Dan
Contributor
Summary
This is a nine-day (22-30 December, 2018) liveaboard trip to Revillagigedo Archipelago, or it’s a better known as Socorro, with Nautilus Undersea. The itinerary, as shown in Table 1, includes 5 days of diving, 4 dives / day, except 1 day during Navy check-in, to a total of 19 dives and a snorkeling with silky shark off the back of the boat.
Figure 1 shows the Nautilus Undersea cruising routes (marked by red arrows) around the Revillagigedo Archipelago. We did 1st day of diving in San Benedicto, 2nd day in Roca Partida, 3rd and 4th day in Socorro Island, the 5th (last) day back in San Benedicto. Some of the new diving experiences for me were getting very close encounters with giant mantas and friendly bottlenose dolphins.
Figure 1: Nautilus Undersea routes in Revillagigedo Archipelago (courtesy of Google Earth)
Here is a short video of the highlight of what I saw during the 5 days of diving in Socorro:
Background
A quick browse of Socorro location, I learnt that it is about about 283 miles (468 km) southwest off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as shown in Figure 2. It would take about 24-28 hour voyage from Cabo San Lucas to Socorro Island.
Figure 2: Socorro geographic location (courtesy of Google Earth)
Since I live near Houston, Texas, it was an easy 3-hour flight.
I read the water temperature in Socorro would be about 75-77 °F (24-25 °C) around December. So, I brought a 5mm full wetsuit with hood. The water temperature turned out to be as expected.
The Liveaboard
Nautilus Undersea, as shown in Figure 3, is 105-foot (32m) long ship with 9 staterooms for up to 19 guests, along with two rigid inflatable boats (RIB). It was formerly owned by the Undersea Hunter Group of Costa Rica and it’s well known for 26 years of service to Cocos Island. So, I was quite at ease going with this “well-oiled machine” ship.
Figure 2: Nautilus Undersea
It runs by 8 crews (a captain, a mate, an engineer, a chef, a host, a deckhand and 2 divemasters) for 19 guests. So, they work very hard to maintain day-to-day operation of the boat and to serve the guests.
The boat layout is very functional for divers. Galley, dinning, and entertainment areas are on the main deck. Camera station and dive deck are outside on the back of the main deck. Six of the staterooms are in lower deck. A triple stateroom and a suite are on the main deck. A premium suite is on the upper deck. The upper deck is also a sundeck with open air sitting area for people to relax in between divings.
The lower-deck stateroom, where I stayed, has a bunk-style single beds, private head and shower, plenty of closet space for 2 divers. The host did a great job of keeping our cabin cleaned and orderly.
Setting up our dive gears and handling them were pretty typical of a liveaboard with RIB. Once we kit up our dive gears at our assigned stations in the dive deck and ready to board on the RIB, the deckhand would take our fins and cameras. We then walked downstairs to the loading platform, got on the RIB by grabbing on a rope, put our legs over the side of the RIB (one at a time), sit on the RIB side and slided to the back of the RIB. Once everyone was onboard, the deckhand would then handed over the fins and the cameras and off we went to the dive site.
The RIB can take 10 people. There were 16 divers on that trip. We were divided into 2 groups of 8 divers, depending on the diver skill level and preference. Group 1 was for the experienced self-reliant divers looking for complete freedom on their dives. Group 2 was for less experienced (especially in diving in blue water) looking for the reassurance of being with a DM to guide and lead the group.
When we were ready to go diving in a new dive site, we would meet at the upper deck area, listen to the dive briefing and headed back down to dive deck afterwards to suit up.
For water entry, the RIB pilot would count to 3 and we all backrolled into the water together at the same time. Each group would descend together following the DM.
The meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner) were buffet type in most of the days. Full course of dinners were served during special day (e.g., Christmas-eve dinner) in the upper deck. The food were excellent. Special dietary meal were served to those who asked for it.
More detail info about the liveaboard can be found here: Giant Mantas at Socorro Island- Nautilus Liveaboards
The diving
We did 4 dives in most of 5 diving days to a total of 19 dives, with a night snorkeling with silky shark. The diving schedule would be posted in the lounge whiteboard and divemaster would announce it to everyone 5 minutes before the scheduled dive briefing. Typical 4-dives / day schedule was as follows:
06:45 – continental breakfast
07:15 – dive 1
09:15 – hot breakfast
10:15 – dive 2
12:15 – lunch
13:45 – dive 3
16:45 – dive 4
19:30 – dinner
We saw 1 to 4 giant mantas in most of our dives (that’s the main reason I came to Socorro), lots of pelagic fish, including 5 species of sharks (galapagos, silvertip, whitetip, silky and hammerhead) and friendly dolphins in Socorro. There would be too many to list them all here from every dives. So I would just mention a few unusual / uncommonly seen by me or the first time I saw them during the trip and anything that was noted in my logbook.
