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Date: October 20th-27th, 2004.
Diving: SolmarV liveaboard out of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Buddy: My wife Mary. Note: Marty Snyderman Photo cruise.

Travel and Cabo.

Mary and I flew into San Jose Cabo airport the day before departure to decrease the travel stress, several others flew in the same day and had no problems with timing. We booked with Continental and connected in Houston from Miami. The airport is well outside Cabo (25-30 miles). Cab fare was quoted at $60US to $85US so we opted for the shuttle van at $14US. We checked into the Solmar Resort for 1 night. It was clean, spacious and well appointed. Dinner and a Red Sox game at Margaritavilla in the Cabo harbor (10 minute walk from the resort). Food and service was excellent, prices were $15-$25US. Red Sox beat the Yankees.

Departure Day.

At 1pm on wednesday the SolmarV rep (Ray, starboard side Divemaster) met us at the resort's poolbar and briefed us on the boarding process. Marty Snyderman was there as well and got to know us all. Solmar covered the shuttle to the boat at 3pm. We cast off just after 4pm. The boat idled briefly at Land's End for a photo op, lots of sea lions on the rocks there. We were given a more thorough orientation just before 7pm (dinnertime), and a formal intro to Marty. After dinner, Marty delivered the first of many excellent presentations on photo technique. The boat ran north all night and provided one of the very few disappointments on the trip. While running for extended periods some diesel fumes collected inside (particularly the rear cabins 401 and 402, one of which was ours). We slept on the upper deck that night, it was a great night for it fortunately.

Dive Day #1.

We awoke for 7am breakfast call as the boat arrived at the first dive site, La Reina. After breakfast we recieved a thorough briefing on general dive procedures for the week and a site specific briefing for La Reina. La Reina was a tiny cluster of rocks with a navigation marker and numerous sea lions. Dives were from the boat and the stern anchor line led directly to the main dive area. In addition to a family of sea lions we saw several large schools of jacks around the rocks and visited a wreck less than 100 yards from the anchor. The site map, conditions and time of next dive were always on the whiteboard on the dive deck. Dives were generally scheduled for 8:30, 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30. Lunch was 12:30 or 1:00. Mary shot video on one of the morning dives, then she sat out the afternoon dives so I asked Marty to buddy up. It was humbling to watch him work. During dinner we repositioned near the next dive site.

Dive Day #2 - Las Islotes sea lion rookery.

After breakfast we were briefed on Las Islotes. A small chain of rocky islands in a straight line, there were 2 breaks in the chain. First was a tunnel about 20 feet wide, second was a wider but shallow pass with many rocks sticking above the surface. Las Islotes is a Sea Lion rookery, and it was a more active than any of us imagined. This day was all "Panga" diving (Panga's are Zodiac style launch/chase boats carried on the SolmarV). Dive #1 we entered the water on the back side of the islands near the tunnel. The tunnel was a playground for sea lion pups. They dropped starfish on us to teach us how to play catch. Once through the tunnel and near the pass the real chaos started. I shot mostly video this day, lucky for me we came back later in the week so I could get photos of the madness.

Dive Day #3 - Las Animas

This morning we awoke at Las Animas. Morning dives were via Panga, afternoon dives down the stern anchor line. We went to a deep wall on the first dive. A good spot for hammerheads but we didn't see any. Highlight was a green turtle, diving was excellent but the weather was dismal.

Dive Day #4 - La San Francisquita

La San Francisquita was a small group of rocky outcroppings not worthy of the term islands. Diving was from the boat all day. Morning highlight was a rare Fine Spotted Jawfish, by far the largest jawfish I have ever seen. On the second dive a pair of sea lions took a shine to Mary and spent 45 minutes playing starfish with her and tugging at her snorkel. One was so attached to Mary she followed us back to the boat barked at the swim platform in protest to our departure.

Dive Day #5 - Back to Islotes

The common stop on this day would have been the El Bajo Seamount, which normally provides a good chance to see the bigger pelagics (whale sharks, mantas, hammerheads and various whales). Given the poor conditions our chances at the seamount were not good so we chose to head back to the rookery at Islotes.

Dive Day #6 - Cabo Pulmo

After another long night of travel we were back near Cabo (60 miles north actually). Cabo Pulmo is a protected National Marine Park. It was a thriving reef but visibility was poor on this day. I shot all video since I had been focusing mainly on stills all week. Since vis was poor I only dove the morning dives and opted out of the afternoon to edit video. We headed for port around 3pm and ran through dinner, we arrived at Cabo around 9pm. After dinner Marty displayed some of the photos we all took during the week. Some folks went into town to catch a world series game after the presentation.

Travel day.

We slept aboard that night and had breakfast before catching a shuttle back to the resort at 8:30am. Our flight didn't leave until 2pm so we enjoyed drinks by the pool before hopping another shuttle back to the airport. Immigration and Customs at Houston (Continental hub) were incredibly well organized and efficient.

Summary.

Solmar resort, SolmarV and it's crew were polished and professional. Diving was excellent even on the marginal weather days. Marty Snyderman was friendly, very informative and well prepared with presentations specific to the region. The food was better than we expected. Accomodations were clean and well maintained. We found the diesel smell was was linked to running the in room A/C while the boat was underway. Since the nights were comfortable we solved this problem by turning off the A/C while we were underway. Nitrox and E6 were not available, but otherwise the dive deck arrangements were outstanding. We are looking forward to booking a return trip, next time to the Soccoro Islands, SolmarV's other itinerary.