Captains Log - Diving on the Rocio Del Mar

January 20-28, 2012

2012-02-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings! My name is Christina and I am the newest addition to the Rocio del Mar Liveaboard family. Dora thought it’d be a good idea to experience one of the trips offered through the Rocio del Mar. I felt honored by this offer and eagerly accepted.

Diving in the low temperatures of the Pacific Ocean would pose a challenge to my limited scuba diving background. Up until this point, I’ve only dove in the warm waters of Southeast Asia wearing nothing more than my bikini! I have done wreak diving, cave diving and have explored many colorful vibrant reefs with minimal sea life. So far I’ve been satisfied as a diver, minus the fact that I’ve never seen a shark; which is of high interest to me and happens to be on my bucket list. After a quick Google search I was convinced there would be sharks on the trip, however I had no idea what was in store for me.

Next thing I knew, I was in Cabo ready to embark on one of the greatest adventures of my life. Dora and I spent nearly two whole days buying food, drinks and supplies for the coming nine days at sea; we even made an extra stop to pick up homemade tortillas. Fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs and specialty cuts of beef, chicken and fish were carefully stored in the industrial size refrigerator and freezer. The crew (that I would become so fond of), and I examined the cabins one last time for anything out of place before patiently – yet anxiously waiting for our guests to arrive.

As expected, all 18 guests were successfully checked in on board, settled in and ready to go. The diversity of the group ranged from dive masters/instructors from all over the world, head of a HR department, retired research astronaut, screen writer, business owners, sales directors, French chefs, students, IT engineers, tour manager and underwater film makers. There was Oliver, Richard, Hans, Theresa, Mermaid, Yuko, Xiao, Jessica, Cathy, Kirk and Yishu from China; Jon and Kike from Spain, Thierry from France, Alex from Belgium, Elizabeth from Mexico, and Casey, Dave and myself from the United States. We ran through the night and for the entirety of the next day where we anchored at San Benedicto Island.

We woke up at 6AM to a school of playful dolphins welcoming us into the crystal clear blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. The energy was high with diver’s excitement in the brisk morning breeze. As the sun rose, we suited up quickly and begin our first dive at The Boiler with dolphins circling around us during our descent, posing for photos! There were thousands of huge red and blue lobsters tucked away all crammed into a long crevice between two boulders. Immediately we were accompanied by a school of sleek white tip sharks that gave me a whole new sense of appreciation for the beautiful beast. I was bursting inside with excitement and trying to keep my regulator in my mouth while the sharks slowly cut through the water until out of site. To top it all off, during the last seconds of our safety stop a gorgeous manta ray of about a 20 foot wing span glided right past us!!!

At the second dive location, El Canon we fixed our eyes and cameras on hammerhead sharks. I was mesmerized while holding onto to a rock resisting the current. Of course, I’ve always known that Hammerheads exist, but to actually see them only five feet away was a special moment that I will cherish forever. At El Canon, we also saw a twelve foot Galapagos shark hunting close to the reef. On our way back to the boat, we witnessed a manta ray jump out of the water and back flip into the air – diving ever so gracefully back into the water.

The next day we woke up at Roca Partida, the smallest of the Revillagigedo Islands and a breeding spot for many seabirds. The island’s remoteness provides a sense of mystery as Roca Partida rose starkly from the wild surface of the deep blue ocean. Steep walls plunge into the water spotted with several small caves where baby white tipsharks sleep all huddled together. As we swam farther away from the rock, we saw a school of Hammerheads and silver tip sharks. The large schools of wahoo and yellow jacks spread long and wide making it impossible to not glide right through and observe the hundreds of fish swimming by. At our safety stop, we saw giant tuna right below our feet. I had no idea a tuna could get that big! Once in the panga we saw a bird on top of a sea turtle. The turtle was old, but wise looking. I wondered to myself where it was possibly going, all alone is the middle of the endless ocean?

That night we celebrated the Chinese New Year on board. We were told that in China, the New Year is spent with family preparing food. Our Chinese guests together (as a family) prepared handmade traditional dumplings from scratch and stuffed with squash, onion and fried egg. The shape of the dumpling symbolizes the ancient Chinese currency and is made on the New Year to bring prosperity for the coming year. The dumplings were then boiled, not fried, and served to everyone with soy sauce, garlic chili sauce and spicy pork. It was also one of our guest’s birthday in which a single extra-long noodle is cooked and served in a bowl with two eggs; representing 100 years of good health. Dora brought out the champagne making it a proper celebration and welcoming for the Year of the Dragon.

The next morning we found ourselves at Cabo Pierce, a lava flow that’s spilled thousands of years ago into the ocean and created a long, narrow ridge that falls to about 120 feet. I was so excited to see the promised Pacific manta rays that I barely ate anything for breakfast. It was almost instantly once we had descended into the strong current that the mantas appeared above our heads. I was literally in awe by the size and grace of the manta that I didn’t even realize that my mask was filling with water until I felt the burning of the sea salt! The mantas come here to be cleaned by the neon orange clarion angelfish. One of the most spectacular moments was when a group of dolphins curiously and playfully surrounded us and the mantas, twirling and spinning all around us. The visibility was great, which meant that you had a clear view of everything happening.

One of the last dives on the trip was an exploration dive around the North end of the Socorro Island. The terrain was absolutely incredible. It consisted of large, flat and oblong boulders. There was a lot to look at: yellow and black moorish idols, trumpet fish, sand rays, octopus’, nudibranches, trigger fish, colorful rainbow fish and balloon fish.

