Details of the Nautilus Explorer's Itineraries, Specifications and Services
Socorro Island, Guadalupe Island, Clipperton Island plus Alaska and British Columbia

For available spaces see our Availability page

Socorro Island  Late November to April This destination is nearly always sold out thanks to its truly magical opportunities to dive with the Giant Mantas who, for unknown reasons, simply can’t wait to initiate interaction with scuba divers! It’s a highly charged emotional experience for the diver.   But Mantas aren’t the only attraction. You’ll find delightfully playful dolphins, too. And, the shark diving is very good, with silky, Galapagos, silver tip, hammerhead and white tip reef sharks commonly seen, not to mention tiger sharks on occasion and whale sharks in season. You’ll see numerous Humpback whales and will often hear them singing! To top it all off, you get reef fish, jacks, barracuda, tuna, octopus, turtles and scorpion fish. And above water, the bird life is fabulous. Do note that these are largely migratory animals and don’t appear on cue at the dive sites!  So, you may find some dives without a lot of action while others will leave your head spinning. It’s part of the adventure. Water temperatures range from the low '80s in November to mid '70s in February then climb again in April. Guadalupe Island – Cage diving with the Great Whites ! August to October It’s a long crossing to the island, but the crew of the Nautilus Explorer will keep you well entertained with special presentations to inform you about the animals and habit you are about to see.  This vessel was custom built for these Pacific waters and her stabilizers make the crossing refreshingly comfortable.  Your encounters with the magnificent Great White Sharks will be in submersible cages or surface cages. The surface cages are accessible virtually all day, every day you are at the island and your exposure to the sharks in surface cage is almost unlimited.  Most divers get 3 - 5 submersible dives in one trips. To experience these awe-inspiring animals in their world is indescribable. You may want to whet your appetite by checking out some great YouTube video! Sample Itinerary DAY 1     Evening departure and overnight run to Guadalupe Island.  DAY 2     At sea. Presentation on Guadalupe grea white sharks.               Arrival at the sheltered anchorage at Guadalupe Island just before dinner time.  DAY 3     Surface cages open for diving at 0630.               Shore trips every day to check out elephant seals, Guadalupe fur seals, California sea lions.  DAY 4     Surface cages open for diving from 6:30 am until sunset DAY 5     The diving ends at 5pm today & it’s time to steam back to Ensenada. DAY 6     Morning slideshow of the trip's highlights with copies for everyone to take home.              Arrival at Ensenada at approximately 1:30pm San Benitos Island – Kelp Diving & More San Benitos is included in combination trips, sometimes combined with cage diving with the Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island and sometimes with some of the best west coast diving to be had in the California Channel Islands, it is a perfect addition, bringing variety with its unique kelp forest diving and untouched wildness. Divers commonly see an interesting mix of temperate fish as well as panamic sub-tropicals and silky and white tip reef sharks, wahoo and some tuna. Also seen - horn shark, guitar ray, bat ray and, of course, the orange Garibaldi. Lobsters and abalone are abundant. Diving in the dense kelp with such good visibility reminds you of getting into a really dense jungle in Central America combined with flying like you experience in a dream. Swimming under the roof of the kelp, looking out at blue water while playing with the Guadalupe fur seals and sea lions is a very special diving experience. The seals and sea lions allow you to get really close to them and they are delightfully curious. And there are many places still to discover on these islands.  Pinnacles have been seen on the sonar and along with more kelp forests they are waiting to be explored.

