Wolf and Darwin by land?

[Gator Diver]

Planning Galapagos but going with a non diver. Is their a way to dive Darwin and Wolf without doing a full blown liveaboard. ? Also how experienced does
one need to be to dive those two sites.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

There is no way to dive Darwin and Wolf without going on a liveaboard for the full week. We always recommend that you have logged 100 dives, but it often boils down to your comfort level in the water as long as you're not a beginner. I have seen better divers onboard with less than 50 logged dives than some who had hundreds. Someone with 50 California dives is no doubt better prepared than someone with 100 Caribbean dives. It's not what will happen up there, but what can happen - like really strong currents, down currents, etc that you need the experience to deal with if such conditions present themselves. Can you remain calm if separated from the group...ascend and do your safety stop by yourself if need be? Can you do rapid descents through 4-5 knot currents? Do you have good bouyancy and air consumption? Do you check your gauge/computer when in the blue so you're aware of where you are? Do you know how to deal with a down current? The liveaboards only require that you are certified, but if you are too inexperienced to be diving there, it won't be fun for you and could be too risky.

 

[Quero]

Gator, these dive sites are quite distant, and thus the boats that visit them are the week-long liveaboards. However, on the liveaboard I used, there were many opportunities to do land-based visits at a good number of the islands during the trip, so even for a non-diver, the trip can be quite enjoyable.

 

[tstormdiver]

DiveTheGalapagos is correct. Even with all the cold water experience I have (quarries), I got my butt kicked big time by a very strong up current that sent me to the surface very quickly (even broke off a rock I was trying to cling to). Knowing how to dive in strong currents & cold water are big pluses. Here is a video of our trip. You can get an idea of how the currents are: ‪Galapagos Diving‬‏ - YouTube .

 

[deeper thoughts]

Great video!! Some current!!

 

[ScubaMoMo]

As far as i understand land excursions are unfortunately no longer allowed for the dive liveaboards in galapagos apart from those at the end of the trip after the diving has been done.

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

You are correct - the new GNP regulatiosn limit live-aboards to maximum 3 dives per day and no land visits within the Park. Visits are done at beginning and end at either San Cristobal or Santa Cruz. You may like to consider joining the 85ft sailing yacht Nautilus which offers programs in the southern islands which include 2-3 dives per day and a couple of land visits within the National Park during the week. You can safely leave all your gear on board while you overnight at oceanfront island hotels. Great way to go for diver + non-diver and at a great price.

AGOSTO 21-28 6 espacios Hasta 18 tanques y 2 visitas $2,599 $2,079

AGOSTO 28-SEPT 01 2 espacios Hasta 9 tanques y 2 visitas $1,625 $1,299

AGOSTO 28-SEPT 04 2 espacios Hasta 18 tanques y 2 visitas $2,599 $2,079

SEPTIEMBRE 3-10 6 espacios Hasta 18 tanques y 2 visitas $2,599 $2,079

OCTUBRE 30 – NOV 6 4 espacios Hasta 18 tanques y 2 visitas $2,599 $2,079

NOVIEMBRE 21-28 6 espacios Hasta 18 tanques y 2 visitas $2,599 $2,079

DICIEMBRE 22-29 6 espacios Hasta 18 tanques y 2 visitas $2,599 $2,079

2012 FEBRERO 01-06 6 espacios Hasta 12 tanques y 2 visitas $1,950 $1,560



Dominick Macan
Dive Advice Travel
dom@diveadvice.com
DIVE ADVICE TRAVEL - Welcome to Dive Advice Travel
Tel: +33 492 94 02 99 (France)
SKYPE: Dominick Macan

"In Partnership with Amazing Adventures Travel of Mill Valley, California"

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

That was a nice video Tammy, shows a lot of the life you get to see in Galapagos. Interesting that there were no sea lions or turtles though. I think most get so used to them after a day or two, they start being taken for granted. Was the surge at the Pinnacles at Wolf? Otherwise, I sort of chuckled at deeper thoughts comment, "Some current!!" Kept thinking to myself, "Their bubbles are still mostly vertical. Once on here (Scubaboard) someone actually told me you can calculate the speed of the current based on the angle of the bubbles. I'm not enough of a mathmatician to figure it out, but when your bubbles are going down or sideways, that's challenging diving. I remember you recounting the upcurrent at Wolf, which I've never experienced. Sounded quite challenging. But I always thought of you when diving there. I think the Pinnacles are a bit of a macho part of the dive that's about getting a bit beat up and not much else. I do like the white caves before the Pinnacles though.

 

[tstormdiver]

Our group leader filmed the footage. We had only 1 dive in which we encountered sealions. I can also only remember 1 dive in which we saw turtles & they were way off in the distance. The dive in which we encountered the strong currents was on Wolf. We basically dove along a wall, through 1 set of caves, & then that's when I got caught by the up current. The rest went through a second set of caves & then past the pinnacles. Where I popped up was right next to Wolf Island in 12 ft confused seas. I had to swim a short distance away from the cliff to keep from getting bashed.

 

[Quero]

Though I understand the need to tighten the rules for Galapagos diving and land visits, I feel fortunate to have dived there before the new regulations were instituted. I was on a 12-day charter in which we did land visits every day except for the days we were at Wolf and Darwin. We would typically do two or three dives in the morning and then after lunch do an island visit from 2-ish until dusk when we needed to leave the trails. All dive boats at that time were required to have as part of their crew naturalists who would accompany the divers on the shore visits so that they would stay on the trails and and not disturb the habitats of the animals. We dived with sea lions twice and marine iguanas once, hammerheads and other sharks and lots of other marine life. There were fumeroles, pinnacles, calderas, seamounts, and tuffstone walls for topography. We began at Santa Cruz and covered (nearly) the entire archipelago from the old southern islands of Floreana, Espanola, and San Cristobal, moving northward to Seymour, Santiago, and Bartolome, all the way to Wolf and Darwin, then west to Roca Redonda, Fernandina and Isabela, and finally back to Baltra. What a trip!

Sadly, my both of my hard drives (principal one and backup) with all of my photos were stolen from my gate-checked carry on bag at LAX a couple of years ago, so now I have only the memories, and I will not be able to replicate the trip because of the way visits are now regulated.