Back in Mexico ...

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm down here in Akumal for my annual cave diving trip. Once again I came down with a great group of folks from Cave Country Diving ... and am buddying up with Tracy Niesent for the trip. Yesterday was our "shakedown" dives in Nohoch. Gotta say, I really dislike these oversize beer cans they use for tanks down here ... they trim out like crap and I really had a hard time getting my rig properly weighted. But I moved some things around and hopefully I'll be more squared away today. Doesn't help that I almost never dive in fresh water or wear a wetsuit ... and it takes a few dives to get comfortable.

But we did manage a couple nice dives, and Nohoch is a beautiful cave.

Here's some pics from our dives ...

 

[AA3JY]

I'm down here in Akumal for my annual cave diving trip. Once again I came down with a great group of folks from Cave Country Diving ... and am buddying up with Tracy Niesent for the trip. Yesterday was our "shakedown" dives in Nohoch. Gotta say, I really dislike these oversize beer cans they use for tanks down here ... they trim out like crap and I really had a hard time getting my rig properly weighted. But I moved some things around and hopefully I'll be more squared away today. Doesn't help that I almost never dive in fresh water or wear a wetsuit ... and it takes a few dives to get comfortable.

But we did manage a couple nice dives, and Nohoch is a beautiful cave.

Here's some pics from our dives ...

View attachment 174904View attachment 174905View attachment 174906

Thanks for the update..will be down there in March with Cave Country as well. Keep the pix coming.. Looking at your pixs warms my heart here in zero degree temps that we are experiencing in the North East.

Clay
Kimberton, Pa.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Wish I could come back in March ... but I've got a big trip to Peru later in the year to plan for.

Yesterday we were at Gran Cenote. The topside scene here reminds me a lot of Ginnie Springs ... except that everyone appeared to be sober. Tons and tons of swimmers and tourists everywhere, and lots of people in recreational gear. The cenote tour is quite popular. Tracy and I were joined by Michel Therrien ... making for a pretty geographic team from Seattle, Montreal, and Florida. Considering I hadn't dived with Tracy till the day before, and Michel joined us for the first time, it was a really comfortable team.

The first day I'd had some issues with my tanks that I couldn't figure out ... for some reason I kept wanting to list to starboard. So after checking my rig, moving some weights around, moving the cam bands on the tanks ... it turned out to be the simplest explanation of all ... I'd chosen mismatched tanks, and had a Luxfer on one side and a Catalina on the other, and their buoyancy characteristics differ by a few pounds. So yesterday I was a bit more careful about which tanks I pulled out of the pile, and that problem went away. Made for a much more relaxing dive.

The first dive we discovered both the benefits and drawbacks of not diving with a guide ... benefit is you can go wherever you want. Drawback is that going wherever you want doesn't necessarily take you where you want to go ... we got back in some little dead-end side passage, and by the time we found the line up the main part of the cave we were 40 minutes into our dive. But we did find some pretty places back up in there, and our first dive was 97 minutes.

Second dive we got back into an area called "Much's Maze" and just played around, doing a couple jumps and seeing what was back in there. Pretty cave ... with some flow. Going in with the camera was effort ... even with the strobe arms folded in the thing's a sail. Coming out was fun though ... get your fins up and ride the flow. Almost felt like Florida. This was my longest dive of the trip so far ... 115 minutes. We spent some time playing in the cenote at the end ... which is really a pretty place.

Here's a couple pics from the day ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[bamafan]

Tell Tracy you know of a cave that has some flow but it has a ski rope to pull yourself into. Ask her if she is up for it.

 

[TSandM]

I love Grand! I have more dives there than any other cave in Mexico, and I never get tired of it, and often swim the cavern line at the end of a dive, just because it's so pretty.

I can't tell you how many dives I've done down there where we had a plan to go someplace, and got hopelessly turned around and onto the wrong lines and had no idea where we were. It always brings home the importance of studying the cave as you go in, and marking your path carefully. But in the end, it's all cave, and it's all good!

 

[AA3JY]

How about some nice warm pixs of the night life in Tulum?

Clay
Kimberton,Pa.

 

[TracyN]

Hush Eric!!! I will get into that cave!

 

[ScubaSam]

Beautiful pics, Bob. Sounds like you're having a great time but I'm not surprised because Cave Country Dive Shop runs a great trip.

Keep the pics and the reports coming so I can enjoy the cenotes vicariously through your pics.

 

[bamafan]

Tracy,

Hope you are having fun. We definitely will give it another shot just let me know. We also need to bone cave. The river is going back down.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm gonna try posting just this one ... the internet here is really slow and not cooperating, but this is my favorite picture of the day. I'll post more later ... possibly just wait till I get home and put a whole album together or something. But this was my last shot of Tracy as we were coming back from the Blue Abyss earlier today ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)