My first liveaboard experience was to Socorro in the Revillagigedo Archipelago on the Nautilus... read more
My first liveaboard experience was to Socorro in the Revillagigedo Archipelago on the Nautilus... read more
We wanted a trip with lots of sharks and guaranteed Mantas. We chose to go with Equator diving... read more
Awesome fishing trip, over 250 Tuna, 110 Wahoo and close to #400lb cows. Sharks are thick here. Long boat ride, take a book.
When my husband and I got on the boat for our 10 trip aboard the Nautilus Explorer we were a little surprised at the guest to staff ratio of 25 to 9. We were worried that the dive deck and camera
table would be cramped. All of those worries were quickly forgotten.
Captain Shawn and his crew worked like a well oiled machine and they made
it seem easy, even though we knew it wasn't. It also helped that we had a
wonderful group of divers with us. That was just luck. The camaraderie was
almost instant, guests were polite and almost everyone (crew and guests)
were easy going and had a great sense of humor. Those few that didn't were
gracious enough to put up with everyone else.
More about the boat later. The diving was fantastic. We had Manta
sightings on almost half the dives. The mantas might have been coming in
for the cleaning but it was apparent they were curious about us. My husband
took a great video of a huge manta, complete with remora and cleaning
entourage, going out of his way to swim toward me, turn around right above
me as he got a good look and then took off toward my husband.
The dolphins stole the show. We had pods of dolphins interact with us on
three or four dives of the 27 dives. They even brought one of their
babies! We all got great close pictures and video.
Other creatures - sailfish, lots of eels, huge lobsters, hundreds of
crosshatch triggers, guitarfish, tuna and many other fish. Lots of White
Tip reef sharks, a few Galapagos sharks and some Silkies.
We only had one night dive which was a bit of a disappointment as there wasn't much to see. However, Silky sharks hung around the boat at night and a few
brave souls had fun snorkeling with them.
We had the master suite and were well pleased. It was huge with a separate
sitting area, large bath with bathtub and very comfortable king sized bed.
We were grateful that the shower provided as much hot water as necessary.
The dining room and salon were both roomy and comfortable. The food was as
good as we have had on any live aboard. Enrique even made special
vegetarian meal options for us vegetarians.
Dive deck was small but sufficient. Almost all dives were from zodiac.
Loading was was athletic but the crew were a great help. Only one of the
zodiacs had a ladder so if you were overweight or unable to pull yourself
up over the side of the zodiac you had to wait for the boat with the
ladder. The crew would help pull us up onto the other zodiac though which
worked out just fine and made for some great comic relief.
Captain Shawn, Barron, Julian, Charles, Katie, Leann, Leanna, Hernan and
Kiki were the best. They never lost their cool and were always incredibly
friendly and professional. Fantastic crew and operation.
The hot tub was available after each dive as well as towels.
Not a dive location for a newbie or if your motion sickness isn't able to
be managed with meds. Some of us were a little green on the way over, even
with a motion sickness patches and oral meds but the diving made
it all worth it.
had a great time at this island will recommend anyone to give it a shot. have fun and stay safe goo luck!
I knew the Revillagigedo Islands, or Socorro Islands, were renown for "big animal" sightings, but I crossed it off my list long ago since this archipelago is only accessible by boat. Seasickness is my nemesis...and I was not interested in a 26-hour boat ride, each way. That all changed for me this year, as my husband and I decided to do 20 New Things this year...including liveaboard diving...so I signed up with the Rocio Del Mar because of the good reviews I had heard. (I did get sick a few times, but it was worth it for this amazing dive experience!)
