Tasty Groove: March 2019

Hey everyone!

First a little housekeeping. I have been maintaining a blog email list for years and spamming everyone every time I post. You can now put your email address under the "follow by email" notice over there on the left and you will get an email every time I post instead. You have to go to the full web version to see it if you are viewing on a mobile device. I will continue to spam the list for the next couple of blogs but after that, I will assume if you want to see this, you will follow and if not, no hard feelings. Please do let me know if you try to follow and it doesn't work. Otherwise, you have been warned. And now, back to the blog....

I hope everyone is having a great end of winter/early spring out there. Stacy and I just got back from a 12 day trip to Mexico and are now recovering (me) and working (Stacy) on this beautiful Friday afternoon. We were on a liveaboard (you live aboard the boat and go diving at hard to access places) called the Nautilus Belle Amie for 8 of those days and I am still trying to get over my sea legs. It's especially bad in hallways. The floors seem to shift up/down/left/right as I walk along and I am ready for it to settle down. But we will get back to that in a bit. First: Cabo!

We flew down to Cabo on March 3 and stayed at Tesoro Los Cabos. It's a pretty good hotel right on the marina in downtown Cabo so while it was nicely located to be within walking distance of most everything, it was also situated in downtown party central. Little did we know we hit Cabo on the first week of college spring break. It really wasn't too bad because the kids (I have turned into an old man, dammit!) didn't get up until noonish and we went to bed around 9:30 or 10 and the room, while small, was nicely insulated from the dance music. Speaking of old man, I definitely do NOT remember girls wandering around all over town in their skimpy (g-string...t-back) bikinis. Being a fair minded, balanced guy I found nothing wrong with them doing so, of course, it was just a bit shocking the first time I turned around and saw a mostly bare ass on a street 5 blocks from the nearest beach.

We went out to Land's End on a kayaking/snorkeling excursion one of the days. Cabo is situated on the southern tip of Baja California and Land's End is the southernmost tip of THAT and is the last bit of land that separates the Sea of Cortez (the body of water between mainland Mexico and Baja) from the Pacific Ocean. The excursion had us kayaking around that area in choppy waters while trying to dodge the small boats full of tourists that were getting the same view from a powered boat. We then snorkeled in one area for about 45 minutes before heading back in. The snorkeling was okay, but I really think diving has sort of ruined snorkeling for me. I kept thinking "yeah, the view is okay up here, but I want to be down there!". Oh well.

Other than that one excursion, we mostly wandered around town checking out the endless stalls of souvenirs and trying out cheap taco stands for their tacos al pastor (marinated pork and pineapple...freaking delicious!). We also hit the 2 breweries in Cabo. While they were both pretty good, I can't remember the names of either (google is your friend). The one attached to the mall had more bar food while the other was more high end Mexican. Both had taster trays so I highly recommend!

The liveaboard departed Wednesday at 8PM(ish) and they had a hospitality suite right next to the Tesoro which is another reason we stayed there. While we had to check out at noon, we put our luggage in the hospitality suite and then got a pool pass for the Tesoro and just hung out on the sun deck (I was in the shade) drinking margaritas while waiting for the boat to load. More tacos from a hole in the wall might have been consumed too. Around 8 they gathered the 30 of us up, walked us over to the boat, got us to our assigned rooms and got underway. We had a quick "how not to fall overboard" briefing that night and then hit the hay. It would take us around 27 hours to get to Socorro Island.

Socorro is really 1 of 4 islands in the Revillagigedo Island chain. You go there to dive with large pelagics (mantas, sharks, dolphins, whale sharks if you are lucky...big things). We dove around 3 of the 4 islands with the 4th being too far away to get there and back in the time frame of our trip. It was like 12 hours away from the other islands so you would waste a full day to dive there. Instead we dove San Benedicto Island 3 of the 5 total dive days, Roca Partida one of the days and Socorro Island the remaining day. I linked to the google search about Socorro above, but it's about 220 miles south of Cabo and took us until about 11:30 the next night to get to San Benedicto Island. Luckily, the crossing there wasn't too bad but we were doing dramamine the whole trip just in case.

The boat was 147 feet long and accommodated 30 divers. Stacy and I had 1 of the 2 larger rooms so we weren't too crowded, but hearing some of the other divers, some of those rooms were tiny...with no storage...and a bathroom "door" that was a sliding door that wouldn't lock and come open at inappropriate times. Really, the boat was nice, but I am not sure it deserved the "luxury" title that came in the description. What was awesome, however, was the entire crew. So nice, so good, always on it and super helpful. They really made it a great experience.

