I just returned from a fabulous week on Cocos and wanted to share some experiences for those considering a trip to this very special place.
The diving in Cocos was incredible, I have never in the past 14 years of diving experienced such an explosion of life and action anywhere in the world. It completely blew my mind. It's hard to estimate, but I think we saw over 2,000 sharks in one week (23 dives). It's not unusual to see 4 or 5 species of shark on a single dive. They were everywhere: large schools of hammerheads at Alcyone, cleaning stations for hammerheads and galapagos sharks with continuous action at Dirty Rock, Manuelita Channel, and Punta Maria, close encounters with multiple tiger sharks, blacktips, silvertips, silkies, hundreds of whitetips, and even a whale shark. The night dives with the hunting whitetips was fenomenal, especially since larger blacktip and galapagos sharks are hunting the whitetips. Besides all the shark action, we saw a gigantic school of horse eyed jacks on two occasions, several mobula rays, a manta, massive tuna on about half the dives, dolphins, etc.
Diving conditions were often easy with little to no current, but sometimes currents were very strong (bubbles going almost horizontal). These were the dives when we could see the large schools of hammerheads. On some dives, particularly at Manuelita, the surge could be quite intense as well. On most dives we had to do free descents and ascents, and we spent quite some time in the blue where we also had some great encounters with tiger sharks and schools of hammerheads. Visibility on most dives was about 15 m / 50 ft, but in the afternoon the viz would usually drop a little. Most dives were conducted at depths between 25 and 30 meters (85 - 100 ft), where you hold on to a rock and watch the action of the cleaning stations, schooling sharks, etc. Temperature was usually 26 Celsius, but under the occassional thermocline this could drop to as low as 21 Celsius. I was wearing a 5mm suit with a 2 mm hooded vest and 5mm hoodie, and was fine. Most divers on our trip were wearing 5mm suits and were comfortable as well. Diving was done from spacious skiffs which were very comfortable, definitely much better than the small ribs you see on so many other liveaboards. All in all, diving conditions were not too challenging, but I think this trip is best suited to people who are comfortable with currents and diving in the blue.
The Argo is a wonderful ship with all the amenities you can think of. Rooms are very spacious and the common areas are great places to relax. The food was very good. Besides breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we were spoiled with fresh fruit, snacks, and warm towels after every dive, and there were always snacks available in between. The Argo's staff was absolutely wonderful, very friendly and professional. They went above and beyond to make this a great trip and meet our every need. In general, everything on the ship ran very smoothly and you can tell these people really know what they're doing. The email contact I had with them was also very good, Alan always replied quickly and answered any questions I had. I booked the trip through an agent, Dominick Macan at DiveAdvice, who also posts regularly on this forum. He was extremely helpful in getting me on the trip I wanted and provided lots of useful information. If I ever go back to Cocos, I will definitely go with Underseahunter group again.
The diving in Cocos was incredible, I have never in the past 14 years of diving experienced such an explosion of life and action anywhere in the world. It completely blew my mind. It's hard to estimate, but I think we saw over 2,000 sharks in one week (23 dives). It's not unusual to see 4 or 5 species of shark on a single dive. They were everywhere: large schools of hammerheads at Alcyone, cleaning stations for hammerheads and galapagos sharks with continuous action at Dirty Rock, Manuelita Channel, and Punta Maria, close encounters with multiple tiger sharks, blacktips, silvertips, silkies, hundreds of whitetips, and even a whale shark. The night dives with the hunting whitetips was fenomenal, especially since larger blacktip and galapagos sharks are hunting the whitetips. Besides all the shark action, we saw a gigantic school of horse eyed jacks on two occasions, several mobula rays, a manta, massive tuna on about half the dives, dolphins, etc.
Diving conditions were often easy with little to no current, but sometimes currents were very strong (bubbles going almost horizontal). These were the dives when we could see the large schools of hammerheads. On some dives, particularly at Manuelita, the surge could be quite intense as well. On most dives we had to do free descents and ascents, and we spent quite some time in the blue where we also had some great encounters with tiger sharks and schools of hammerheads. Visibility on most dives was about 15 m / 50 ft, but in the afternoon the viz would usually drop a little. Most dives were conducted at depths between 25 and 30 meters (85 - 100 ft), where you hold on to a rock and watch the action of the cleaning stations, schooling sharks, etc. Temperature was usually 26 Celsius, but under the occassional thermocline this could drop to as low as 21 Celsius. I was wearing a 5mm suit with a 2 mm hooded vest and 5mm hoodie, and was fine. Most divers on our trip were wearing 5mm suits and were comfortable as well. Diving was done from spacious skiffs which were very comfortable, definitely much better than the small ribs you see on so many other liveaboards. All in all, diving conditions were not too challenging, but I think this trip is best suited to people who are comfortable with currents and diving in the blue.
The Argo is a wonderful ship with all the amenities you can think of. Rooms are very spacious and the common areas are great places to relax. The food was very good. Besides breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we were spoiled with fresh fruit, snacks, and warm towels after every dive, and there were always snacks available in between. The Argo's staff was absolutely wonderful, very friendly and professional. They went above and beyond to make this a great trip and meet our every need. In general, everything on the ship ran very smoothly and you can tell these people really know what they're doing. The email contact I had with them was also very good, Alan always replied quickly and answered any questions I had. I booked the trip through an agent, Dominick Macan at DiveAdvice, who also posts regularly on this forum. He was extremely helpful in getting me on the trip I wanted and provided lots of useful information. If I ever go back to Cocos, I will definitely go with Underseahunter group again.