Nautilus Under Sea / Socorro trip questions

[olyashok]

Trying to see if i can get some advice from those who have been on Socorro:

Nautilus bought Undersea Hunter boat from Undersea Hunter Group out in Costa Rica that they used to run to Cocos. Undersea Hunter with UHG used to have 7 cabins and run 14 people on it if I am not mistaken. The boat is now called Nautilus Under Sea and is being refitted for trips starting later this year.

Trying to see if this is a good trip to go for last week of the year to Socorro. According to my exchanges with Nautilus:

• Boat will have minor refit
• According to new deck plan it will have diver cabin on upper deck (which it used to not have and there was one on main deck which is not there anymore - probbaly new crew quarters)
• There will be 17 divers and 1 large skiff
• 1 dive site per group and then splitting in staggered fashion

My wife and I did trips with Undersea Hunter Group to Cocos. We never been to Socorro.

Couple of questions:

* Is 17 divers per site too much for Socorro?
* Has anyone done both Undersea Hunter Group and Nautilus - how do they compare?

 

[Manuel Sam]

I can't answer all your questions but I am familiar with Socorros (6 trips so far) and with the Undersea Hunter (3 Cocos trips on it).

When you consider that Solmar V and Rocio del Mar both hold over 20 divers, 17 is probably not too much. I would go as far as guessing that 17 is the lowest number of divers on any of the boats doing Socorros. I don't know what Nautilus Explorer and Belle Amie hold and how they split up their divers. I know that on the Solmar V, the divers are split into three groups and they either stagger entry times or they make their entries at different sections of the dive site.

However, understand that there are a lot more boats going to Socorros nowadays, and even tho they try to stagger dive times from boat to boat, if you see any crowding underwater, it will be from too many boats and too many divers at one dive site. After all, there is really just one dive site at Roca Partida, and two that are really good in San Benedicto; the others are basically check-out dives. On Socorros Island, there are a couple more, but only two (Cabo Pearce and Tosca) that are frequently dived. Roca O'Neill in Socorros is also a nice dive site but conditions have to be right to dive it.

I have never been on the Nautilus. As far as the Undersea Hunter, indeed there were 7 double cabins for a total of 14 divers, but there were also 2 cabins behind the cockpit on the upper deck. One was the owner's cabin. I have no specific knowledge of what Nautilus is doing to retrofit the boat, but I am guessing that they have converted those two upper deck cabins into guest cabins. Otherwise I don't see how they can get to 17 while also eliminating the main deck cabin (the one next to the kitchen and which had a bed that laid on top of the boat's meat freezer.

I always liked that boat. It had good karma.

 

[timchea]

@olyashok Did you make a trip on the Under Sea ship?? We are planning a Guadalupe shark trip on this ship in August 2017. If possible let us know the condition and operation of this ship.

 

[Brett Rosenhaus]

Just got back last night from Socorro on the Belle Amie. Great trip, crew, boat and operation. I was on the Undersea in Socorro also in early December. While I loved the Belle, I actually liked Undersea a little better because of the 17 divers. Either way you will be happy.

 

[timchea]

Thanks Brett

 

[olyashok]

@timchea - ship belonged to Undersea Hunter so it is in good condition although addl room were added by Nautilus. Our trip was not that great - captain was replaced after it. We heard thought that the new crew is much better and we are going again in March. It is a smaller boat which is great. It also supposed to run 1 big skiff - we had 2 zodicas and i heard that it is still the case.

 

[timchea]

Thanks olyashok. I'll update after we return in August.