30 divers....as is the case with all the liveaboards I have been on, Americans were in the minority. There were 10 or 11 Brits, 3 Germans, 8 or 9 Americans, 1 Israeli, 1 Swiss, a few from Singapore, 1 from Hong Kong and another from Argentina. I am pretty sure I am missing some but am equally sure you probably don't really care. We were divided into 4 diving groups so all 30 of us weren't jumping in at the same time. Instead, the groups were staggered to enter the water about every 10 minutes such that the first group should be winding up their dive shortly after the 4th group entered. We were doing pretty deep dives (80-90 feet pretty consistently) so 40-45 minutes was a typical dive length. The groups were sort of broken up by experience where there were "Dolphins" that were newer and needed more help and wanted more overwatch by the dive masters (each group dove with a DM/guide every dive and they rotated to a different group every day), "Mantas" who were experienced and independent but wanted a DM to point out interesting things and lead the dive, and "Sharks" who would dive with a DM, but could go off on their own and do what they wanted. Stacy and I (along with almost all the other divers) went with "Manta". Sure we are experienced divers, but this is new territory and it's always more enjoyable to have someone who has been there and done that show you what's available rather than wandering around on your own. Because the Belle Amie is 147 feet long, we didn't dive from her. Instead we got taken to/from the dive sites by one of the two zodiacs they had in the water. Once the first divers were in the water, one of the zodiacs would stay in the area, just in case, until the other one brought the next group out before going back for the next group. Another reason why there was ~10 minute gap between groups.

Our group had 6 of the Americans and a German couple in it. If you are not a crazy diver, you dive with a dive buddy. You pair up to make sure if shit goes wrong with your equipment/dive, there is someone there to help out and vice versa. So we had 4 sets of buddies...sort of. Before I start bashing on others, let me admit that Stacy and I might not be the best of people to dive with. I think we are but why wouldn't I? We try to be conscientious of others and keep spacial awareness during a dive and I like to think we are a good pair to dive with, but I could be deluding myself. It very well may be that the others we dove with grumbled about us as much as I grumbled about them. I doubt it because I can, but I am big enough to admit to the incredibly small possibility I could be wrong. Now that I have been humble, let the bashing begin!

The Germans, Claudia and Bernhard (I think I spelled that right...sorry Bernhard if I didn't in the highly unlikely event you are reading this) were very nice people. Bernhard had a very nice (read $$$-$$$$) camera he dove with and viewed most dives through. Claudia joked that Bernhard's dive buddy was his really his camera rather than her. One set of Americans were 2 older guys who Stacy said were friends (she IS the "outgoing, find out everything about someone" person of our team), one from SF and the other from Portland! It's best not to speak ill of others, I have heard, but what the hell, the SF dude often acted like a douchebag. In general, divers are pretty chill and live and let live, but he seemed like a know it all pain in the ass with a "me first" attitude that was irksome. And if that pair wasn't enough, the last 2 were a May/December (or maybe, more accurately, an August/December) couple where it at least appeared that Mr December was paying for everything and Ms August felt her shit didn't stink.

A whole paragraph for those mo-fos! When you do a dive, you get a dive briefing before you go into the water. It basically covers the terrain you will be diving over so you can sort of be oriented when underwater, the currents that you might encounter so you don't get swept away and other tidbits like "if you see the , don't swim at them because they are skittish of divers. Let them come to you so others can enjoy too!" Seriously. Everyone thinks "hammerhead sharks, scary!" but really, they are more skittish than you are and don't like divers and the bubbles we spout. Same with most sharks really. They are all happy to not have you right in their grill. Mantas too. Every damn dive: "don't chase the mantas they don't like it". Every damn dive Ms August would swim right at the animal we had just been told to play it smooth around and chase it around on the dive. Also every damn dive the 6 of us not named Ms August or Mr December would be ready to go sitting on the zodiac to be taken out to the dive site and we would be waiting on the other 2 to get their gear on and ready to go. Once or twice you can understand, but every damn dive. The order your group went in rotated every day, but didn't change during a day and they announced over ship-wide intercom that diving was going to start in 15 minutes so you you had plenty of time to get ready but Ms August's time was more important than everyone else's. As the final icing on the cake, she paid zero attention to her dive buddy, Mr December. Sure part of that was because she was chasing the animals but a lot of it was "don't give a shit". Mr December did blow through his air relatively fast but you are supposed to stick with your buddy and she didn't do that on a single dive. Grrrrrrr. Please, don't be a Ms August (except for those playmates that happen to be Ms August...this has nothing to do with you...congrats on being chosen, I am sure your family is proud!).