This pretty much brings me to the end of the trip. I can’t say enough about how astonished I was by the vast variety of sea life I saw during every single dive. There wasn’t a dive where it lacked in a school of sharks, manta rays or dolphins. People from all over the world come here to see the big stuff and that is exactly what you will get if you dive in this area. The Socorro Islands are not easy to get to, making the diving experience a rare and magical experience that not many people can say they have experienced. When we weren’t diving, we were in the pangas with crew members that drove us closer to the breaching Humpback whales to get a better look and that priceless photo that your family and friends won’t believe you took. By the time we were back in Cabo, everyone had shared and exchanged photos, videos and contact info. It was hard saying goodbye. The dive masters and crew members were all so helpful and knowledgeable of the dive sites. We were all spoiled by the gourmet assortment of delicious meals that were prepared by the wonderful chef on board. Some people you know you will see again, and some never again. Yet, we will always have our memories together on the beautiful Rocio del Mar that was hand built with love by the captain and his crew so that they could share the treasures of the sea with divers who want to become explorers.

New Years Eve 2012 DIVING THE SOCORRO ISLANDS

2012-01-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

I can’t imagine a better way to bring in the New Year. I would have to say that the theme for this trip was friends for life. Our guests were Jean and Ray from California,Irina and Alex from Russia, Betty and Bryan from Arizona. Sara and Kilian from Spain,Chris and Ellen from Canada. Ailyn, Rodrigo and Pedro from Mexico, Jaime from Florida,Yuki and Yuichiro from Japan and Lily, Tiffany, Jennifer and Jessica from New York.

Everyone clicked, and by the endless conversation and laughter throughout the boat you would think that everyone knew each other for years instead of just meeting when they boarded.

The sea life was phenomenal. It was as if the ocean knew it was the beginning of something new. We encountered beautiful mantas. One in particular keep coming back and would come straight to me. We were kindred spirits. We were also consistently visited by dolphins. We had a humpback whale appear at San Benedicto. It stayed most of the day and we snorkeled with it. They usually don’t start to show up until the end of February. What a gift!! Plenty of sharks at Roca Partida.

We tried out the new 21 foot zodiac that Santa sent us all the way from the Canadian-Washington border. Wow! We had 15 divers plus captain and still had room to do some dancing. We love it!

New Years dinner was fantastic. I had brought a case of champagne. Alex and Irina also brought a couple of bottles. Gerardo prepared the most delicious prime rib plus something yummy for our vegetarian guests. It was a delicious dinner with a heartwarming atmosphere.

The weather was calm the entire trip. Nothing better than smooth seas. Water temperatures were a bit colder than last year. Warmest was 77 and coldest was 73. I pulled out all the hooded vests on board and passed them around.

This was a very difficult trip to see come to an end. After lots of hugs and drying teary eyes, the crew stood quietly and watched until the shuttle disappeared. It was hard to shake off the bitter sweet feeling of farewell. We hope to have you back on board again very soon. It’s always great to see our friends once again.

The Crew of Rocio del Mar;

Capt. Lolo, Dora, Everardo, Rey, Gerardo, Jorge and Julio.

What our clients have to say about the Socorros and Rocio del Mar

2011-12-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

This time, I want to take this opportunity to share with you some of our clients testimonials. I think that you should hear it from them, what a good time they had and what an amazing adventure it is to dive at the Socorro Islands.

Rocio Del Mar Nov 11, 2011 From Warren Sims @ Scuba Travel Ventures

The Rocio Del Mar is a beautiful boat in the Sea of Cortez that also has a trip to the Revillagigedos Archipelago, also known as the “Socorro Islands”. I have known of this boat for a couple of years and always wanted to do a live-a-board on it. Well that time has arrived and Barb and I were as ready as we were going to get. Neither of us has had a vacation in a while and we were really ready to get wet and now that time has come. Ready or not, Rocio Del Mar, we were on our way!

Finally we arrived to the docks where the Rocia Del Mar was docked. In front of it was a giant yacht with a helicopter on it. Of course I knew this was not our boat but it is ok to wish. But there in its entire splendor was the Rocio Del Mar. She was beautiful. It was soothing to see the dark hull with the name on its bow. The crew was there to assist us immediately and we were greeted by the ship’s Captain, Rey. We then met Claudio and he helped us get our gear ready. The ship has a great prep area for diving. The tanks are high so that you only have to back into them standing up. What a great way to put on and take off your BCD with the tank. We were given specific station numbers, mine was 13 and Barbs was 14. Right next to each other and there was plenty of space to put away your fins, mask, and other diving necessities.

The Diving

The diving was some of the best diving I have ever experienced. The crew made it very easy to get ready so that you could enjoy your dives even more. We were able to see 4 whale sharks that gave us quite a show, dolphins, mating dolphins, octopus, mating octopus, hammer heads, white tip and silver tip sharks, galapogos sharks, eels, manta rays, and much more. We were very lucky to see these incredible species while on scuba. We had professional photographers, videographers, and they were able to capture these majestic animals.

The set up for your gear was the best I have ever experienced. There was a nice camera table, air hoses, and nitrox analyzers. Diving is very easy from the Rocio Del Mar.

I want to thank everyone from the Rocio Del Mar. I had a wonderful time and highly recommend this live-a-board. I cannot wait to be on it soon in the Sea of Cortez!

This below is from Elaine Kwee Blog @ Dive Voluntourism.

So, this boat I was on, Rocio del Mar, took off from Baja Sur, Mexico, with a cabin list of dive agents, diveshop owners, dive instructors, tech diver-expedition leaders and an underwater shootout winner. My room buddy technically wasn't a pro, if you defined a pro as one who makes a living out of diving. But she's dived the Artic twice, the Antartica once, takes an occasional Icelandic dip with ne'er a shrug, and her local liveaboard diving - y'know, like Cairns for me, Phuket for you - is diving in lulls between North Sea storms.

