tawny arrives

after a couple of weeks without an assistant (which was fine because i could go out with Rafa on a bigger boat and still get work done) my second assistant, Tawny, arrived

Unfortunately because I was taking advantage of the "no assistant" time to do some much needed repairs on my boat, the boat was still apart when she arrived.


so we went out on Rafa's boat. which obviously didn't disapoint because there were pilot whales on the way to the dive site.


pilot whales are toothed whales so they're closely related to dolphins but don't have the pointed snout, they have more of a melon head like orcas, but without the distiinctive black and white markings. They are also a little bit more timid than dolphins, so they don't approach your boat and try to ride the bow wave and jump in the wake like bottlenose dolphins do. but we were patient and they eventually would pass close to the boat.

we ended up diving at punta lobos (the main spawning site) first. at the end of the island, before the rest of the point is submerged, there is a cool little cave. i've never been able to spend any time there or pass through it because we're usually in such rough conditions and out on my tiny boat that we usually get in, work and get right out so we can head back to the campsite before dark





at the bottom of the cave are some medium to big boulders that are rolling around in there. while we were in there, i saw Rafa grab a good sized one and haul it out of the cave to the boat. it seemed fairly heavy and he struggled with it a bit. i asked him what he was going to do with it and he said he needed it to put under the tire of his trailer. what? like there aren't a million rocks and cinderblocks around in Loreto to do that with. **this will become important later!**

on our second dive we couldn't go to the seamount we wanted because someone was fishing there (bastards!) so we went off to the side a bit. i was bummed because it's been about 6 years since i'd been there. but the next dive was interesting and i found a little nook where some recently recruited rock croakers were hanging out. the two small ones in the picture are less than a centimeter in length.