Vessel: Sea Hunter
Water Temperature: 84-87°F
Visibility: 55ft average, up to 80ft
Current: Weak to strong, including some notably powerful current days
Highlights: Three tiger sharks on one dive at Dos Amigos Pequeño, a close pass from a huge tiger shark at Alcyone, a hawksbill turtle, a hammerhead school that stuck with the group, and a group of dolphins in the blue
Day 1
Manuelita Coral Garden opened the trip with reef fish and calm conditions. Manuelita Channel and Manuelita Outside followed with whitetip reef sharks and a couple of hammerheads spotted at a distance, with one coming in closer to the group on the blue at the end of the day.
Day 2
Punta Maria and Dirty Rock had whitetip reef sharks and a handful of hammerheads passing by. Manuelita Channel brought a strong current that carried the group through the channel and into the center of Chatham Bay to finish the dive.
Day 3
Manuelita Outside opened the day with whitetip reef sharks hunting alongside bluefin trevallies, a group of about five eagle rays, and 10 to 13 hammerheads swimming together near the sandy bottom. Alcyone followed with a Galápagos shark, a clown shrimp, and a hammerhead school that came up and stayed close to the group for a while, with a mobula ray joining in toward the end. Dirty Rock closed the day with hammerheads and reef fish.
Day 4
Manuelita Outside had a strong current running through the site, with a couple of Galápagos sharks at the end of the dive. Manuelita Coral Garden closed the day with an orange frogfish.
Day 5
Alcyone opened with a juvenile tiger shark that rose up from the depths before swimming off, a Galápagos shark, a deep hammerhead school, and dolphins in the blue. Dos Amigos Pequeño followed with two tiger sharks and a couple of Galápagos sharks of very different sizes, one large and one quite small.
Day 6
Dos Amigos Pequeño delivered the dive of the trip: three different tiger sharks on a single dive, including one close to four meters that passed calmly right by the group, plus a hawksbill turtle out in the blue. Dirty Rock had a handful of hammerheads, and Porites closed the day with a group of five to six mobula rays.
Day 7
Dos Amigos Pequeño had a tiger shark and hammerheads moving through. Alcyone brought the standout moment of the day: a huge tiger shark that passed very close to the group. We wrapped up at Manuelita Outside, and began the crossing back to Puntarenas!