Our boatload of pros, and my dive buddies, underwater digital artiste Tom Radio and Vickie, the ice-bunny
So they mostly averaged thousands of dives. But they were all still as slackjawed as I was with the diving at the Revillagegedos Archipelego. If you can't pronounce it like the Mexican crew, you say "Socorros".
The liveaboards that go to the Socorros Islands start their season around November and end about April. The Socorros is way out - 24 hours motoring from Cabo San Lucas. The local diveshops operating out of Cabo can't bring you out. A liveaboard is the deal, and there are only a handful that do it.
Big critters traverse that part of the Pacific. Manta season was in full swing in November when I got there, and later in the season, whales go by. Most of the diving takes place off desolate rocks - The Boiler and Roca Perdita both pinnacled out of the fathoms with walls that gave underwater vertigo. Which is what makes the diving spectacular.

The Boiler and Roca Perdita
Actually, the one dud day of diving we had was at Socorros Island itself. Brooding grey rainclouds and surgy conditions made vis pretty awful in the morning dive. The navy then boarded our boat for "paperwork" and after an enforced surface interval of 5 hours, our afternoon dive was pretty murky.
But The Boiler! Roca Perdita! I uploaded the video on the website home page. All that was at The Boiler. Roca Perdita was a different kettle of fish, literally. It was fish soup.

....Shark City..

And the dolphins were there too...

Ask a boatload of pros who have dived everywhere in the world whether they've ever played with dolphins underwater, and they all say no. Don't get me wrong, we see them chasing the prow of boats and they are all real puppy friendly UNTIL you hurry on those fins and jump in. They're gone. The only time I ever saw a pod while diving (Maldives), it was still on the surface. Our dive leader got so excited he forgot about "ascend no faster than 18 meters a minute". Still, from below, I could see he risked DCS for a merest, fleeting encounter with dolphin foam. The ones in Mexico actually sought you out and hung around you during the dive. Maybe they were casing us out for a date. Having watched my footage on dolphins mating, I Youtubed dolphin porn and....they do like group sex. Especially in aquariums, with granny and junior gaping on.
Back to the mantas. The remoras hanging out with the giants were, themselves, pretty gigantic.

They also cause gigantic scabs on the poor manta. My buddy Tom Radio's fantabuloustic camera captured the sores that even Tom himself didn't see when he was up close.

Relive these memories, watch the video clip on the home page. Be glad I didn't set the music to Hotel California.

From Fred Remers---Socorro Liveaboard on the Rocio Del Mar Dec. 7, 2011.

The Rocio Del Mar (Mist of the Sea) is a beautiful and well equipped custom built boat designed by divers. Upon boarding, it was immediately apparent that the owners; Captain Lolo and Dora Sandoval, run a tight ship focusing on the safety, comfort, and well-being of their customers.

Every diver was issued a submersible GPS device (Nautilus Lifeline) which could be used to hail the boat in an emergency situation. The device was also capable of summoning the Mexican navy, and in a dire emergency, the US Coast Guard. This was a very nice thing to have considering the swift currents and challenging dive conditions encountered in the Revillagigedos Archipelago (Socorro Islands). This was well above and beyond my expectations of any dive boat.

The Crew was amazing. I’m not good with names so I wont name anyone specifically because I don’t want to leave anyone out. These folks worked very hard to make everyone’s vacation easy and enjoyable. During the day, they worked the dive operations and/or cleaning the boat, and at meal times they worked the kitchen/dining room etc. They also assisted with luggage and anything else they could find to do to help you with.

The Food was very well prepared and plentiful. Each day started out with a continental breakfast before the first dive. Then after the first dive, we ate another breakfast usually consisting of eggs prepared to order or oatmeal, french toast or pancakes, along with the usual breakfast fixings. Then after a couple more dives with snacks in between, we had a late lunch, and then another dive before dinner. Lunches and dinners varied from American to Mexican cuisine. The food was very tasty and well presented. As you can see, we were very well fed.

The diving was absolutely incredible. There were some currents and upwelling to deal with but it was well worth the effort. I did 19 out of 21 dives.

The highlights for me were the Manta Rays. We had so many encounters that I couldn‘t keep track of them anymore. It was absolutely an amazing experience to swim so close to them. At one point I was ascending and a manta was descending and we met in the middle. I put my hand out to avoid a collision and rubbed my hand down most of the length of her underside as she swam by. It was an incredible experience. If felt like slimy burlap. She quivered a little and swam on. According to one of the behavioral experts on the boat, she enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

There were also dolphins, sharks, and many other species of fish, some indigenous to the area. As far as shark species, we saw White tips, Grey Tips, Galapagos, Silky, Hammerheads. Others on the boat also encountered Tigers and there was even a Whale shark encounter.

The dives at San Benedicto and Socorro were made from the boat. Those at Roca Partida were made from inflatables. On all dives, there were two inflatables on the water at all times to pick up divers so if the current changed, or you just didn’t want to swim back to the boat, an inflatable would come by and pick you up.

We were very fortunate regarding the company on the boat. Unbeknown to us, many of the other passengers where very experienced and well-known photo and video experts. It was truly a learning experience and an honor to be with people of that caliber. They were all down to earth. It was very enjoyable to hear them tell stories of their experiences.

Overall this was the best dive trip I’ve ever been on and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for large pelagic encounters. The photo opportunities are endless. Here are about 300 of my favorites:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1002318...dsDecember2011

Thank you all for your kind words.

The Rocio del Mar Crew.

Explore Baja!

