Another successful trip!
I’m writing this by the pale, ghostly light of a full moon shining over a flat calm sea on a warm night near San Jose del Cabo, driving the Nautilus Explorer back to port after a 12 day trip to the Socorro Islands and the Sea of Cortez.
What a beautiful night. It’s nights like these that make me glad to be a seafarer, and although I’d like to say the weather’s like this all the time at , our friends who have been on previous trips will be quick to tell you that we’re not always so lucky! That doesn’t detract from the beauty of tonight, however.
We’ve been blessed with beautiful conditions for most of this trip, save perhaps the sole exception of a rather bumpy transit north from Socorro to the Sea of Cortez. Nothing that the Nautilus Explorer’s beautifully and very strongly built steel stability hull can’t handle, and nothing our guests couldn’t take care of with suntanning and napping! And to top it off, as soon as we made our turn around the Baja California into the Sea of Cortez the seas dropped down to nothing and we’ve enjoyed 4 days of glassy smooth weather.
I’ve got some new underwater memories from this trip, including a dive I did with our new deckhand Tess, at Cabo Pearce. Boy that was some current! Hanging on to our (very prudently and thoughtfully placed) descent line we felt like flags in a stiff breeze! There were 2 beautiful Giant Manta Rays gliding effortlessly through the easily 2 knot current, and they approached us eyeball to eyeball as if to ask us what we were doing in that kind of current!
I also dove in Los Islotes, in the Sea of Cortez, again with Tess and our chief engineer Larry. Boy those are some curious and playful Sea Lions! The hardest part of the dive is keeping your head on enough of a swivel to keep track of these sleek animals rocketing through the water around you, as if to finally drive home how clumsy and awkward we humans are in the marine environment. Photographing sea lions at play is a challenge to say the least! You have to be quick with a shutter.
Well, back to the job at hand, driving the Nautilus Explorer through this moonlit night. I’m looking forward to one last trip to the Socorro Islands and the Sea of Cortez before saying goodbye to Baja California Sur for this season. We had a great one, and made lots of new friends and new memories. Now bring on the Great White Sharks of Guadalupe!
Sandy Curtis
Espirito Santo and la Reina , Sea of Cortez Baja California Sur. Mexico
So I took the computer and am sitting on the top deck writing this log. I am looking to the west and see the sky red , orange by the mountains of Baja California Peninsula as the sun went down since an hour ago down looking to the south a fullmoon has risen first deep red and have now been changing colour to silver. The sea is flat.
To come up in the sea of Cortez is making such a change in caracter above water as well under beneith compared with Islas Revillagigedo that always moves and is more dramatic. It is nice to during the same and one trip meet two totally different seas. The big stuff in the Socorro islands and then a bit slower paste and more slow meditative diving in the Sea of Cortez. And the amount of fish this waters has!! Tousands and ten tousands of schooling scads and grunts , Creol fish that just in a never ending traffic like rush hour in Mexico City it just comes and comes and comes. Then for those who want to get harrased by the playful sealion, spinning around you and makes you feeel as agile as a refrigerator.
Or go for a nudibranchunt , or blennies and gobies , want to see a few houndred pufferfish, I mean schools of them? Go to the wreck salva tierra. It is loaded of them. And snappers and groupers. Or the funny looking bluespotted jaw fish peeking up with its head looking like kermit from the muppet show. And its big brother the finespotted jaw fish that reah up to 40 cm in lenght. Kormorand birds hunting under water swimming quickly trying to grab the scads. You can just park your self at a spot and sit there and watch. On top we still see dolpins, common dolpins today, we still had a left over humpback and the mobula rays that are juming high up in the air looking like they try to fly but lands with a big splash back in water. Or snorkel with the whaleshark by the mogote. And in the evening jump on a beach of thean island and get away and take in total stillness watching the sun settle behind the mountain of Baja. It is just a beautiful place to have as a change now after been working down in Revillagigedo To actually work where I started 8 years ago and close to home. Diving in my backyard and show people this pearl of the planet. We finished up our days diving at la Reina . Lots of playful sea lion and , the orange seahorse that we spotted here for 2 weeks ago had moved maybe two meters since last.
Good way to end up the trip and for me to take a vacation for a month and next time meet up with Nautilus Explorer in Ensenada to start a exploratory dive trip to isla Guadelupe the 3 of July.
Until then dive safe.
Sten
Surface conditions Sunny hot 32-34 C south slow wind in the Sea of Cortez
Underwater conditions Viz was a bit low as 8-12 M best this trip in la Reina with 15 M temp varies a lot from 21-26C Low 70s to 80 F This trip mild current
Orange seahorse that we spotted here 2 weeks ago has moved a total of 2 metres — mate and diveguide log – Nautilus Explorer – May 30, 2010
