Latest News & Updates

A Diver's Paradise Awaits

The Nautilus Explorer embarks on a series of captivating journeys that span across some of the most coveted dive destinations in the world. From the serene waters of the Sea of Cortez to the enchanting Cabo Pulmo Marine Park and the adrenaline-pumping encounters at Guadalupe Island and the Socorro Islands, this liveaboard experience offers divers a chance to explore a diverse range of underwater ecosystems.

Unveiling the Underwater World

One of the most exciting aspects of liveaboard diving is the wide variety of underwater experiences it offers. The Nautilus Explorer specializes in encounters with some of the ocean's most iconic and elusive creatures. Here's a glimpse of what you can expect:

• Great White Sharks: Guadalupe Island is renowned for its thrilling great white shark encounters. These majestic apex predators patrol the waters, offering divers a front-row seat to observe their grace and power. Cage diving at Guadalupe provides a unique opportunity to come face to face with these magnificent creatures.
• Hammerheads and Whale Sharks: The Socorro Islands are a hotspot for hammerhead sharks and the gentle giants of the ocean, whale sharks. Dive into the deep blue and witness the mesmerizing ballet of hammerheads or swim alongside the world's largest fish, the awe-inspiring whale shark.
• Manta Rays and Silky Sharks: Cabo Pulmo Marine Park is a sanctuary for manta rays and silky sharks. Glide alongside these graceful creatures as they navigate the vibrant coral reefs of the park. Encounter silky sharks and other marine species that call this underwater haven home.
• Bait Balls and Giant Mantas: Experience the excitement of bait ball events, where massive schools of fish gather, attracting predators from all directions. Dive into the heart of the action and witness the chaos and beauty of this natural phenomenon. The Nautilus Explorer is also known for encounters with giant mantas, which often grace divers with their majestic presence.
• Sea Lions and Dolphins: Throughout your journey, you'll have the opportunity to interact with playful sea lions and inquisitive dolphins. These intelligent and social marine mammals provide unforgettable moments as they engage with divers in their natural habitat.
• Cabo Pulmo UNESCO Site: Explore the wonders of Cabo Pulmo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site teeming with over 6,000 marine species. Dive into vibrant coral reefs and witness the remarkable diversity of marine life in this ecological treasure trove.

Preparing for Your Dive Adventure

Before embarking on your liveaboard voyage with the Nautilus Explorer, it's essential to pack wisely. Here's a checklistto ensure you're well-prepared for an unforgettable diving experience:

• Diving Gear: Pack your essential dive gear, including a mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit, and BCD. Don't forget your dive computer and underwater flashlight for night dives.
• Camera Gear: Capture the magic of the underwater world with your camera gear. Whether you're an amateur or professional photographer, bring your camera, underwater housing, lenses, and strobes to document your encounters.
• Swimwear and Rash Guards: Comfortable swimwear and rash guards are ideal for surface intervals and water activities.
• Sun Protection: Protect yourself from the sun's rays with sunscreen, sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat. Lip balm with SPF will keep your lips safe from the sun.
• Clothing: Opt for lightweight, breathable clothing for warm days on deck. A windbreaker or light jacket may be needed for cooler evenings.
• Toiletries and Medications: Bring personal toiletries, prescription medications, and seasickness remedies for a comfortable journey.
• Travel Documents: Safeguard your passport, travel insurance, dive certifications, and any required permits in a waterproof pouch.
• Power Adapters: If you plan to recharge your camera and devices, bring the necessary power adapters and chargers.

As you prepare for your liveaboard adventure with the Nautilus Explorer, ensure your packing list is complete. Capture the wonders of the underwater world with your camera gear, and get ready for thrilling encounters with a diverse array of marine life.

Dive into Extraordinary Moments

A liveaboard journey with the Nautilus Explorer is an invitation to dive into a world of extraordinary moments beneath the surface. Whether you're seeking heart-pounding encounters with great white sharks or tranquil moments with manta rays, this dive adventure promises to leave you with cherished memories and a profound appreciation for the beauty and mystery of the ocean.

For more information and to book your liveaboard experience, visit the Nautilus Explorer website. Get ready to embark on a voyage where each dive is a testament to the wonders of the deep, and every moment is an adventure waiting to be discovered.

