ptn72
Registered
This is the review of my Socorro liveaboard with Nautilus Belle Amie from December 14th to December 22nd. There were 4 boats going to Soccoro but Nautilus Belle Amie was the only one with a schedule that worked for us. Its our second liveaboard trip so my wife and I know what to expect. If you dont want to read this length review, here is our verdict - this trip exceeds our expectations. I think liveaboard should be in the bucket list of every diver.
We arrived in Cabo San Lucas one day before our departure to reduce the stress of delayed flights. We stayed at Siesta Suite, a small hotel, across the street from Teresa Resort where we would meet with Nautilus crew later. Suite was $69 + tax. That was cash price. Theyd charge you a little more if you want to pay with credit card. It was small for a suite but clean and has all amenities such as fridge, microwave The bed had memory foam mattress so it was nice.
One thing I dont like about Nautilus is the inconsistencies between their website, pre-boarding document, and last minute email. I have 2 examples. The first one was the shuttle from Los Cabos airport to Cabo San Lucas. The pre-boarding document recommended one shuttle company for $25/person each way. One week before our departure, Nautilus sent out another email recommending another shuttle company that change $20/person from airport to Cabo San Lucas then only $15/person on the way back. The second one was how to board the boat. The pre-boarding document told us to meet at main API dock of the marina then wed meet with the crew and board the Belle Amie. The last minute email mentioned about the hospitality suite at Teresa Resort for people who arrive the day of the departure. I wished we had known about that option a month earlier. Anyway, we ended up meeting the crew at the hospitality suite and took a ride on a skiff to board the boat. The Belle Amie was anchored in the bay and not at the marina dock. If someone followed the instructions for the pre-boarding document they would have a hard time finding the Belle Amie crew.
The crew came to the hospitality suite around 8:30PM which was half an hour later that what they had told us in the email. But that gave the guests a chance to mingle, share diving stories and bond before our trip even began. Once the crew arrived, they put masking tapes with our stateroom letter on our luggages. They suggested to hand carry fragile stuff like laptops and handled the rest of our luggages. We were divided into 2 groups and rode 2 skiffs to the Belle Amie. After unloading us, the crew came back to transport the rest of our luggages and delivered them to our stateroom. In my previous liveaboard, they took away our empty suitcases after we unpacked then gave them back at the end of the trip. On the Belle Amie, we kept our suitcases in our stateroom as they didnt take them away. This worked out well because there were no drawers to store all our clothes. My wife liked this setup better as it was less does not require her to unload all our things.
After we boarded the boat, other crew members were on deck to welcome us then took us to the dining room where the chef prepared some snacks for us (chicken wings and various vegetables with dip). We left our shoes/sandals outside on the dive deck and walked bare feet for the rest of the trip. The captain introduced the crew to us then we were on our way. It was a long boat ride, 24 hours, to Socorro. On the traveling day, the crew took away our passports. They also did the paper work and divided us into 3 dive groups (red, blue, yellow) and each group has 9 divers. They did an excellent job of splitting up the guests as our group meshed really well together and had a great time with each other the entire trip.
The crew: Captain Brayden, First Mate Danielle, Divemasters Jesse, Justin, and Felippe, Skiff Drivers Luis and Angel, Hostesses Cecilia and Melinda, Chef Marcos, Engineer Dale. On any liveaboard, the crew will make or break the experience. On a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 is the best, this crew is 11. Everyone worked really hard to make sure every guest had a good time. Jesse, Justin and Felippe led 4 dives a day, tried to help us spotting the elusive hammerhead sharks and refilled our tanks in rough sea condition. They helped us get in and out our skiff, handled our heavy cameras. Bryden, Danielle, Luis, Angel, Dale took turn driving skiffs and when they didnt, they were on diving deck with Melinda helping us get in and out our skiff. Cecilia, Merlinda, and Angel always made sure that our tummies were full and water/Gatorade on the dive deck pre/post dive. Chef Marcos kept turning out delicious dishes. When we did the night snorkel with silky shark, none of them came so the crew tried again for us on our last diving day. This time, a bunch of silkies came and we had a blast. When the crew was not serving us, they worked to keep to boat clean inside and outside. We were very lucky to have such an outstanding crew taking care of us.
