scububa
January 24th, 2008, 01:02 PM
We just returned from Cozumel and the annual State Park Marina trip. I will do some, but SLIM will have to do some also as the group was large enough that we had two boats and I didn't get to 'do any skills' with SLIM, although the girls did.
We traveled Wednesday 16th and returned Wed 23rd. The main part of the group came back on the 21st. Since this was a combined trip to celebrate a 16th and 18th birthday and a 30th anniversary, we wanted to stay a little longer.
This trip is always a little bit of a 'family' reunion because we know so many of the folks on the trip. We have been diving for five years now and this trip lets us dive with our three original instructors!
The checkout day and the first three days of diving were excellent weather. Mostly sunny, light wind and warm temps of 75-82 or so. Water was close to same with 78-82 ranges. The first day the girls and I were on the boat with the smaller group. The kids decided 'my' boat was boring, so the second day they switched to the other boat (some of that crew sat out the 2nd day). On the third day the youngest came back because even thought the boat was 'funner' the diving was better with us.
We dove Palancar Caves, Tormentos, Santa Rosa Wall, Punta Tunich, Columbia Deep, and The Mountains with The Dive House. We did a night dive from the shore at Fiesta Americanna.
The variety of life is strong, but to me, still not as dense as before the hurricane. There is a lot still, though. We saw several octopuses, moray eels, nurse sharks, big lobster, big sea bass, and bigggg grouper. Also, falmingo toungues, sea horses, worms, and tens of drums of all sizes. The soft coral is coming back strong and the colors are getting nice again. Of course all the usual suspects in the fish world were there. And, we saw many turtles.
The next two days were definitely for your hard core divers. The wind came up and the temps dropped. On day four the boat came back, everyone was pretty chilly and as we thought we were going to dock, they decided it was too dangerous and decided to go to the harbor. That meant another 10 minutes of being cold! The following day the harbor was closed in the morning. Windy and raining. Then it let up, they opened the harbor and we went out. When we were in for the first dive it began to rain. So, a cold interval for many (we had fleece and shells) and another cold ride back, but at least we were able to get to the hotel pier. Of course as soon as we unloaded the gear and finished rinsing it up, the wind dropped and the sun came out! But, the last two days of diving were great. Less boats on the reef (not many small ones at all) and we saw more life with moving octopus and free swimming eels.
It turns out a few other people stayed two days, also. One couple went over to Playa del Carmen for a couple of days and one stayed and dove one day with us. On our 'rest' day we went over to Playa, rented a couple of cars and went down to snorkle one of the cenote parks, Hidden World. It was an interesting experince that even the wife (non-diver) enjoyed. Perhaps a bit on the expensive side all and all, but we were glad we did it. Seeing all the guideline while snorkeling was kind of tuff, but when were were leaving, I ask about cave diving. They had made a big deal out of me talking to one particular guide. He starts explaining that I don't have to worry they give do a very thorough briefing and you are never more than 40 sec from the surface. I ask what kind of gear they dove and again with the safety brief. I finally said what about people that are cave trained and he said, "Oh, we don't do any real cave diving here!" It was kind of funny. I guess you just open water dive the snorkel route except underwater. When we drove back to Playa we saw the other couple and hund out with them awhile, ate a bite and came back on the ferry.
So, now on to SLIM for the stories from the other boat.
We traveled Wednesday 16th and returned Wed 23rd. The main part of the group came back on the 21st. Since this was a combined trip to celebrate a 16th and 18th birthday and a 30th anniversary, we wanted to stay a little longer.
This trip is always a little bit of a 'family' reunion because we know so many of the folks on the trip. We have been diving for five years now and this trip lets us dive with our three original instructors!
The checkout day and the first three days of diving were excellent weather. Mostly sunny, light wind and warm temps of 75-82 or so. Water was close to same with 78-82 ranges. The first day the girls and I were on the boat with the smaller group. The kids decided 'my' boat was boring, so the second day they switched to the other boat (some of that crew sat out the 2nd day). On the third day the youngest came back because even thought the boat was 'funner' the diving was better with us.
We dove Palancar Caves, Tormentos, Santa Rosa Wall, Punta Tunich, Columbia Deep, and The Mountains with The Dive House. We did a night dive from the shore at Fiesta Americanna.
The variety of life is strong, but to me, still not as dense as before the hurricane. There is a lot still, though. We saw several octopuses, moray eels, nurse sharks, big lobster, big sea bass, and bigggg grouper. Also, falmingo toungues, sea horses, worms, and tens of drums of all sizes. The soft coral is coming back strong and the colors are getting nice again. Of course all the usual suspects in the fish world were there. And, we saw many turtles.
The next two days were definitely for your hard core divers. The wind came up and the temps dropped. On day four the boat came back, everyone was pretty chilly and as we thought we were going to dock, they decided it was too dangerous and decided to go to the harbor. That meant another 10 minutes of being cold! The following day the harbor was closed in the morning. Windy and raining. Then it let up, they opened the harbor and we went out. When we were in for the first dive it began to rain. So, a cold interval for many (we had fleece and shells) and another cold ride back, but at least we were able to get to the hotel pier. Of course as soon as we unloaded the gear and finished rinsing it up, the wind dropped and the sun came out! But, the last two days of diving were great. Less boats on the reef (not many small ones at all) and we saw more life with moving octopus and free swimming eels.
It turns out a few other people stayed two days, also. One couple went over to Playa del Carmen for a couple of days and one stayed and dove one day with us. On our 'rest' day we went over to Playa, rented a couple of cars and went down to snorkle one of the cenote parks, Hidden World. It was an interesting experince that even the wife (non-diver) enjoyed. Perhaps a bit on the expensive side all and all, but we were glad we did it. Seeing all the guideline while snorkeling was kind of tuff, but when were were leaving, I ask about cave diving. They had made a big deal out of me talking to one particular guide. He starts explaining that I don't have to worry they give do a very thorough briefing and you are never more than 40 sec from the surface. I ask what kind of gear they dove and again with the safety brief. I finally said what about people that are cave trained and he said, "Oh, we don't do any real cave diving here!" It was kind of funny. I guess you just open water dive the snorkel route except underwater. When we drove back to Playa we saw the other couple and hund out with them awhile, ate a bite and came back on the ferry.
So, now on to SLIM for the stories from the other boat.