Some information for you from the Captains log of the Nautilus Explorer 11/12/06-11/03/06 recent first.
Check it out at http://www.nautiluse...n/?captains_log if you have any questions.
The temps look to be in the 80 F. above and below, for you who like C. that will be a little less than 27.
Looking forward to having a great time on a great trip!!!
The Orcaman!!! Position: 18o46.7'N 111o02.9'W
Location: At anchor, Punta Tosca, Socorro Island, RevillagigedosWeather: Low broken stratus, 80oF temperatures with 25 knots winds and gusts higher. Low swell in the anchorage.
Water: Water temp 80oF with lower thermoclines. Visibility 80 feet.
Comments: I have been doing a lot of diving lately. The reality of a relief Captain taking over a number of Revillagigedo trips this winter has hit me and I'm trying to get in as many splashes in as possible. Sooo, we were anchored at a pinnacle on the west side of Socorro Island last night and I thought "hey", why don't we try a night dive under the lights of the boat and check out the shark interaction. Conventional wisdom in this part of the world is that it's not a good idea to do night dives at Socorro given that the sharks can show markedly different behaviour at night. But what the heck, I was feeling adventuresome and managed to talk 7 guests into joining me. I was the first to jump in off the back of the Nautilus Explorer and instantly started rotating around and peering into the darkness. Flying fish had been out in force earlier, sailing through the air in every direction (including smacking themselves senseless on the back deck) with silky and silvertip sharks avidly pursuing them. Needless to say that I was a bit nervous! The pinnacle below us was well lit up with the overside floods of the ship so we switched off our dive lights and descended down to the rocks. It was GREAT!!! We could clearly see the ship above us, the fish around us were also very well illuminated once we had our night vision and it was eerily beautiful to see the other divers swimming around in the gloom. After 10 minutes or so I actually started feeling quite relaxed. We had some silky and silvertip sharks swim by at depth but things didn't start getting really interesting until we ascended at the back of the ship - here were a lot more sharks there including one "crazed" and agitated silvertip that kept swimming right at the divers, nipping on one person's fin, headbutting my dive light, rapidly shaking his body from side to side and generally keeping our adrenalin levels elevated. It's amazing that one little shark could get us so excited! It was a great adventure jumping into the black and being a little scared and not knowing what to expect. I can't wait to do it again! Captain Mike
Diving with giant mantas at San Benedicto Island 2006-11-11
Position: 18o42.5'N 110o57.2'W
Location: At anchor, Soccoro Islands navy base, Revillagigedo ArchipelagoWeather: Broken strato cumulous and very hot and muggy as tropical storm Rosa passes to the south of us.
Water: Water temp 80oF, visibility variable 30 - 100 feet depending on the site.
Comments: Had a great day yesterday at San Benedicto Island with multiple giant mantas sightings and interaction at the diving site El Canyon. Shifted over to southwest San Benedicto for our last dive of the day and splashed on one of my favourite cleaning stations - in 20 minutes I saw loads of fish, an octopus, numerous moray eels, 2 silky sharks and a white tip reef shark. Another group of divers saw a nice school of hammerhead sharks swim past. The only bad news is that we have been undergoing a thorough navy and PROFEPA inspection since early this morning and as of noon today, have still not been able to get our divers in the water. I guess that's the price we pay for the privilege of operating in a Marine Biosphere Reserve -- these inspections help keep the bad guys out. Captain Mike
Diving with giant mantas at San Benedicto Island, 2006-11-10
Position: 19o17.8'N 110o48.5'W
Location: At anchor with the giant mantas at The Canyon diving site, San Benedicto Island, Islas RevillagigedosWeather: Air temp 80oF, high scattered clouds, winds 15 knots from the northwest, 3 - 4 foot SE swell in our anchorage.
Water: Water temp 78oF, vis 30 - 75 feet (dive #1 and dive #2).
