In May 2019, we set off on a dive trip with our friends from Tri-State Scuba to the Revillagigedo Archipelago. James and I set off early to spend a couple days in Cabo San Lucas before we set sail on the dive liveaboard, the Nautilus Belle Amie. Cabo is pretty, but really touristy down in the marina where we were staying at the Tesoro Resort. It would be nice to have time to get away from the “spring break-y” areas and explore.
Once onboard the Belle Amie, we motored from 8:00 pm Monday to 8:00 am Wednesday to make our way almost 500 miles southeast of Cabo to San Benedicto Island, one of the 4 islands in the archipelago. The Belle Amie is a beautiful boat and it is laid out really well for divers. We had one of the two master cabins and it was really large with a great window. However, nice the boat was, the first 36 hours of the trip were really rough. I have never been seasick before, but boy o’ boy did the rough seas do me, and most of the folks on the boat, in. The captain said it was the roughest seas he has seen in the 5 years he has been making this crossing. Even the stewardesses, LaLa and Sylvia, were sick. In fact, all 10 days were really windy and rough, but fortunately Dramamine became my friend and I was only sick that first 36 hours.
Once we got to San Benedicto Island, it was time to dive. James and I tend to be a warm water divers and this only our second trip to cold water. So for the check out dive, we geared up in 5mm wetsuits and hit the water. And boy is it a shock. After being in the cold blue water with not much to look at, I was questioning how the next 7 days of diving was going to go. Then came the giant manta…and you forget how cold the water is. The second and dives of the day brought us lots of sharks (hammerhead, silver sides, white tips, Galapagos, silkies and black tips), mantas and an octopus.
We spent the next day on the windward side of the island at the site El Boiler. This is an underwater mount with a manta cleaning station. Here we meet the famous “evil” dolphins. The dive masters told us about the dolphins that try to lure divers to go too deep. I thought they were kidding but it was true. The dolphins will come up to a diver, especially if they are holding a camera, and pose by going vertical and showing you their belly. They then slowly start to sink and the diver, who is so focused on taking pictures of the beautiful friendly dolphin, doesn’t realize they are sinking deeper and deeper. It wasn’t just one dolphin and it wasn’t just on this site. It really was incredible. The Boiler is a famous site and I understand why. We had the pod of 10 dolphins, who were talking and that is amazing to hear, and 4 mantas who just kept circling and interacting with us. The mantas can be finicky about what they like, but when playful, they like to have bubbles blown against their bellies. They will hold still and them silver like they are being tickled.
We next motored overnight to Roca Partida, the smallest island, which is really just a couple of volcanic rises covered with frigate and booby poop. This area is famous for its white tip “hotels”. White tips are rare in that they don’t need to always be moving in order to breath. There are several small caves and overhangs around this island and the white tips will lay down and stack up while they sleep. So there are piles of sharks sleeping like a litter of puppies. I also really liked this site for the large schools of fish, blackjacks and cotton mouths. We also would see huge tuna cruising around in the blue. We also had another huge pod of playful yet “evil” dolphins including some babies.
After two days at Roca Partida, we motored overnight to Socorro, the only inhabited of the islands. It has a small Mexican navy base and is home to some of the marine park rangers. We had to check in with the base, where some soldiers came out the to boat, checked our rooms (very casually) and checked us against our passports. Clarion, the furthest island and one named for (or maybe vice versa) the Clarion angelfish that is the manta cleaner fish, is too far for this trip, so we never made it out there.
We spent three days around Socorro and dove Punta Tosca and Pearce Cabo. Our first dive at Punta Tosca was my favorite of the trip. We had manta and a really friendly dolphin at our safety stop plus there were lots of fish (puffers, moorish idols, parrots, guineafowl, wrasse and hogheads along with sedna nudibranchs). As the days went on, the wind picked up and the viz wasn’t great and there was some strong surge, which can be fun to ride.
We moved back to San Benedicto Island for the final day of diving. We went back to the site Canyon. We had the best manta dive here. There were 3 black and 2 chevron mantas that spent the entire hours with us. They are amazing graceful creatures. We also had lots of sharks so it was the quintessential Socorro area diving. Overall, the trip was great. We were safe, the boat was comfortable, the company was great fun, mantas and dolphins are amazing, but I need to accept the fact that I am a warm water, colorful reef and creature diver. Cold water and damp wetsuits aren’t for me. Bring on the warmth.