2011-11-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a spectacular season!! I'm sorry about the lapse in entries, I know I missed several weeks but living out at sea and trips going out Saturday to Saturday, it is easy to live in the moment and let details slip by. For this I apologize and I will try to do better. I promise... but don't guarantee :)

I would like to share Bob's recount of events of our Explore Baja trip, enjoy!!!

We had wonderful and fun-filled voyage this year for our relocation trip from Puerto Peñasco to San Jose Cabo Oct 29th to Nov 9^th to begin our season at the Socorro Islands. We, the crew of the Rocio del Mar, were honored to be able to provide 12 days of sunshine, 25 dives, three town visits, and 31 delicious full meals to our 22 happy and joyful passengers. Our divers ranged in age from 18 to 81 and all were very experienced and advanced divers who thoroughly enjoyed the trip as much as we enjoyed serving them. The heart of our boat is the crew and our respect and dedication in ensuring that all passengers receive the service, care, and concern that we show to all who grace our decks during our trips to is always our goal. Six of our divers were repeat guests with us and we deeply appreciated their choosing us for their vacation time again. We thank all those on the trip as we enjoyed your companionship, great cheer, laughter, and your expressed enjoyment of the beautiful Sea of Cortez.

Now to the diving. Bob and Arturo led our dive operations for the trip and we were especially grateful to have Arturo, a marine biologist and dive instructor with us. His knowledge and experience added to the experience by enriching our knowledge of the wildlife that calls the Sea of Cortez home. Our dive spots included the Island of Angel de la Guarda checkout dive on Angel Rock where visibility approached 50’ followed by a second dive on the pinnacle of La Vela. Visibility was good on both dives and some saw turtles on Angel Rock and all saw the sea lions on La Vela which were playful…at least those on the southeast side. The North side wall was still impressive with the yellow-polyped black coral and the morays along the west side. Temperatures were a bit cool here and we hit 65 degrees at depth…average for this time of year late in the diving season for the Northern Sea of Cortez.

We also dove on Andrea’s Eagle, La Cueva, and Vivoras. We found a giant jaw fish at Andrea’s Eagle and fed him a little of our chef’s (Geraldo’s) fish supply. He blew it out like they do sometimes…guess he didn’t care for the soleJ the highlight though was the 1” long, banana-yellow juvenile jaw fish that had built his very own den and acted just like the adults by peeking out of his den and sliding back down when approached---cute! Vivoras gave us an opportunity to observe an octopus out in the open which we all enjoyed. With visibility fair, we completed our last dive at Vivoros and headed for San Pedro Martir.

We did four dives there: Ravijunco, Xareni’s Pinnacle, Cormorant, and the southeast side of island at San Pedro Martir. Visibility was dramatically better and approached 80 feet. At Ravijunco we saw a 2-meter long Pacific angel fish…a first! They are occasionally found in the Sea of Cortez but it was a rare find and a beautiful animal for our photographers’ delight. Xareni’s Pinnacle was as beautiful as ever and diving on it at mid-day provided for good lighting all around. Juvenile hawkfish were in abundance up top and the schools of Creole fish were thick and active as well as the Cortez king angel schools. Cormorant provided its usual sea lion encounters and additional schools of angel fish and Creole fish along with two hawkbill turtles. We did a night dive on the southeast corner of the island and entered the large cave there. That turned out to be exciting as the dominant male sea lion became very aggressive as we entered it. Can’t imagine why he didn’t appreciate 6 divers shining dive lights in his eyes…he charged and bumped our dive leader pulling his safety sausage off his reel. The dive leader reported that when he went to leave the cave, all he saw was fast stroking fin tips of the rapidly exiting group…well…they said they wanted a thrilling night dive and we do aim to please our diversJ While here, divers also toured the sea lion colonies by panga and had an opportunity to see the stone walls built in the 1800’s for guano storage that was used for fertilizer back then.

During the night we departed San Pedro Martir for Tortuga (Turtle) Island where we made two dives on the Punta Sur and Tortuga Suroeste. Interesting rock formations abound here and we enjoyed the warming waters and better visibility as we moved further south on our trip. That windy afternoon we arrived at Santa Rosalia for our first shore excursions and to replenish water and food supplies. Docking was difficult in the high winds but thanks to Lolo’s expertise, Everado’s use of the panga as a tug boat, and Aurelio, Jorge, Tito, and Julio’s working of the mooring lines, we successfully docked. Our first stop, in Santa Rosalia, fell on the Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead where families honor their deceased relatives with remembrances of the things in life they enjoyed. Home activities include positioning of altars with pictures, items the passed love ones liked, and lit candles as well as the preparation of special meals, BBQs, and cemetery visits. The culture of the Mexican people is very family-oriented and respectful of passed love ones. We were able to enjoy some of the special breads made specifically for the day of remembrance. Santa Rosalia is well-known for the having the finest bread in Mexico, if not the world, and we brought many loaves onboard and enjoyed the aroma and delicious taste of it for days onboard. Most of the divers grabbed some pizza and beer at a local restaurant after touring the town a bit.

We set out the next morning for a full day of cruising to Loreto and our second shore excursion arriving near sunset. The magenta, orange, rose, blue, and purple of the sunlight-illuminated clouds made for an extraordinary sunset panorama and some great photographs. Loreto is quite picturesque with its attractive waterfront and swaying palm trees. Our passengers enjoyed an evening on the town and had fine meals and drink. All returned---very happy and animated…perhaps they indulged in some fine tequila, but we won’t tell moreJ.

The next day as we continued towards our destination of San Jose del Cabo, we dove on the dive spots of Cabeza De Mono and Punta Lobos off Coronado and Loreto, enjoying the water temperatures now entering the 80’s. Balloon fish were everywhere and schools of jacks and barracudas off in the blue made for very enjoyable dives on these spots but greater adventures waited so we motored off for the island of Las Animas.

