Fantastic trip, great ship, wonderful crew and great diving. We saw schooling Hammerhead sharks, Silver tip sharks, Dusky Sharks, Galapagos sharks, Silky Sharks White tip Sharks and Manta rays. The surprize of the trip was the bottom sealife because it isn't in any of the Solmar V or Nautilus Explorer advertizing. Lots of neat stuff on the bottom and an array of fish brought in by the Indo-Pacific, California, Sea of Cortez and Tropical Mexican currents. Over a third of my shots were with the standard and macro lenses.
A few comments:
Mexican Gov't does not allow divers to wear gloves and at Roca Partido we experienced heavy upward surge that can slam you aginst the rocks. I watched my gauge indicate from 89 fsw to 63fsw on one such single surge stopping myself with an outstretched hand to that resulted in a light 4" cut. The answer would seem to be to stay away from the rock, but several who did that were blown away and we often drifted well away from the rock doing safety stops, with one such resulting in a HUGE King blue tuna swimming by. Needless to say, this area offered spectacular shark and manta opportunities. Several of us often tried to be in the first boat out because it was such a great dive to view these animals.
While Mike runs a great trip, this was their 2nd trip (ever) and some comments are worthy.
1) Great food and great accomodations. The sweet deal is the divers who booked the cheapest accomodations in the forward "crew" bunks and when staterooms were not full, they got a free upgrade!
2) This is very serious diving and all trip participants were made well aware of this many times before the trip, but again, this trip is not for the beginners yet we had a few on the boat. They were good sports and didn't attempt every dive. Rather than exclude them, Nautilus made accomodations that didn't impact the spirit of the trip by assigning them a dive guide.
3) Dive time was not maximized - Poor travel logistics consumed too much time.
The trip was a 9 day trip that departed from La Paz and returned to Cabo San Lucas with most guests flying into Cabo San Lucas. A VERY poor shuttle van operator hindered land travel to La Paz and we got a late start. Since the ship's travel time South from La Paz passes Cabo, I often wondered why they didn't arrange the departure point to be Cabo as it would have saved the divers 2 extra days of travel from La Paz. The result was a 9 day trip with barely 6 days of diving.
3) Dive sites often changed enroute, not due to weather but due to Solmar V being there first. Because of the delay in starting, it seemed Nautilus was always chasing Solmar which had arrived at our destination ahead of us, causing us to alter our choice.
4) One compressor blew, airfills were slow, but at sea ***** happens and we rarely were hindered by lack of air. Nitrox was pitiful as the fills occurred only after the Air fills were completed and a few of us decided to go back on air to facilitate diving.
5) Nautilus was still getting their dive tenders organized and on one occasion offered "exploring" trips around a peninsula, well out of sight of the boat. 3 of us had very long dives and the dive tender operators had changed skiff drivers without propely communicating that there were divers still out in the water to be picked up. We were on the surface 40+ minutes, no boat in sight, safety Sausages up before one guest alerted the crew that divers were missing. I had two Silky Sharks hanging out around my feet.
Bottom line - I'd go back again in a heartbeat. People travel to the Galapagos, Cocos, etc and this is better!
A few comments:
Mexican Gov't does not allow divers to wear gloves and at Roca Partido we experienced heavy upward surge that can slam you aginst the rocks. I watched my gauge indicate from 89 fsw to 63fsw on one such single surge stopping myself with an outstretched hand to that resulted in a light 4" cut. The answer would seem to be to stay away from the rock, but several who did that were blown away and we often drifted well away from the rock doing safety stops, with one such resulting in a HUGE King blue tuna swimming by. Needless to say, this area offered spectacular shark and manta opportunities. Several of us often tried to be in the first boat out because it was such a great dive to view these animals.
While Mike runs a great trip, this was their 2nd trip (ever) and some comments are worthy.
1) Great food and great accomodations. The sweet deal is the divers who booked the cheapest accomodations in the forward "crew" bunks and when staterooms were not full, they got a free upgrade!
2) This is very serious diving and all trip participants were made well aware of this many times before the trip, but again, this trip is not for the beginners yet we had a few on the boat. They were good sports and didn't attempt every dive. Rather than exclude them, Nautilus made accomodations that didn't impact the spirit of the trip by assigning them a dive guide.
3) Dive time was not maximized - Poor travel logistics consumed too much time.
The trip was a 9 day trip that departed from La Paz and returned to Cabo San Lucas with most guests flying into Cabo San Lucas. A VERY poor shuttle van operator hindered land travel to La Paz and we got a late start. Since the ship's travel time South from La Paz passes Cabo, I often wondered why they didn't arrange the departure point to be Cabo as it would have saved the divers 2 extra days of travel from La Paz. The result was a 9 day trip with barely 6 days of diving.
3) Dive sites often changed enroute, not due to weather but due to Solmar V being there first. Because of the delay in starting, it seemed Nautilus was always chasing Solmar which had arrived at our destination ahead of us, causing us to alter our choice.
4) One compressor blew, airfills were slow, but at sea ***** happens and we rarely were hindered by lack of air. Nitrox was pitiful as the fills occurred only after the Air fills were completed and a few of us decided to go back on air to facilitate diving.
5) Nautilus was still getting their dive tenders organized and on one occasion offered "exploring" trips around a peninsula, well out of sight of the boat. 3 of us had very long dives and the dive tender operators had changed skiff drivers without propely communicating that there were divers still out in the water to be picked up. We were on the surface 40+ minutes, no boat in sight, safety Sausages up before one guest alerted the crew that divers were missing. I had two Silky Sharks hanging out around my feet.
Bottom line - I'd go back again in a heartbeat. People travel to the Galapagos, Cocos, etc and this is better!
