Mike Walker
Contributor
Having recently completed 2 trips (back to back) on the Nautilus Gallant Lady Explorer….
And it being one of the few boats doing liveaboard trips right now….
And none of my fellow passengers showing SB any love as of yet with some commentary…..
(Nautilus would love for you all to know they are active and doing trips...)
Well – here’s a writeup:
It should be noted that this will contain far more opinion than fact (and practical travel advice) than we are oft graced with in trip reports on here. It should also be noted that some scotch was consumed both before and during the writing. Ignore any typos.
Anyways:
As boredom was taking hold in early July I stumbled on some advertisements for trips with Nautilus.
Originally I was looking at the July bookings but business obligations got in the way. However, the late August/September options looked promising. Having found a flight solution to get there – I booked. The boat and the flight.
Of course the questions with all of this being:
There were two things that gave me the confidence to proceed with this:
Let’s start with a brief section on flights.
United changed my booking 4 times with the last one being only 2 days before departure.
They are juggling and cancelling routes like mad. They say 30 days – but that’s BS. They’ll do whatever they want.
However, the CS staff (at least with United) were quick to answer and quick to help after each change. But the changes were sometimes on the order of days – not hours.
My routing down was less than ideal (back and forth across the continent and overnight in plague central – aka IAH) but the trip back was a straight shot through DEN.
The lesson here: IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING DURING PLAGUE v2.0 – LEAVE LOTS OF TIME FOR VARIATIONS. THAT MEANS SEVERAL DAYS. AND BOOK FLEXIBLE TICKETS.
This being 2020 – of course – minor flight changes were hardly the biggest issues.
Five days out we got an email that a welder had had an ‘oopsy’ on our boat while docked for service and we would instead be travelling on an alternate boat. (Hey, at least the operators have lots of spares right now)
Also: the hurricane. I’d been watching this bearing down for several days but it was only about 48-72 hours out where it became clear the original departure point – Cabo – would not be workable.
Add to that some various port closures (the details of which we weren’t entirely privy to) and a significantly adjusted routing. Originally I had one trip up the Sea of Cortez and one trip back – it turned into two similar loops.
I had booked flexibly so my inconvenience was minor. However, with all of this, many of my fellow passengers arrivals/departures/etc. were changing on a daily basis.
That’s fine.
Nautilus – as an organization – did some serious gymnastics to make this trip happen for everyone with minimal inconvenience. And they ate A LOT of costs in the process. From what I saw everyone on these bookings was made more than whole for any surprises and deviations. All costs were covered and the hotel in La Paz was very nice.
So, hats off to them.
The Gallant Lady was smoke damaged and left in the yard for an extra couple weeks.
The Explorer (one of their bigger boats) was pulled into service with a bit of urgency – but they made it work.
All this left a pretty good impression. This was my first trip with the company (though I own a Lifeline) and they were doing a good job of effectively solving problems. Also, we all went into this expecting a bit of a rough ride. The first booking was explicitly sold as a ‘test’ trip for the Gallant Lady and was discounted accordingly.
Also, 2020.
So, after several routing changes we all did find ourselves on the boat – albeit at a military/commercial port just outside of La Paz and not the Marina in Cabo as we were expecting.
Also, the skies had cleared off and it was a beautiful sunny day. But - this being a Mexican port, with a Mexican port captain - the port was still closed and we couldn’t leave.
The waves were easily exceeding 6 inches. We could have died out there.
It’s not like the boat we were on was built for Vancouver/Alaska or anything like that…
Anyways, midday the next day the paperwork was done and we were on our way.
As one might expect it was an interesting mix of people who had bought into this ‘trial run’ in the middle of Plague v2.0. Several people were dive industry or former dive industry people. Everyone was quite experienced with diving and had no illusions about the risk. But also no illusions about the reward.
I think we’d all adequately done the math for ourselves.
I suppose this is the point to talk about the elephant in the room.
Nautilus has taken the time to develop a comprehensive COVID plan. Much of this is available on their website for those curious. It seems to be largely based on some IMO standards and I suspect the things being checked on passengers were similar to those required of crew. There was increased sanitation in turnover. There was increased availability for had washing and such. Crew were required to wear masks, passengers were encouraged to when distancing not possible. It wasn’t a 100% solution. But in my opinion it was based on sound principals while still remaining practical in a dive environment. Compliance was about as good as one might expect. More towards the start, easing towards the end of the trip. Having the big boat with a low passenger count helped. At no point did feel like my safety was being unnecessarily compromised but, also, at no point did I feel that my diving experience was being unnecessarily compromised. The only noticeable impact was in food service. The crew did an absolutely amazing job in trying to make this work – but, killing the self-serve creates a huge burden and things do slow down.
