Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Back from Socorro
(please scroll down for details)
Let the 10-day quarantine begin . . .
BACK SAFE & SOUND - Overall we had a fabulous trip (got home Friday afternoon) and checked off everything on a Socorro bucket list including a Tiger Shark (spotted a number of times but at a distance) and even a Whale Shark!!! Let me break it down for you a bit.
COVID PROTOCOLS - We took (and still take) the COVID situation quite seriously, as does Nautilus Liveaboards. And we were a bit nervous/anxious about making the trip because of all of the COVID concerns. In fact, seven people on the trip opted out due to those concerns. But we also felt that, as long as you were comfortable and understood the risk, that we could do this trip safely. Nautilus required everyone to have a negative COVID test no more than 7 days prior to boarding. I suggested that everyone self-quarantine as best they could following that test and leading up to our flying down to Cabo. Nautilus also required everyone to do a 7-day pre-trip temperature log. At the airport, most of us double-masked and/or added a face shield, plus did a lot of hand-sanitizing. The flight down was easy with roughly 40 people (if that) on the plane. The transfer company we use (Cabo Transfers) as well as the hotel where we stayed (Tesoro Los Cabos) also had COVID protocols and sanitizing in place. And once we got on the boat, Nautilus has instituted very good (IMHO) procedures. Their crew is masked at all times and sanitizes things like railings and surfaces likely to be touched regularly. Passengers are masked at all times except when eating, in your room, or on the skiff to the dive site. Temperature checks are done for each passenger and crew member every morning. All food, even between-dive snacks, are served directly by one of two gloved crew members to minimize anyone touching food. And when meal times rolled around, we actually divided into two groups of 8 (there were 16 divers total on the trip) with half the group eating in the main deck galley and the other half dining al fresco on the covered sun deck. Food was served directly to you, not a buffet. So, while not minimizing the seriousness of COVID, overall we all felt that our exposure risk was well-managed.
THE DIVING - It was challenging at times. Most places had some surge, and sometimes it got strong. Visibility ranged anywhere from a murky 20 feet at one site to close to 150 at Roca Partida. On average we were generally getting 50-70 feet. But you certainly developed a feel for how to deal with everything and as long as you didn't try to fight the surge or anything like that and instead moved with it and let it help you along on the dive, all was manageable. We did four dives each day. The boat had two dive skiffs running at all times so anytime you surfaced, you were picked up with a minute or two. We'd load up into the skiffs on the dive deck, back-roll entry once at the specific site, and then at the end removed weights/tanks/fins and climbed up a ladder to reboard the skiff. Once back on the boat, there were always fresh towels, and the galley staff took drink orders while we were coming back so those were ready for us when we arrived back on board. Our new guilty pleasure: Alpine-brand Hot Apple Cider (available at Costco).
THE ANIMALS - The Revillagigedo Archipelago - aka "Socorro" - is certainly Big Animal heaven. We started at San Benedicto Island and The Canyon and that was mainly sharks (Galapagos, Whitetip, Silvertip, Hammerheads) and LOTS of them. Roca Partida has the Whitetips who occupy the "shark balconies" but there wasn't a whole lot else going on so we only spent a single day there. But back at Socorro Island itself, we started getting inundated with Manta Rays. That's also where we got our drive-by view of a large Whale Shark, along with one of the dolphin encounters. On another dive, we had seven mantas that stayed with us for almost an hour. And while we didn't see Humpback Whales underwater, we could hear them singing and vocalizing occasionally and we had one mother/calf combo come down the side of the boat no more than 50 feet away as the mother taught the calf how to swim and breathe and we all watched from an upper deck. So plenty to experience as you can see from the photo samples below.
TRIP REPORT & PIX - Hopefully you were able to see some of the sporadic postings we did on FaceBook on some days (internet on the boat is via satellite so is very limited in terms of bandwidth) but I'll spend this week tweaking pictures and videos as well as writing the trip report and . . . I hope . . . to have those done Friday. (One of the advantages of the county-imposed 10-day quarantine is that I'm not going anywhere so I should have time.) I'll send out a separate note when those are ready. But overall a good time was had by all and we're even looking into going again in 2022. It looks like the only available date for a group of our size will be mid-March, but also on the Nautilus Under Sea which is what we were on this time. If you'd like to have your name on our "interested" list, just drop me a note. No obligation.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, and let's go diving soon.