We did three dives on Las Animas and oh what a beautiful place to dive! Visibility was 100 feet and our first dives were on the pinnacles to the east of the island which allowed us to go below 100 feet and stay warm at 84 degrees and view the classic underwater topography in our search of hammerheads, turtles, and a large variety of marine animals. We found no sharks, unfortunately but we did have a spectacular dive in poking around all the crevices and swim-throughs finding nudibranchs, turtles, barracudas, and loads of fish. On our second and third dives, we concentrated on the east and north side of the island entering the large cavern on the northeast side. Huge cathedral ceilings and spaces made for fascinating diving here. There were other caverns along the east side of the island as well. The walls of Las Animas are adorned with orange and yellow buttercup corals and in the darker areas they were fully open making for incredible displays of color. Las Animas was pretty much tied for first place as our favorite dive spot of the relocation trip. During the evening hours we engaged in our traditional Mexican BBQ on the top deck under the stars. Geraldo’s cooking was again superb. It was a great clear evening with no wind whatsoever so Dora’s candles didn’t need to be re-lit at allJ.

The following day we went to Espiritu Santo and had a great dive on El Bajo, a sea summit that provided again for fascinating diving around the topography combined with 84 degree water and 100 feet of visibility. The summit is visually intriguing being surrounded by white sand and the big blue all round. Barracudas circled, jacks and yellow tails cruised by with schools of grunts thrown into the mix. We thoroughly enjoyed the spot as much or more than Las Animas. However, we needed to get moving so we again motored south and dove next on the wreck of the Fang Ming. Here we found a real treat! On the forward part of the superstructure and later on the bow, we found a resting hawksbill turtle that was not at all afraid of us. We were able to swim right next to it as it sleepily watched us by sticking his neck out—literally and sort of rolling his eyes at what must have been an interesting scene. He acted like he wanted to be petted---so we did, and he enjoyed it, rolling his neck side to side so we could rub his head and his neck. The scene reminded one of a cat looking for affection and a kind pet down. Amazing sometimes what our underwater friends do that remind us of other animals we live with day in and day out. But this was a real treat and all who saw it appreciated the experience. The purposely sunk Fang Ming is a good dive as wrecks go with some penetration possible as long as you were careful to not fin up the slit too much. Schools of jacks, chubs, and Porgies cruised by the couple of groupers we saw inside the ship--a fun shallow dive.

Next did a night dive on the tiny pinnacle of La Reynita off the island of Cerralvo. Great night dive! Lobsters, caverns, swim-throughs, buttercup corals in full bloom in the moon light with balloon fish scattered throughout the site made for great panoply of color and wildlife together in the sea. We had fun exploring all the nooks and grannies of this site while appreciating the walls and divers backlit by our dive lights and the moonlight. Watching shadows coming around the corners of the walls here was surreal as black turned to blue followed by a burst of yellow-orange off the illuminated buttercup corals as divers made their way around the pinnacle. These were sights that will last a lifetime for those of us who were so privileged to have witnessed them.

During the evening we departed for Cabo Pulmo, the renowned Mexican national underwater park and preserve. We did two dives on Loss Morros and El Bajo with Beatrice, a local and very knowledgeable divemaster, who led us across the reefs and through the coral for some great photo opportunities. Schooling jacks in the 84 degree water…no need for a wetsuit here, so some of us just wore board shorts and swim shirts as we floated through the light to moderate current over the reef and white sands watching the wonderful displays of marine life unfold before us. The schooling jacks were impressive. Especially on the ones we saw during our safety stop at El Bajo. Wonderful to see the quantity of fish here. We also did another night dive on Los Frailes where we viewed the incredible red and white zebra flatworms stretched out to their full length as they contracted from the light from our dive lights. We also saw ribbon jellyfish in mid-water as well as other jellies happily floating by us in the blue framed against the blue-ish-black surface filled with white-night moonlight.

The last day of diving we dove over the Gordo Banks to see the schooling jacks. A very deep dive to recreational limits, The Banks provided all with a challenging profile and challenging currents. Most exciting of all was our water exit! The wind had come up during the dive and we surfaced to 5-6 foot waves causing the stern of the Rocio del Mar to pitch up and down and to be awash in the waves. Our panga captains were right on top of the situation though and provided our divers the option of doffing their equipment at the panga and free swimming to the stern for water exits. This worked out well and despite the challenging seas and winds, all divers were recovered with no issues. We enjoyed the thrill of the sea and the different challenges this dive presented while staying safe and responsible in the process. For our final dive of the trip, we dove off Punta Gorda where a reef and sand afforded us the opportunity to once again hit the water in board shorts and leisurely cover the reef. We found puffer fish, blennies, shellfish, some jacks, and an assortment of nundibranchs…another warm dive in great visibility and a pleasant dive experience for our last dive before porting in San Jose Del Cabo.

Our trip concluded in San Jose Del Cabo that day and most divers took advantage of being in port and dined on-shore for the evening and immersing themselves in the local pleasantries. Our trip was a complete success for all those we had the pleasure of sharing the 12 days with and we richly enjoyed the conversations, companionship, good cheer, food, and diving experiences with them.

