Trip Report Magic Encounters at Revillagigedo Archipelago. Nautilus Explorer to Socorro Nov 18-26,

[DivingChipmunk]

Summary

Nov 18-26, 2020, including 2 days of crossing, and 5 days of 18 dives at San Benedicto (2 days), Socorro and Roca Partida (2 days).

Marine Life: Giant Oceanic Mantas, white tip sharks, Galapagos sharks, silky sharks, hammerhead sharks, whale sharks, bottlenose dolphins, tunas, etc.

Overall impression: Escape from today’s crazy world, getaway to sunshine, enjoy the warm ocean breeze, and magic marine life encounters in beautiful blue saltwater, brightening up the outlook facing down a dark, long, cold winter ahead.

Below is a picture at San Benedicto taken by Brian Forman, shipmate on the Explorer, and a fantastic photographer.
https://www.brianforman.com/

 

[DivingChipmunk]

Planning

In early October, my husband Scott and I learned about Nautilus Socorro trip on Scubaboard. It became our 2020 Christmas/New Year Holiday Vacation Plan v3.0. Earlier versions involve destinations of Raja Ampat and Maldives.

Meanwhile, the deteriorating COVID situation cast a very bleak outlook for the winter. Uncertain of the future for safety or travel restrictions potentially looming in late December, we decided to move the trip to Nov, as early as our work schedule allowed. On Oct 20, we booked the Explorer Nov 18-26 Socorro trip on Nautilus website.

Compared with dive booking agent or LOB booking aggregation sites, we find Nautilus website to provide more updated information on cabin availability. During the booking process, Nautilus was easy to communicate with.

We planned a few days of pre-LOB land-based dives at Cabo San Lucas, and post-LOB dives at Cabo Pulmo. On Oct 29, I posted questions on SB for dive ops recommendation and info on the Socorro LOB experience. Lots of great responses with helpful info were received.

For personal health reason not related to COVID (I crashed while cycling a week before the planned departure date), the pre-LOB dive part was cancelled. I also posted my questions on SB during the decision making process, and received tremendous help.

After the Socorro trip, we spent 3 days in Cabo Pulmo. Bull sharks at Sea of Cortez didn’t disappoint. I will post a separate report.

Travel

We flew United direct from Newark to SJD on Wed Nov 18, the same day we got onboard the Explorer. We would have flown out a day earlier, but there’s only direct flight between EWR and SJD on the weekend or on Wed. To minimize COVID exposure in travel, we decided to only consider direct flights.

The airplane was about 50-75% full. The arrival hall at SJD was crowded when we arrived at noon, with hundreds of people waiting in line through immigration and customs. People were wearing masks, but generally not observing social distancing in the lines.


We reserved online with Cabo Airport Shuttle for a private airport transfer to Tesoro for $69 . Terramar, the airport transfer recommended by Nautilus, quoted a higher price ($128) for private service.

We returned home on United SJD direct to Newark on Sunday Nov 29. Flight was about 75% full. We were concerned about the busy home airport on Sunday after Thanksgiving, but fortunately, the international arrival at Newark Terminal B was mostly empty when we arrived at 8pm. People went through US immigration and customs very fast, although everyone (other than those with Global Entry) had to go through a face to face interview with an agent, instead of using a machine to scan your passport. No COVID related question was asked when entering US.

 

[DivingChipmunk]

Getting Onboard

We “checked in” at See Creatures, Nautilus dive shop at Hotel Tesoro, around 2pm on Nov 26. Scott and I both rented equipment with them. The gentleman who takes care of the rental was patient, knowledgeable and helpful, and Marie in the office was welcoming, professional and very helpful. We had a pretty good impression of See Creatures although we did not get to do a warmup dive or attend their underwater photography workshop.

We spent the afternoon having lunch and walking around the Marina. Sipping margarita at an open-air restaurant table along the water, we felt good that we are finally on vacation.

Later we returned to the dive shop for a checkup with a paramedic, watched a short video about the boat, before we took a short van ride and got onboard Explorer around 7:30pm.

@living4experiences has a very detailed report on the same trip where you can find pictures and lots of good information about the boat Trip Report: Socorro-Nautilus Explorer Nov. 18-26 .

We liked our cabin, the Emerald Suite. There are plenty of windows, with a large floor to ceiling window in the living room. I am prone to motion sickness and need an ocean view when I am inside a cabin.

There’s plenty of storage space, with night stands and dressers in the bedroom, and cabinets in the living room.

The sundeck is our favorite hang out space, even without the sun.

Dive deck with camera stations.

 

[DivingChipmunk]

The Crossing
It is a 30 hour and 250 mile open sea crossing to get to Revillagigedo from Cabo San Lucas. This could be my worst fear. I had never been in such a small ship on the open sea, and I tend to get seasick.

I put on a Scopolamine Transdermal patch the night we boarded, but from continental breakfast to lunch, my stomach could not keep down anything I ate. Ginger candy provided temporary relief (thank you @living4experiences !). After throwing up 4 times, I started to wonder if it was insane for me to come to this trip. Whether this would be my first and last LOB with open sea crossing.

Till Nubia, the hostess, noticed that my patch was not put on properly. She saved my trip. After re-applying the patch, I would eat and function like a human being again. No more seasickness suffering on the return crossing, or maybe I already gained my “sea legs” by that time?

( Will continue my report tomorrow)

 

[DivingChipmunk]

Diving
• Nov 20, 4 dives at El Canon, San Benedicto
• Nov 21, 4 dives at El Boiler, San Benedicto
• Nov 22, 3 dives at Cabo Pearce, Socorro, 1 evening snorkel with silky sharks
• Nov 23, 4 dives at Roca Partida
• Nov 24, 3 dives at Roca Partida

Dives were at 7am, 10am, 1pm and 4pm, with a daily dive briefing is at 6:45am on the top deck.

