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Socorro - Solmar V

Extract from diary :

Solmar V has been on the same itinerary as us since Sept, we saw the boat when we were in Guadalupe, the Sea of Cortez and in Socorro last week, now we’re finally on board. Boat is full of character & characters! Wooden & brass interior, very cosy but narrow so nothing like as stable as the Nautilus…. Several seasick casualties on the way out to Socorro this time, fortunately not me & Al - I slept while Al tried to (bunks will never be quite long enough for him I’m afraid)

Really excited to be going back to the same dive spots as last week, a relief because when I was booking up I was wondering whether it would be too repetitive to do the same trip twice.

Went to the same islands : San Benedicto, Roca Partida and Socorro, mostly the same dives as Nautilus, plus a few different ones on San Benedicto due to different current directions. We were just as lucky with the weather and current strength, but visibility nothing like as good this week. We’ve deliberately not harped on about how FANTASTIC the dives were last week here, but people keep asking us… we must sound like charter skippers ‘you should ave been 'ere yesterday’ !! I was surprised that the visibility was so different when the surface weather hadn’t changed. Even more pleased now that we have 2 trips in each of Cocos & Galapagos – hopefully at least 1 week in each will be clear seas.

Probably saw as many varieties (except whale shark), but not so numerous. Mantas were fantastic so we stayed at the boiler for 3 dives on return leg. Alan had an extremely close encounter with a hammerhead (see photos) on one of the 2 dives I missed (had to get some sun one afternoon!)


STOP PRESS : Alan loses a limb!!!

Well, it felt like it when he had to dive without his camera….
Normal procedure, once you’ve set your camera into the underwater housing in the morning, is to dip the whole thing into a fresh water tank, to check for leaks before hitting the salt water. Al dipped the camera & saw a massive air bubble. The O Ring had not sealed properly and the camera was FULL OF WATER!!!!!!!!!!!

Emergency surgery ensued to release the camera, battery and memory card, empty it of water, then dry it out with a mixture of advice, opinions & experience from the crew & other divers which resulted in blowing it gently with air, blowing it with compressed air, blowing it with a hairdryer, then leaving it in the engine room (warmest place on the boat without putting it in the oven!) for 24hrs.

It worked!!!!!

Well, the camera is out of it’s coma, but there are watermarks on the lens (or the mirror?) now, which you can see when you enlarge the photos and will probably show up on a print.

There’s more potential rescuing / cleaning to be done, so still a possibility for ‘clean’ photos from the rest of the trip, but that is unlikely to work fully so we will be contacting the insurers…. Do you know anyone who works for LV= ?? Alan had to be treated for mild depression - luckily the ship's doctor was carrying a full stock of Corona Extra.