We got along well with most of the others. Got pretty tight with some, most of them from another group that ironically had 6 divers that got along and 2 that were the group's misfits. If we only we could have swapped! There was Sam and Angelina from Pollock Pines (close to my old El Dorado Hills stomping grounds), Alex and Jen, a younger afficanced couple from London, and Mike O. and Taylor from Essex which embarrassed Taylor because apparently Essex is the equivalent of the British "Jersey Shores" and Essex girls are easy (this from a laughing Mike). We also had fun getting to know Dee and Keith from Manchester. We sort of got to know the others on the boat, but not to as great an extent as those above. There was one couple (Vinnie and Stephanie) from Sardinia that owns a dive shop there. Sardinia has now been added to the list of places we want to dive and, if we do, it will be with their shop. Dive trips are sort of like that: you hear other people talk about the adventures they have had and add those destinations to your wish list. The nice thing is it sort of makes it a never ending list. The bad thing is going to some of these places is expen$ive!!! But I got some good suggestions for liveaboards for Maldives and Galapagos (both already on the list) so there is a good side to it all.

Our days consisted of: wake up, continental breakfast, dive #1, hot breakfast, dive #2, lunch, dive #3, snack, dive #4, cocktail hour, dinner, some presentation/hanging out, bed. Rinse repeat. The presentations were on manta identification and facts, shark ID, other dive trips the boat does (great white shark cage diving) among others. I am pretty sure the eat/dive/eat/dive/etc cycle caused me to add 5-10 pounds and I have been afraid to step on the scale, but you do burn calories while diving! It's hard to keep the plates/portions small too. Although speaking of, the food was really just okay. Nothing that I would want to eat not on a boat and apparently medium rare on steak night meant the same thing as rare, medium, and well done. Gray all the way through and sort of leathery. So sad.

Enough jibber jabber, what about the dives?!

We dove at Isla San Benedicto Friday morning around 7:30 for the first dive at a site called El Canyon that was sort of tongue shaped with the edges dropping off to "crazy deep". There were rocky points around the edge of the tongue where there were cleaning stations and places to hide from any current. That first dive we went to the edge of the tongue and saw about 5 hammerheads swimming around. To be fair, this is the one dive Ms August didn't mess it up for everyone else. The sharks circled us for most of the dive although they never really got super close. Still a really cool dive to start things off. The other 3 dives that day mostly had us seeing reef sharks and silver tipped sharks but no more hammerheads. We did go out "into the blue" where were left the safety of the up-crop of land to swim in the blue ocean and I can totally see the appeal of doing so because you could see hints of bigger fish out there if you just kept swimming. But that's how you get lost and swept away by current. We were following our DM doing this in a "controlled" manner. A couple of our group saw more hammerheads on that part, but I didn't see them. Luck of the draw.

The next day we were still at San Benedicto at a dive site called "The Boiler". This was a site of stepped pinnacles that rose up without breaking the surface. The highest one was about 15 feet deep before stepping down to around 40 feet then 80 feet then 200+. You could swim around the whole thing but there was current involved and we mostly stayed on the west side. Talk about another awesome dive! Giant Mantas!! 2 or 3 of them swimming around with us for most of the dive. Our DM for the day, Felipe, had us relatively shallow (60 feet) for most of the dive to conserve air because the longer you stay in in the morning, the more likely the dolphins will come in. And they did! A pod swam around us for a bit and I got a good video of a mom and kid dolphin swimming by. The next 3 dives were all full o' Mantas along with an occasional shark (Galapagos as well as reef). Really an awesome day of diving.

Mom and baby dolphin swimming past

We left San Benedicto that night to go to Roca Partida which is another pinnacle around 80 miles from the nearest island (took us all night to get there) that rose a bit above the water. Nothing else around there. They have shelves there where the reef sharks lounge about and even stack up on each other. It's pretty cool. Dive brief for the day: Don't approach the sharks too quickly or they will spook, so coast in slowly and you will get a good shot. Guess what Ms. August did. Yeah...they scattered. Luckily they settled down after about 5 minutes and she was busy freaking out another set of sharks. The second dive was pretty much the same as the first and was sort of boring (yeah, I know...would be an awesome dive anywhere else, but we wanted "awesome!".) We skipped the 3rd dive of the day mainly because there wasn't much expectation for anything different and we were right. The report was "same same". We did hit the 4th dive of the day there, though, because the afternoon/evening is when the tuna come out and maybe start hunting. Most of that last dive was more of the same (not a lot other than a ton of different fish and the reef sharks) but then about 2/3 of the way through the dive, 6-8 really huge tuna started swimming around the pinnacle. They were bad to the bone! 80-90 pound tuna zipping around in groups! Our DM for the day, Martin (hilarious dude...really one of the better DMs I have ever been diving with) said they were actually doing mating rituals with the males chasing the females. No spawning but still cool to see.

