It is easy to get jaded about diving when you work on the Nautilus Explorer. For example, I went diving in Hawaii this past April and, although the dive was quite pretty, I couldn’t help but feel a little unfulfilled when the dive was over. No sharks, no mantas, no dolphins…. This afternoon I dived “The Boiler” at San Benedicto and Socorro – if I had wings I would be soaring with sheer delight! Even though I’ve dived this site many times, and have played with the giant mantas many times, it still amazes me just how friendly and interactive they really are. As soon as I jumped off the back deck of Nautilus and started my decent to the rock, I was very pleased to see FOUR giant mantas waiting for me. I went down to about 17 metres and was very quickly surrounded by big, beautiful, black-and-white mantas. Above me, below me, beside me – eye to eye, finger tip to wing tip. Wow. I didn’t even have a chance to swim around The Boiler because the mantas stayed with me the entire dive! 40 minutes with some very friendly mantas. Can it get any better?
‘Till next time… Hostess Ashley
We had four fantastic dives at Punta Tosco with lots of MANTAS, DOLPHINS, SHARKS!!! What else can a diver wish? We found everything we expected and even more!!! Lets wait for tomorrow. Andrea from Austria
Faboulous Diving at Punta Tosca!!! Not only MANTA rays, but also DOLPHINS, playing games with us on 3 of 4 dives!!! Nice reef with lot’s of fish, big big lobsters and stunning swarms. For me it was the first time diving with dolphins in more then 970 dives, so big, big smile and lot’s of fun. This trip is really great from both diving and crew how does everything to get us happy and smile… now that we had those, were snorkeling with sharks and already WHALESHARK and many other sharks at rocca partida, only the whales itself and seals are missing… Hello from a very happy diver 🙂 Ruth/Germany
We had expected a lot from this trip – and so far it even got much better! After the first 5 days of diving we have seen more than in several dive holidays before – and most of the animals not just only seen but long time contact – interaction… the whaleshark we had circeling around us for more than half an hour at one dive, the dolphins kept ‘playing’ with us and the HUGE (!!!) mantas enjoy circeling and looping around in our bubbles. Even the first hammerhead shark we saw… and are looking forward to the next days of diving with this very professional – and all of them absolutely enthusiasticly – diving and helping crew. But now we will enjoy another fine dinner (my girlfriend already wants to marry the chef cook) being served by to really charming young ladies 😉 Andreas Ritzenhofen/ Germany
We had a nice day today, my first interaction with a manta ray. Wow!!!… I think one of the best dives I ever had the last 10 years. I ll be sure we coming back. Service from the crew is unbelievable.( 24 hours eating, sleeping, diving.) Never seen this before like so professional. Roman and Elvira/ Germany
We expected a lot from this trip and so far it even got much better!! After the first 5 days of diving we have seen more .. (* note from Captain Mike – this is the nature of big animal diving – some trips are super hot and the diving sizzles while other trips are quieter. Not every trip is going to be this fantastic… darnit *) Guest blog – June 4, 2010