Ultimately, I feel the right line was drawn. Everyone on board was reasonably respectful of the comfort levels of others in their actions. And, ultimately, we were all able to put COVID at the backs of our minds – which is what most of us were there to do anyways.
Anyways, the first trip was quite good. It was a bit of an experiment as these routes were new to everybody.
There was some knowledge of the sites, but it certainly wasn’t the type of situation where they had been doing the same loop for 10 years and everyone knew every single rock and coral head. Visibility was a bit low and there was some significant temperature variation: warm-cold-hot-cool-freezing-warm-ahhhIThinkIJustBecameAGirl-warm-etc. All on the same dive.
The original route was Cabo and than all the way up the inside coast to San Felipe at the top of the Gulf. That turned into a loop from La Paz going as high as Bahia de Los Angeles. It was hot. Very hot. 108degF (>40degC) on the dive deck. The Explorer was at it’s limits in this environment – it is better suited for it’s normal/historical routes – but again, significant effort was made to ‘make it work’ by the crew.
Their chef – Pancho – put up with a galley at least that hot every day and produced absolutely fantastic meals. Definitely a step above ‘boat food’ – even really good ‘boat food’.
The seas were unbelievably calm.
The second trip was eerily similar. Including the hurricane inspired delay off the start (different hurricane, further out). The crowd was also predominantly experienced divers – though a much broader range of backgrounds. With a bit more experience, dive sites were more certain and targeted this time around.
The water was warmer on average and quite a bit clearer. This took several ‘ok’ sites from the first trip and made them ‘great’.
The wildlife was diverse, the fish abundant, the topography interesting and the Sea Lions playful.
We did make it down to Cabo Pulmo for the bull sharks on the second loop and it was well worth it. The wreck where the sharks congregate is fantastic (shallow, sandy, sunny, clear).
Stupid 10,000 character limit....
And it being one of the few boats doing liveaboard trips right now….
And none of my fellow passengers showing SB any love as of yet with some commentary…..
(Nautilus would love for you all to know they are active and doing trips...)
Well – here’s a writeup:
It should be noted that this will contain far more opinion than fact (and practical travel advice) than we are oft graced with in trip reports on here. It should also be noted that some scotch was consumed both before and during the writing. Ignore any typos.
Anyways:
As boredom was taking hold in early July I stumbled on some advertisements for trips with Nautilus.
Originally I was looking at the July bookings but business obligations got in the way. However, the late August/September options looked promising. Having found a flight solution to get there – I booked. The boat and the flight.
Of course the questions with all of this being:
- Can I get there?
- Can I get to the boat without catching Plague v2.0?
- Can I spend 16 days on the boat without catching Plague v2.0?
- Can I get back?
There were two things that gave me the confidence to proceed with this:
- United offering free flight changes up to 2hrs before departure.
- Nautilus offering a future trip credit for any Plague 2.0 related cancellations.
Let’s start with a brief section on flights.
United changed my booking 4 times with the last one being only 2 days before departure.
They are juggling and cancelling routes like mad. They say 30 days – but that’s BS. They’ll do whatever they want.
However, the CS staff (at least with United) were quick to answer and quick to help after each change. But the changes were sometimes on the order of days – not hours.
My routing down was less than ideal (back and forth across the continent and overnight in plague central – aka IAH) but the trip back was a straight shot through DEN.
The lesson here: IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING DURING PLAGUE v2.0 – LEAVE LOTS OF TIME FOR VARIATIONS. THAT MEANS SEVERAL DAYS. AND BOOK FLEXIBLE TICKETS.
This being 2020 – of course – minor flight changes were hardly the biggest issues.
Five days out we got an email that a welder had had an ‘oopsy’ on our boat while docked for service and we would instead be travelling on an alternate boat. (Hey, at least the operators have lots of spares right now)
Also: the hurricane. I’d been watching this bearing down for several days but it was only about 48-72 hours out where it became clear the original departure point – Cabo – would not be workable.
Add to that some various port closures (the details of which we weren’t entirely privy to) and a significantly adjusted routing. Originally I had one trip up the Sea of Cortez and one trip back – it turned into two similar loops.
