Cocos Island

Okeanos Aggressor, August 1996, Fred Turoff, Philadelphia, PA. "Good: Large numbers of 6­8 ft. hammerheads and 3­6ft whitetips and marble rays 3­5 ft. Divemasters and Zodiac drivers worked hard to make diving enjoyable. I went alone; group of 18 got along well and worked together to enjoy the trip. Divemaster Mario took slides of all participants and gave them out as presents on trip home. Mantas or Mobulas (smaller) sighted most days. Pilot whales sighted on surface by Zodiac. Excellent fish meals and sashimi twice as a post­dive snack (I made a meal of it). Tuna often seen in water 3­5ft. Saw a marlin while hanging at 15' one day: 40­80 ft. water: 76­79 degrees. Bad: Rough trip to island caused seasickness in several; preventive measures recommended. Digestive­tract bacterium infection affected 14 of 18 causing 24­36 hours of sickness while at Coco Island; may be due to water, so use of bottled water exclusively. Rooms tiny. I shared a two bunk room with no shelves, one drawer, little floor space; each had a shower, toilet and sink with wall cabinet. Plumbing problems plagued the ship. Also leaks, hot water outages. Most meals good, but I'd prefer two entrees whenever meats are served. Should offer to develop 1 or 2 rolls of film for passengers (to check exposures) at start of diving and reduce on­ board cost ($10 per roll)."

Okeanos Aggressor, December 1996, Kim Powers, Fremont, CA. "Great dive operation. Very high adrenaline diving! The longer you were in the water the more there was to see. True blue water diving. Divemasters at ease with having guests in the water during shark encounters and made it clear when it was time to get back in the Zodiac. (Too many silkies to keep an eye on!) vis: 50­80 ft. water: 78­80 degrees. Dive restrictions enforced were number of dives, blue water excursions (unless with the whole group). Returned to Punta Arenas early Sunday morning. Could have arranged a one day excursion to Tabacon Springs Resort for a good soak. This trip is a definite repeat every few years."

Okeanos Aggressor, January 1997, Graeme Eisenhofer, Bethesda, MD. "Abundance of marble sting rays, eagle rays, mobulla rays and mantas. Mobullas played in bubbles and approached to have their bodies rubbed as if we were cleaner fish. 120 foot boat accommodates 20 divers. Food great, crew looked after us. Each cabin has toilet and shower; trips 10 days with 3 spent traveling to and from (32-26 hours each way). Diving from 2 tenders. At check out dive at Isla Manuelita we dove to 30' bottom where we were surrounded by white tips. Two minutes later a large hammerhead swept by. . . . Vis: 70-100 ft. water: 70-75 degrees. Dive restrictions: 120', no blue water diving if you could help it. . . . White tips, jacks and leather bass hunt in groups. White tips follow the jacks waiting to pounce on a fish injured by the much faster jacks. Then it would be mayhem as several sharks would try to wrestle the injured fish out of the reef. . . . Strong currents at many sites. With all the action out the blue it was not hard to get swept away from the site and out into the blue yonder. . . . The dry season, but wet with waterfalls streaming down the side of the island. Hammerheads were there, but typically in the distance; difficult to get close. Schooling hammerheads are at their peak June-August. . . . Cocos Island Web Page- A good place to start with a site of background information about Cocos. http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/3425."

Okeanos Aggressor, March 1997, Ruth Ann Hubbard, Soda Springs, ID. "Great trip. Food the best on any live­aboard I've been on. Divemasters were more helpful with photo and dive equipment and fixed any problems. Found the best dive sites; tried to find whale sharks, we didn't see any, but saw dolphins, 4 or 5 during on dive. Lots of hammerheads, hundreds of whitetips. lots of mantas and eagle rays. The water was warmer than normal 82­84 degrees. vis: 60­80 ft. No bad stuff!"