There were 22 divers, divided into 3 groups according to experience. The same dive master led each group throughout the trip. Groups rotated their order to start daily.

Two RIBs took out the groups to each dive site a few minutes away from the Explorer. Divers entered the water together in negative entry with a back roll.

For safety, each diver was equipped with a Nautilus Lifeline, an SMB and a whistle, free loaners from Nautilus. As divers came up, they got picked up and shuttled back to the mothership swiftly.

We had sunny weather, warm water (80F+) and amazing dives, every day.

From the first time we jumped in the blue water, Giant Oceanic Mantas joined us, almost on every dive. They gracefully “flew” over us, and as we swam close to them, they seemed to look us over through their eyes. They danced. They flipped. They slid away, and then, occasionally, they came back to rejoin us.

Being a new diver, I tried underwater photography for the first time on this trip. My pictures below

don’t do them justice when it came to the magic encounters with these giants of the ocean.

Then there came the baby whale shark, on the first day of our dives.
At the end of the first day, everyone was smiling. One of the divers said, “If I had to go home now, I would be very happy”. And we only got happier. Eat, sleep, jump, repeat. White tips, silvertips, silkies, hammerheads, Galapagos sharks, tiger sharks, yellow fins, and mantas, mantas, mantas…

( All pictures above are taken with Sealife Micro 3.0, as part of my first time UW photography learning experience. To be continued )

 

[DivingChipmunk]

(Continued from last post)
( All pictures below are taken with Sealife Micro 3.0, as part of my first time UW photography learning experience.)

Time flew. Until, the last morning of diving arrived. Dive one, pods of dolphins were right there as we descended. We felt the excitement in the water in the morning hour. Some curious ones came close like puppies ready to play. Some showy ones danced in the middle of water while posing for photo ops. There were a mother and a cub. There were two rubbing their backs on the rock...We still laughed today when we went through our video taken in that dive.

We headed out to Roca Partida for the last dive on our bumpy RIB. Rodolfo, our dive master, asked “What do you want to see in this dive?” “ How about another whale shark?” I answered. We descended. We stayed in the blue at about 80 ft while Rodolfo attentively looked around and I kept looking at him. He could always see things we couldn’t. Suddenly, he was pointing vigorously to the direction below and behind me. What?! Then from about 20 ft below my fins, a huge blue “thing” with white spots appeared, a big whale shark, the size of a bus! Time froze as she gracefully swam through the blue water right below me. Those few seconds seemed long and surreal. Now back at home, again and again, I relive those moments. They make me understand why I love to dive.

Later she circled back and swam with us two more times. We spent a long time together debating her size. In the end, we seemed to arrive on an estimate that she must have been 30 to 40 ft long.

 

[drrich2]

each diver was equipped with a Nautilus Lifeline

That's a very nice thing to have on such a trip. Thank you for posting topside photos of the boat and including scheduling and travel info.; very helpful when people are planning a similar trip.

 

[flyboy08]

Wow...heck of a report...your hired!

 

[Illini_Fan]

@DivingChipmunk - did you elect to not take advantage of their pre-departure dive and photo clinic or are they not offering that feature due to COVID?

 

[DivingChipmunk]

(The last part of the trip report)
LOB in the Time of Covid

Nautilus implemented various COVID related health and safety protocols, including the two most impactful for indoor public space: reduced capacity (50%) and mask wearing when not social distancing or eating/drinking. The dining room allowed only 13 people to eat at the same time, which resulted in each meal served in 2 rounds. The salon would allow 10 people, but it was not strictly enforced. The crew always wore face covers. The divers started with wearing masks in the salon, but as the trip went on, people seemed to be more relaxed about it as they realized they were part of a new “bubble” and there were no symptoms from anyone COVID-19 related. In the last two days, very noticeable signs were put up on the salon entry doors reminding people to wear face masks, while most divers seemed more comfortable not wearing masks now that they had been in the bubble for 7 days.

I mostly stayed away from public indoor space, especially the salon. Who wants to stay inside on a beautiful day on a boat? My favorite chill out spot was the small covered area on the top deck. I wish Nautilus had put some chairs or cushion there, but towels also worked for us. There is no cover over the sun bed area on the top deck. It could get hot in the middle of the day, but it was perfect to come up here after the last dive to enjoy the sunset. I have fond memory of many good conversations with other divers on the sun deck in the ocean breeze, feeling safe and relaxed.

We understand that we would take a risk going on a dive LOB vacation at this time. We carefully evaluated and re-evaluated the risk before we decided to take it. We are glad that we went on this amazing trip and made it home safe (self-quarantined for 12 days now).

BTW, we heard that Nautilus would require negative COVID test for December and future departure.

The Crew and the Divers

I can’t say enough about how much we appreciate the hard work by the wonderful crew. Everyone was capable, professional, helpful, and always had a smile. You can tell they are happy to work there and they want to give you the best LOB diving experience. With this kind of customer service-oriented crew, its easy to understand why Nautilus has consistently received very positive reviews and attracted return customers.

I can’t end this trip report without talking about the divers: Canadian (2), Mexican (1), Argentinian (1), German (1), and American (16) , 20s to 60 years young, with 50 dives to 4000 dives.

One of us was going to Socorro for the 3rd time on this boat in November 2020, back to back. Yes he was living on Explorer this month . Two of us are coming back to Socorro in three weeks, on Belle Amie. And now the group is talking about “Socorro Repeat” (we set up an email list after the trip).

We shared photo and video on the computer on Explorer. After the trip, a shared network drive was set up and we uploaded our complied and edited video and photography.

It was a group of fun and cool divers willing to share and be your friends. I look forward to meeting some of them again in a future diving trip.