Hello

I’m Dominique Colletti, and I’m French.

I had two dreams in my diver‘s life to see the great white sharks and to dive the giant kelp forest of the pacific coast, with all the sea lions..

I must said that I’ve been more than  satisfied with the cruise we did , my husband  André and I onboard the Nautilus explorer .

 http://www.nautilusexplorer.com/main/?home

We start from San Diego to Ensinada a Mexican port on the Pacific rim .

When boarding the Nautilus we met a lot of friends as it was our third cruise on this boat  (after Sea of Cortes and Soccoro) .

The Nautilus is a luxurious liveaboard , everything is think for divers , but especially with the four immerged cages , two of them bringing you at 12 meters depth and with the possibility to stand on the upper deck of the cage without any protection ..wooowww

After a journey from more than 20 hours to Guadalupe Island, the great day as finally arrived, and at 6.30 am I was the first to get into the cage!

I was also the last to leave it three day later, having spent with my husband 24 hours inside the cages during the three days.

And we saw a lot of sharks..

Many on the first day, less on the second as the sea was a bit choppy and that there was a big current, but the third day was illuminate by Chicka a young white shark female of 5 m long who has decided to stay with us for the whole day after having eliminate from the spot all the other sharks!! Thank to Chicka she is very aggressive and photogenic as well.

Between the problems with the trigger of my Nikon D90, the use of the wrong lense at the good moment and so on during two days, my best pictures are her’s taken on the third.

But to see the sharks this magnificent animals with such a good visibility the water almost hot and with the comfort of the Nautilus is an unforgettable experience.

Our cruise was a special one, not only we were scheduled to see the great white, but also (unfortunately for them) their favourite meal …

So we spent another something like 18 hours to go to San Benitos Island closer to the Mexican rim, home of giant kelp forest and herd of sea lions and other marine mammals.

This was an extraordinary experience.

We had before (cruise to sea of Cortes) the luck to dive with the sea lions on Los Islotes near La Paz, but here this was much more interesting, wonderful, enchanting..I have not enough word …

First the animals are not used to see divers, secondly the decor made by the kelp is simply magnificent and there is sometime sea lions everywhere..

Really unforgettable without speaking of all the marine life of the kelp forest especially two harbour seals to shy to get a decent picture but what a happiness to saw them.

Her are some of the pics I shot, but I’m afraid that they are only a pale reflection of the reality.

A beautiful cruise made in perfect conditions that I can only highly recommend.

Have a look at the pictures and the short clips hereunder 

Domi.