Sea Hunter, May/June 1997, Chuck Tribolet, Morgan Hill, CA. "Fantastic, so good I'm organizing a group for July and August, the best time for hammerheads. Sea Hunter is a 115' diesel mono-hull carrying up to 18. One level of cabin quality. They have a Jobo CPE processor. Slightly smaller sister ship, Undersea Hunter, that does the same trips. Food was three-star (I'm a tough grader). . . . Do NOT want to miss the boat because, there is NO way to catch up with it 300 miles offshore. I had a five-hour layover in Houston to change planes, and an overnight in San Jose, Costa Rica. The weather, and Continental's incompetence (they sent a crew to the plane that were not legal for the flight) produced an unscheduled overnight in Houston. For a 6:30am departure, Continental sends another illegal crew, so left at 8: 30am and into San Jose in time to catch the bus 90km to Punta Arenas to boat. With seven Sea Hunter passengers on the flight, they probably would not have left without us. (You can also get to Costa Rica on American via Miami and Mexico City via LACSA). Sails on Sunday afternoon or evening, depending on the tide. 30-36 hour crossing to Cocos. I could feel the boat motion, but no big deal and the trip back downright glassy. Arrived in wee hours Tuesday, had breakfast, and were ready to dive. Tanks were aluminum 80s pumped to 3000 psi. Could be filled on the dive deck or on the pangas. No deco bars for safety stops. Most dives are from two pangas, 25-foot fiberglass boats with tank racks and twin outboards totaling 140 HP. There's no way to find the panga until you surface. Make sure your buoyancy control is up to snuff. Besides, lots of cool stuff happened while drifting on safety stops: Mobilos (small 4' wingspan manta cousins), dolphins, turtles, a couple of people claimed a Sailfish, more hammerheads, schools of tuna). More White-Tipped Reef Sharks (3-5 feet mostly, with the odd six-footer) than I could count - dozens on each dive. Scalloped Hammerheads (all about 8 feet) on most dives, but we were a little early this year for the big schools. 8-foot Silky Sharks showed up occasionally. Mobilos, Spotted Eagle Rays, and Marbled Rays turned up on every day dive. One site had a school of about a thousand. The other panga found a Pacific Manta (the BIG ones) while we were chasing a Whale Shark. . . . Found a bait ball under construction while on the way to the dive site. We snorkeled with it (under strict instructions to stay RIGHT next to the boat - the silkies were acting aggressive) for about ten minutes, We then did the dive, getting strafed by 27 moblilos for ten minutes on the safety stop. A pod of a dozen Bottlenose Dolphins that had herded up the bait ball was happy to play with us for a half hour. I saw dolphins underwater on four dives! Cocos has a well-deserved reputation as a wide-angle site, but there is some really neat macro too. If you are a photographer, and you have two bodies, mount your spare body with widest lens you aren't using on the dive, set it up for available light, and leave it on the panga. You never know what you will get to snorkel with (or do a REAL long safety stop with). . . . Sea was flat - I never felt queasy, and I didn't take any drugs for seasickness. I don't think anyone got seasick, but some folks were medicating. Water 86-88F, with a thermocline down to about 80 at varying depths. Usually the water is cooler. Did 24 dives on the trip, deepest dive was 136 feet on Bajo Alcyone. Three dives per normal day from the pangas, with an option for a fourth from the dive deck at night. The crew doesn't check or record anything, they hands you a small towel after the each dive, the chintzy size one of my few complaints. . . . Most people were diving Nitrox. You will be 30+ hours from a chamber. . . . Got rebreather certified on the trip. The semi-closed circuit rebreather (such as the Draeger Atlantis) allows you to sneak up on the critters. Profiles 57 minutes at a max of 92 feet (and about 25 minutes of it at 85 feet), with no skip breathing, and therefore no CO2 headache. Currents strong, the dives deep (over half below 95 feet), and the fish are BIG. The currents and depths are such that you will be own best rescuer. . . . Be prepared to surface a LONG way from the panga. They will come get you, but I carried a safety sausage, Dive Alert horn, whistle, and flashlight, and left my night dive cylumes on the tank round the clock. Dive Alert horn can be heard a LONG way off. The bottom is lava, not coral, mostly, and it's often necessary to hang on; bring gloves. . . . Bring your favorite ear infection potion - we had LOTS of them - including my first ever. Lots of sea urchins; half the people got stuck at least once. . . . When comparing prices, compare the number of diving days. The Aggressor is slower than Sea Hunter and Undersea Hunter, and that cuts into the number of dives. Check whether the $15/day park fee is included in the price.

UnderSea Hunter, July 1996, Marilyn Koukol, FPO AE. "Schools of hammerheads were awesome. White tipped sharks were everywhere, sometimes resembling logs piled every which way. Large schools of snappers and jacks, lots of dolphin and mobula. Snorkeled with dolphins and manta during surface intervals. Strong current for experienced divers only. Crossing to Cocos Islands from Costa Rica is for strong stomachs or those with a fortune in Dramamine. Under Sea Hunter is a fine live-aboard and the food was great too. However we dived the same tow spots over and over. Thank goodness we did do one dive to find the red­ lipped bat fish! It was a fun trip as was the white water rafting in Costa Rica! . . .One trip was canceled so we then had to book on another boat and learned that the trip that had been "canceled" had gone with some special guests onboard."

Undersea Hunter, March 1997, Art Nelson, Oakhurst, NJ. "Every bit as exciting and eye opening as we hoped it would be. Big fish capital of this part of the world. vis: 40­80 ft. water: 72­80 degrees. You can't see everything it has to offer in one trip since some fish are seasonal, but a partial list of our encounters: Scalloped hammerheads and white tipped gray reef sharks on every dive, marble rays, large silky sharks, milk fish, spotted eagle rays, those wonderful pocket size first cousins of the pacific manta ray, the mobula ray. They do what there larger relative does, but they come in schools. Turtles, rosy lipped bat fish, snake eels, big and dasing yellow fin tuna, smaller tunas in schools, schools of big eye jacks and the pacific barracuda so thick you don't see any water, wahoo, and the list goes on. . . . For three hundred miles out and three hundred back, the Pacific was like a lake and the sun was high every day. Vis. got better with each dive. Undersea Hunter is a converted oceanographic research vessel, ninety feet long and with enough beam to be comfortable. Nothing seemed to be in need of repair. The food was fine and ample and the crew was top notch. The chase boats are two pangas about twenty feet long with twin sixty H.P. Yamahas, also in good repair. Avi Klapfer, owner of the Hunter boats, was captain on this trip. Avi's humor, total expertise, and enthusiasm was appreciated by all of us. Avi loves CoCos. Nitrox and rebreather cert. is offered on board. You need to do Nitrox, since all dives are deep. Nitrox makes there dives safe and it doubles your bottom time. Most come with current. Being an experienced diver with confidence is required. You will need gloves, Kevlar is a good choice. Bring a 3M jump suit for abrasion as well as cold cells in the currents. Unlike most other places that have seen better days, Cocos is as good as it ever was and I got a chance to see it that way."

Undersea Hunter, July 1997, Mel McCombie, New haven, CT. "First-rate operation, very comfortable boat. Capt. P.J. is personable and professional, and his largely Cost Rican staff very accommodating. Clearly the premier boat of the 3 that go to Cocos. vis: 40-100 ft. water 83-86 degrees. Food was ok, but not great, but the friendliness of the staff ("con mucho gusto") was the response to any request make everything taste great."

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