Diving conditions are good although the visibility is still somewhat “bloomy” after a couple of weeks of clear skies and sunshine. Our guests are very happy and quite a few folks have commented that the wall at Rita’s Rock is better and even more interesting (varied?) than the world-famous Browning Wall (which was rated as the number one dive site in North America 2two years running by Rodales Scuba Diving).
Read MoreDillon Rock is a barely submerged pinnacle marked by a small green light at the entrance to Shushartie Bay and is surely the most famous place in the world to scuba dive with wolf eels. I have personally seen up to 7 wolf eels here on just one dive. This is also the only place that I have ever had the extremely rare experience of been bitten by a wolf eel (a male that I believe to be “alpha” came up behind me and latched onto my leg as I lay on the mud bottom taking a picture of another wolf eel). Being bitten by a wolf eel is virtually unheard of.
Read MoreThe thrill of the day was when a humpback whale came down the middle of Browning Pass just as we were wrapping up a dive at Snowfall. A couple of divers with “code yellows” made the heroic decision to “hold on” and let us drift down the pass and observe the humpback. We were all “blown away” (pun intended) when the humpy surfaced 20ft away from the skiff after a 6 – 8 minute dive. Emily and Charlie were on the skiff with me and it was awesome to see their excitement. Having the kids onboard has made this an especially and exceptionally enjoyable trip for me.
Read MoreDive Day 1 of the first trip of our British Columbia scuba diving season and we have already done 2 dives in Browning Pass! Browning Wall makes for quite the warmup dive! We boarded our guests in Vancouver yesterday evening and sailed straight up the Inside Passage, past Port Hardy, arriving at Hussar Point, Browning Pass in the late afternoon.
Read MoreOur guests dove “Octopus Gardens” and “Fishhook” at the south end of San Clemente and the diving conditions were reported as very good. “Fishhook” was especially good, with reportedly interesting terrain, numerous sightings of bat rays, eels and more lobster (“bugs”) than anyone could count.
Read MoreI often get asked why we don’t offer more night diving at Socorro and San Benedicto Islands (Islas Revillagigedos). Quite frankly, the ever-present silky sharks become overly inquisitive once the sun goes down and switch over into “hunting mode.” Still, I always try to offer at least one snorkelling opportunity after dark.
Read MoreWell, today is Day 3 of our annual shipyard refit. We choose to drydock the Nautilus Explorer every spring to spruce things up and continue our quest for continuous improvement. Actually, drydock isn’t quite accurate as that refers to a floating dock that is submerged to the point where a ship can be positioned over the main deck and then the dock’s ballast tanks are pumped out, lifting the ship out of the water. To be technically precise, the Nautilus was slipped on a synchrolift – which is a network of railway tracks with bogies that are towed onto a submersible platform that is then lowered into the water by 16 precisely synchronized electric hoists with the ship then positioned on top of the bogies and the platform then lifted out of the water. The synchrolift that we use at Gran Peninsula shipyard in Ensenada is capable of lifting a 300ft ship! So a 325-ton ship like the Nautilus Explorer is just a little job for them.
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