The boat: Belle Amie is a big boat and we are glad that its big. Even though it was big, there were a lot of pitching and rolling as it was an open ocean crossing. I felt queasy on the way back to Cabo San Lucas even with the motion sickness patch behind my ear. It bothered me enough that I just had a light dinner on the last night even though the steak was delicious. I cant imagine what its like on a smaller boat. The staterooms and crew quarter are at the lowest deck. We had the stateroom G which was one room away from the engine room and we didnt hear any engine noise. Above the staterooms is the main deck. The back of the main deck is diving deck. On the left, there were 6 rows of benches where we geared up before each dive. Below the benches, there was room to put you fins and mask boxes. Above the benches, there were hangers for your wetsuit. The crew assigned us spots on these benches based on our group. On the right side, there are 3 large 3-tier camera tables with outlets at the top tiers. People used the bottom tier to store camera luggage. Cameras, camcorders, housings, domes were put in the middle tier. The top tier is where people charge their batteries. There was plenty of room. Some divers had huge housings and there were still a lot of spaces. At the back of dive deck, there was a large camera rinse tank on the left. On the right, there were 2 large plastic 50-gallon containers to rinse wetsuits and a smaller container to rinse masks. In the back of the boat, there were 2 shower heads and the water was always warm. As you leave the diving deck, you walk through a French door and find yourself at the dining room with 4 long tables along with wraparound benches and chairs. The lounge is next to the dining room with a bar and many comfortable sofas, chairs and a big LED TV. There was a small library with books and some movies to watch as we crossed the open ocean. One warning though, the patches made our vision blurry so reading might not be the best activity . There were two large suites next to the lounge. Above the main decks are more suites and the wheelhouse. The top is sun deck with covered bar and hot tub. With 27 divers, it never felt crowed.
Our stateroom is G. There were 2 beds, 1 twin and 1 full. Between two beds, there was a night stand with 1 shelf. There was no drawer in our stateroom. However, the is space underneath the twin bed where we stow away our luggage and we pull our suitcases out to take what we need then push them back in. At the end of the twin bed, there was a gap where we put our 2 carry-on roller. There were 4 hooks on the wall and hangers if you want to hang up stuff. Shower stall on one side with curtain. There was plenty of hot water for the shower. Toilet and sink are on the other side with folding door. There was outlet at the head of each bed. Our stateroom has a port hole. The crew made our bed twice a day and left chocolate at night. Everything was really clean.
There were 3 kinds of towels. In stateroom, bath towel, hand towel and wash cloth were white. On dive deck, camera towels were blue. We dried ourselves after our dives with brown towels. They asked us to use 1 brown towel a day so drier could keep up. However, if you need another one, some were always available.
Safety: Captain gave us a safety briefing and night we boarded the boat. The next day, we practiced evacuation drill where we had to put on our life vest then gather at dive deck to go through roll call. The crew also went through fire drill. Your SMB has to be at least 6ft long. If yours is shorter than that or you dont have one, they will loan one to you. Each of us was given signaling device connected to the inflator and Nautilus Lifeline. Divemaster showed us how to use them. Divemaster verified number of divers on each skiff at the end of each dive.
Food: Chef Marcos was amazing. I had no idea how he could cook delicious meal after delicious meal on a rocking boat for 38 people. One diver was vegetarian so Marcos made special meals for her. There was always soup for lunch and dinner which my wife liked them a lot. He also made delicious fruits and snacks between dives. One time, after the last dive of the day, we came in and there were pot stickers waiting. Wow
There were different types of soda. Alcohol was not included and youd start a bar tab then settle it at the end of the trip.
