Liveaboard shuts down – leaving divers out of pocket

Scuba divers who say they have lost thousands of dollars on liveaboard trips to Socorro that were cancelled at the last moment without compensation have in recent months been urging others not to book onto the Mexico-based Solmar V, run by operator Pacific Fleet.

The company had appeared to be continuing to trade and take direct bookings until around 20 January, when its website was closed down.

An emailed holding statement had been the only reply concerned guests had received when trying to contact the operator in recent months – and now that statement has been updated to announce that the company has ceased trading.

“Solmar V SA de CV, together with its affiliates and subsidiaries, has permanently ceased all operations, effective immediately,” it reads. “The company will no longer operate voyages, accept bookings or provide travel-related services of any kind.”

Fatal incident

As in its previous holding statement, the company lays the blame for its problems on a fatal incident it says occurred on a trip to Socorro (the Revillagigedo islands) between 17-25 November last year -although in reality groups of divers had been let down before that time.

“One of our guests suffered a sudden and severe medical emergency,” reads the statement. “Despite the immediate and professional response of our onboard crew, the medical personnel at the Socorro Marine Base, DAN specialists, the evacuation team and the hospital staff in Los Cabos, the guest tragically passed away.

“The emotional, operational and financial consequences that followed placed extraordinary strain on the company, its management and its financial partners. Although the company entered into verbal agreements intended to stabilise operations and continue future voyages, insurmountable issues arose during the implementation of those agreements.

“These issues ultimately resulted in the termination of our management agreement and the loss of operational control and use of the vessel Solmar V, which has since been relocated from Los Cabos to Mazatlán by its owner.”

The statement goes on to express regret for the impact on guests and partners but insists that the circumstances were “beyond our control”. While the letter can, it says, be used as a confirmation of cessation of operations for guests submitting travel-insurance claims, it does not refer to the refunds previously mentioned.

Red flags

Red flags were first raised about the Solmar V operation as long ago as 2022 by the US scuba newsletter Undercurrent. It reported that a group of European divers had travelled to board Solmar V at the Mexican port of Cabo San Lucas, only to find that their trip out to Socorro had been cancelled. Some are still said to be waiting for refunds four years later.

Then, in August 2025, Pacific Fleet (rebranded from Pelagic Fleet in 2021), posted online that it was transferring Solmar V to another operator, “Blue Realm Liveaboards”. It promised that existing bookings, deposits, prices, credit notes and reservation channels would remain “100% intact”.

“You will still sail with the same crew, along the same routes but wrapped in a higher standard of comfort and service,” Pacific Fleet assured guests, describing Blue Realm as “a new group of ocean-lovers committed to raising the bar in luxury liveaboards”.

However, the website address it gave for Blue Realm now leads only to a page of site names for sale, and Pacific Fleet remained the operator name on company sites and communications.

Informed by email

On 16 October 2025, a month before the fatal inccident referred to by the company, another group of European divers who had each paid around $4,000 arrived in Cabo San Lucas ready to board Solmar V – only to be informed by email at that point that their trip had been cancelled.

Unable to contact the operator, they were left with the options of funding an alternative holiday at their own expense or flying home.

It later emerged that further Solmar V trips had been cancelled without refunds – but that the website still appeared to be accepting bookings for trips well into 2026. Undercurrent estimated that more than $200,000-worth of trips were cancelled in 2025 alone, with the payments collected for 2026 trips unknown.

Major liveaboard booking sites had stopped offering trips on Solmar V. LiveAboard.com told Divernet earlier this month that it had temporarily deactivated the vessel on its website and was not accepting reservations. “It remains unclear if or when the vessel will be operational again,” it stated.

PADI Travel had stated that it was not taking bookings for Solmar V, and another booker expressed disquiet but preferred not to comment as long as it was still owed money by the operator and saw a “small chance” of recovering it.

Invitation to pay

The day before the Solmar V website was taken down on 20 January, Divernet had gone through the motions of booking a trip to Socorro on the liveaboard. Cabins were apparently full but a superior stateroom was available on a 15 March eight-day trip, with an invitation to pay $5,251 straight away. 

Payments were to be made to a bank account in New York belonging to Industrias Solmar V, SA de CV, which is registered in Cabo San Lucas as responsible for the Pacific Fleet / Solmar V liveaboard business. 

In Mexico “SA de CV” (Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable) businesses are the legal entities that hold contracts, manage bookings and finances, hold assets such as vessels and interact with authorities and passengers. 

Guests being encouraged to pay by bank transfer rather than using credit cards – on which compensation claims can sometimes be made – has exacerbated the problem for a number of let-down divers.

A group of 13 friends based in Hawaii had planned a December trip to Socorro, sending deposits to Pacific Fleet more than a year ago and later paying collective balances of around $42,000. 

Communications from the operator had dried up around the end of November, they reported, apart from one enigmatic email that had referred to “a huge challenge that shook our foundation to the point of making our continuance almost unviable”. 

The operator had promised to get back “hopefully with good news” no later than 5 December – eight days before departure – and asked recipients not to try contacting Pacific Fleet, because no reply would be forthcoming.

Five days before the trip, the group were told that it had been cancelled “due to unforeseen operational circumstances” and were promised further information in the next few days. Refund demands to the new email address received only the automated replies.

Difficult situation

Divernet had attempted to contact the operator using all four of its email addresses, with the sales link generating the same automatic reply from the “Industrias Solmar V team”. It referred to Solmar V having faced an “unexpected and very difficult situation” – the November fatality that it said had resulted in the cancellation of three scheduled trips.

The most recent Pacific Fleet / Solmar V Facebook entry appeared on 25 November, the last day of the trip on which the fatal incident was said to have occurred, though it made no reference to this.

Until the termination announcement this week, the holding statement had continued to promise that “in the coming days we will provide additional updates, including our anticipated timeline for resuming operations and the process for refunds for the trips that were unfortunately affected”. It also warned that attempts to contact the team would go unanswered.

Essential transparency

A French dive group had set up a website called Solmar V Warnings!, aiming to centralise feedback about the situation with a view to taking potential collective legal action. It includes contributions from divers in the USA, Hong Kong, Spain and Germany.

“Since late 2025, an increasing number of divers and tour operators have reported that Pacific Fleet has cancelled cruises to Socorro / Revillagigedo, sometimes on the very day of departure, leaving clients without assistance, without any backup solution and without refunds for the amounts paid,” states the group.

“Numerous testimonies mention Solmar V cruises that were fully paid for but never delivered, a completely non-existent after-sales service and a total lack of communication from the operator.”

The group says it hopes that its site “will help passionate divers avoid an expensive and disappointing experience and contribute to essential transparency regarding the real situation of Socorro cruises offered by this operator”.

Also on Divernet: Divers rescued as Socorro liveaboard grounds