where it changed from a gentle drift to a real rip, the idea then being to find a rock to hang onto before being swept across a rocky plateau and out into the blue.
We paused along the drift to watch an almighty scrap between a large Fine Spotted Moray and an octopus. The octopus managed to get wedged under a rock and the moray couldn't get him out. This was all watched by over 300 Barracuda who were presumably hoping to rob the moray once he'd done all the hard work. On both dives we had White Tipped Reef Shark during the drift including 2 individuals being chased out of a cave by a sea lion. When we got to the point we saw over 30 White Tips effortlessly hanging in the current and had great views down to less than 5 metres. At around 50 minutes into the dive we let go of our rocks and literally flew across the plateau - this was some current. The sharks eased out of our way and then closed back together behind us.

After a land visit and a refuelling stop Sky Dancer headed northwest for the 18 hour, 140 mile journey to Wolf island.

DAY 4
Dives 6, 7 & 8 - Wolf - Landslide
Same profile for three dives that were even better than Day 3! Entry was close into the sheer cliff of Wolf Island then descend as quick as possible to c.20 metres and grab a rock or find a crevice before the current and the surge drag you away from the cliff. You then finish the dive by coming off the rocks and kicking out into the blue for a safety stop. There was so much life in the water that you felt that you were swatting the little stuff out of the way so you could get a better view. Big creature highlights for each dive as follows:

Dive 6 - We almost dropped on top of 2 big Eagle Ray cruising up and down the dive site and once we'd found our rock, a turtle went past just an arm's length away. Continually going from left to right and right to left were 5 Hammerheads, then 2 Galapagos Shark and 6 more Hammerheads joined them. As we ascended we looked down and in the depths could see c.50 Hammerheads way below us. 2 more turtles came to check us out at the safety stop along with 2 Bottle Nosed Dolphins.
Dive 7 - The Eagle Rays had bought their friends along and we had 6 flapping so slowly in front of us. Only 1 Galapagos Shark and 5 individual Hammerheads. 2 Bottle Nosed Dolphins within touching distance and then as we kicked off into the blue we just couldn't believe looking up to see c.50 Hammerheads that were above us. Wow! Classic wildlife film with rays of light picking out the unique Hammerhead shapes against the bright blue of the surface. 4 Green Turtles appeared - "hey, get out of the way, we can't see the sharks"
Dive 8 - Slightly less frenetic! 7 more turtles plus another large group of Hammerheads out in the blue plus individuals going past as we clung to our rocks. And just to end a perfect day, it was getting dusk as we left the rocks and the orange cup coral was just starting to come out.

And then. (This is sounding like a child telling a story where every sentence starts with 'and' preceded by an indrawn breath - but it really was that exciting. So, big breath now). And then we had our closest Hammerhead experience. As we ascended a large individual came right under our feet - and I mean under our feet. It was so close. He slowed momentarily as he went past and then was gone into the blue. Every scarred detail was visible. And as for those strange black eyes. Spooky and just a teeny bit scary.

DAYS 5, 6 & 7
Dives 9 to 20 - Darwin - Darwin's Arch
(It might seem odd diving one dive site 4 times a day for 3 days. Our only regret was that we couldn't stay there for the whole week).
Basically it was the same profile for all 12 dives and it went like this: entry from the rib c.50 metres from the rocks of the arch, descend as quickly as possible to a rocky ledge at 16 to 20 metres, hang on like a limpet to watch the show, kick like hell out into the blue if you see a Whaleshark, find a rock to droop over and recover after trying to keep up with the Whaleshark, after 30 minutes let go of rock and ascend very slowly out into the blue ensuring that you go in the right direction towards where the rib should be (wrong direction means next stop Cocos Islands), haul yourself back into the rib after 55 minutes and try to remember to take reg out of mouth before going 'Wow. Did you see...'.






DAY 5
Dive 9 - 30 to 50 Hammerheads in twos, threes and singletons cruising past as close as a few metres and also ghostly shapes on the edge of visibility. Everyone was totally overwhelmed by the views and the number of sharks that we saw on this dive.
Dive 10 - We'd been on the ledge for about 15 minutes, still in awe of the Hammerheads swimming in front of us. A Bottle Nosed Dolphin cruised past when from the left we could hear muffled shouting and screaming. For whatever reason we looked up. Oh my God! Right on top of us was the silhouette of a Whaleshark. It was enormous. It was just incredible and after blocking out the light, it was going away from us. We kicked off the ledge and although we managed to swim along beneath it, we couldn't make it up to its level. Kicking like crazy and trying to do a gradual ascent against the current left us nowhere and the Whaleshark disappeared off into the blue. Wow. Was that unbelievable! It was even more fantastic than we'd hoped for. How big was that? 10 metres? 11 metres? 12 metres? Bloody huge.
Dive 11 - A large Fine Spotted Moray was occupying the space beneath the piece of rock that we chose to hang onto. He stuck his head out and glared at us. We moved. 20 Hammerheads came past in ones and twos. An Eagle Ray drifted past - flap...flap...flap and 2 Green Turtles followed. A Bottle Nose Dolphin thought that we were interesting for a couple of minutes and came within touching distance.
Dive 12 - Much reduced Hammerhead activity with closest encounters on our ascent. More great dolphin views and 2 huge Yellow Fin Tuna over our heads on the ledge. These 2 guys must have been getting on for 1.5 metres long. Our ascent to the safety stop was through an enormous shoal of Pacific Creolefish - an incredible number of fish, thousands and thousands of them.