2. More dives each day

If you love scuba diving as much as we do, then you will want to make the most of being in the water. With 3-4 dives a day you’ll have plenty of time to explore the beauties of the underwater world. Your itinerary could look something like this: a refreshing, early morning dive to start your day, a mid-morning channel dive to build your appetite for lunch, an exciting wreck dive in the afternoon, and an adrenaline-fuelled night dive with nurse sharks to finish off the day. What diver doesn’t love having more dives, more locations, and more experiences all in one day?

3. Pristine dive sites

The more accessible a dive spot is, the more divers you’ll usually find on the reef. Too many divers on one site can result in poor visibility and damaged reef systems. These things can impact the enjoyment of your diving experience. Nobody wants to go on a dive vacation just to see few fish and poor visibility. Many of the dive destinations our dive buddies experience are only accessible by liveaboard boats. The result is that the dive sites are pristine with an abundance of undisturbed marine critters to share your dive. With multiple dives a day there is plenty for you to explore. We offer trips around the world including the Red Sea, the Maldives, the Galapagos, the Socorro Islands, Sea of Cortez, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Truk Lagoon, and Palau to name a few.

4. Hassle-Free Diving

From the joy that comes once you have made that giant stride and submerged yourself in the water, most divers will agree that diving’s downsides take place above the water. Thankfully, liveaboards save you from these challenges. On most boats, the crew will help you get out of the water and will also help remove your fins and BCD. The crews make sure you don’t have to lift finger before or after your dive. And You will wake up on top of your next dive site. Plus, being on a liveaboard boat takes away the hassle of getting between site locations. You can relax in plush surroundings, while the captain navigates to your next inspirational dive site.

5. Comfortable and flexible surroundings

On a liveaboard, the crew will ensure you enjoy your fourth dive as much as your first. Wouldn’t it be better to spend time between dives relaxing? Wouldn’t you rather spend time talking to your buddy about the experience that you just shared? Liveaboards are designed to make your time out of the water as memorable as your time within it. Whether you are swimming with a whale shark or sitting on a spacious deck, sipping a beverage, and admiring the sunset, the whole experience is designed to be easy and comfortable. Can you think of anything better than falling asleep listening to the sounds of the sea while drifting off in a remote corner of the world? Waking up on top of your next dive site?

Socorro Island rises abruptly from the sea to 1,050 meters (3,440 feet) in elevation at its summit. The island is the emerged summit of a massive, predominately submarine shield volcano. The island is part of the northern Mathematicians Ridge, a mid-ocean ridge that became largely inactive 3.5 million years ago when activity moved to the East Pacific Rise. All four islands along with the many seamounts on the ridge are post-abandonment alkaline volcanoes. Socorro Island is unusual in that it is the only dominantly silicic peralkaline volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. It most recently erupted in late January-early February 1993, which was a submarine eruption off the coast from Punta Tosca. An earlier eruption was on May 21, 1951. Earlier eruptions probably occurred in 1905, 1896 and 1848. The island's surface is broken by furrows, small craters, and numerous ravines, and covered in lava domes, lava flows and cinder cones. 

There is a naval station, established in 1957, with a population of 250 staff and families living in a village with a church. The village stands on the western side of Bahia Vargas Lozano, a small cove with a rocky beach, about 800 meters east of Cabo Regla, the southernmost point of the island. The station is served by a dock, a local helipad and Isla Socorro airport, located six kilometers to the north. There is a freshwater spring about 5 km northwest of Cabo Regla, at the shoreline of Ensenada Grayson. This is brackish and sometimes covered by the sea at high tide. In the 1950s, a small freshwater seep was known to exist some 45 meters (49 yards) inland at Bahia Lucio Gallardo Pavon, about 800 meters NW of the naval station. 

The islands are located nearly 400 km (250 miles) from the Baja California peninsula. Due to the isolated location, the only way to visit Socorro is through liveaboard. Most visitors begin their trips by arriving at Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico. Then, divers travel 45 minutes to Cabo San Lucas where they take off on a liveaboard. It usually takes about a day for the liveaboard to arrive at the islands. 

The diving season lasts from November to May as that is when the often-rough waters are at their calmest. However, even the calmer waters have strong currents, making this trip best for advanced divers.

Although the Socorro’s waters are not filled with the colorful reefs many divers look out for, the marine life more than makes up for it. Manta rays, dolphins, hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks, are just a few of the common sights in these waters. Humpback whales can even be seen on their migration path through the months of January and February, and the dolphins are known for coming into close contact with divers, most commonly from January to March.  

