Is Socorro worth the $$$?

[dflaher]

@Manuel Sam Great response in post #78. Thoughtful, and well laid out.

 

[nat_siriu]

maybe look into tubbataha or sipadan instead of flying all the way for socorro

Thanks for the recommendation. I will be in the US for work; hence, taking this opportunity to go to Cabo.

 

[nat_siriu]

Based on what you said, it doesn't appear that you need a 15L tank. It is rare that a girl is a heavy breather. But, if, during the trip, you are constantly having to ascend earlier than everybody else due to being low on air, then you can always ask them to switch you to a15L tank. This gets back to what I said before: if a person is only getting, let's say, 40 minutes out of a 60 minute dive, then they are not getting their money's worth, and on a liveaboard, you are paying a premium for those dives.

I personally dislike using the 15L tank anyway. Besides being heavier and bulkier, I find that no matter how much I tighten the BCD around my body, I constantly find myself tipping to one side or the other during a dive.

Regarding inflating sausages, I think I have deployed my sausage a grand total of two times in all my trips to Socorro. In other words, most of the time, you don't even have to. My point was not that you will need to do it or even demonstrate that you can do it. It is just a necessary skill that you should be able to do almost instinctively if the need arises: just like, let's say, knowing instinctively where and which button to press or which knob to pull in order to inflate or deflate your BCD. Since you rent, it would behoove you to learn those knobs and buttons well before your first dive because they may vary from BCD to BCD. The point is also not to scare you or discourage you - after all, we all started out the same way.

In places like Socorro, you may encounter some conditions that may be new and which could perhaps be stressful to you - be it cold water, buoyancy issues if wearing a thicker wetsuit and more weights in May, current, surge, rough waters, poor viz, deep dives or dives in the blue with no bottom, etc. Not that all of these conditions happen all at once and on all trips. But - and this is the real point of this discussion - if you were confronted with an overload of stressful conditions while underwater, that is not the time to fumble around trying to figure out how to do those necessary skills.

Regardless, as Dan suggested, it would be wise for your first Socorro trip, or even in Cabo, to stay close to the dive guide. For one thing, aside from their job to lead you to the interesting parts of the dive site, they are usually better at spotting animals than we are, and they are also there to ensure your safety.

I don't dive in Cabo much anymore so I am not of much help there. But I do know, because I spent 6 days snorkeling there last May, that the viz in Cabo and the corridor around that time tends to be so-so. But since you have never dived there, you may find the diving interesting, since the marine life is quite different than that of the Indopacific. A friend just came back and reported seeing eagle rays, a small group of schooling mobula rays, a guitarfish and sea lions. She dove with See Creatures. I've also seen some good reports on Manta Scuba in Cabo. You can search in this Mexico forum to see what others said.

I find the diving in Cabo Pulmo and out of La Paz to be more interesting in terms of marine life. But they are both over two hours away from Cabo. And at least to me, they are better dived while staying there rather than staying in Cabo. But that would bring about more complications than you may wish to take on since you would have to arrange lodging and diving at both places as well as the transportation in between and to and from the airport. If you were to return in November, that would also be a better month to do Cabo Pulmo and La Paz.

@Manuel Sam Thanks so much for the well constructive advice!!! I really appreciate that you take the time to response in great details. You were right, without any experience in the blue water, I will stress out and miss out the enjoyment. It is a mission to go there when I feel more confident!

I will be in Cabo for around a week and plan to dive with Dive Cabo and See Creatures. They seem to have good reviews and slightly better price than Manta Scuba. Will share how it go. First time in the cold water, already bought sharkskin long sleeves in preparation.

Big thanks again!!!

 

[Dan]

I will be in Cabo for around a week and plan to dive with Dive Cabo and See Creatures. They seem to have good reviews and slightly better price than Manta Scuba. Will share how it go. First time in the cold water, already bought sharkskin long sleeves in preparation.

Don’t forget hood. Also wear at least 5mm full wetsuit.

 

[nat_siriu]

Don’t forget hood. Also wear at least 5mm full wetsuit.

Thanks Dan!!!... yep, hood and perhaps even 7mm wetsuit!! first time diving in the cold sea! I will stop the thread now. Sorry that I got the conversation off the topic about Socorro.

 

[Palawan]

Hi everyone

Thanks so much for posting your trip reports with great details! They are really helpful.

I read @Dan 's trip reports for both Jan and May and many other posts about Socorro. I'm thinking of going on 11 May with Nautilus Undersea. I haven't booked yet and start to chicken out as it seems Socorro is for experienced divers. I only have 72 dives (!!), mainly in the warm and calm sea in the gulf of Thailand. The coldest sea was two tanks in the Big island searching for mantas (but didn't see them ).

