Guadalupe Islands Shark cage diving?
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StuartT
Contributor
Went on the Nautilus undersea end of last October. Best time for the big females. 1 surface cage and 2 submersibles. Max 16 guests. 3 full days of cage diving. After the first morning was pretty much go as often as you want as some people would pass on their next scheduled dive. Logged 16 hours over the 3 days. Would strongly recommend a Drysuit as the water temp was 68f. Also is the submersibles after a couple of dives we told them to just lower it to 15 ft instead of 30 as most of the action is near the surface where they wrangle tuna chunks on a rope. Saw sharks on every dive and 3 at the same time once. Great staff, amazing food, and nice smaller boat. No issue with that. Was on the explorer to Socorro and boats rode about the same. Mind you we had a pretty calm crossing both ways
forgot to come back and update.... So I ended up going on Nautilus Belle Amie in late July last year for 6 days.
Boat:
1. I believe this is the newest and largest boat available and I was able to score a screaming deal on my trip. Accommodations, food, hot tub, crew, etc... were all really good, no complaints. Pretty large room for live aboards and 4 cages (2 surface, 2 submerged)
2. The trip there was great, very calm seas. The trip back was pretty rocky at night and a few people got sick but overall was doable.
3. Boat was full, about 35 divers.. a good mix of young singles, couples, and a few families. Everyone for the most part were friendly and easy to talk to. Divers from all over the world
Sharks/ Diving:
1. Would definitely recommend a thick dry suit as sitting in the submerged cage for an hour without moving, gets cold quick. I rented one from the boat and I dont get cold easily but did there.
2. Every day there were sharks at Guadalupe all day.. 2-4 sharks swimming around. Mostly young males and a couple of larger females. Some got within a few feet of the cage which was a pretty incredible experience.
3. I was worried that with that many divers, dive time will be hard to come by.. but after the first day there were plenty of open dive spots and you could basically stay in the cage all day if you wanted to.
Overall feedback on experience:
Which boat?: I am afraid Belle Amie spoiled me from all other boats
it'll be hard to go on a smaller boat from here on out. If you have the option, I highly recommend this boat for overall creature comforts.
Should you do the trip? - if you've never been that close to a Great white in the wild - absolutely!
Would I do it again? - Probably not. Maybe its just me.. but it got a little boring sitting in the same cage every day for hours and getting mostly the same experience. I'de be open for going later in the season to see the larger females if i could combine it with another trip where i can actually dive outside of the cage.
Boat:
1. I believe this is the newest and largest boat available and I was able to score a screaming deal on my trip. Accommodations, food, hot tub, crew, etc... were all really good, no complaints. Pretty large room for live aboards and 4 cages (2 surface, 2 submerged)
2. The trip there was great, very calm seas. The trip back was pretty rocky at night and a few people got sick but overall was doable.
3. Boat was full, about 35 divers.. a good mix of young singles, couples, and a few families. Everyone for the most part were friendly and easy to talk to. Divers from all over the world
Sharks/ Diving:
1. Would definitely recommend a thick dry suit as sitting in the submerged cage for an hour without moving, gets cold quick. I rented one from the boat and I dont get cold easily but did there.
2. Every day there were sharks at Guadalupe all day.. 2-4 sharks swimming around. Mostly young males and a couple of larger females. Some got within a few feet of the cage which was a pretty incredible experience.
3. I was worried that with that many divers, dive time will be hard to come by.. but after the first day there were plenty of open dive spots and you could basically stay in the cage all day if you wanted to.
Overall feedback on experience:
Which boat?: I am afraid Belle Amie spoiled me from all other boats
it'll be hard to go on a smaller boat from here on out. If you have the option, I highly recommend this boat for overall creature comforts. Should you do the trip? - if you've never been that close to a Great white in the wild - absolutely!
Would I do it again? - Probably not. Maybe its just me.. but it got a little boring sitting in the same cage every day for hours and getting mostly the same experience. I'de be open for going later in the season to see the larger females if i could combine it with another trip where i can actually dive outside of the cage.
FettSolo
Contributor
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