- Ken
(please scroll down for details)
Let the 10-day quarantine begin . . .
BACK SAFE & SOUND - Overall we had a fabulous trip (got home Friday afternoon) and checked off everything on a Socorro bucket list including a Tiger Shark (spotted a number of times but at a distance) and even a Whale Shark!!! Let me break it down for you a bit.
COVID PROTOCOLS - We took (and still take) the COVID situation quite seriously, as does Nautilus Liveaboards. And we were a bit nervous/anxious about making the trip because of all of the COVID concerns. In fact, seven people on the trip opted out due to those concerns. But we also felt that, as long as you were comfortable and understood the risk, that we could do this trip safely. Nautilus required everyone to have a negative COVID test no more than 7 days prior to boarding. I suggested that everyone self-quarantine as best they could following that test and leading up to our flying down to Cabo. Nautilus also required everyone to do a 7-day pre-trip temperature log. At the airport, most of us double-masked and/or added a face shield, plus did a lot of hand-sanitizing. The flight down was easy with roughly 40 people (if that) on the plane. The transfer company we use (Cabo Transfers) as well as the hotel where we stayed (Tesoro Los Cabos) also had COVID protocols and sanitizing in place. And once we got on the boat, Nautilus has instituted very good (IMHO) procedures. Their crew is masked at all times and sanitizes things like railings and surfaces likely to be touched regularly. Passengers are masked at all times except when eating, in your room, or on the skiff to the dive site. Temperature checks are done for each passenger and crew member every morning. All food, even between-dive snacks, are served directly by one of two gloved crew members to minimize anyone touching food. And when meal times rolled around, we actually divided into two groups of 8 (there were 16 divers total on the trip) with half the group eating in the main deck galley and the other half dining al fresco on the covered sun deck. Food was served directly to you, not a buffet. So, while not minimizing the seriousness of COVID, overall we all felt that our exposure risk was well-managed.
THE DIVING - It was challenging at times. Most places had some surge, and sometimes it got strong. Visibility ranged anywhere from a murky 20 feet at one site to close to 150 at Roca Partida. On average we were generally getting 50-70 feet. But you certainly developed a feel for how to deal with everything and as long as you didn't try to fight the surge or anything like that and instead moved with it and let it help you along on the dive, all was manageable. We did four dives each day. The boat had two dive skiffs running at all times so anytime you surfaced, you were picked up with a minute or two. We'd load up into the skiffs on the dive deck, back-roll entry once at the specific site, and then at the end removed weights/tanks/fins and climbed up a ladder to reboard the skiff. Once back on the boat, there were always fresh towels, and the galley staff took drink orders while we were coming back so those were ready for us when we arrived back on board. Our new guilty pleasure: Alpine-brand Hot Apple Cider (available at Costco).
THE ANIMALS - The Revillagigedo Archipelago - aka "Socorro" - is certainly Big Animal heaven. We started at San Benedicto Island and The Canyon and that was mainly sharks (Galapagos, Whitetip, Silvertip, Hammerheads) and LOTS of them. Roca Partida has the Whitetips who occupy the "shark balconies" but there wasn't a whole lot else going on so we only spent a single day there. But back at Socorro Island itself, we started getting inundated with Manta Rays. That's also where we got our drive-by view of a large Whale Shark, along with one of the dolphin encounters. On another dive, we had seven mantas that stayed with us for almost an hour. And while we didn't see Humpback Whales underwater, we could hear them singing and vocalizing occasionally and we had one mother/calf combo come down the side of the boat no more than 50 feet away as the mother taught the calf how to swim and breathe and we all watched from an upper deck. So plenty to experience as you can see from the photo samples below.
TRIP REPORT & PIX - Hopefully you were able to see some of the sporadic postings we did on FaceBook on some days (internet on the boat is via satellite so is very limited in terms of bandwidth) but I'll spend this week tweaking pictures and videos as well as writing the trip report and . . . I hope . . . to have those done Friday. (One of the advantages of the county-imposed 10-day quarantine is that I'm not going anywhere so I should have time.) I'll send out a separate note when those are ready. But overall a good time was had by all and we're even looking into going again in 2022. It looks like the only available date for a group of our size will be mid-March, but also on the Nautilus Under Sea which is what we were on this time. If you'd like to have your name on our "interested" list, just drop me a note. No obligation.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, and let's go diving soon.
- Ken