As all of you are experienced divers, I was hoping if you think I should maybe have more dives especially in the cold water before I try Socorro? From Dan's May trip report, the choppy sea is scary too as I tend to have motion sickness. I might get a chance to go to the US in Nov next year. Should I save Socorro until then when the sea is warmer? Is it calmer in November?

Sorry my question isn't so related to Socorro itself but looking forward to your advice. It would be much appreciated!

Thanks so much!!

I’ll let my video from my trip give you a feeling if it’s what you’re after… for us it was the trip of a lifetime.

 

[Boiler-Racer]

My wife & I dove Socorro in June 2021 on the Belle Amie and loved it! It was our first liveaboard and it couldn’t have been better. We loved the big critter experience that were seen in large numbers. It was mind boggling! It wasn’t unusual to see four types of sharks in the same frame and the manta experiences were magical. On a couple dives we spent 40+ mins with the same mantas that kept coming back and looking you in the eyes. . As others have said, the manta experience was different than reef & pelagic mantas experienced in other places like Kona.

Personally, I wouldn’t let the larger number of divers scare you away. We had 28 divers on the Belle Amie and Nautilus broke us up into 4 groups that would rotate when we got in. They also let people move between groups throughout the trip. The groups also alternated meal times (we didn’t eat at the same time as part of their Covid plan). I’m not a people person , but never thought there were too many people on the ship and enjoyed swapping stories with fellow divers.

I did ask a couple Divemasters separately on which ship they’d pick to take a Socorro trip. Both said the Belle Amie is the nicest ship, has the biggest rooms, and its larger sized helped with the crossings, but they would pick a smaller Nautilus ship (like the Explorer) because it had a smaller number of divers, more photographers, and the clientele who picked these ships without as many bells & whistles tended to be lower maintenance (I’ll leave it at that. )

We love Socorro & Nautilus so much that we’re booked on the Explorer in December 2022 and back on the Belle Amie in April 2023 with friends.

If you love big critter experiences and love diving (4 dives a day for multiple days), then you will love it! One suggestion, investigate meds or patches for the crossings that can be rough.

Below are a few pics I captured. I have a series of pics of a Galapagos shark rubbing against a manta to remove parasites.

 

[dflaher]

the clientele who picked these ships without as many bells & whistles tended to be lower maintenance (I’ll leave it at that. )

LOL. Thanks for your post.

 

[Dr. Love]

who all is goin on the el guardian on 3/18/2023 baby?!

 

[nippurmagnum]

Now that I finally made it to Socorro, I thought I would answer my own question: ”Is Socorro worth the money”? My answer would have to be … drumroll … a definite “maybe.”

Over 5 days of diving from the Nautilius Explorer in early January, we saw schooling hammerheads, mantas, and dolphins. On one glorious dive, all three on the same dive at Cabo Pearce. Also Galapagos sharks, silvertips, and lots of white tip reef sharks. Plus baitballs and octopus and nudibranchs.

The weather was a bit unsettled because of recent storms further north that had caused widespread flooding in California, and divers on the boat who had done previous Socorro trips said they had never seen such limited visibility, as little as 5-10 feet on a couple of dives. But the crossings were not too bad, and there were days of decent viz (50-80 feet).

The food was good though not lavish, the boat was comfortable but certainly not luxurious, and the crew was very good and helpful.

So, was the liveaboard worth $4,500 for the 5 days of diving? It depends. From my experience, if you want to dive with mantas, you can reliably see them in Kona, Hawaii, for $200. I’ve never seen fewer than a dozen of them, and if you do the combination twilight/night dive, you’ll see them both actively feeding and also just hanging out. If you want to see schooling hammerheads you can find them by the hundreds at Gordo Banks from San José del Cabo, also for $200. For dolphins, you can do a liveaboard in the Red Sea, and have close cetacean encounters for less than $1,250 a week on a boat much nicer than the Explorer. For octopus and nudis and other macro stuff you can go to the Blue Heron bridge and see all manner of amazing macro stuff for the cost of a tank rental.

There was also a hit or miss quality to the Socorro dives. We saw mantas on most dives, but not all. Dolphins appeared on only one dive, but there were a dozen of them. We had schooling hammerheads on two dives, and individual hammerheads on maybe half the dives, enough that after a while they seemed commonplace. Roca Partida had dramatic shark action, but the four dives there were pretty much the same. No whale sharks or whales during the week, though I saw several whales in Cabo on the dives before the Socorro trip. Some dives were just relatively barren, cold and dark, punctuated by the momentary thrill of a passing manta or a playful octopus.

When the trip ended, I felt that I had gotten decent value for the money. By any measure, I’d had a good time, enjoyed the people on the boat, and had some great dives. I certainly didn’t feel cheated, but neither am I going to rush back, unless I win the lottery. I could certainly see myself doing it again in a couple of years though, and maybe if the conditions are better I’ll have a different take on it.