When divers first arrive at the islands, they often begin their scuba adventure at El Fondeadero. This dive site is located in San Benedicto’s shallower waters where there are three pinnacles and sightings of lobster and eels. The famous sightings of humpback whales are east of Socorro island at the Cabo Pearce dive site. Abundant pelagic life can be seen at the isolated Roca Partida dive site. This site is over 80 miles from San Benedicto and has a pinnacle peaking up out of the water. This site is best suited for advanced divers and has over 100 feet of visibility. 

When planning your next dive trip, make sure the Socorro Islands are at the top of your list. The close encounters with dolphins, sharks, and manta rays at this location are unmatched, and the humpback whale sightings are one of a kind. 

The Galapagos Islands are scattered across the equator and have warm weather year-round. While diving in the Pacific waters surrounding the islands is great all year, December to May is the warmest season with the calmest waters and highest visibility. Divers during this season most often see hammerhead sharks and manta rays. July to November is ideal for more advanced divers hoping for more intense, choppier waters. Although the ocean is generally a bit colder during this season, it is known for nutrient-rich water that attracts all kinds of sea life, specifically whale sharks. Diving in the Galapagos is done on liveaboards from tenders or Zodiacs, and guests are able to have a unique experience living out on the open waters. 

2) Socorro Island - Mexico

Socorro Island is the largest island in the Revillagigedo Archipelago and is famous for its vibrant wildlife, both on and off the shore. The volcanic island does not have an airport, making it a popular spot for liveaboards. The diving season lasts from November to May as that is when the water is at its calmest. Throughout this season, divers often get to see hammerhead sharks, manta rays, whale sharks, and humpback whales. From January to March, there are even frequent sightings of bottlenose dolphins. In addition to these, sightings of silky sharks, Galapagos sharks, whitetip reef sharks, and silvertip sharks are possible as well. Getting to the Socorros requires an open ocean crossing about 22 hours from Cabo San Lucas, Baja California.

3) Raja Ampat - Indonesia

Located off the coast of Bird’s Head Peninsula in West Papua, Raja Ampat is an Indonesian archipelago that is known for its extensive biodiversity. The islands form part of the Coral Triangle — an area known as a home to 76% of known coral species. In Raja Ampat’s waters, there is countless marine life and stunning coral reefs to see. The most popular sights include manta rays, reef sharks, walking sharks, turtles, nudibranchs, and so much more. Diving in Raja Ampat is ideal from October to April as it has the driest weather with calm seas that make for smooth liveaboard sailing. The clear waters consistently have a visibility of 80-100 ft all year long, which is perfect for spotting even the smallest of critters. 

4) Tubbataha Reef - Philippines

Tubbataha Reef is a protected marine park in the Philippines’ Sula Sea. It is known for being a nesting ground for green sea turtles and is made up of a northern atoll, southern atoll, and the Jessie Beazley Reef.  Visitors can only explore the clear waters from a liveaboard as it is located over 10 hours away from land. The diving season takes place from mid-March to mid-June as that is when the water is at its calmest and clearest with a visibility of up to 114 feet. The reef is known for its vast biodiversity as it is reported to have over 1,200 species — 181 of which are threatened.

Chuuk Lagoon is a mountainous island that was once a former Japanese naval base during the second world war. The island’s history has been kept alive in its own waters with its array of sunken treasure, submerged ships teeming with marine life, and even human remains. Divers in the Lagoon’s Pacific waters get to explore part of this history, and often even find artifacts such as ammunition or guns. The wrecks vary in their depth, making them accessible for just about any level of diver. The temperature is consistently warm year-round; however, December to April is ideal due to the lack of rainfall and wind during this season. 

In spite of their massive size, mantas eat plankton, the itty bitty animals we hardly even notice in the water. They use cephalic fins, paddle-like appendages on both sides of their mouth, to funnel in water (and food). Often when they do this they swim in giant loops through the water column, like beautiful acrobatic dancers dressed in black and white. 

With mostly black back, the undersides of mantas are a pattern of black and white unique and individual to each animal like a fingerprint. There are two types of mantas, black mantas which are mostly black with only a little white on their bellies and chevron mantas which have two white marks on their top side and much more white on their bellies. Images of the manta’s ventral sides have been used to identify and track mantas.

While mantas live in many of our favorite diving locations, including tropical to subtropical waters, we usually only see them if we get really lucky. But around the Revillagigedo Archipelago (known as the Socorro Islands) offshore of Baja, Mexico, divers are almost guaranteed manta sightings, and not just fleeting fly-bys. Known as the world’s friendliest mantas, those residing around Socorro seem to willingly interact with divers, spending entire dives just swimming from diver to diver, making eye contact, and checking the humans out.

