Itinerary
Day 1: After arriving at the boat at approximately 8 am, the crew will begin storing all gear, assigning cabins and pangas, and basically getting ready for another trip out. When the ship departs at noon, the bar opens as visitors get comfortable for their journey to Refugio Bay. A delicious lunch and dinner will be provided, as guests relax on their voyage to their first stop, Refugio Bay.
Day 2: When you wake up you are greeted with a glorious sunrise in Refugio bay, a nutritious breakfast, and plenty of open water. Once loaded with bottled water, scuba gear and passengers, pangas depart, going where ever passengers are drawn to, with all levels of diving difficulty. Refugio has many appealing adventures. There is a variety of types of dives but the best is diving with the 400 or so sea lions. Massive pinnacles reach from the depth to the surface with sandy bottom in between. After 4 or 5 dives and lunch and dinner, the boat usually moves out to deep water as everybody wants to do a night dive. After we fish for 20-40lb Humboldt squid swarming the boat, the clamor for a night dive usually dies off.
Day 3: Usually spent in and around Punta Diabla on the eastern edge of the island. This is about a 35 mile move from Refugio which occurs during the night. Punta Diabla offers a lot of drift diving as well as very shallow rock reefs with lots of rays, starfish and tons of fish. Sea of Cortez Angels and Mexican Hogfish abound. A shallow estuary also offers excellent clamming and shell collecting. Beautiful California Sheepshead are everywhere.
Day 4: Another 40 mile journey puts us at Vibora at the southern tip of Angel de la Guardia, due east of Bahia Los Angeles. Pinnacles with lobsters hanging on the sides, dolphins, rays, lots of eels, octopus and giant rock scallops abound hear. All of these places have lots of cabrilla, amarilla snapper or pargo, barred pargo and some huge sea fans..
Day 5: Usually the group will want to revisit one of the best of the above spots but the islands south of Vibora are pretty much unexplored with regard to divers. We will be exploring these islands in detail this summer and fall. We continue to talk about diving these new spots but the spots above are just to reliable and spectacular to motor by in the middle of the night.
Day 6: In the middle of the night, we have traveled 80 or so miles north and usually end up in Refugio again or Gonzaga on the Baja Mainland or in the Encantadas if conditions are right. We can only stay till about 11:00 so get your dives in early and then we steam back to port, clean fish and rinse and pack gear along the way.
