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3rd Stateroom Occupant - $1995.00

Destinations

Remark
Amazing diving with giant mantas -- 9 night trip

Trip Commentary:
November through May is peak season for diving the Revillagigedos Archipelago, a pristine marine wilderness located 220 nautical miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas. These islands are of volcanic origin and Benedicto (which is the one closest to Baja California) actually erupted in 1952. The next and largest island in the chain is Socorro which is uninhabited except for a small Naval base and village. Roca Partida lies to the southwest and is little more than a large group of rocks awash on the edge of a 6000' abyss. The most distant island is Clarion, located about 370 miles from Cabo San Lucas. The diving here is famous for extraordinary interactions with giant manta rays and you will be able to get extremely close and have numerous encounters with these gentle giants. For more details check out the October 24, 2003 Captain's Log entry at www.nautilusexplorer.com. Water temps range from 78 - 82 in November and then drop to 72 - 74 at the end of January -- which is OK because that's when the humpback whales and their babies show up. Surface conditions are just plain tropical paradise! You can expect to see a myriad of colourful reef fish and large numbers of spotted trunkfish as well as whitetip, silky, galapagos and hammerhead sharks, eels, octopus and scorpionfish. This area also boasts some of the best sportfishing in the world and you may see bonitas, tuna, jacks and wahoo at places like Roca Partida. Vast numbers of marine birds nest around the islands, giant sea turtles lay their eggs on sandy beaches, California grey whales give birth in the warm lagoons and sealions hang out on the rocky shorelines. Please note that you will not be allowed to night dive in the Revillagigedo Islands (it's too sharky) or ride the mantas. You should be aware that we will be making an open ocean crossing of 220 miles to reach Benedicto Island. We have collected 3 years of meteorological data from the military base at Socorro Island and found that the average winter winds were less than 10 knots. It's a downhill run leaving the Sea of Cortez and generally not a problem. There is the possibility of beating home against a leftover swell from storms further up the coast. Consequently, we schedule a 3 day weather window northbound which should ensure a decent ride. The best news is that smooth crossings with a gentle sea are the norm from November through May. Hurricane season generally runs from June through October. Sample itinerary Originally, we wanted to board at 1400 and sail at 1600 on December 26th. That was scheduled before the airlines published their winter 2004 schedules. Once those schedules came out, we realized that there was no way that timing would work unless guests flew in the day before (which is Christmas Day). So my thought was to ask folks to arrive in Los Cabos (which has vastly superior connections than La Paz) prior to 1500. We would pick everybody up at the airport and transfer them to La Paz and get going by 1800'sh (instead of the original 1600 departure). I'm planning on wrapping the diving up at dusk on January 2nd and steaming back to the San Lucas area overnight. Arriving late afternoon on January 3rd. There will definitely be a chance to grab some extra diving in at San Lucas or Gordo Banks if folks are interested. I'm cautious about timing it too closely on the return leg given that we will have 216 miles of open ocean to cross. However, there is a reasonable to good chance of calm/choppy seas. If that happens, I'm planning on spending an extra half day at San Benedicto and departing around noon. That would put us back in Cabo on the morning of January 4th. Getting the extra half day of diving in will be weather dependent and will depend on the weather gods. I hope this makes sense. I want to make damn sure that everybody is very pleased with the trip and welcome thoughts, ideas or suggestions.