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Socorro, on board the Nautilus Explorer

Extract from diary :

Got the executive coach from La Paz to Cabo San Lucas - Al's favourite part of the trip. The view for 3 hours was of cacti (proper cowboy ones with arms!!), sandstone hills & the sea. Superb.

Got to Cabo & asked in Spanish where I could get a cab & was answered in Spanish, a first!!! Yeaaah!! I'm determined to learn more now it's working. Obviously I had no idea what the answer was, but after lots of arm waving managed to work out the where the cabs were!

Good to be back on the Nautilus Explorer. Sten, Buzz & Fiona are the only crew who are the same from Guadalupe & all remember us. Full night & day motor sailing out to San Benedicto, near Socorro. Diving starts @ 07:30 tomorrow.

1st dive : this is the checkout dive where the dive guides assess you. Normally quite shallow & dull. Not here!! 3 hammerheads @ the Canyon. Great.
2nd dive, moved to the Boiler. White tip sharks circling below us
3rd dive, the Boiler again. 1st Great Manta. Around 12-15ft wing span sweeping along side us & came round for 2nd pass. Massive ramoras attached for free ride.
4th dive, the Giant's Causeway. 2 large octupi. Full view of beaks & one eye.

What a day!!!!!!! More variety of great life on day 1 than we’ve seen in weeks elsewhere….

Dived from all means: the main boat, the tin tub and the dinghy. When we came back on the tin tub, there was a bit of a swell, they pulled it onto contact with the main boat & we had to jump or step when the dive master said. Mine was quite smooth, Alan jumped at exactly the point when the tin boat was highest & the main boat was lowest. For some reason he also leaped about 4 feet upwards, with his base being the tin boat, which at this point was another 4 feet higher than the dive deck, so he was suspended in the air for about 2 mins before landing doubled over !!!!! No, I don't know what he was doing, but I certainly know that if I'd have done that he'd have something to say about it !!!!!

Cabo Pierce : Loads of dolphins around the boat when we were loading into the tin tub & they followed us to the drop off point. Dolphins stayed with us throughout the dive, coming extremely close, allowing everyone to pet & stroke them & particularly playing with Sten. Got some video, but not sure whether it'll come out as good as real life!! The dolphins were really enjoying all the attention & showing off like mad, standing up in a row & doing twirls etc, fab!!!!

Roco Partida - The place to be!!
70 miles from Socorro, just literally a rock in the middle of no-where with the most underwater life we've ever seen!!! We're apparently very lucky with the calm seas. The crew & people who've been here before say it's normally really rough with v strong & opposing currents. We had relative calm, bit of a swell on surface & down to about 10m, with hardly any current except on the corners. We lapped the rock 3 times & did some hanging around....

In the first 2 dives we saw white tip sharks, silver tip sharks, silky sharks, galapagos sharks, hammerhead sharks, a whale shark, giant mantas, barracuda, tuna, moray eels (12 in a nest), massive shoals of small jacks and red tailed trigger fish, enormous jacks going round in pairs.
Spent 2 days here, did 7 dives with amazing sightings on every one. This dive spot will be incredibly hard to beat as all time favourite.