DanFromDownUnder
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I did a Galapagos liveaboard in October, dove a neotek 7mm semi dry and was comfortable on all the dives. Its what the guides were wearing also.
Galapagos trip Aug 2023 -- will i freeze to death?
- Thread starter tom084
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Hi @tom084. We're headed to the Galapagos next week, have already done both Cocos and Socorro, and have been thinking through some of the same concerns.
In Cocos (August 2019) we saw water temps as low as 72 beneath the thermoclines and as high as 82 at the surface. I wore a new 5mm Bare Fusion suit and paired that with a beanie and a Thermulation heated vest, which I ran from time to time (but not constantly).
At Socorro (July 2022) I logged temps more like 73-74 degrees. I dove dry for this trip and was glad I did so. My wife started in her drysuit but switched out to a 5 mm towards the end of the trip (she gets cold less easily than I do). She reported being chilled on occasion but never cold.
For the Galapagos, I'll again be going dry (too easy not to!) but am also bringing a 7mm for backup. She's bringing a 5mm, a 5/7 hooded vest, and also a brand new 7mm. I think she hopes to be able to keep the tags on the 7mm, but figured it was better to have and not need.
I don't know how much stock to put in these, but recent temperature data from SeaTemperature.info makes it seem like the Galapagos are quite a bit warmer than average right now. Baltra is showing 79.2 today, which is 6 or so degrees above the average for July. Darwin is showing 81.7 today, which is above its July average of 77. Our itinerary has us spending the bulk of our time at Darwin/Wolf.
These numbers seem consistent with a posting from the Aggressor's Galapagos boat (Galapagos Aggressor III Adventure Logs | Aggressor Adventures™), which on July 13 reported: "Center Islands 27C (80F), at the North now 28C (82F) 3-5mm. Fresher but milder now at the western Islands 24C (77F) 5-7mm."
I don't know if we'll be back before you head out, but I'll try to post a quick post-trip update with our computer temperatures and impressions.
In Cocos (August 2019) we saw water temps as low as 72 beneath the thermoclines and as high as 82 at the surface. I wore a new 5mm Bare Fusion suit and paired that with a beanie and a Thermulation heated vest, which I ran from time to time (but not constantly).
At Socorro (July 2022) I logged temps more like 73-74 degrees. I dove dry for this trip and was glad I did so. My wife started in her drysuit but switched out to a 5 mm towards the end of the trip (she gets cold less easily than I do). She reported being chilled on occasion but never cold.
For the Galapagos, I'll again be going dry (too easy not to!) but am also bringing a 7mm for backup. She's bringing a 5mm, a 5/7 hooded vest, and also a brand new 7mm. I think she hopes to be able to keep the tags on the 7mm, but figured it was better to have and not need.
I don't know how much stock to put in these, but recent temperature data from SeaTemperature.info makes it seem like the Galapagos are quite a bit warmer than average right now. Baltra is showing 79.2 today, which is 6 or so degrees above the average for July. Darwin is showing 81.7 today, which is above its July average of 77. Our itinerary has us spending the bulk of our time at Darwin/Wolf.
These numbers seem consistent with a posting from the Aggressor's Galapagos boat (Galapagos Aggressor III Adventure Logs | Aggressor Adventures™), which on July 13 reported: "Center Islands 27C (80F), at the North now 28C (82F) 3-5mm. Fresher but milder now at the western Islands 24C (77F) 5-7mm."
I don't know if we'll be back before you head out, but I'll try to post a quick post-trip update with our computer temperatures and impressions.
scubaozy
Contributor
Imho best suit for that time of the year is a crushed neoprene drysuit that is wearing snug, like SP everdry, But since you dismiss the drysuit, my recommendation is 7mm and 3-7mm hooded jacket on top. I did not like the Cressi you mentioned as it has attached hood, more versatile would be 7mm version of the pioneer + SP definition jacket. You might even get away with your current 5mm as the jacket I mentioned is 6mm.
Please report back your experiences on Galaxy ;-).
Please report back your experiences on Galaxy ;-).
you guys are all awesome! thank you so much for all the replies.
@RCB1882 are you me?
that's exactly what i've been doing lately (checking aggressor logs and surf/weather for galapagos), so yeah i guess the general conditions are somewhat on the warmer side this year (and going after the logs ElNino apparently hasn't affected animal sightings all too much *fingerscrossed*). Socorro i was wearing a worn out rental 5mm and they gave me a 3mm to wear on top which was in the same condition. i was still kind of cold but i also had an infected wound at the foot and started fevering up (don't get me started) so that experience doesn't necessarily count.
@everybody suggesting the dry suit, i am sure you are right but as i said i have never dived in a dry suit and since i expect this trip is going to be challenging enough in terms of diving i do not plan to open this can of worms now (apart from the price tag)
so after going through all this i decided to get another 2mm hooded vest so in total if worst comes to worst i will be wearing a 2mm hooded vest underneath the cressi 7mm full suit and a 3mm shorty on top (+ gloves, socks, booties and everything). i just hope i will still be able to move
will absolutely report back when i make it back
thanks again!
