I went to the Socorros aboard the Rocio Del Mar a couple weeks ago. My trip departed December 27 and returned January 4. It was an awesome trip and I highly recommend it!
I arrived in San Jose Del Cabo the afternoon of Dec. 26 and we departed from the marina around 9 am on the 27th. The crossing to the Socorros is 26 hours in good weather. Luckily, we had good weather and I began taking Dramamine the day before departure, so I had no issues at all with seasickness. (The return crossing was a little rougher and a couple people felt queasy, but again, if you're prepared with Dramamine it really helps. I had zero issues.)
Our first stop was at San Benedicto. We arrived around noon on the 28th and we got 2 dives in that day. We spent the next day there as well diving "the Canyon," and then we moved on to Isla Socorro which is the only inhabited island (Mexican Navy base). We saw a lot of sharks, but my favorite part of Isla Socorro was the dolphin interactions. We saw dolphins at San Benedicto too, but these dolphins made repeated visits over our 2 days of diving there, and they got really, really close and stayed with us a good while. Morning dives were always the best for dolphins, so don't skip any of those! Here's a video I took of our dolphin interactions:
Rocio Del Mar did a good job communicating with the other liveaboards to make sure we all got a turn at the best sites. Roca Partida was the smallest island (really just a rock) so it can get crowded quick. There is no sheltered protection at Roca Partida, so they run over there as soon as they know the weather is good. If it's too windy, they have to wait. Luckily, we made it over there with great weather and we were the only liveaboard. Also, there are 20 divers on the boat but they are divided into 3 groups at slightly staggered times and slightly different drop-off locations (from a panga). We had some really awesome interactions with giant oceanic mantas at Roca Partida, along with white tip sharks, silky sharks, Galapagos shark, tuna, and more. One group on my boat saw a whale shark. Roca Partida:
On the last day, we went back to San Benedicto but dove a different site, "The Boiler." Lots more mantas there, plus schooling hammerheads and dolphins.
Water temps ranged from 76 to 81 degrees. Some people wore 5 mil or even 7 mil wetsuits the whole time, but I wore a 3 mil with a hooded Lavacore and was fine. I only wore more than that on 2 or 3 dives (a 5 mil) and I was completely warm.
Except for the first day on our arrival when we had 2 dives, we had 4 dives every day except at Roca Partida where we had 3. We ended up with 20 dives for the trip. Night dives are not allowed in the Socorros.
Overall, I thought it was a great trip. You won't see beautiful corals, but you'll have amazing manta and dolphin interactions. Maybe even whales if you're lucky...we saw one in the distance but couldn't catch up to it.
Trip compilation video:
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