Mark Allen A.

Ilustrisimo- BSHM-1

EXPEDITION I
Revillagigedo Islands and Clipperton Island, January 2014

The town of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, was where I embarked on the small Lucia Celeste
ship, a once sunken and recovered fishing ship transformed into a diving boat for no
more than 12 people. We navigated for four days to reach Clipperton Island, which lies
more than 1,000 km from land, and on the way there, after day and a half of rough
waves, we stopped at the Revillagigedo Islands.

Four volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean conform Revillagigedo and there, we heard
many whales and glimpsed them breaching in the far distance, but we were never lucky
enough to see them while diving. It is a strange sensation, to hear them while below the
surface, as sometimes you hear them so close and so loud, that you feel as if they were
just below you. However, as any diver will know, sound is very tricky underwater.
Things can be far away, but curiously sound as if they are a few feet away. Sometimes
whales will be shy and stay away, but they will let you know they are around with their
haunting and unusual calls.

Despite not encountering any whales on these dives, we swum with giant Manta Rays
and explored a few caverns on the islands of Socorro and San Benedicto that we are not
sure have ever been named or mapped.

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