We cruised that night over to Socorro Island. Monday was only going to have 3 dives at a site called Cabo Pearce because there is a small navy base on that island (the only habitation of the entire chain and the only people allowed to be on any of the islands) and we had to do a naval inspection. Ironically, this was probably the worst diving of the trip even though Socorro Island is always where you tell people you are going to go. We did see some humpback whales from the boat (we saw them throughout the trip, really, flukes and what not from time to time) but the dive site had hella-current and other than "assorted fish" and some interesting puffer fish (a standing joke among the other group that had Sam, Angelina, Alex, Jen, Mike and Taylor) there wasn't much to see. Stacy and I did 2/3 dives there but skipped the last dive.

Our final day of diving was back at the boiler on San Benedicto and also the first site that had another boat at it. There are 6 or 8 boats that go out to dive Socorro but we had been lucky enough to not share any site with another boat till that last day. Dive etiquette is the first boat there gets the first dives so we dove a little later than normal to let them get theirs done without 30 other people there. The visibility in the water wasn't as good that day but we did see mantas on every dive and the first dive of the day had a large pod of dolphins some through too! That was super cool. The weather started getting worse (wind, large swells) so we only did 3 dives that day instead of 4 but it was still awesome. And to be fair, getting out and back on the boat after that 3rd dive was crazy. They bring the zodiac up to the back of the boat and drive the first 4 or 5 feet up onto the lower back deck area. Getting into the zodiac from the dive you hand up all your gear, fins, BCDs, weights, camera so getting off the zodiac is really just you going to the front and climbing off. The crew takes care of unloading all the gear. The back deck was moving from about a foot under water to 3 feet out of the water due to the swells so the getting the zodiac on the back and unloading was a bucking bronco rodeo type experience. Lots of timing involved with backing the zodiac off only to come up again when the situation favored it. Sucked that we didn't get to do the last dive, but there is no way we could have done so safely.

We left San Benedicto that night for the ~30-36 hour trip back. Not sure why it took so much longer to get back than it did to get out there but we left San Benedicto on Tuesday evening around 9ish and got back to Cabo around 6am Thursday. The 30+ hours between was a staggering around the boat, slam into the wave crazy ride. Thank goodness again for the dramamine. Even some of the crew got sick on that ride back. Wednesday was one huge, lazy, boat rocking day. We disembarked from the boat at 8:30 Thursday morning to go back to the hospitality lounge and wait for our flight out. Our flight left at 3:40 so we took a 1PM shuttle to the airport. There may have been tacos and margaritas consumed before the shuttle. The flight was direct from Cabo to PDX so I got to do customs at PDX for the first time. Not too bad. Made it home to Diesel and Gabby by 9 and bed shortly after that :)

A couple final things and then photos (that have not been doctored other than cropping...so they are sort of blue...one day I will get lightroom or photoshop or whatever). Pretty much every dive boat I have been on in a tropical place has a no shoes policy. This one apparently didn't, but I took off my flip flops when I got on board and didn't put them back on until I was leaving the boat yesterday. 8 days of no shoes (other than booties for your fins) makes wearing shoes feel weird. I have been avoiding shoes today and my feet are cold. The water we were diving in was around 74F the whole dive. It changes with the months to hotter or colder but that's what we got. A 5 mil wetsuit (medium thick) was perfect! What was even better was having Lala (pronounced la la, she was one of the housekeeping/parlor/waitress ladies from Hungary? Bulgaria? somewhere around there) holding a tray of hot beverages after the dive shouting "hot choc-o-let! warm cider! cookies!" Everybody on the dive deck would sing that along with her after the first day. It is really cool how the shared experience of a trip like this allows you to make new acquaintances and friends. It's also sad when the trip ends with you knowing you probably won't see any of them again. Hopefully that isn't the case here since Stacy is on the facebook and so were a lot of others...but who knows. Anyway, it was a great trip and totally has me stoked for going to the Cocos Islands (off Costa Rica...more hammerheads!! but 36 hour boat ride to get there!!!) and Galapagos Islands (more big stuff!! and you fly out from Quito Ecuador!!) someday.

Someday.

And now for some photos (click to embiggen, right click open in new tab for even more embiggening)!!!!!

Two Silver Tipped Sharks swimming along. How to ID: they have the white (silver) highlights along every fin and it goes from top to bottom. White tipped reef sharks only have the white at the top of some of the fins.

Black Oceanic Manta Ray. Underside looks like a Holstein with splotches. Back is blak.

Side view of Manta (Chevron Manta, aka Giant Oceanic Manta)

Another manta shot. Its cephalic lobes(the front "horns") are curled up

One of the DMs, Martin, dressed in a seal onesy before the night snorkel with silky sharks. No one was hurt during the snorkel although you could hear some screaming through the snorkels. I had a beer earlier so couldn't join in (bummer ;-) ) but Stacy did it and enjoyed.

Shot of Roca Partida. I think is stands for "Party Rock" even though they all claimed it meant "Parted Rock". As you can see, nothing out there...middle of nowhere.