I had booked flexibly so my inconvenience was minor. However, with all of this, many of my fellow passengers arrivals/departures/etc. were changing on a daily basis.
That’s fine.
Nautilus – as an organization – did some serious gymnastics to make this trip happen for everyone with minimal inconvenience. And they ate A LOT of costs in the process. From what I saw everyone on these bookings was made more than whole for any surprises and deviations. All costs were covered and the hotel in La Paz was very nice.
So, hats off to them.
The Gallant Lady was smoke damaged and left in the yard for an extra couple weeks.
The Explorer (one of their bigger boats) was pulled into service with a bit of urgency – but they made it work.
All this left a pretty good impression. This was my first trip with the company (though I own a Lifeline) and they were doing a good job of effectively solving problems. Also, we all went into this expecting a bit of a rough ride. The first booking was explicitly sold as a ‘test’ trip for the Gallant Lady and was discounted accordingly.
Also, 2020.
So, after several routing changes we all did find ourselves on the boat – albeit at a military/commercial port just outside of La Paz and not the Marina in Cabo as we were expecting.
Also, the skies had cleared off and it was a beautiful sunny day. But - this being a Mexican port, with a Mexican port captain - the port was still closed and we couldn’t leave.
The waves were easily exceeding 6 inches. We could have died out there.
It’s not like the boat we were on was built for Vancouver/Alaska or anything like that…
Anyways, midday the next day the paperwork was done and we were on our way.
As one might expect it was an interesting mix of people who had bought into this ‘trial run’ in the middle of Plague v2.0. Several people were dive industry or former dive industry people. Everyone was quite experienced with diving and had no illusions about the risk. But also no illusions about the reward.
I think we’d all adequately done the math for ourselves.
I suppose this is the point to talk about the elephant in the room.
Nautilus has taken the time to develop a comprehensive COVID plan. Much of this is available on their website for those curious. It seems to be largely based on some IMO standards and I suspect the things being checked on passengers were similar to those required of crew. There was increased sanitation in turnover. There was increased availability for had washing and such. Crew were required to wear masks, passengers were encouraged to when distancing not possible. It wasn’t a 100% solution. But in my opinion it was based on sound principals while still remaining practical in a dive environment. Compliance was about as good as one might expect. More towards the start, easing towards the end of the trip. Having the big boat with a low passenger count helped. At no point did feel like my safety was being unnecessarily compromised but, also, at no point did I feel that my diving experience was being unnecessarily compromised. The only noticeable impact was in food service. The crew did an absolutely amazing job in trying to make this work – but, killing the self-serve creates a huge burden and things do slow down.
Ultimately, I feel the right line was drawn. Everyone on board was reasonably respectful of the comfort levels of others in their actions. And, ultimately, we were all able to put COVID at the backs of our minds – which is what most of us were there to do anyways.
Anyways, the first trip was quite good. It was a bit of an experiment as these routes were new to everybody.
There was some knowledge of the sites, but it certainly wasn’t the type of situation where they had been doing the same loop for 10 years and everyone knew every single rock and coral head. Visibility was a bit low and there was some significant temperature variation: warm-cold-hot-cool-freezing-warm-ahhhIThinkIJustBecameAGirl-warm-etc. All on the same dive.
The original route was Cabo and than all the way up the inside coast to San Felipe at the top of the Gulf. That turned into a loop from La Paz going as high as Bahia de Los Angeles. It was hot. Very hot. 108degF (>40degC) on the dive deck. The Explorer was at it’s limits in this environment – it is better suited for it’s normal/historical routes – but again, significant effort was made to ‘make it work’ by the crew.
Their chef – Pancho – put up with a galley at least that hot every day and produced absolutely fantastic meals. Definitely a step above ‘boat food’ – even really good ‘boat food’.
The seas were unbelievably calm.
The second trip was eerily similar. Including the hurricane inspired delay off the start (different hurricane, further out). The crowd was also predominantly experienced divers – though a much broader range of backgrounds. With a bit more experience, dive sites were more certain and targeted this time around.
The water was warmer on average and quite a bit clearer. This took several ‘ok’ sites from the first trip and made them ‘great’.
The wildlife was diverse, the fish abundant, the topography interesting and the Sea Lions playful.
We did make it down to Cabo Pulmo for the bull sharks on the second loop and it was well worth it. The wreck where the sharks congregate is fantastic (shallow, sandy, sunny, clear).
Stupid 10,000 character limit....