Diving: my wife and I dove with nitrox and it was 31-32% the whole trip. There were 27 divers so we were divided into 3 groups (red, blue and yellow). Each group has 9 divers, led by 1 divemaster. They staggered the groups 10 minutes apart so it wouldnt be too crowded. Each group would take turn as the lead group each day so it would be fair to everyone. Except for our checkout dive which was from the back of the boat, the remaining dives were from our skiff. Every morning, the crew loaded our tanks to the skiff and they stayed in the skiff for the rest of the day. After the last dive of the day, the crew would take the tanks back to our benches. After each dive, the skiff would be tied on the side of the boat and the tanks were refilled. Divemaster analyzed nitrox and put a sticker on the tank. We just had to set our computer to the percentage on the sticker. Because of the usage of the skiffs in open sea, the crew had to work much harder than our previous liveaboard crew.
Here was our dive procedure: loaded divers into skiff then loaded cameras. Skiff driver took us to dive site then we back roll with negative entry to start our dive. When we were done, launch SMB and our assigned skiff will pick us up (only on last dive of the day that any skiff would pick us up). While hanging on to the line from the skiff, we handed our cameras to skiff driver/divemaster, took out the weight pouches and handed them to the skiff driver/divermaster, unbuckled our BCD then the skiff driver/divemaster would pull up our tanks while we helped pushing it up. The final step was removing our fins and climbing the ladder to get in the skiff. After picking up everyone in our group, we got back to the boat, unloaded cameras then divers.
The webpage indicated that there would be 22 dives + 1 night snorkel. However, this is not true. There were 19 dives + 1 night snorkel. We lost 1 dive because the Mexican Navy was required to inspect our boat. Dive rules were to do safety stop with 500psi and bottom time was no longer than 1 hour since they had to stay with the schedule. There were 4 dives a day and this was how it went: continental breakfast dive cook to order breakfast dive lunch dive snack dive cocktail hours - dinner. The first dive started around 7am and last dive ended around 5pm. Visibility was 60-70ft, water temperature was ~78F. My wife and I had 3mm wetsuits and we were comfortable. We brought along 2mm hooded vests but didnt use them. Some divers dove with board short and 3mm top. Some dove with 5 mm with hood.
Diving at Socorro was also much more physical compared to the calm water of Turks and Caicos (our last liveaboard). Choppy water made getting back on the skiff or waiting for the skiff challenging. Fighting strong current could be exhausted as well. However, we were rewarded with giant Pacific manta rays and white tip sharks on every dive. Adding two hammerhead sharks, one Galapagos shark, a pod of dolphins, a school of tunas, a bunch of silky sharks and countless reef fishes, we had the trip of our lifetime. I saw a pod of dolphins underwater for the first time at El Boiler San Benedicto. The Galapagos shark was just a bonus. Roca Partida didnt live up to our sky high expectation but managed to let us see two hammerhead sharks and a school of tunas (both were too deep to take picture or video). Every dive, we played with the mantas and watched them glide effortlessly through the blue water. Once in a while two of them would put on a dance that made you in awe of the natures beauty. When we didnt see the mantas, we just cruised around the rock formation along with other white tip shark. From time to time, we found several of them resting together underneath a rock.
On the day of Mexican Navy inspection, the crew setup the night snorkeling with silky sharks but only one shark came then left. We were skunked. On the last day of diving, the crew set it up again. This time, a bunch of them came and stayed. Only 12 people were allowed to be in the water at one time then we rotated. We all had a great time swimming with these silkies.
Boatmates: it was a nice mix of divers: a group of divers from a dive shop in Georgia; a family of 4 from Italy; couples from Illinois, California; two friends from Minnesota; solo divers from French, England, California, Colorado, Nevada, New York and Mexico. Our skiffmates were fantastic and we had a great time with them. We also had a great time with majority of our boatmates. Many of them are seasoned divers and professional photographers so it was always interesting to listen to their stories or look at their works.
Things that we like:
+ The boat and the crew were top notch. I cant say enough good things about them.
+ The food was fantastic.
+ Giant pacific manta rays, sharks, and dolphins.
+ Great boatmates.
+ Group pictures and crew pictures at the end of the trip.
+ DVD that the crew put together using videos and pictures taken by our boatmates
Things that we dont like:
+ 24 hours boat ride to Socorro and 30 hours boat ride back to Cabo San Lucas.
+ Inconsistencies between Nautilus website, pre-boarding document, and email.
+ Wrong number of dives in the website.
