Waterhorse Charters San Diego

Los Coronado Islands, Baja California Sur, with Waterhorse Charters Review
Trip Date: April 19, 2014

It had been a five and a half hour drive from Arizona to hook-up with my dive partner to dive San Diego’s Wreck Alley. Unfortunately, we found ourselves standing on the dock waiting for a dive boat that never showed-up. Despite the fact that the boat owner provided an explanation about what had happened, her failure to give an out-of-state diver a telephone call about the cancellation left me somewhat soured on San Diego area diving. This said, I had heard good things about Mexico’s Los Coronado Islands and I really wanted to dive there. Eventually, I decided to try a different San Diego dive boat operation and I am glad I did.

Los Coronado Islands

Los Coronado Islands are in the neighborhood of twenty miles south of San Diego and six miles off Baja California Sur’s Pacific Coast. There are four islands in the group. The islands sit on the edge of the Continental Shelf. Distance offshore and proximity to the deep waters of the Pacific tend to result in good visibility for diving.

Juan Cabrillo documented the presence of the islands in 1542. The translation of the islands name is ‘the crowns’ and comes from the original name Los Cuatro Coronados (the four crowns). History of the islands is rich: slave smuggling, piracy, rum running, and a prohibition-era casino. Personally, arriving by boat at a place with a history like the Coronados tends to stimulate my imagination. It is a cool place.

Waterhorse Charters

After visiting with several San Diego area divers, I decided to book a trip with Waterhorse Charters. At the time of my trip, Waterhorse was the only charter company offering day trips to Los Coronado Islands just south of the U.S./Mexico border.

Booking on-line was easy. Given my earlier negative experience with a different San Diego charter company, I also made a phone call and visited with a Waterhorse staff member about the importance of giving me a phone call if a cancellation became necessary.

Travel to Mexico via boat requires a passport and a tourist visa. Tourist visa paperwork was completed at their office before divers were allowed to get on the boat.

Overall, my experience with the Waterhorse office staff was a good experience. They were personable and very service oriented.

Humboldt Dive Boat

Humboldt is a big boat. It is 45’ in length and has a 16’ beam. Official boat specs are available on Waterhorse Charters website.

Humboldt was comfortable during my Coronados trip. Regulations did not permit divers to sit on the bow deck, but there was lots of room to spread out on the main and upper decks. The boat also had a large salon with lots of seating and tables. Hot water showers were available on the main deck.

Lunch was included with the Coronados trip and the food was excellent. Diving the Pacific side of Northern Baja is a cold-water experience; the hot soups prepared by the crew were a hit. There was no shortage of salad as well.

Diving Ops

Waterhorse Charters runs ‘limited load’ trips. Load limits typically allow more space on the main deck for gearing-up and dive operations. This works well unless one finds one’s self sandwiched in-between two very large divers as I did. I had to wait for them to gear-up and step clear of the area before I could slip into my BCD. It was not a major issue.

Humboldt is equipped with low-pressure steel 85 cf tanks. Using steel tanks typically requires some weight adjustment. Basically, steel tanks are heavier than the aluminum variety so shedding some weight is necessary. The skipper reminded divers of this multiple times prior to commencing with dive ops on our first dive site. The boat is equipped with air compressors. The crew had no problem accomplishing tank re-fills for everyone during surface intervals. It is kind of nice not to have to change-out tanks.

The skipper provided dive site and safety briefings personally. Briefings included a description of each site, tips on what to look for, and an assessment of potential hazards. Current was present at every dive site, but it was a major issue on our second dive.

Los Coronado Islands Diving

One of the major reasons I wanted to dive the Los Coronado Islands was to pursue photographing sea lions, seals and if I was lucky, maybe some members of the small elephant seal colony that reside on one of the islands. The trip was not a total bust for me, but opportunities to photograph pinnipeds were limited.

The reality of scuba diving is the variety of experiences divers can have at different locations on the same dive sites. One simply cannot predict what divers may encounter. While the ‘dive gods’ did not smile on me with an encounter with any elephant seals, a couple of other divers were privileged to have one make a close pass to check them out. Others enjoyed more interaction with sea lions than I did. The Coronados have an excellent reputation for large numbers of pinnipeds; the large numbers were probably just off doing something else other than looking for divers to interact with on the day I arrived there.

We undoubtedly hit three of the more heavily used Los Coronado Islands dive sites. These included: Lobster Shack, The Keyhole, and Three Fingers. The skipper commented that they usually do the first dive at Lobster Shack because it is reasonably well sheltered and a good place for the crew to do something of an assessment of the diver skills. Keep in mind, there can be a wide range of skill levels among the twenty-two divers who are on the boat.

A fisherman shack once sat on the sheltered cove that bears the name Lobster Shack. Bottom topography is a sloping boulder field that provides habitat for fish. Blacksmith and Garibaldi were numerous. Triggerfish were also present.

The Keyhole sits on the southern end of the North Island (Coronado del Norte). It is an arch and connects waters from the windward and leeward sides of the island. A tremendous amount of surge and current was present at the site on the day of my charter.

Despite the skipper’s very accurate description of the challenges presented by the current and his admonishments to dive a plan north of the arch and the surge, a number of divers surfaced down current from the boat. None of them were able to swim back to the boat against the current. Interestingly, the skipper had anticipated this situation and already had a safety line in position to haul them in.

As noted earlier in this review, my encounters with sea lions were limited; however, several engaged me at the Keyhole. These sea lions stuck around with me for a few minutes and gave me opportunities for some stills and experimentation with video mode on my Nikon D7100.

Three Fingers on the Middle Island (Coronado del Medio) was pretty tame after dealing with the surge and current at The Keyhole. Sea lions were present, but showed little interest in engaging me. The Middle Island has a small resident population of Northern Elephant Seals. Unfortunately, the ‘dive gods’ did not smile on me. While I prowled around hoping for an encounter, another small group of divers was treated to a close ‘fly-by’ they described as being buzzed by an elephant seal the size of a mini-submarine. Fun stuff!

Water temperatures ran from sixty-one to sixty-four degrees. Visibility varied from forty-five to seventy feet.

Summary

Overall, diving Los Coronado Islands with the Humboldt crew was an enjoyable experience. In addition to marine life, purple hydrocorals are present. Waterhorse Charters schedules trips to the islands on a regular basis.

Philip Bonds
Cortez Blue Photography