Our thanks to Xareni & Beto for their professionalism, friendship and gathering their group of divers from Mexico City to include ever laughing Julian; gracious, generous, and good-natured Manuel, happy and tanned Juan Carlos (special thanks for performing waiter duties in Santa RosaliaJ); Miguel for his engaging smile and good humor; Roberto for engaging conversations; Cesar for his huge physical presence and courtesy to us all; Rodolfo for his wild hair and WWF wrestling appearances on the dive deck; Jorge for his soft spoken appreciation of what we do day-in and day-out and his diving skills; Julio for his steady dive preparedness and laughter; Rocio’s wonderful grace, smile and constant smile; Ignacio for his diving skills and courtesy to all; Salvador for his superb diving, safety consciousness, and smiles; Jose for the joy of life he showed everyday; Herbert for his conversations, courtesy, and information on culture; Fabrizzio for just plain being fun to be around; Alberto or his amazing physical strength and endurance while re-boarding the pangas without a ladder and his superb diving prowess at age 81!; and Jose Apiz for his laughter and cheer. Thanks to David from Valley Forge and Terry from Sonoma, for their informative and entertaining stories of their life-long diving adventures---we learned from you both; and lastly Fernando, our multiple repeat guest from Venezuela, for your zaniness, great sense of humor, strength and diving excitement. I was a true pleasure to spend the time with you all. Guests for 12 days—friends for a lifetime.

August 27- September 3

2011-09-11T11:04:00.001-07:00

This trip was a family reunion. More than half the group had been with us before. Welcome! It was wonderful to see everyone we knew and to welcome those we didn’t. Maxine and Mike were from Seattle, Rich (our shell expert) from Tucson, Chuck from Colorado, Lee from Oklahoma, Ron from Prescott, Kim from Phoenix, Fermin from Mexico City, Linda from New York, Jonathan from Chicago and Jeanie and Brook from Phoenix.

These are the highlights for the week. When we anchored in Refugio at Angel Rock, I see a huge smile on Lolo’s face. “Visibility is much better! Yaay. It’s coming back to the conditions that we are used to. Water temperatures were back in the 80’s. Our first dive was a great check out dive. The sand was covered in blue spotted jaw fish. There were also clouds of small silver fish. Next we did La Vela. Wow! In spite of such a huge tide exchange we were able to comfortably circle the entire pinnacle. The west side of the pinnacle is easily 300 feet. It’s like sky diving. Our dive plan was to go down to about 100 feet to see the black coral and maybe some giant groupers but nobody followed me. They were all at approximately at 70 feet admiring a big jewel moray. Less depth meant more bottom time so off we went to the shallower side. We say two giant sand rays, three or four turtles, two octopus fighting for the same hole, giant sea bass, guitar fish and large schools of fish. It was a terrific dive. At the end we did our safety stop with a side show from the sea lions.

Andreas Eagle was also amazing. For our third dive I suggested the aquarium. Lolo’s never done this dive, so he doesn’t realize how incredible it can be. We played tug –a-war for a couple of minutes and I won. (what a surprise). Off to the aquarium. The aquarium is maximum 30 feet deep. It reminded me of a holding tank for the aquariums of the world There were thousands of trigger fish, Sargent majors, barber fish, creole fish and on and on. Cortez angels, king angels, it was incredible.

Our usual itinerary is San Pedro Martir. The visibility had been so bad the prior week that we decided to go to Animas and Sal Si Puedes first. Animas “El Lavadero” we did twice. We found two giant jaw fish that were very comfortable with us. They are as curious about us as we are about them. Rey is convinced that in a few more weeks they will out of there holes to welcome us. That’s how comfortable they are with our presence there. After burning half a tank marveling at the jaw fish we continued our dive and quickly found a sea horse. It was at least nine inches long. Great dive guys!!!

Since the visibility was considerably better everywhere else, we decided to chance it and make the trip to San Pedro Martir. Good call Lolo! The visibility was much better. The week prior it was no more than 6 feet visibility. This week we had at least 60 feet. It was great. The second day at San Pedro Martir our dive sites were El Coromel and Xareni’s Pinnacle. Each dive started with “ I’m a flag on a flagpole” conditions but after being tucked into a cove for fifteen minutes the current came to a complete standstill and we were able to have an awesome dives.

We are were all smiling when we left San Pedro Martir . The plan was to start heading north towards the Baja to Bahia Del Los Angeles for our whale shark adventure. We saw dolphins at a distance and began heading in that direction. They were in the hundred. Everywhere we looked they were swimming with the wake or jumping. It was mind boggling. Further north we saw the spouts of the sperm whales. Off we went to see sperm whales. There were many and they were not bothered by our presence so we decided to get in the water and try to snorkel with them. We split the group in two and off we went. Rey is our fearless sperm whale leader. He took one group and I took the other. In previous times, when we first began to swim with the sperm whales, they were very precautious with us. I’m sure that they are genetically programed to fear people after hundreds of years of being hunted.

Sperm whales are residence of the Sea of Cortez near San Pedro Matir. We are convinced that the sperm whales we see weekly are the same ones. Therefore, we believe they are becoming a custom to our frequent visits.

Rey’s group was able to stay with them longer. On several occasions Rey, Fermin, Max, Mike and Ron were able to swim for at least three minutes beside them before they went under. You have to be pretty fast. They are. Jonathan was able to get the best picture. He swam alongside a baby sperm whale that made a 90 degree turn towards him. He had the fish eye lens and we think the sperm whale saw its own reflection in the lens and got so close he practically fogged it. His picture we will post as soon as he gets it to me. It’s incredible.

Thursday nights we have “carne asada” night. So, the crew had gotten ready while we were on our twilight dive. Charro beans, guacamole, salsas and quesadillas adorn the buffet table while Pedro is manning the grill in preparation of grilling the beef, when a wind breaks out from nowhere. It’s so strong that quesadillas start flying through the air like Frisbees. All the girls are wearing dresses and I turn to look at Brooke and she has her dress wrapped around her head. We all gain composure and save the guacamole, salsas and beans. The quesadillas will be enjoyed by the fish. We put out the fire and secure “most everything” (we lost a lawn chair) and run down to the galley. We cook our meat in the oven instead and the “fiesta” continues. Maxine is amazed at the stability of the boat.