Conclusion: Nautilus Belle Amie is a great boat with a fantastic crew. The operation was well run. The diving was amazing. The close encounters with giant Pacific manta rays are the moment that we will never forget. Here is the video of our trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcqNDntr_po
We arrived in Cabo San Lucas one day before our departure to reduce the stress of delayed flights. We stayed at Siesta Suite, a small hotel, across the street from Teresa Resort where we would meet with Nautilus crew later. Suite was $69 + tax. That was cash price. Theyd charge you a little more if you want to pay with credit card. It was small for a suite but clean and has all amenities such as fridge, microwave The bed had memory foam mattress so it was nice.
One thing I dont like about Nautilus is the inconsistencies between their website, pre-boarding document, and last minute email. I have 2 examples. The first one was the shuttle from Los Cabos airport to Cabo San Lucas. The pre-boarding document recommended one shuttle company for $25/person each way. One week before our departure, Nautilus sent out another email recommending another shuttle company that change $20/person from airport to Cabo San Lucas then only $15/person on the way back. The second one was how to board the boat. The pre-boarding document told us to meet at main API dock of the marina then wed meet with the crew and board the Belle Amie. The last minute email mentioned about the hospitality suite at Teresa Resort for people who arrive the day of the departure. I wished we had known about that option a month earlier. Anyway, we ended up meeting the crew at the hospitality suite and took a ride on a skiff to board the boat. The Belle Amie was anchored in the bay and not at the marina dock. If someone followed the instructions for the pre-boarding document they would have a hard time finding the Belle Amie crew.
The crew came to the hospitality suite around 8:30PM which was half an hour later that what they had told us in the email. But that gave the guests a chance to mingle, share diving stories and bond before our trip even began. Once the crew arrived, they put masking tapes with our stateroom letter on our luggages. They suggested to hand carry fragile stuff like laptops and handled the rest of our luggages. We were divided into 2 groups and rode 2 skiffs to the Belle Amie. After unloading us, the crew came back to transport the rest of our luggages and delivered them to our stateroom. In my previous liveaboard, they took away our empty suitcases after we unpacked then gave them back at the end of the trip. On the Belle Amie, we kept our suitcases in our stateroom as they didnt take them away. This worked out well because there were no drawers to store all our clothes. My wife liked this setup better as it was less does not require her to unload all our things.
After we boarded the boat, other crew members were on deck to welcome us then took us to the dining room where the chef prepared some snacks for us (chicken wings and various vegetables with dip). We left our shoes/sandals outside on the dive deck and walked bare feet for the rest of the trip. The captain introduced the crew to us then we were on our way. It was a long boat ride, 24 hours, to Socorro. On the traveling day, the crew took away our passports. They also did the paper work and divided us into 3 dive groups (red, blue, yellow) and each group has 9 divers. They did an excellent job of splitting up the guests as our group meshed really well together and had a great time with each other the entire trip.
The crew: Captain Brayden, First Mate Danielle, Divemasters Jesse, Justin, and Felippe, Skiff Drivers Luis and Angel, Hostesses Cecilia and Melinda, Chef Marcos, Engineer Dale. On any liveaboard, the crew will make or break the experience. On a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 is the best, this crew is 11. Everyone worked really hard to make sure every guest had a good time. Jesse, Justin and Felippe led 4 dives a day, tried to help us spotting the elusive hammerhead sharks and refilled our tanks in rough sea condition. They helped us get in and out our skiff, handled our heavy cameras. Bryden, Danielle, Luis, Angel, Dale took turn driving skiffs and when they didnt, they were on diving deck with Melinda helping us get in and out our skiff. Cecilia, Merlinda, and Angel always made sure that our tummies were full and water/Gatorade on the dive deck pre/post dive. Chef Marcos kept turning out delicious dishes. When we did the night snorkel with silky shark, none of them came so the crew tried again for us on our last diving day. This time, a bunch of silkies came and we had a blast. When the crew was not serving us, they worked to keep to boat clean inside and outside. We were very lucky to have such an outstanding crew taking care of us.