The area also has cleaning stations where the mantas get a bit of a spa treatment. Clarion angelfish, cleaner wrasse, and other fish come in to clean the parasites and dead skin off the mantas. This symbiotic relationship helps both parties: the manta gets a good bath and the fish get dinner. For some reason these mantas also seem to enjoy the bubbles divers give off, perhaps it feels like a massage or tickles a bit? The mantas seem to swim right into the bubbles overtop a diver.

Tips for Photographing Mantas

·       Just Breath – The mantas seem to like the massage-like feeling of diver’s exhaled bubbles and they will come around and swim right over top of divers. I almost felt like some manta even seem to take turns with us, visiting each of us, so we all got to see them (maybe they were seeing whose bubbles were best.) So just by exhaling, you can get up-close and personal to take images of these beautiful animals.

·       Don’t Chase – Like any animals, if something seems to be chasing them, they run (or swim) away. Just stay in one spot and wait for the mantas to come to you. Sometimes strong swimming divers can even chase a manta off and it won’t come back for the rest of the dive.

·       Go Fisheye – The mantas are big and they get close. Use your widest, wide-angle lens. Nothing is worse than cutting off a wingtip in an image because the manta was too big and too close to you! For compact camera users, invest in a wet-mount wide-angle lens.

·       Get Settings Ready – The mantas will usually make a similar pattern over divers again and again. Do a few test shots if you can and have your settings and strobes ready to catch the moment you want. And if you missed it, set it up again and usually you just have to wait a little bit before the manta comes back and swims over again.

·       Shoot in Different Directions – I like to stay at the edge of the dive group so that I can shoot into the crowd and get images with divers and then also turn a bit and get shots with the mantas but without divers in the shot. It’s nice to have a variety.

·       Look behind you – Often the mantas are coming into the cleaning station area from the blue and you won’t see them until they’ve passed over you. Always keep an eye out all around.

·       Get Creative – Diving with the Socorro mantas is a rare opportunity where you can expect to have a lot of time and chances to take photos of your subject. Once you have a ton of shots making images in the style you usually do, try something different. Play with your camera settings, adjust your strobe positioning (even turn them off and take some ambient light photos) and strength, take some video. You may not like all the images that come out, but you may get some amazing shots!

Diving Socorro is not just about mantas either! Divers are likely to see sharks of many species including piles of white tips, hammerheads, silvertips, Galapagos, and while it’s not actually a shark, some lucky visitors may see a whale shark or two. Almost as friendly as the mantas are the dolphins and the islands themselves make for great images too! Socorro should be on every manta-lover and diver’s bucket list. It will not disappoint!

Four uninhabited volcanic islands make up the Revillagigedos: Socorro, Clarion, San Benedicto, and Roca Partida. They raise up from sea level from 100 to 3,800 feet out of the water from the seafloor, creating exceptional walls, pinnacles and sheer drop-offs that act as cleaning and feeding stations for oceanic mantas and half a dozen shark species, including mass aggregations of scalloped hammerheads.

Revillagigedos is an oasis in the middle of the eastern Pacific. The four islands sit at the convergence of the cool California Current flowing from the north and the warmer North Equatorial Current, creating an ideal spot for nutrients to rise from the deep and attract passing pelagics. This makes Revilla a hotspot for manta rays, humpback whales, whale sharks, dolphins, hammerheads, Galapagos sharks—nearly every variety of hungry traveler.

The Revillagigedos are part of a unique chain with amazing undersea volcanic mounds. Because of the remote nature, there’s just not a lot of pressure on the sites.

Cabo Pierce, the Aquarium, and El Canyon dive sites offer the chance to see just about any big animals you can imagine—humpback whales, pacific bottlenose dolphins, whale sharks, the list goes on.

Because these are important waterways for endangered megafauna, the islands were deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016, and a year later were established as the Revillagigedo National Park. Even though they’re remote, they’re patrolled by the local government to prevent illegal fishing.

Because the archipelago is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, certain protective measures are in place. Night diving, solo diving, and diving in the blue are not offered for safety reasons. Also, reef hooks, knives, dive lights not connected to cameras, and gloves are not permitted. In order to manage the number of divers on each site, liveaboards coordinate the timing of their dives. Because of this, if there are several boats at a site, they may limit the number of dives per day to three. The park has a set limit on the number of liveaboards that can visit, but flexibility is key in these parts.