Friday morning is whale shark day! Marcos is our provider of service in Bahia de Los Angeles. He shows up in his power panga, and off he goes with his first six whale shark snorkelers while the rest of us set off for our first dive of the day. They are out for a couple of hours. When they get back we are wrapping up breakfast and they have stars in their eyes. Rich is even a little emotional about his whale shark experience. They saw several whale sharks, but one in particular stayed with them the entire time. He let them swim alongside and seemed to enjoy himself as much as the snorkeler’s. Our group went next. We were able to swim with at least seven whale sharks on several different submersions, but they made us work a lot harder than the previous group. We get back to the “Rocio del Mar. We are laughing and carrying on, making fun of each other’s “graceful and quite entrance”. We will keep Jeanie’s entrance in the vault. “What happens on the Rocio stays on the Rocio”.

On behalf of me and the crew, we give you a huge heartfelt thank you for making this the most wonderful job in the world.

Until our next reunion, adios y hasta pronto,

Your crew, Lolo, Dora, Rey, Bob, Everardo, Julio, Tito, Aurelio and Pedro

August 20-27, 2011

2011-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Easy cruise this week from Puerto Penasco to Angel de la Guardia and we had clear visibility at Angel Rock for our checkout and weighting dives. Water was warm in the low 80’s and plenty of rays, nudibranchs, morays, and our Cortez damsel fish as well as an abundance of King Angels.

Lolo’s Cove was as fun as ever with plenty of guitar fish, lots of scorpion fish, and morays. Our dive at La Vela enabled us to see turtles and pulpos although the visibility wasn’t as nice as we would have liked.

Our first dives off Sal si Puedes at Andrea’s Pinnacle gave us better visibility and an opportunity to see giant jaw fish, blue-spotted jaw fish, turtles, octopi, and wonderfully blooming black coral with yellow polyps. The Argentines were impressed by our forests of black coral and also curious as why we call a forest of yellow, black. Seems if the coral is brought to the surface it turns black—hence the name black coral. We did our first night dives at the same site and it was great fun for all with the cloudless sky above and clear views of the Milky Way as we surfaced at the end of the dive. Our Argentine guests ensured we were not without music during our trip and we shared music and song through the ship’s speakers throughout the evening…and every night on the trip afterwards.

We dove San Pedro Martir but the visibility was poor so we cut our time their short and went in search of sperm whales on our way to Las Animas. And…we sure found them! We had our best interaction yet and we found a pod of six that seemed tolerant of our presence so we loaded up the pangas and went out for a snorkel with them. We were greeted by hundreds of dolphins on our way out to meet up with the whales. There were dolphins from horizon to horizon…they may have numbered in the thousands! They got in front of and behind the pangas and catapulted into the air---sometimes as much as 2-3 meters out of the water. An amazing display.

The sperm whale snorkel gave us an opportunity to video a mother and calf…we’ll have it on our web site. Wonderful! What a day but it was topped off by a delightfully orange and rose colored sunset that captivated all of us as we continued to watch the dolphins frolic. Our Mexican and Argentine guests thoroughly enjoyed the diving. And we learned about the difference between the Mexican pelicans and huey-huey birds of Argentina.

We’re sure our guests will remember this trip for the rest of their lives as we snorkeled with 6 whale sharks on Friday. All had fun and the crew enjoyed the great cheer brought onboard by our guests. Parting is sad for all but we hope you will return to dive with us again either in the Sea of Cortez or at the Socorro Islands. Until the next time. Farewell from the Rocio Del Mar.

August 13 - 20, 2011

2011-08-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome aboard the Rocio del Mar! This week we had Sid's group, which included: Charlie, Lew, and Rich from Phoenix, and Rommell and Osmar from Brazil. Additionally, Bill and Ruth came back for a second trip from Tucson. Also joining us were Rob, Naomi, Jim and Mary from Illinois, Dave from Missouri, and last but not least Kelly and Nancy from Denver.

The old saying "I laughed till I cried" was how I describe Kelly and Nancy. Funny, funny ladies. This week was a blast!

When we left Puerto Peñasco we had the most beautiful full moon. It was spectacular. We woke in Refugio Bay at Angel Island the next morning. The visibility was a vast improvement from the week before and the check out dive was great. We saw turtles, guitarfish, and a giant jaw fish. It seems like jaw fish are everywhere this season.

Because of the full moon, we had strong currents, which made for great drift diving. The current also brought in cooler water. Temperatures ranged from a warm 86 to a chilly 72. There were lots of thermoclines. Osmar wore nothing but swimming shorts and Dave was wearing a dry suit. It's so funny watching the video because there is no way of guessing water temperature by looking at these two. The rest of us are somewhere in between.

On the surface we saw pods of dolphins whose numbers had to be in the hundreds. On our way from San Pedro Martir to Animas, we ran into a large pod of pilot whales. The pilot whales looked like they were feeding and were all scattered about. Lolo was circling them at a distance with the big boat. All of the sudden, a larger pilot whale slapped his tail against the water hard twice. After that, the rest of the whales gathered and started to ride the wake of the boat. I had no idea what that was about, but it was very interesting to see. If anyone is familiar with pilot whale behavior, please share.

We also had the opportunity to get in the water with the sperm whales. The only person who was able to get video was Rommell.

Sea lion pups are getting bigger and we are getting much more participation from the moms. The bulls still keep a watchful eye just in case we get to rowdy.

We found several huge sea horses. At "El Lavadero", we found two together. They were about 10" big. One of the sea horses swam across from one sea fan to another. That was really neat to witness.

