Snorkel with tuna

Eight hours, and the chance to get in the water with tuna schools when the bait-fish are running. This is the most conditions-dependent thing we sell, and the most extraordinary when it works.

What it's like

We go looking. Working bait balls, birds and the schools moving under them. When we find a school holding rather than running, you get in.

Tuna are fast, curious and considerably larger than most people expect to meet at eye level. They come past in numbers, at speed, and then they are gone. It is not a gentle reef snorkel; it is a handful of extraordinary minutes surrounded by fish that are built like torpedoes.

Being honest about the odds

This charter does not always deliver, and you should book it knowing that.

Finding a workable school depends on the bait-fish running, the water being clear enough to see anything, and the school staying put long enough for you to get in. Some days we find three. Some days we find none and you have had a long day on a boat looking for them.

We will not sell you this charter on a date that looks unlikely. If the conditions are wrong we would rather move you.

This is an enquiry charter

There is no book-now button, because pricing a day this variable off a fixed online rate would be dishonest. Send us the date and the group size and we will tell you what the window looks like.

What's included

• Skipper and crew for eight hours
• Fuel, safety equipment, life jackets
• Water aboard

Wetsuits, masks and GoPros can be arranged; say what you need when you enquire.

What you need

• Swimwear under your clothes, and a towel
• Confident open-water swimming. This is not a beginner snorkel. You are getting into open ocean, off a boat, with swell and current, and you need to be comfortable there
• A GoPro or underwater camera if you have one. We have spares to hire, and you will want the footage

The boat

El Pescador: the 7.5 m Magnum 25, six guests, Category B certified to forty nautical miles. She has the range to keep looking. The bigger decks (El Hombre, El Padre, El Grande and El Capitan) run it too.

If the weather turns

Called 48 hours ahead where we can, but this charter is more often called on the morning than any other, because clarity is the thing that decides it. Full refund or a new date, always your choice.