Location: Cabo Pearse, Socorro Island, Revillagigedos, Mexico
Comments: We started our day off by checking in at the Navy base at Socorro Island and then steamed up the east side of Socorro to anchor at Cabo Pearse. Diving was much improved over the previous day with much better visibility, lots of good animal sightings and some fantastic humpback whale sightings and behaviour. I always feel a bit sheepish that we are only able to get 3 daylight dives in on the day that we check in at the navy base as we like to offer 4 dives per day whenever we can. It’s mandatory to check in with the military authorities on the island and it always seems to cost us our morning dive.
So I suggested to our guests was that we resurrect my tradition of night snorkelling with silky sharks. A number of guests were still enthusiastic even after I gave my briefing! The thing is that flying fish are drawn towards the sides of the Nautilus Explorer because of the glow of our interior lights. When you have flying fish around the boat, you also get silky sharks and often dolphins. This provides for a wonderful if albeit brief and cautious opportunity to snorkel on the surface with anywhere from 5 to 20 silky sharks.
It’s all good fun but it is mandatory that everyone in the water remain close to the dive ladder, calm and watchful, and ready to get out of the water if needed. We once experienced a flying fish darting right through our divers and boinking itself on the head against our steel transom. I can tell you that a fluttering and stunned flying fish on the surface is like a dinner bell for silky sharks – even if they have to charge right through all of our divers!!
–Captain Mike
Weather: Mid-level broken clouds, low swell on our protected side of Socorro Island, air temperatures mid 80’s, winds less than 10 knots.
Water: 60 foot plus visibility. Water temperature 71°F
