Socorro Liveaboards

Please recommend a Socorro liveaboard for a group of experienced cold water divers.
All of our group will have 200+ dives in cold water. At least half the group will be active cold water tech divers.

Requirements:
4 dives scheduled per day
minimal handholding once they get to know us and our skills
nitrox
mechanically reliable boat
nice boat
post dive adult beverages

Nice to haves:
large capacity steel tanks
din valves

 

Several years ago, I did a trip to the Socorro Islands on the Solmar V. It would meet all of your requirements, with one possible exception. I honestly don't know about your "Nice to haves". The common areas of the Solmar V were gorgeous with Mahogany wood work, brass and frosted glass trim. The common areas easily exceed your requirement of "nice". The cabins however are TINY! There is only room for one person at a time to stand up in the cabin. Storage space is limited to a couple small cubbie holes beside your bunk. Even the heads are tiny with the head being in the shower. If you want to take a shower, you have to straddle the toilet.

Diving was great and it is done off of "Zodiacs" which will be nearby when you surface. IIRC, they were very strict about policing depth and I seem to remember a 100' Hard Deck that they would actually check when you got back on the main boat. (They would look at your dive computer.) If you went below that, you got to sit out for 24 hrs. The reason they were so strict about this was that the closest chamber was back on the mainland more than 24 hours away.

Now, I guess they key question that you are looking for an answer to: If I were to go back to the Socorro Islands, would I book on the Solmar V? The answer to that is probably not. If I was going with a group of very good friends, then I might, but if I was booking for myself and a dive buddy, then I would probably book on a ship such as the Nautilus Belle Amie that I have heard nothing but good about.

 

My wife and I were on the Belle Amie in 2018. I would say she hits all your must haves and also has large steel tanks as I used a larger tank. I can't say for sure if they had any tanks with DIN valves but guess they would.

 

can you specify/clarify the relevance of the ‘cold water divers’ criteria and the number of divers in your group? I’ve been on a couple of Socorro boats..Happy to recommend...or ‘not really’ recommend....

 

Nautilus Group is the best. They have several boats and are world class in crew, safety, and equipment.

I have been on many trips with them over almost 20 years and would pick them whenever possible.

 

I probably wouldn’t go as far as ‘excellent’ for my review of the nautilus explorer, but it was certainly decent and I would go again on it for the right price. I did really like the crew and the food was good, but couple of issues, several have been improved on since 2017 I believe

1) air conditioning didn’t work in the back cabin and the air conditioning was centralized so you couldn’t control individually in rooms it was too hot for anyone to sleep in
2) cabin bathroom just had a weak plastic divider as opposed to a door.
2) slanted dive deck where divers are getting geared upon an incline can be an issue if deck is full, one girl fell in swell Whilst gearing up and twisted her ankle, trip over.
3) galley is in the centre of the boat, so salon often smells strongly of kitchen and they countered this with glade plugins everywhere, so the smell of vanilla was very strong And made the salon not go’ for several people.
4) top deck had average furniture, not very comfortable. Basic plastic stuff.


If you are all diving dry suits ( I’m guessing that maybe why you commented on cold water divers) then you may get a bit cramped on the deck, but the guys run it well..

 

IIRC, I dove in a 5mil wetsuit & had a 3mil vest with me that I didn't need or use.

 

Agreed.