DAY 6
Dive 13 - The current seemed to have switched and we had "only" 20 Hammerheads mostly far away from the ledge. The Pacific Creolefish from yesterday were not in their huge shoal feeding by hanging into the current but were streaming past the ledge in a continuous column that went on for the full 30 minutes that we were there. At the safety stop we were circled by a Green Turtle and beneath us were thousands and thousands of either Skipjacks or Bonitos.
Dive 14 - Terrific close passes of individual Hammerheads with every scar and mark visible. A Green Turtle glided gracefully by and then... Whaleshark! A huge individual was coming across from the right. We kicked like mad away from the ledge and got to his level as he passed. Then kicked and kicked and kicked to try and keep up with him, seeing every detail from his brown ridged body with the creamy coloured spots to the tiny little eye right at the front of his head. As he left us behind we let the current carry us back towards the ledge and a different, smaller (small and Whaleshark is a bit of an oxymoron) individual appeared from the same direction. We managed to get back up into the blue so that he was swimming towards us head on and passed at arm's length but we were too exhausted to go after him. What an mind boggling experience - not one but two Whalesharks.
Dive 15 - 100+ Steel Pompano scooted past the ledge followed by 50 or so large Trevally. An occasional Hammerhead appeared and disappeared. After 30 minutes we lifted up and away from the ledge and as we travelled through the blue a Whaleshark appeared, coming towards us. Coming STRAIGHT DOWN towards us! Quick get out of the way. He passed so close, almost hitting divers with his fins and his tail. We followed alongside as he gradually went deeper and by 28 metres we couldn't keep up any longer. Looking back towards the surface, there were divers all over the place, left behind at different levels and you could see from the clouds of bubbles what effect the exertion was having on air consumption. And then, as everyone was coming back together for a safety stop another Whaleshark appeared and went through the middle of the loose group of divers. Everyone kicked like mad again and with divers swimming on both sides along the full length of the creature, it was possible to really see the enormous scale. We estimated a length of 12 to 14 metres but the awesome thing was the overall bulk and scale. An absolute behemoth. How can anything be that big?
Oh! Nearly forgot. There was a Silky Shark at the safety stop.
Dive 16 - Much quieter with c20 Hammerheads from the ledge but on our ascent we had c.50 below us. This was an incredible sight as the down light caught their curving shapes as they swam. At the safety stop 2 Green Turtles went down past us, 2 Silky Sharks swam around our feet and 2 dolphins arched by. We surfaced to the beginning of a fabulous sunset and a dramatic sky behind Darwin's Arch. What a day.

DAY 7 Dive 17 - Activity had been much quieter from the ledge and we were well into our ascent when we saw a Whaleshark coming our way but about 20 metres below us. We went into a mad head first descent trying to meet him as he passed by but he was clearly going away. And then he began to turn and was coming back up towards us. Whalesharks don't look as if they know what quick means - but bloody hell we were going to collide with each other. We were now trying to pull out of the way. Other than proving the story of Jonah to be correct, you couldn't get any closer than this. We found ourselves measuring our length against every bit of the Whaleshark. Just incredible.
Dive 18 - Visibility and current had changed and there was very little Hammerhead activity. We saw a Whaleshark out in the blue but he was already opposite our position. Although we kicked as hard as we could, we only made it to his tail and we were too puffed to swim faster and get alongside. We admired the tail that was swinging so, so slowly, then we waved goodbye and let the current take us back to the ledge where we just sort of lay on the rocks trying to recover.
Dive 19 - The diving at Darwin wasn't just about Hammerheads and Whalesharks. An indication of the variety (let alone the fantastic numbers) of fish species can be seen from the species list for this dive: c.20 King Angelfish, 00s Barberfish, 100+ Razor Surgeonfish, 2 Goldrim Surgeonfish, 2 Moorish Idol, 4 Crevalle Jack, c.25 Bigeye Trevalle, 10+ Bluefin Trevalle, 30+ Rainbow Runner, 000s Pacific Creolefish, 4 Bicolour Parrotfish, 2 Bluechin Parrotfish, 30+ Leather Bass, all 3 phases of Galapagos Ringtail Damselfish, c100 Galapagos Grunt, c.25 Burrito Grunt, 300+ Blue and Gold Snapper, 4 Sunset Wrasse, 00s juvenile Cortez Rainbow Wrasse, c.200 Mexican Goatfish, 20+ Mexican Hogfish, 1 Giant Hawkfish, 4 Coral Hawkfish, 3 phases of Guineafowl Puffer, 1 Vagabond Filefish, 2 Oceanside Triggerfish, 6 Finescale Triggerfish, 5 Trumpetfish, 4 Reef Cornetfish, 2 Fine Spotted Moray and c.30 Scalloped Hammerhead.
Dive 20 - Last dive at Darwin and we so wanted to finish with a Whaleshark. We'd been on the ledge about 10 minutes when Edwin, the dive master took off into the blue. We couldn't see anything, but we kicked after him as fast as we could go. He had either seen a Whaleshark early or we'd just be getting a tail as it went away. It was early. Coming towards head first on our level. Wow. It was a monster. Bigger than huge. We all just hung in the water watching the great wide head getting closer and closer. And then we were alongside, every detail really close. He seemed to be barely moving but we were kicking like mad gulping great volumes of air. He slowly pulled away from us and we watched the enormous tail sweeping from side to side disappear into the blue. We surfaced to a beautiful sunset. What a staggering last dive.

