After a full day of steaming towards Socorro, we finally had our first day of diving today. We began with a check dive at Fondadero and that dive was better than some liveaboards I’ve been on! Right off the boat, we saw the silhouette of a manta in the distance. Shortly after, we heard high-pitched noises around us, and three dolphins swam right through our dive group! One even turned on its belly and gave us a show. This was my second time seeing dolphins while diving and I have over 200 dives! The next two dives at the cleaning station “The Canyon”, were even better!! We saw several hammerheads in the blues, and one swam by just to see what we were about. A manta joined us for the last 20 minutes of the dive and when she first swam by and headed towards the blue, I thought she was gone. But she did a U-turn and continued to do flips and play with our bubbles!! What a friendly manta in an amazing place. I had just dived and snorkeled in Cabo San Lucas right before this and I was worried that it would be freezing out here, but the water temperature is much warmer as it’s about 300 miles closer to the equator. Highly recommend anyone who wants to see mantas, hammerheads, and sharks to visit Socorro and Nautilus with their professionally trained staff is the team to do it with!
- Calvin Loa, USA onboard the Nautilus Belle Amie
