Dive Review of Nautilus Explorer in
Mexico (Western)/Socorro

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Nautilus Explorer, Mar, 2012, by Jeanne Downey, PA, US ( Top Contributor 54 reports with 17 Helpful votes). Report 6482.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Our latest trip to Islas Revillagigedo, also known as Socorro Island was fabulous, with a couple of disappointments. We spent two nights at the marina-side Wyndham in Cabo San Lucas. Our room had been recently refurbished and we had a pretty good view of the town, not just the parking lot. And this time, all of Bill’s scuba and camera gear made it, not like last year when his bag ended up in Costa Rica. Getting on the Nautilus Explorer was a little bit of a homecoming, with Captain Al and Karl from our Nautilus Swell trip in British Columbia last October, and hostess Sylvia, Chef Enrique, and divemaster Juan still on the boat since last year. One of the guests was also a repeat, who we met last year. Besides our group of six, there was a group from California and a few other individuals; everyone meshed great, which is always a bonus. We left the dock about 10:00am and the crossing out to San Benedicto took about 24 hours. A few people were seasick and a lot of us wore patches, but the seas weren’t too bad. As we approached the island we were greeted by dolphins on our bow and a breaching whale. Our first dive at the Canyon produced two big green moray eels, a huge lobster, and some gigantic scorpionfish. The visibility was murky and the water was 73 degrees. We could hear whales underwater. The actual island of Socorro was closed again this year, due to Navy drills, so we spent a lot of time at the Boiler, another site at San Benedicto, and Roca Partida, pretty much a big rock sticking out of the water in the middle of nowhere. At the Boiler we saw a pod of dolphins for a couple minutes and had multiple encounters with up to five giant manta rays. They come to this site to be cleaned by Clarion angelfish; as the manta ray approaches the underwater rocks, the angelfish race out to peck debri and bacteria from the manta’s skin. We’ve never seen such large numbers of cleaners before; I tried acting like a manta ray, and several came over and pecked at me! It’s absolutely magical watching and the mantas will come right up and stare you in the eyes, and it’s crazy when you’re watching all this plus hearing fairly close humpback whales singing! It was a bit lumpy at Roca Partida and there’s no lee side to hide from the waves, but the diving was worth it. We saw hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, and silky sharks swimming around. There’s usually pretty good current, so during the day the three foot lobsters, five foot green moray eels, and dozens of resting white tip sharks all huddle together in the same nooks and crannies, sometimes using each other as pillows. It would be interesting to see how all that peaceful interaction changes at night when all those animals start feeding, but it would be a bit dicey trying a night dive there. One especially memorable dive at Roca Partida we saw bubbles coming up from the deep which turned into a pod of dolphin that played with us for several minutes, and then we saw a couple of silvertip sharks. After spending two days at Roca Partida, it was back to calmer water at the Canyon where we saw several octopus, very large scorpionfish, more green morays, hammerheads, and a distant manta. Our last dives were at the Boiler; we had a great dive with four or five different mantas, mating octopus and a six foot dusky shark below us. The Nautilus Explorer was as comfortable as ever, with nice sized cabins and plenty of storage. There’s seating in the separate dining and sitting areas for everyone and Chef Enrique is still cranking out plenty of good food to keep hungry divers going. So what were the disappointments? Not being able to dive at Socorro and not snorkeling with the whales, which seemed to be late this year; we saw several on the surface, but they weren’t interested in letting us get close with the skiffs and we didn’t see any babies, although I think I heard a couple underwater. But the manta action was fantastic and we saw lots of sharks, eels, and octopus. We’ll definitely be going back.
Websites	Nautilus Explorer
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Caribbean, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua, Palau, Micronesia, Bikini, Galapagos, Cocos, Philippines, etc.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, dry	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	10-73°F / -12-23°C	Wetsuit Thickness	7
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No decompression diving. Max time one hour.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish	N/A
Small Critters	N/A	Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	One large trash bin for rinsing, but plenty of protected space for cameras. Separate area for charging.

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Dive Review of Nautilus Explorer in Mexico (Western)/Socorro

Nautilus Explorer, Mar, 2012,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Nautilus Explorer in
Mexico (Western)/Socorro