Comments: Well, we are back at Socorro (or Islas Revillagigedos to be correct) on our first trip of this season and the giant mantas are here! Yahhyyy. On Dive 1 at El Canyon we saw just 1 black manta and a single white tip reef shark in fairly low vis (the fine volcanic ash from San Benedicto is layered over the bottom and gets picked up by strong currents). But Dive 2 rocked with much better vis, 3 mantas, an enormous galapagos shark and a couple of silky sharks. The mantas exhibited their usual curiousity about humans much to the delight of our divers. I had forgotten how much I love this place. Captain Mike
Enroute from the Sea of Cortez to Socorro Island (Isla 2006-11-09
Position: 22o16.9'N 109o44.8'W
Location: At sea, enroute from the Sea of Cortez to Islas Revillagigedos (Socorro Island).Weather: Hot (mid 80's), clear with 10 knots of wind and a long 4 - 5 foot northwest swell.
Water: Water temp and vis unknown but it is very "blue" when you look over the side.
Comments: It's a beautiful day at sea with a nice easy ride. It doesn't look like any of our guests are feeling ill at all. I'm finding it very hypnotizing to sit in the Captain's chair on the bridge watching the flying fish scooting along the tops of the waves, the many different kinds of birds out here and the odd dolphin or marlin swim past. It's lovely! We should arrive at San Benedicto at 0730 tomorrow morning for our first Revillagigedo's dive of the season. Needless to say that we are all very excited. Captain Mike
Scuba diving in the Sea of Cortez 2006-11-08
Position: 24o23.4'N 110o22.0'W
Location: Enroute from scuba diving at Suwamee Reef to Los Islotes in the Sea of CortezWeather: Air temp low 80's, 10 knot westerly Corumel wind, calm seas with a 1 foot chop.
Water: Water temp 81oF, visibility 75 feet.
Comments: Just wrapped up 2 great dives on Suwamee Reef. Our guests were joking that they didn't enjoy the dive as they couldn't see any of the coral or reef because there were too many fish in the way. Millions and millions of fish by their estimate. Anchored at Bonanza Beach last night. Half the guests went out for a nice night dive on a closeby reef. Everyone else jumped into the inflatable skiff and went for a moon and starlit walk along the beautiful white sand beach. Captain Mike.
Scuba dive with whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez 2006-11-07
Position: 24o14.3'N 110o23.2'W
Location: Enroute from El Mogote to the wreck of the SalvatierraWeather: Air temp low 80's, clear skies (there might be one little cloud) 2 foot chop and 15 knot norte wind
Water: Water temp 81oF, visibility unknown.
Comments: Spent the first morning of this trip working in conjunction with Baja Expeditions to find and scuba dive with whale sharks off El Mogote in the Sea of Cortez. We had a fantastic whale shark encounter on last week's trip with our guests literally backing out of the way of an oblivious whale shark intent on slurping up his dinner right beside the divers. Disappointingly, we weren't able to find a whale shark this morning despite 2 hours of diligent searching. My hope is that they have moved on to the Revillagigedos and are waiting for us down there!! We'll definitely try again later in the trip. Captain Mike
Anchored at La Reyna, Sea of Cortez 2006-11-03
Position: 24o25.9'N 109o57.9'W
Location: Anchored at La Reyna, Sea of Cortez after a fabulous day of diving Suwamee Reef yesterday.Weather: Hot (mid 80's), the north wind has dropped and the seas have calmed down to a 3 foot chop.
Water: Water temp 82oF. Visibility 100 feet plus (seems like forever).
Comments: I think I had my best dive day in the Sea of Cortez ever yesterday with a fabulous splash on Suwamee Reef close by Espiritu Santo. Suwamme is a very colourful reef surrounded by white sand. I was swimming along when I came across 2 California sealions lounging on the bottom - I couldn't believe it, they were literally stretched out and snoozing on the sand as if they were suntanning at the beach. It was hilarious. The resident garden eels didn't seem quite as appreciative though. The thing about Suwamee Reef is the amazing biomass of fish - there are so many that it is literally mind numbing with immense schools of different kinds of fish swimming in every direction and jacks and barracuda and sealions darting in and out chasing the little guys. Absolutely unbelievable. What a great day. Captain Mike.
I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT!!!!!
I know I'll freeze myself, that way it will seem like no time has passed. (funnier if you watched the last two episodes of south park)