The boat: Belle Amie is a big boat and we are glad that its big. Even though it was big, there were a lot of pitching and rolling as it was an open ocean crossing. I felt queasy on the way back to Cabo San Lucas even with the motion sickness patch behind my ear. It bothered me enough that I just had a light dinner on the last night even though the steak was delicious. I cant imagine what its like on a smaller boat. The staterooms and crew quarter are at the lowest deck. We had the stateroom G which was one room away from the engine room and we didnt hear any engine noise. Above the staterooms is the main deck. The back of the main deck is diving deck. On the left, there were 6 rows of benches where we geared up before each dive. Below the benches, there was room to put you fins and mask boxes. Above the benches, there were hangers for your wetsuit. The crew assigned us spots on these benches based on our group. On the right side, there are 3 large 3-tier camera tables with outlets at the top tiers. People used the bottom tier to store camera luggage. Cameras, camcorders, housings, domes were put in the middle tier. The top tier is where people charge their batteries. There was plenty of room. Some divers had huge housings and there were still a lot of spaces. At the back of dive deck, there was a large camera rinse tank on the left. On the right, there were 2 large plastic 50-gallon containers to rinse wetsuits and a smaller container to rinse masks. In the back of the boat, there were 2 shower heads and the water was always warm. As you leave the diving deck, you walk through a French door and find yourself at the dining room with 4 long tables along with wraparound benches and chairs. The lounge is next to the dining room with a bar and many comfortable sofas, chairs and a big LED TV. There was a small library with books and some movies to watch as we crossed the open ocean. One warning though, the patches made our vision blurry so reading might not be the best activity . There were two large suites next to the lounge. Above the main decks are more suites and the wheelhouse. The top is sun deck with covered bar and hot tub. With 27 divers, it never felt crowed.
Our stateroom is G. There were 2 beds, 1 twin and 1 full. Between two beds, there was a night stand with 1 shelf. There was no drawer in our stateroom. However, the is space underneath the twin bed where we stow away our luggage and we pull our suitcases out to take what we need then push them back in. At the end of the twin bed, there was a gap where we put our 2 carry-on roller. There were 4 hooks on the wall and hangers if you want to hang up stuff. Shower stall on one side with curtain. There was plenty of hot water for the shower. Toilet and sink are on the other side with folding door. There was outlet at the head of each bed. Our stateroom has a port hole. The crew made our bed twice a day and left chocolate at night. Everything was really clean.
There were 3 kinds of towels. In stateroom, bath towel, hand towel and wash cloth were white. On dive deck, camera towels were blue. We dried ourselves after our dives with brown towels. They asked us to use 1 brown towel a day so drier could keep up. However, if you need another one, some were always available.
Safety: Captain gave us a safety briefing and night we boarded the boat. The next day, we practiced evacuation drill where we had to put on our life vest then gather at dive deck to go through roll call. The crew also went through fire drill. Your SMB has to be at least 6ft long. If yours is shorter than that or you dont have one, they will loan one to you. Each of us was given signaling device connected to the inflator and Nautilus Lifeline. Divemaster showed us how to use them. Divemaster verified number of divers on each skiff at the end of each dive.
Food: Chef Marcos was amazing. I had no idea how he could cook delicious meal after delicious meal on a rocking boat for 38 people. One diver was vegetarian so Marcos made special meals for her. There was always soup for lunch and dinner which my wife liked them a lot. He also made delicious fruits and snacks between dives. One time, after the last dive of the day, we came in and there were pot stickers waiting. Wow
There were different types of soda. Alcohol was not included and youd start a bar tab then settle it at the end of the trip.Diving: my wife and I dove with nitrox and it was 31-32% the whole trip. There were 27 divers so we were divided into 3 groups (red, blue and yellow). Each group has 9 divers, led by 1 divemaster. They staggered the groups 10 minutes apart so it wouldnt be too crowded. Each group would take turn as the lead group each day so it would be fair to everyone. Except for our checkout dive which was from the back of the boat, the remaining dives were from our skiff. Every morning, the crew loaded our tanks to the skiff and they stayed in the skiff for the rest of the day. After the last dive of the day, the crew would take the tanks back to our benches. After each dive, the skiff would be tied on the side of the boat and the tanks were refilled. Divemaster analyzed nitrox and put a sticker on the tank. We just had to set our computer to the percentage on the sticker. Because of the usage of the skiffs in open sea, the crew had to work much harder than our previous liveaboard crew.
