backpacking diver
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Rocio Del Mar Trip Dec 4-Dec 12, Socorro Islands
Flying into Cabo and getting to the ship was all straightforward; the boat itself generally has nice cabins, beds a bit on the small side, and with actual windows! But the dive deck is very cramped. Most of the dive stations are set up so that you get into them standing up and they've been designed for people about 57 or taller. This may not sound like a big deal but I'm 55 and I had to stand on my toes and then pull the tank and BCD down onto myself, catching it on my shoulders and back, and then do the straps good thing I'm fairly strong the woman in the station next to me, who was an inch shorter, had to stand on a wobbly footstool to do her nitrox analysis and her first stage ended up getting busted due to all the rough handling of the gear, which was pretty serious. If any of the divemasters or crew are going by they will definitely help, but you can't count on it and there isn't really enough room for two divers to pass each other with their gear on, so it's hard for us to help each other.
We had some great dives in particular we had a day with manta rays who wanted to play with us which was absolute heaven, and we also had a great dive with a school of dolphins! As a shark trip, though (which it's advertised as) it was much more disappointing there aren't any cleaning stations so, while the sharks are out there, it's pretty much potluck whether you see any, and because the divemasters don't go very deep that reduces your chances as well. In the whole dive we saw a lot of whitetip reef sharks, two hammerheads at a distance, a Galapagos in the distance, and a handful of sharks none of us could identify because the visibility was pretty bad sometimes just 20 feet or so. I did 19 dives altogether on the trip and saw sharks other then reef sharks on only 6 dives, and on 2 of those they were just unidentifiable shadows.
The crew was great and the panga drivers in particular kept a really good eye on the divers. I'm vegetarian so the food was, as usual, mystery vegetarian dive boat surprise for me, but the carnivores seemed pretty happy with the quality of the food and a couple times we barbecued up on the top deck which was a pleasant change.
There are a few things I wish I'd known before I gone so I thought I put them here in case would be helpful to anyone else
1) Bring warm clothes the water was pretty balmy, 78 to 81°F, and I was great in a 3mil but the boat is freezing cold and I was in jeans, woolly socks and fleece most of the time. I wished Id brought a hat! The problem is staying warm when you're not in the water. (Oddly, though, at night the cabins were roasting hot.)
2) You need to be a very self-sufficient diver our divemaster was really not very interested in whether we saw anything, and so we were on our own with spotting stuff he would often just take off and we wouldn't see him much between the beginning and end of the dive. It was a shame because when you're diving somewhere you haven't been before it can be really helpful to have a divemaster with you who cares about your experience. You might not get that on this trip. You also should be very comfortable coming up on your own in current and surf we had one day where we went out in maybe 8 foot waves when the weather was kicking up and at the last minute the two owners decided to join our already crowded panga, adding about 300+ pounds not counting their elaborate photo gear, and ended up knocking me down onto the panga floor with my knee bent under me and my tank on top of me. I thought I was okay but when we got in the water the owners and the divemaster took off together and I didn't see them again until the end of the dive when the panga picked them up. The other divers said that they got out ahead and charged what might've been a tiger shark (or not) with their camera, driving it awaynobody but the owners got a look at it, and then the other divers were on their own too. I on the other hand found my knee was not in as good shape as I thought I was and after about 20 minutes called the dive luckily I had a buddy who stayed with me and even though the surf was getting very gnarly our panga driver Julio picked us up immediately. Not a happy group of customers that day, overall.
3) The extra $120 for nitrox is probably a bad investment for most people. Because they don't do night dives and want to fit in four dives each day, each dive is limited to 50 minutes maximum including safety stop and there was no diving below 100 feet and that was the other group, which did see more sharks than ours, our divemaster never went below 70 feet the entire trip when we were with him. I never came up with less than 1000 PSI my tank. With 47 minutes or less and a max depth of 70 feet why pay for nitrox? The people diving on air didn't seem to run into any problems at all. Some of the dives were shorter, too--when our divemaster was with us he tended to cut them off early it is a little frustrating to be at only 41 minutes and have a manta right there and have 1800 psi and the divemaster hassling you to go to the safety stop because he's bored and wants to get out of the water. Near the end of the trip I switched over to the other group which had a much more engaged and positive divemaster, but he turned out to be someone that two of the divers had brought with them who isn't usually employed by the boat. With him we went deeper and I actually saw silvertips that was really nice, they're beautiful sharks.
4) Bring your receipts! There are lots of extra charges for park entry, etc., and they dont keep track of what youve paid and what you havent; Im sure theyre honest but theyre not organized and youll feel better if you have a list of what you paid for in advance and what you still owe.
Summing up: great crew, iffy divemaster, lousy dive deck, and not quite as advertised. It's around $4000 all told and while the mantras were amazing it's a lot of money for a great day with mantas. You might get lucky with the sharks or you might not with no cleaning stations it's entirely luck, especially with shallow depths and short dives. If I knew then what I know now, I would've spent the money on going back to Cocos or to the Galapagos. As usual, though, it was nice to be on the dive boat, I met some great people, most of the crew were wonderful to get to know and very tolerant of my lousy Spanish! and the mantas were really magical.
