50 sperm whales just surfacing meters from Nautilus Explorer!!

Location: On our way to the  Canyon,  San Benedicto Island, Socorro, Revillagigedos, Mexico On our way heading down south leaving Cabo San Lucas we started directly spot Humpbacks whales , a bit later a marlin at the surface. 30 Nautical Miles south of the cape we first spotted 3 what we first thought where humpbacks but […]

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Hammerhead Sharks, Giant Mantas and Big Waves

We did the Giants Causeway (or Southwest Benedicto for Mike) as the third dive and saw 2 or possibly 4 mantas but they did not seem to want to interact with us. Dive day 2 and we went to the Boiler for the first scuba dive. The dive was spectacular, 100+ feet of visibility, a pod of 6 dolphins and almost no current.

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Welcomed to Socorro by Hammerhead Sharks, Dolphins and Giant Mantas

On the second dive, the giant mantas made an appearance! We had relocated to a site called The Canyon, where we had numerous sightings of hammerhead sharks, most notably a very large and curious fellow who made several circles about the same cleaning station.

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Ascend into a Giant Manta Ray

I think that we sometimes forget the basics of our scuba diving training ie. before ascending always look up, reach up, go up. One of our guests forgot all this on one of his morning dives and was surprised as heck to ascend right into a giant manta ray that was hovering above him. The diver had no idea the manta was there and had the surprise of his life when he bumped head first into 4000 lbs of manta!

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Cleaning station for giant manta rays

I recently noticed that the highest pinnacle at the north end of the ridge sticks up into the current and seems to be somewhat of a “magnet” for giant manta rays – I suspect that it is a cleaning station for mantas. So I dubbed it “manta rock,” and have been encouraging our guests to hang out there as well as the other cleaning station. Everyone has been having very good luck finding giant manta rays there.

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Flat calm crossing

Had a great run from Roca Partida straight back to Cabo San Lucas. Sometimes it is a rough crossing with 6 – 8ft seas. Most of the time it is pretty nice, with the ship gently pitching up and down and an easy roll from side to side. And sometimes it is flat calm. This crossing was so calm that it was as if we were already tied up to the dock!

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Night dive at Socorro Island

Our friends on the Solmar V frequent a site there called the Aquarium. It is nice but not too sharky, which makes it perfect for a night dive. We arrived there at 8 pm and launched our divers shortly afterwards. You can imagine my sigh of relief when they reported back that it was a great night dive with nice visibility and lots of critters including dense nests of Socorro lobsters. Phew!

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