Here was our dive procedure: loaded divers into skiff then loaded cameras. Skiff driver took us to dive site then we back roll with negative entry to start our dive. When we were done, launch SMB and our assigned skiff will pick us up (only on last dive of the day that any skiff would pick us up). While hanging on to the line from the skiff, we handed our cameras to skiff driver/divemaster, took out the weight pouches and handed them to the skiff driver/divermaster, unbuckled our BCD then the skiff driver/divemaster would pull up our tanks while we helped pushing it up. The final step was removing our fins and climbing the ladder to get in the skiff. After picking up everyone in our group, we got back to the boat, unloaded cameras then divers.
The webpage indicated that there would be 22 dives + 1 night snorkel. However, this is not true. There were 19 dives + 1 night snorkel. We lost 1 dive because the Mexican Navy was required to inspect our boat. Dive rules were to do safety stop with 500psi and bottom time was no longer than 1 hour since they had to stay with the schedule. There were 4 dives a day and this was how it went: continental breakfast dive cook to order breakfast dive lunch dive snack dive cocktail hours - dinner. The first dive started around 7am and last dive ended around 5pm. Visibility was 60-70ft, water temperature was ~78F. My wife and I had 3mm wetsuits and we were comfortable. We brought along 2mm hooded vests but didnt use them. Some divers dove with board short and 3mm top. Some dove with 5 mm with hood.
Diving at Socorro was also much more physical compared to the calm water of Turks and Caicos (our last liveaboard). Choppy water made getting back on the skiff or waiting for the skiff challenging. Fighting strong current could be exhausted as well. However, we were rewarded with giant Pacific manta rays and white tip sharks on every dive. Adding two hammerhead sharks, one Galapagos shark, a pod of dolphins, a school of tunas, a bunch of silky sharks and countless reef fishes, we had the trip of our lifetime. I saw a pod of dolphins underwater for the first time at El Boiler San Benedicto. The Galapagos shark was just a bonus. Roca Partida didnt live up to our sky high expectation but managed to let us see two hammerhead sharks and a school of tunas (both were too deep to take picture or video). Every dive, we played with the mantas and watched them glide effortlessly through the blue water. Once in a while two of them would put on a dance that made you in awe of the natures beauty. When we didnt see the mantas, we just cruised around the rock formation along with other white tip shark. From time to time, we found several of them resting together underneath a rock.
On the day of Mexican Navy inspection, the crew setup the night snorkeling with silky sharks but only one shark came then left. We were skunked. On the last day of diving, the crew set it up again. This time, a bunch of them came and stayed. Only 12 people were allowed to be in the water at one time then we rotated. We all had a great time swimming with these silkies.
Boatmates: it was a nice mix of divers: a group of divers from a dive shop in Georgia; a family of 4 from Italy; couples from Illinois, California; two friends from Minnesota; solo divers from French, England, California, Colorado, Nevada, New York and Mexico. Our skiffmates were fantastic and we had a great time with them. We also had a great time with majority of our boatmates. Many of them are seasoned divers and professional photographers so it was always interesting to listen to their stories or look at their works.
Things that we like:
+ The boat and the crew were top notch. I cant say enough good things about them.
+ The food was fantastic.
+ Giant pacific manta rays, sharks, and dolphins.
+ Great boatmates.
+ Group pictures and crew pictures at the end of the trip.
+ DVD that the crew put together using videos and pictures taken by our boatmates
Things that we dont like:
+ 24 hours boat ride to Socorro and 30 hours boat ride back to Cabo San Lucas.
+ Inconsistencies between Nautilus website, pre-boarding document, and email.
+ Wrong number of dives in the website.
Conclusion: Nautilus Belle Amie is a great boat with a fantastic crew. The operation was well run. The diving was amazing. The close encounters with giant Pacific manta rays are the moment that we will never forget. Here is the video of our trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcqNDntr_po
