I recieved a huge Welcome Back to the Nautilus Explorer upon my return from holidays! It was great to hug the crew and meet new friends. Even our departure from the beautiful beaches of Cabo showed us something new. An anchoring cruiseship, a massive yacht with a helicopter on its back deck and about 5 miles out a very active Sperm whale strutting its stuff. Dolphins shows escorting us into San Benedicto and then breaching baby humpbacks as we settled into our special spot ‘The Canyon’. Diving at the Canyon was superb with a school of Hammerhead sharks, giant mantas and the songs of the humpbacks echoing in our ears. Large shadows silently cruising over our heads, a few of the divers even seeing the whales through the greenish water. All on the first 2 dives!!! Our scuba diving karma is pretty good today!!
Off to Roca Partida we sailed. The wave action at Roca was bigger than Captain Mike had forecast using his weather models shoreside and threatened to shut down our operations. But there were more breaching whales and the sun was shining and turning into such a great day that we just didn’t want to throw in the towel and give up. Being ever so patient, and devising an unorthodox system of getting into the dive boats, we managed to get the divers over to the Roca Partida site where they were rewarded with Galapagos sharks, Silky Sharks, Whitetips, and the ever enchanting sounds of the magnificent Humpbacks swimming by. Those who chose to wait for smoother times were rewarded with breaching whales, and a special presentation from our special guest Dr. Ingrid Visser, a whale expert with extensive experience in Orca Whale behaviour.
Its only day 2 of diving folks and I assure you it has been nothing short of exhilerating! Looking forward to the next dive, tomorrow and the great days lying ahead.
Captain Kevin
After joining the Nautilus Explorer in Cabo San Lucas for the first time I can honestly say that I have yet to work with such a excellently put together crew. The weather has been awesome with a warm sun and favorable seas. The diving so far has been amazing and I am sure that it will continue throughout the trip. The ship is in excellent shape and makes for an awesome work environment. The humpback whales seem to have been following us from the start and I am looking forward to our upcoming special “whaling day”..
Chief Engineer Cody
Day three finds us at Roca Partida, a beautiful yet inhospitable rock island rising out of the sea. This little rock is devoid of plants or trees however it is home to hundreds of sea birds and as a result the rock is stained covered with guano. We will spend two days diving and exploring the waters around Roca Partida searching for whales, giant mantas and sharks, tuna, wahoo and all the other animals we have come to almost expect at this magical place. Upon first approaching the island, the crew and guests were excited to see a pair of humpback whales breaching off the starboard bow– how such large mammals can throw their bodies out of the water with such grace and ease marveled us and we rushed for our cameras in hope to capture the moment.
By dive three on day one, the guests were out and milling around on the boat deck talking animatedly about the white tip reef sharks and the large gallapagos shark they saw and how a giant manta chose to come in to the divers for some very closeup interaction. Good visibility, clear water, sun and blue skies have followed us ever since we left the pelicans in Cabo San Lucas and so far it`s been a great trip.
Tonight we are blessed with a beautiful sunset, a tangerine ball melting into the sea and as one curtain falls, another opens. As we finish securing the inflatable boats to the top deck, a full moon rises over the twisted rock crevices of Roca Partida, it`s a magic sight and one that stays with me long after.
Great food, awesome teamwork, beautiful sights, exciting dives, challenging waves– things are looking great so far. I look forward to more great experiences and adventures aboard the Nautilus Explorer.
– You only live once, but if you live right, once is enough. – Unknown
Deckhand, Chris
As we depart from Cabo San Lucas on a 12 days trip we headed to the first destination San benedicto on our way there we were welcome by a school of dolphin as they proform a jumping show and giude us to the canyon which was our first stop as we position ourself to anchor on the horizion we saw whale just doing there early morning yoga as the mother and calf teaching her young to breach that just drawed every one attention to get up and leave there breakfast and get a belly full of whales jumping as they came our way as we did the first dive at the canyon everyone came back with a smile and could not believe that on the check out dive they would get to see 6 to a dozen hamerhead and the manta that just put the iceing on the piece of cake we stayed there for the day as everyone just gathered at the bar for cocktail hour and odered drinks just celebrateand cheers the wonderfull dives that they had we continue our journey to the Boiler the weather was cool in the morning but as the sun rised and peak over the dead swells and san benedicto island we were ready for the first dive we all go in as the water temp was 23 c it seem cold for the first not knowing that we were invited by 3 giant mantas we all had fun just watching they play and swim in between the divers at that time the coolness of the water was not even remembered or and issue as the divers fucus on the marvallous mantas another unforgetable day we headed to Roca partida the crossing was calm as we approach the bbobies were on there early hunt as the friget birds just wait for the boobies to get back with there catch we had encounter with hamerhead ,silver tips,and golopago shark,as the white tips slept as it appears that they had a long night we stayed for two days visibility was 80-100 ft we cotinue to the island call Clarion island we check in with the navy we headed to the south side where there was this amazing struture call the castle and beside it there is a next stuture look like a mayan temple we dive around the point there was some nice spures that go from the about 2 meters to 35 meters we saw 3 turtles but the visibility was not as great so we were on a exploration we came across this pinacle that was like3\4 of a mile from shore so we anchor and went diving just to be greated by a swarming jack that seem like they have never seen divers before lots of ocotupus ,leather bass ,nice swim through that was invadide by lobsters stayed for the day the next day we head to the other tip of the island were all the divers got in to explore were some divers got to intarack with dolphin were the others just got to find one of the best pinacle that start for about 2meters from the surface with huge school of goatfish ,grunts ,jacks ,southern stingray just laying on the bottom just enjoying the sand as comouflage as the diver pass , a school or hamerhead we stay for the day it was to good to leave on the last dive there was a swarming of silkys ,silver tips the water temp was 23 c visibility was 30 to 40 feet Divemaster Juan
Special guest – Dr. Ingrid Visser – world renowned whale expert – Captain and crew blog – FEB 18, 2011
