A Journey to Socorro
Our Journey began in La Paz, over a few beers with
a good friend, Buzz. His life-long ambition was to fish, dive and explore
the Socorro islands. Buzz had a 41 ft. DeFever, "ADIOS" that was
well equipped and maintained. I had heard of the islands but my knowledge
of them was almost nonexistent.
The Socorro islands are a chain of small islands in the eastern
Pacific Ocean. They are about 218 nm SSW from Cabo San Lucas on the Baja.
The main islands are; Socorro itself, Isla San Benadicto 31 nm north East,
Isla Roca Partida 66 nm north west, and Isla Clarion 156 nm west of Socorro.
Isla Socorro is inhabited by the Mexican Navy, the other Islands are uninhabited.
They are volcanic in origin, and underwater activity persists to this day.
Isla San Benadicto is a fairly new island, and in 1995 there were 50 meter
rocks coming up from the seabed just south of Socorro.
They belong to Mexico although I have heard of a dispute
over Isla Clarion with the French. Their official name is Islas Revillagigedos.
During the years of the Manila galleons these islands were stopping places
for the pirates that plied the eastern Pacific.
We provisioned "ADIOS" and planned our departure
in late Nov. since the islands get hammered by hurricanes almost every year
during the late summer and early fall. The water is still fairly warm in
late Nov..
We were off for the 3 day and night passage. Thanks to
Satellite navigation we came upon Isla San Benadicto at the crack of dawn,
and proceeded to Socorro itself where we checked in with the Mexican Navy
base. We were given a tour of the base. All the buildings were partially
buried in the ground and only about 3 feet of the building were above ground.
A total of about 100 people lived there. A supply ship would come in about
once a month. The Commandant warned us of the shark infested waters and
offered to lend us some bang sticks. We gratefully declined and thanked
them for the hospitality and in parting the base made a present of a few
bottles of scotch and brandy to the Commandant. The "ADIOS" was
after all, very well provisioned. The next day we fished. Within a few hours
we filled the 6 foot freezer with Wahoo filets even after losing half of
the hooked fish to sharks. We were 75 meters from a large rock just a 1/2
KM. from shore. There were some party boats from San Diego that were pulling
in 300 lb. tunas. It was a fisherman's dream come true. The rest of the
week we devoted our time to scuba diving. Later I asked Buzz why he enjoyed
diving down to 175 feet. He answered " the cocktails are free at that
depth". We kept an inflatable with a crew member aboard over us at
all times. At 150 feet I could distinguish the propeller on the outboard.
Everything was huge. 
There were lobsters everywhere, even on the wall dives. I
got tired of eating lobster. One lobster I pulled in fed 5 of us and there
were left-overs for the dog. It was the super bowl of diving. A word of
caution, these were shark infested deep dives, not a place for amateurs.
We spent a week exploring the sea floor. Buzz died a few years after the
trip. He was a man of extremes and lived to fulfill his dreams. I have never
returned to the islands and rarely scuba dive, after all it is hard to top
the diving in Socorro.
Boone Camp
November 1997
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