Alaska May, June, Jul, August and early September There are 3 itineraries for the Alaska diving packages on Nautilus Swell.      10 to 12 night trips from either Juneau or Sitka down to the Queen Charlotte Islands and back.      10 night voyages from Vancouver to Alaska via the sheltered Inside Passage          - including Browning and Hakai Passes and the wreck of the Transpac      10 night runs from Alaska to Vancouver          - including a 100 mile ocean crossing to the beautiful, remote and mystical Queen Charlotte Islands The longer trips involve more time underway with a number of overnight runs. This is beautiful cold-water diving with lots of wolf eels, giant pacific octopus and amazing invertebrate life. But the overwhelming plus to this itinerary is the Alaska scenery in combination with an astounding numbers of humpback whales and bald eagles, salmon jumping everywhere, wonderful kayaking opportunities, spectacular calving glaciers and icebergs, natural hot springs and close encounters with grizzly bears. With all of this, you will still average 2 dives per day enjoying a plethora of anemones, sponges, tunicates and soft corals in addition to the octopus, wolf eels and sea lions. It’s challenging diving, but the excellent crews and equipment will ensure your safety and your enjoyment. Still, you want to be an experienced diver for this and physically fit for the adventure. It’s a top-notch trip for photographers and the boat has everything you require including big camera tables, rinse buckets, a PC, mini Mac, card reader and CD burner, large plasma TV as well as an enthusiastic camera savvy crew. Nitrox, trimix and rebreather divers are easily accommodated.

British Columbia March, April, September, October Here, in British Columbia, as in Alaska, you find a rich mass of invertebrate life in sheltered waters.  The octopus and wolf eel encounters are legendary. Also, like Alaska, the scenery topside is spectacular and the underwater scenery in the wall and drift diving is nothing short of breathtaking.  It’s a dynamite destination for photographers. You will, of course, dive in a drysuit with hood and gloves and there are plenty on board available for rental. Water temps average 49 to 52 degrees during the summer.   Trips include 7 day / 6 night departures from Vancouver to Port Hardy and 10 day voyages circumnavigating Vancouver Island.   Clipperton Island Clipperton Atoll and Socorro Island combo trips – 15 nights of true adventure Discovered by Magellan, owned by France and named for an English pirate, this tropical coral atoll is one of the most isolated places that exist on the planet and it has a colorful history to match.   You might want visit Wikipedia for the full story (click here). But before all the political intrigue on the island,  there existed a true tropical paradise, home to 35 species of algae alone. It has more boobies than anyone has been able to count and a lizard found nowhere else on earth. Plus, there are an estimated 5 MILLION land crabs.  Under the waterline, you’ll find sharks galore - silky, silvertip, galapagos, tiger and white trip reef sharks - plus dolphins, tuna, wahoo and tropical fish.    The Nautilus Explorer offers the very rare opportunity to combine the adventure of voyaging to a remote coral atoll with diving the amazing, gentle and friendly giant pacific mantas and dolphins of Socorro Island. No other operator has ever offered dive trips to Clipperton Island.   In fact, the Nautilus Explorer offers the only diving expeditions to have ever visited this place other than Jacques Cousteau, Scripps, the Smithsonian Institute, National Geographic and a French scientific party. The atoll and lagoon are surrounded by a shallow barrier reef with a beautiful coral reef that descends down to a white sand bottom at 175 feet. The amount of fish life is excellent and varied and ranges from the endemic, rare and beautiful Clipperton Angel fish (we brought specimens back to the Long Beach Aquarium and Scripps Institute on our first expedition) to big schools of jacks and other panamic fish, lots of nudibranchs and macro life and more free-swimming green moray eels than you can imagine. Shark sightings on our first trip were not so great with a total of 22 assorted hammerhead, silky and tiger sharks as well as 1 giant manta and 1 whale shark spotted in 5 days of diving on our first expedition. However we will be trying a different dive plan on our next trip and are hopeful of seeing more sharks.. The 2 mile long atoll itself is absolutely loaded with life including 5 MILLION land crabs, 500,000 boobies (more than anywhere else in the world), coconut trees, canadian geese (no idea what these guys were doing on a tropical island!!) and even the “skink”, which is a lizard duplicated nowhere else on earth.   Trips depart from Cabo San Lucas. It is a one day ocean crossing out to Socorro and then an additional 2 days of voyaging to Clipperton. Cabo San Lucas is easy to get to. Fly in on the major U.S. airlines from anywhere in North America or connecting from Europe. You will need to arrive in Cabo San Lucas the day before boarding the ship and we can recommend a local hotel.   These trips are not regularly scheduled trips, so if you are interested, contact us regarding schedules.

Back to Socorro & Guadalupe overview For available spaces see our Availability page Contact us for additional details or to book spaces.