On Thursday we caught the tail end of a storm and tucked in a calm cove where we had a very exciting exploration dive. We were going to vote on a name for the dive site. At the end, everyone had different ideas and I don't think we agreed
on anything. If you guys remember the ideas we came up with, please post.

It was an incredible week with great memories and great new friends.

We miss you and hope to see you back soon.

The crew of Rocio Del Mar
Lolo, Dora, Rey, Ivan, Bob, Aurelio, Pedro, Tito, Jorge and Everardo

August 6 - 13, 2011

2011-08-17T19:06:00.001-07:00

It is Hard to believe that we are half way thru our season. And we have met so many wonderful people. This week we welcomed our friends from Gateway Dolphin Tours, Abyss Scuba and Travel, Dive Discovery and Linda de la Ysla. We all had a great time and enjoyed each other’s company, we specially enjoyed singing “What a beautiful morning , what a beautiful day”;) !!

Although visibility was not the best we were able to see lots of sea horses, manta rays, cortez angel fish and many more. We saw sperm whales, unfortunately they did not stick around long enough for us to snorkel with them, we will do it on our next trip!. One of the best times on our trip was the hours we spent diving with the playful sea lions. I do have to say that although getting out of Puerto Peñasco the sea was a bit rough, at the end of the trip on our way back the ride was a lot smoother.

Thanks again to all of our friends this week, we hope to see you soon!!!!

The Crew of Rocio del Mar.

Lolo, Dora, Rey, Bob, Ivan, Pedro, Aurelio, Julio, Tito and Everardo

July 30 - Aug 6 2011

2011-08-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

It was very hard to see them go! We had such a fun week. Our guest were Frogman Dive Center from Venezuela, Kathy from Colorado, Marli from Canada
and Marty from San Diego.
We started Saturday evening with calm seas and cold beer. Everybody had a lot to say and they all said it at the same time. Humor was the theme of
our week. It was a lot of fun to say the least.
Highlights were, sperm whales, risso dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins by the hundreds and whale sharks. That was just above water.
Below the water was equally busy.
The water was warmer this week. Some places as warm as 86 degrees. Except El Lavadero at Animas we reached 73 degrees. burrrr. Water had
lots of nutrients in some places which made it appear as if we were diving in a snow storm. It was really cool. I'm sure that's why we had so many mammal
encounters. Several of our guests were meeting whale sharks for the very first time. We were able to swim with at least four.
We are looking forward to seeing them all again soon at the Socorro Islands.
For the moment, farewell and best wishes.
the crew of Rocio Del Mar,

Lolo, Dora, Rey, Bob, Ivan, Pedro, Aurelio, Julio, Tito and Everardo

Trip July 16-23, 2011

2011-07-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy to share the highlights of this week's trip.

We had a blast with the Dive Mexico Scuba Club with Julio as their fearless leader. Joining this group as well were Peter and Kristin from Washington D.C.
Everyone was coming on the Rocio Del Mar for the first time.

We would also like to welcome Rey Castillo aboard the Rocio Del Mar as a new member of our Rocio Del Mar family. Rey comes to us with 13 years of liveaboard experience under his belt-- all of those years at the Socorro Islands and the Sea of Cortez.

O.K., about the trip. We began diving in San Pedro Martir. The water temperature was 83-86. We had flat seas and very little wind. We saw lots of baby sea lions.

The group we had on board last week were biologists with National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP). They were monitoring and taking a
census on the sea lions. They counted over 120 babies. Hold on to your fins, this means that on the trips to come we will be bombarded by juveniles that are all waiting to play and
entertain us.

We spent two days of beautiful dives at San Pedro Martir visiting incredible walls of black coral and a huge variety of sea life.

On our way to the next island "Sal si puedes" , we ran across a large pod of sperm whales. With some encouragement from Rey, we all took our fins, masks
and snorkels and did our best attempt to snorkel with the sperm whales. They were a bit shy so we settled on playing with the dolphins that had gathered.

Sal si puedes was great. We did a night dive that was unforgettable. We saw lots of lobster, octopus, hermit crabs with a bunch of anemone's. Rey found a sea
horse that was at least 9 inches tall.

The next morning we ran towards baja and within an hour we were surrounded by sperm whales once again. We all got back in the water with them and this
time with great success. Most of us never imagined that snorkeling with these incredible, huge mammals was a privilege we would ever experience. Was the
boat ever rowdy after that. We all had to give our input and tell our piece of the great adventure we had just had.

We went diving for the rest of the afternoon, had another fabulous night dive and in the morning it was time for whale sharks. On our way to the cove where the
whale sharks predictably go, we came across a pod of no less that 1000 dolphins, pelicans, and sea gulls. They were on a feeding frenzy. Captian Lolo made a
u-turn and we followed them for at least an hour. They were jumping in all different directions. Another life time memory.

We arrived at Animas outside of Bahia De Los Angeles in pursuit of whale sharks. We loaded the zodiacs giving everyone instructions on the park rules and the manner in which we handle
ourselves when snorkeling. Immediately we found one. Then we found at least 6 to 10 more, in groups of two or three. We divided into groups of no more than 5 and snorkeled
with the whale sharks until our hearts were content.

Our final days were at Angel Island. We found better visibility and lots of cool things to see. The sea was a bit rough at the beginning of our haul home but by
midnight the seas were calmer.

The crew at Rocio Del Mar had a wonderful week and bid our enthusiastic group farewell. We hope to see everyone back on board really soon.

Best regards,

Captain Lolo, Dora, Rey, Ivan, Pedro, Aurelio, Jorge, Julio, Everardo, and Tito