1st Day of Diving
We had a great 1st day of diving in San Benedicto. Water temperature was about 75°F. Dive 1 was in The Canyon, 85 feet depth with 50 feet visibility. It was a calm dive site, a good place for a check dive. Some fish worth noting were silvertip shark, whitetip shark, of course giant manta, as shown in Figure 3, below.
Figure 3: Giant Oceanic Manta Ray of Socorro
Dive 2 was a repeat of Dive 1
Dive 3 was in El Boiler, 77 feet depth. This site is well known for the giant manta cleaning station. Those mantas love to swim over divers' bubbles. So, we gave them plenty of bubbles, as shown in the video, below.
Dive 4 was a repeat of Dive 3 on a shallower site (62 feet depth) and better visibility (60 feet). We saw a few of juvenile silvertip sharks, hanging around us like puppy dogs, as shown in the video, below.
Afterwards, we cruise down to Roca Partida for 2nd of day diving.
2nd Day of Diving
The diving in Roca Partida could be challenging due to we would be exposed to more open water as the island is just a small, steep rock in the middle of Pacific Ocean, as shown in Figure 4, below.
Figure 4: Roca Partida, Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico
I was so looking forward to see the fish there and video them with my GoPro. Unfortunately, my 6 months old GoPro Hero 6, just decided to shut itself off for unknown reason. Later on when I got back home I troubleshot the problem with GoPro technical support to no avail and I had to send it out for warranty replacement. Fortunately, plenty of dive buddies there brought their cameras and gladly share their videos and pictures. The trip video, posted in the beginning of this trip report is compilation of their videos and pictures. Thank you guys!
Dive 5 to Dive 8 were all done in Roca Partida with depth around 110 to 113 feet, 80 feet visibility, medium surf, a bit of choppy water surface, typical open ocean diving. The nice thing about that day was the mild to no current underwater. The not so nice thing, however, that could also mean that there would be less pelagic fish swimming around. Luckily, we still saw some pelagic fish, like a yellowfin tuna, as shown in Figure 5, below.
Figure 5: Yellowfin Tuna in Roca Partida
We also saw schooling of white-tongue jack, bigeye trevally, and as expected, giant mantas.
Another interesting site to see in Roca Partida is the Balcony, where local resident sleep during the day, i.e., whitetip reef sharks, as shown in Figure 6, below.
Figure 6: Local resident of The Balcony of Roca Partida, whitetip reef sharks
This trip report is continued on to post 2.
This is a nine-day (22-30 December, 2018) liveaboard trip to Revillagigedo Archipelago, or it’s a better known as Socorro, with Nautilus Undersea. The itinerary, as shown in Table 1, includes 5 days of diving, 4 dives / day, except 1 day during Navy check-in, to a total of 19 dives and a snorkeling with silky shark off the back of the boat.
Figure 1 shows the Nautilus Undersea cruising routes (marked by red arrows) around the Revillagigedo Archipelago. We did 1st day of diving in San Benedicto, 2nd day in Roca Partida, 3rd and 4th day in Socorro Island, the 5th (last) day back in San Benedicto. Some of the new diving experiences for me were getting very close encounters with giant mantas and friendly bottlenose dolphins.
Figure 1: Nautilus Undersea routes in Revillagigedo Archipelago (courtesy of Google Earth)
Here is a short video of the highlight of what I saw during the 5 days of diving in Socorro:
Background
A quick browse of Socorro location, I learnt that it is about about 283 miles (468 km) southwest off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as shown in Figure 2. It would take about 24-28 hour voyage from Cabo San Lucas to Socorro Island.
Figure 2: Socorro geographic location (courtesy of Google Earth)
Since I live near Houston, Texas, it was an easy 3-hour flight.
I read the water temperature in Socorro would be about 75-77 °F (24-25 °C) around December. So, I brought a 5mm full wetsuit with hood. The water temperature turned out to be as expected.
The Liveaboard
Nautilus Undersea, as shown in Figure 3, is 105-foot (32m) long ship with 9 staterooms for up to 19 guests, along with two rigid inflatable boats (RIB). It was formerly owned by the Undersea Hunter Group of Costa Rica and it’s well known for 26 years of service to Cocos Island. So, I was quite at ease going with this “well-oiled machine” ship.
Figure 2: Nautilus Undersea
It runs by 8 crews (a captain, a mate, an engineer, a chef, a host, a deckhand and 2 divemasters) for 19 guests. So, they work very hard to maintain day-to-day operation of the boat and to serve the guests.
The boat layout is very functional for divers. Galley, dinning, and entertainment areas are on the main deck. Camera station and dive deck are outside on the back of the main deck. Six of the staterooms are in lower deck. A triple stateroom and a suite are on the main deck. A premium suite is on the upper deck. The upper deck is also a sundeck with open air sitting area for people to relax in between divings.