Flying into Cabo and getting to the ship was all straightforward; the boat itself generally has nice cabins, beds a bit on the small side, and with actual windows! But the dive deck is very cramped. Most of the dive stations are set up so that you get into them standing up and they've been designed for people about 57 or taller. This may not sound like a big deal but I'm 55 and I had to stand on my toes and then pull the tank and BCD down onto myself, catching it on my shoulders and back, and then do the straps good thing I'm fairly strong the woman in the station next to me, who was an inch shorter, had to stand on a wobbly footstool to do her nitrox analysis and her first stage ended up getting busted due to all the rough handling of the gear, which was pretty serious. If any of the divemasters or crew are going by they will definitely help, but you can't count on it and there isn't really enough room for two divers to pass each other with their gear on, so it's hard for us to help each other.
We had some great dives in particular we had a day with manta rays who wanted to play with us which was absolute heaven, and we also had a great dive with a school of dolphins! As a shark trip, though (which it's advertised as) it was much more disappointing there aren't any cleaning stations so, while the sharks are out there, it's pretty much potluck whether you see any, and because the divemasters don't go very deep that reduces your chances as well. In the whole dive we saw a lot of whitetip reef sharks, two hammerheads at a distance, a Galapagos in the distance, and a handful of sharks none of us could identify because the visibility was pretty bad sometimes just 20 feet or so. I did 19 dives altogether on the trip and saw sharks other then reef sharks on only 6 dives, and on 2 of those they were just unidentifiable shadows.
The crew was great and the panga drivers in particular kept a really good eye on the divers. I'm vegetarian so the food was, as usual, mystery vegetarian dive boat surprise for me, but the carnivores seemed pretty happy with the quality of the food and a couple times we barbecued up on the top deck which was a pleasant change.
There are a few things I wish I'd known before I gone so I thought I put them here in case would be helpful to anyone else
1) Bring warm clothes the water was pretty balmy, 78 to 81°F, and I was great in a 3mil but the boat is freezing cold and I was in jeans, woolly socks and fleece most of the time. I wished Id brought a hat! The problem is staying warm when you're not in the water. (Oddly, though, at night the cabins were roasting hot.)
2) You need to be a very self-sufficient diver our divemaster was really not very interested in whether we saw anything, and so we were on our own with spotting stuff he would often just take off and we wouldn't see him much between the beginning and end of the dive. It was a shame because when you're diving somewhere you haven't been before it can be really helpful to have a divemaster with you who cares about your experience. You might not get that on this trip. You also should be very comfortable coming up on your own in current and surf we had one day where we went out in maybe 8 foot waves when the weather was kicking up and at the last minute the two owners decided to join our already crowded panga, adding about 300+ pounds not counting their elaborate photo gear, and ended up knocking me down onto the panga floor with my knee bent under me and my tank on top of me. I thought I was okay but when we got in the water the owners and the divemaster took off together and I didn't see them again until the end of the dive when the panga picked them up. The other divers said that they got out ahead and charged what might've been a tiger shark (or not) with their camera, driving it awaynobody but the owners got a look at it, and then the other divers were on their own too. I on the other hand found my knee was not in as good shape as I thought I was and after about 20 minutes called the dive luckily I had a buddy who stayed with me and even though the surf was getting very gnarly our panga driver Julio picked us up immediately. Not a happy group of customers that day, overall.
3) The extra $120 for nitrox is probably a bad investment for most people. Because they don't do night dives and want to fit in four dives each day, each dive is limited to 50 minutes maximum including safety stop and there was no diving below 100 feet and that was the other group, which did see more sharks than ours, our divemaster never went below 70 feet the entire trip when we were with him. I never came up with less than 1000 PSI my tank. With 47 minutes or less and a max depth of 70 feet why pay for nitrox? The people diving on air didn't seem to run into any problems at all. Some of the dives were shorter, too--when our divemaster was with us he tended to cut them off early it is a little frustrating to be at only 41 minutes and have a manta right there and have 1800 psi and the divemaster hassling you to go to the safety stop because he's bored and wants to get out of the water. Near the end of the trip I switched over to the other group which had a much more engaged and positive divemaster, but he turned out to be someone that two of the divers had brought with them who isn't usually employed by the boat. With him we went deeper and I actually saw silvertips that was really nice, they're beautiful sharks.
4) Bring your receipts! There are lots of extra charges for park entry, etc., and they dont keep track of what youve paid and what you havent; Im sure theyre honest but theyre not organized and youll feel better if you have a list of what you paid for in advance and what you still owe.
Summing up: great crew, iffy divemaster, lousy dive deck, and not quite as advertised. It's around $4000 all told and while the mantras were amazing it's a lot of money for a great day with mantas. You might get lucky with the sharks or you might not with no cleaning stations it's entirely luck, especially with shallow depths and short dives. If I knew then what I know now, I would've spent the money on going back to Cocos or to the Galapagos. As usual, though, it was nice to be on the dive boat, I met some great people, most of the crew were wonderful to get to know and very tolerant of my lousy Spanish! and the mantas were really magical.
I hope you have much better luck & see all the critters we missed!!
