My first live on board in Mexico!! and it is fantastic 🙂 People are lovely, both guests and crew. In our first dive we saw lots manta rays in San Benedicto, then couple of dives where the Navy base is in Socorro and then two days and a half further south. We arrived early in the morning so we could see sunrise. It was magic and impressive we all took pictures and enjoy the view. Underwater the island is sourranded by healty coral and heaps of morays. I even saw a mother and a baby moray 🙂 In the coral any piece of metal, including an anchor becomes part of the reef as the coral grows on top and looks pretty cool. I also saw a cute octopus that was very shy in front of a camara and hide in a little hole.
In the blue where sea is deep we saw hammer head sharks, silky sharks and galapagos sharks. Overall the dives and the trip has been very special and so far very happy with the trip. Aurea
April 8th : After 4 days of diving down south we are now on they way to Roca Partida. This has been the adventure I have dreamed about since I found out about the Nautilus Explorer going to this remote place once a year. The boat is the perfect vessel for the adventure and the people running it do a fantastic job and their commitment to make this a great experience is felt everywhere. On our way we dived at the San Bernedicto and Soccoro Islands. Here I had wonderful dives with manta rays plus whitetip reef and Galapagos sharks. At the check out dive 5 giant manta rays welcomed me back to these islands allowing me to swim a few inches below them and let my air bubbles tickle their sensitive skin. At Soccoro the underwater landscape is mostly volcanic rock with few corals or other growth on them. In contrast the reef is an oasis of hard coral and accompanying reef fish. During our first dive briefing our great dive guides told us about the endemic fish and very curious moray eels. I soon realized they were right about the moray eels. A young slikey shark was circling me and I swam close to the reef to get a photo of the shark with a blue background. Busy with the shark I was not paying much attention to the reef below me until I suddenlty noticed two moray eels poking out of the reef right under me and getting very very close. Now, after 4 days of diving we all have close up video or photos of moray eels… but thankfully no bites 🙂 Both underwater and above very few signs of the people that have lived here remains. Underwater we found an anchor and a wheel from a train cart. That is all. Both the anchor and the wheel probably originates from the time when Americans were mining the island for fertilizer. Human presence on this planet is however present both below and above. On the reef old longlines covered in coral is everywhere and on the island so many shoes have washed ashore that it can supply a city of one legged people… Ages ago the rock was used as a lighthouse. Big thanks to the lovely people on board making this trip possible!
Sam
"I even saw a mother moray eel and her baby. The moray eels have been everywhere!"