@RCB1882 are you me?
that's exactly what i've been doing lately (checking aggressor logs and surf/weather for galapagos), so yeah i guess the general conditions are somewhat on the warmer side this year (and going after the logs ElNino apparently hasn't affected animal sightings all too much *fingerscrossed*). Socorro i was wearing a worn out rental 5mm and they gave me a 3mm to wear on top which was in the same condition. i was still kind of cold but i also had an infected wound at the foot and started fevering up (don't get me started) so that experience doesn't necessarily count.@everybody suggesting the dry suit, i am sure you are right but as i said i have never dived in a dry suit and since i expect this trip is going to be challenging enough in terms of diving i do not plan to open this can of worms now (apart from the price tag)
so after going through all this i decided to get another 2mm hooded vest so in total if worst comes to worst i will be wearing a 2mm hooded vest underneath the cressi 7mm full suit and a 3mm shorty on top (+ gloves, socks, booties and everything). i just hope i will still be able to move
will absolutely report back when i make it back
thanks again!
@tom084 a quick “real time” update here for you as I know how nervous I can be about being cold on dives (let alone such a special trip like the Galapagos). We did two dives yesterday at Baltra and my Mares Puck Pro showed 73-75 (this is the same computer I used in Cocos and Socorro for what It’s worth). These were shallow check dives. SeaTemperature.info reports a surface of 77.7 for yesterday.
Today we’ve done two dives at Wolf, I saw 79-80 on my computer, and the website shows 80.2 for today. My wife wore her 5mm on the first Baltra dive, was cold throughout, and started using her new 7mm suit. She’s been very comfortable. Most people seem to be doing 7mm and nobody is complaining about burning up.
No whale sharks yet, but saw hammerheads and some Galapagos sharks on both of the Wolf dives. The guide said that they didn’t see any whale sharks on the cruise before ours, so we have our fingers crossed for some better luck.
Today we’ve done two dives at Wolf, I saw 79-80 on my computer, and the website shows 80.2 for today. My wife wore her 5mm on the first Baltra dive, was cold throughout, and started using her new 7mm suit. She’s been very comfortable. Most people seem to be doing 7mm and nobody is complaining about burning up.
No whale sharks yet, but saw hammerheads and some Galapagos sharks on both of the Wolf dives. The guide said that they didn’t see any whale sharks on the cruise before ours, so we have our fingers crossed for some better luck.
Dan
Contributor
Thanks for sharing the info. Update us when you are in Cabo Douglas and Punta Vincente Roca. On my last October trip the water temperatures there were around 15C (59F).
Trip Report - Diving in Galapagos in October 2022
Summary This is two, back-to-back, eight-day (17-24 & 24-31, 2022) liveaboard trips to Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, with Galapagos Master liveaboard. The itineraries, as shown in Table 1 and 2, include 7 days of diving to a total of 18 dives on each trip. We saw several kinds of sharks (Blacktip...
Dan
Contributor
I also went to Galapagos in last October (see the link to my trip report, posted in post #15, above). I wore 7mm full wetsuit with 1 mm hood. I could cope with the cold until we dove in Cabo Douglas and Punta Vincente Roca with water temperature around 15C (59F). I was cold by the end of the dive. What helped me was having dry swim short and rash guard under the 7mm wetsuit on every dive (brought 3 pairs, hung on boat rail to dry in the sun after using them and rotate using them).
I'll be back in Galapagos in December 2023 and plan to bring a 5/7mm hooded vest and wear it over the 7mm full wetsuit.
We were on the Humboldt Explorer, so we didn’t do either of those locations.
Our final 2 dives were at Cousin‘s Rock. Water temps there were in the 73-75 range, which felt a bit chilly after being in 80+ during our time at Darwin and Wolf. Ended up getting skunked on whale sharks, which was a bit disappointing, but that’s nature is sometimes!
One other quick thing to note on the temperature side of things is that even though surface temps at Darwin/Wolf are 80-81, we often dipped below thermoclines to go looking for hammerheads — saw 72-73 degrees when doing this.
Our final 2 dives were at Cousin‘s Rock. Water temps there were in the 73-75 range, which felt a bit chilly after being in 80+ during our time at Darwin and Wolf. Ended up getting skunked on whale sharks, which was a bit disappointing, but that’s nature is sometimes!
One other quick thing to note on the temperature side of things is that even though surface temps at Darwin/Wolf are 80-81, we often dipped below thermoclines to go looking for hammerheads — saw 72-73 degrees when doing this.
thanks for reporting back. meanwhile i returned the cressi wetsuit and got a 7.5mm w attached hood + 2.5mm neoprene vest for underneath. and if all else fails i'll put the 3mm shorty on top of everything -- if that's not enough so be it.
sorry to hear that there were no whale sharks - hope the rest of the diving did not disappoint at wolf/darwin?
sorry to hear that there were no whale sharks - hope the rest of the diving did not disappoint at wolf/darwin?
I'm going next week and i saw Cabo Douglas and Punta Vicente Roca are in the itinerary. i heard the temp is warmer this year but let's see.. i'm bringing my waterproof W7 5mm with a 5mm hood and plan to rent 7mm on boat if necessary.
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