cyklon_300
Contributor
Considering this boat for Sea of Cortez charter. Any first-hand experiences? Please comment on boat, crew, diving, food, time of year...you know, everything.
Thanks.
Gregg
Thanks.
Gregg
Liveaboard Don Jose
- Thread starter cyklon_300
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 5,721
- Reaction score
- 474
Sure, I've done it several times.
Of course Sea of Cortez scuba is like eastern Pacific rather than Caribbean diving, so don't expect reefs lush with colorful coral & sponges, or big vis. Tends to be rocky with sand & rubble bottom, with 40'-80' vis.
Bless the Don Jose--it's been around a long time. A big, lumbering wooden craft with 7 A/C cabins, it's quite stable & seaworthy if not snappy. More room than many live aboards.
Earlier in the season, like Mar-Jun is whaleshark time, and later in year the water warms up quite a bit. But, it's fun diving all the time. Los Islotes consistently delivers the sea lions, and El Bajo often has hammerheads & mantas.
Old Don Jose is still the captain, Luis & Felix run the pangas, Hernan does the mechanicals & Enrique, assisted by Dios, turns out tasty & visually appealing food. They are very, very nice folks.
La Paz is still a relatively unspoiled Mexican fishing village on it's way to tourist development. Couple of good seafood restaurants.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
Of course Sea of Cortez scuba is like eastern Pacific rather than Caribbean diving, so don't expect reefs lush with colorful coral & sponges, or big vis. Tends to be rocky with sand & rubble bottom, with 40'-80' vis.
Bless the Don Jose--it's been around a long time. A big, lumbering wooden craft with 7 A/C cabins, it's quite stable & seaworthy if not snappy. More room than many live aboards.
Earlier in the season, like Mar-Jun is whaleshark time, and later in year the water warms up quite a bit. But, it's fun diving all the time. Los Islotes consistently delivers the sea lions, and El Bajo often has hammerheads & mantas.
Old Don Jose is still the captain, Luis & Felix run the pangas, Hernan does the mechanicals & Enrique, assisted by Dios, turns out tasty & visually appealing food. They are very, very nice folks.
La Paz is still a relatively unspoiled Mexican fishing village on it's way to tourist development. Couple of good seafood restaurants.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
OP
cyklon_300
Contributor
Thanks for your comments.
We've been on the Solmar V in the Socorros and the diving sounds similar. The lack of coral was more than compensated by the abundant pelagics imo...
G
We've been on the Solmar V in the Socorros and the diving sounds similar. The lack of coral was more than compensated by the abundant pelagics imo...
G
- Messages
- 5,721
- Reaction score
- 474
I've done both as well.
Just don't expect the Sea of Cortez to be the Socorros, or you'll very likely be highly disappointed.
The Don Jose is a lot roomier, though, and mostly the surface is a lot flatter.
I suspect that you'll have much fun.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
Just don't expect the Sea of Cortez to be the Socorros, or you'll very likely be highly disappointed.
The Don Jose is a lot roomier, though, and mostly the surface is a lot flatter.
I suspect that you'll have much fun.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
Similar threads