DAY 8
Dive 21 - Wolf - Landslide
Back to Wolf. Was it only 3 days ago that we were last here? Profile was as previous visit but the surge was even bigger and stronger, pulling us off our rock holds and throwing us around all over the place. Eagle rays were still here and 3 of them cruised backwards and forwards oblivious to the surge and the current. Galapagos Sharks outnumbered Hammerheads 20 to 15. A Bumphead Damselfish was a new species for us.
Dives 22 & 23 - Wolf - Pinnacle
Pinnacle is a wall dive at the top right hand corner of Wolf. The wall is the underwater continuation of the sheer granite sides of the island and it was amazing to look up from 20 metres and see the waves smashing into the towering cliffs. The first 30 minutes of the dive include caves and swim throughs and as long as you stay close to the wall, it's a fairly gentle drift dive. You then get to a bit of a corner and 10 to 20 metres away from the wall is the pinnacle rising up to within about 5 metres of the surface. The aim is to get from the wall to the pinnacle. You can either kick away from the wall early and let the current sweep you across or you can go late and hugging the bottom, inch your way across. The latter is recommended since the current picks up very quickly and if you've gone early and can't grab on to the pinnacle then you're stuffed and will end up out in the blue all by yourself. You also run the risk of having to hang on too high up. Whilst this provides much entertainment for the other divers it's clearly not much fun spending 10 minutes doing an impression of a flag at half mast flapping in a gale force wind. The objective of being out on the pinnacle is to watch the traffic along the wall. We had lots of turtles here: 6 Hawksbill and 13 Green (why don't they have problems with the current?). Excellent views of a White Tipped Shark and c.20 Hammerheads. We also had 1 Surge Wrasse (which is quite unusual here). These were really good views for identification purposes. Whilst we were trying to stop our masks and regs from being pulled off, he just bobbed around us as if there was no current at all.

Dive 24 - Wolf - La Banana
La Banana is not surprisingly a banana shaped lump of granite at the north end of Wolf Island. There's a swim through, a cave and another pinnacle. However, for the most part it's a high speed fabulous flying trip racing along a sheer wall before being spun off out into the blue for a safety stop. By the time we met the rib we seemed to have travelled miles and the Sky Dancer looked small against the granite cliffs.

DAY 9
Dives 25 & 26 - Isabela Island - Cabo Marshall
Back from Wolf and Darwin, south to the main archipelago and what a contrast. Much colder water and no visibility - in fact pea soup. We did 2 dives along the volcanic shore of Isabela Island, both dives producing a Manta Ray, one just a shadow out in the soup and one flapping past within a couple of metres.

DAY 10 Dives 27 & 28 - Gordon Rocks
Gordon Rocks is the remains of the top of a volcano. In terms of the dive site, what's left above the water is a sort of horseshoe that's open at both ends. Beneath the water, at the southern end, the volcano wall has disappeared. But, at the northern end there are 3 submerged pinnacles. The current generally flows south to north gushing in the open southern end and ripping across the pinnacles at the northern end.
Sat in the rib inside the horseshoe we wondered what we doing there. It was lashing with rain and the swells were climbing 3 and 4 metres up the rocks around us. Beneath the waves it got worse. We dived the site two different ways, both ending up at the pinnacles. And the only way of staying attached was by getting a good hand hold and pulling yourself around the rocks - welcome to the Galapagos Underwater Rock Climbing Club.
Anyway, all this whinging notwithstanding, we had fabulous views of 7 White Tipped Sharks, 5 Hammerheads and 5 Galapagos Sharks. One of the Galapagos Sharks was an absolute monster, so big that initially we thought it might be a Bull Shark. We had more Green Turtles on both dives and at our last safety stop 2 sea lions whizzed past us down into the blue. A magical end to a most magical trip.


Pictures by the author except for:
Whale Shark - Dive 15 and
Hammerhead - Dive 9 which were taken by Mark Underwood

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