The Rocio Del Mar accommodates 20 divers on their 110-ft vessel. My group originally consisted of 10 divers, and we "adopted" a few more as the week progressed. We departed Puerto Los Cabos Marina Friday morning, April 10th, and 26 hours later we anchored at San Benedicto island, the 3rd largest of the Revillagigedo Islands. Despite relatively calm seas, I was a bit green by the time we got there but was able to do 2 dives. Diving from the Rocio Del Mar was a new experience - divers boarded inflatable Zodiacs which took us to the dive sites. This became our daily ritual and we got the hang of getting in and out of them, with the help of the amazing crew of the RDM. Our first dive site was Las Cuevitas, where we were immediately greeted by giant mantas! I had seen mantas in Hawaii before, but none this size and none as curious as these were. The boat moved to Socorro Island during the night, where we did 3 dives at Cabo Pearce. Here, the water was clearer and teeming with large schools of fish. We were able to "dance" with dolphins, which came in very close to check us out, and a couple of our divers even snorkeled with humpback whales! Our third day of diving was at Roca Partida, the smallest of the islands, and is really just a rock pinnacle 60 miles from Socorro. The water was a little rough this day (seasick, again), making getting in and out of the Zodiacs quite interesting. This was an amazing dive site - a multitude of white tip, gray tip and silky sharks with huge schools of fish. Our fourth day of diving took us back to Socorro, where we dove Roca O'Neal and Punta Tosca dive sites. A few silky sharks followed us around for a while and I now know what it feels like to be sitting in a rubber raft, circled by sharks. It's a little unnerving to be hanging on the side of a Zodiac and to look into the water only to see a shark heading right at you! We returned to San Benedicto to dive everyone's favorite dive site, El Boiler, a manta ray cleaning station where we dove with many giant manta and dolphins, and even spotted a couple of hammerhead sharks! We had the added treat of watching humpback whales breaching throughout the day. Our last day of diving took us to the other side of San Benedicto where we went out hunting for hammerhead sharks. We only saw a few hammerheads...I guess they were being shy. Overall, I can say the diving in the Socorro Islands exceeded our expectations. We saw animals that we may never see in such close proximity again!
Now, I must say something about the crew of the Rocio Del Mar. I have never seen such a hardworking and courteous dive crew. The whole crew contributed to every aspect of the trip - from loading the Zodiacs, to serving food in the dining room, to cleaning up around the boat. These guys worked non-stop! Every crew member made it a point to know our names and within a day or two, we felt they were our friends. Our divemasters, Gil, Juan and Mayo, did everything possible to ensure a safe and enjoyable dive experience. The captain and engineer helped get us and our gear into the Zodiacs every day! Our Zodiac drivers, Beto (my brother from another mother) and Julio, were always courteous, patient and helpful. Chef Pancho - wow! The food was amazing. It's a wonder what he is able to do in that little kitchen. Our steward, Joshua, was always so friendly and had our rooms clean every day by the end of our first dive. When I polled each of my divers about this trip, on a scale of 1 to 10, this trip got an overwhelming 10!! Well, there was one rated it a 9.5...but then, someone else rated it a 50!! For all my apprehension about doing a liveaboard dive trip, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So much so that I booked another trip aboard the Rocio Del Mar for next year.
This was my first live aboard experience and it was a mixed experience.
It didn't start well.
Joining instructions were garbled and eventually we all found the boat/ship at the main pier ......but the crew kept us waiting for 90 minutes in the boiling heat whilst they decided weather or not to run the trip.....something to do with the Mexican authorities not letting us go.
After a 7hr delay which lost us a days diving (with no reasonable explanation) we set off.
Arriving late on our 1st dive site the crew faffed around with 2 unserviceable tenders before getting us in the water......not the best start.
The two dive tenders were later not used so we were down to one for 30 divers !
Luckily the diving was exceptional as was the food and the staff.....who worked there socks off to make up for the lack of management.
I give this trip 5 stars for the diving, staff and food...the boat was a large stable platform as well.
I don't like the way you are suggested to tip 10% minimum of the trip fee for the staff....they should be paid a decent wage anyway...tips should be over and above the call of duty.
Would I do it again ?
Yes...because it was a great trip...hopefully the management have got their act together by now and also admitted the mistakes made by offering all on board a discount off future trips...so have tried to put things right.
And I did a lot. We were aboard the SEA Escape, and we stopped at Rocka Partida (best place for sharks), San Benedicto (I will always remember 'El Boiler' dive site, the giant Mantha Ray ballroom) and Socorro for the whales. The boat is just ok in term of comfort but the team aboard the Sea Escape is simply fantastic and ther are totally dédicated to divers. The want us to have fun and we had.