The lower-deck stateroom, where I stayed, has a bunk-style single beds, private head and shower, plenty of closet space for 2 divers. The host did a great job of keeping our cabin cleaned and orderly.
Setting up our dive gears and handling them were pretty typical of a liveaboard with RIB. Once we kit up our dive gears at our assigned stations in the dive deck and ready to board on the RIB, the deckhand would take our fins and cameras. We then walked downstairs to the loading platform, got on the RIB by grabbing on a rope, put our legs over the side of the RIB (one at a time), sit on the RIB side and slided to the back of the RIB. Once everyone was onboard, the deckhand would then handed over the fins and the cameras and off we went to the dive site.
The RIB can take 10 people. There were 16 divers on that trip. We were divided into 2 groups of 8 divers, depending on the diver skill level and preference. Group 1 was for the experienced self-reliant divers looking for complete freedom on their dives. Group 2 was for less experienced (especially in diving in blue water) looking for the reassurance of being with a DM to guide and lead the group.
When we were ready to go diving in a new dive site, we would meet at the upper deck area, listen to the dive briefing and headed back down to dive deck afterwards to suit up.
For water entry, the RIB pilot would count to 3 and we all backrolled into the water together at the same time. Each group would descend together following the DM.
The meal (breakfast, lunch & dinner) were buffet type in most of the days. Full course of dinners were served during special day (e.g., Christmas-eve dinner) in the upper deck. The food were excellent. Special dietary meal were served to those who asked for it.
More detail info about the liveaboard can be found here: Giant Mantas at Socorro Island- Nautilus Liveaboards
The diving
We did 4 dives in most of 5 diving days to a total of 19 dives, with a night snorkeling with silky shark. The diving schedule would be posted in the lounge whiteboard and divemaster would announce it to everyone 5 minutes before the scheduled dive briefing. Typical 4-dives / day schedule was as follows:
06:45 – continental breakfast
07:15 – dive 1
09:15 – hot breakfast
10:15 – dive 2
12:15 – lunch
13:45 – dive 3
16:45 – dive 4
19:30 – dinner
We saw 1 to 4 giant mantas in most of our dives (that’s the main reason I came to Socorro), lots of pelagic fish, including 5 species of sharks (galapagos, silvertip, whitetip, silky and hammerhead) and friendly dolphins in Socorro. There would be too many to list them all here from every dives. So I would just mention a few unusual / uncommonly seen by me or the first time I saw them during the trip and anything that was noted in my logbook.
1st Day of Diving
We had a great 1st day of diving in San Benedicto. Water temperature was about 75°F. Dive 1 was in The Canyon, 85 feet depth with 50 feet visibility. It was a calm dive site, a good place for a check dive. Some fish worth noting were silvertip shark, whitetip shark, of course giant manta, as shown in Figure 3, below.
Figure 3: Giant Oceanic Manta Ray of Socorro
Dive 2 was a repeat of Dive 1
Dive 3 was in El Boiler, 77 feet depth. This site is well known for the giant manta cleaning station. Those mantas love to swim over divers' bubbles. So, we gave them plenty of bubbles, as shown in the video, below.
Dive 4 was a repeat of Dive 3 on a shallower site (62 feet depth) and better visibility (60 feet). We saw a few of juvenile silvertip sharks, hanging around us like puppy dogs, as shown in the video, below.
Afterwards, we cruise down to Roca Partida for 2nd of day diving.
2nd Day of Diving
The diving in Roca Partida could be challenging due to we would be exposed to more open water as the island is just a small, steep rock in the middle of Pacific Ocean, as shown in Figure 4, below.
Figure 4: Roca Partida, Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico
I was so looking forward to see the fish there and video them with my GoPro. Unfortunately, my 6 months old GoPro Hero 6, just decided to shut itself off for unknown reason. Later on when I got back home I troubleshot the problem with GoPro technical support to no avail and I had to send it out for warranty replacement. Fortunately, plenty of dive buddies there brought their cameras and gladly share their videos and pictures. The trip video, posted in the beginning of this trip report is compilation of their videos and pictures. Thank you guys!
Dive 5 to Dive 8 were all done in Roca Partida with depth around 110 to 113 feet, 80 feet visibility, medium surf, a bit of choppy water surface, typical open ocean diving. The nice thing about that day was the mild to no current underwater. The not so nice thing, however, that could also mean that there would be less pelagic fish swimming around. Luckily, we still saw some pelagic fish, like a yellowfin tuna, as shown in Figure 5, below.
Figure 5: Yellowfin Tuna in Roca Partida
We also saw schooling of white-tongue jack, bigeye trevally, and as expected, giant mantas.
Another interesting site to see in Roca Partida is the Balcony, where local resident sleep during the day, i.e., whitetip reef sharks, as shown in Figure 6, below.
Figure 6: Local resident of The Balcony of Roca Partida, whitetip reef sharks
This trip report is continued on to post 2.
