Best Morning departure time for optimal sea life viewing, does it make any difference?- Cozumel

[NeilA.]

Hi All,

My wife and I are heading to Cozumel in early August, this will be our fourth visit there. We always stay south of the marina.

Anyway, We have previously been with operators that have an early (7:30am) departure from the marina, I am wondering if a later departure time - say 9:00 has any noticeable difference in the quality of diving or seeing cool sea life?

Thank you in advance,
Neil

 

[GameChanger]

Not that I have noticed.

 

[lowwall]

I've done first dives in Coz from 7:30 through 10 and not noticed a difference. I think you'd need a pre-dawn departure to have a real advantage.

 

[ggunn]

Not that I have noticed.

During my recent two week stay at Blue Angel, the boats all departed at 10AM rather than 8AM as they always have done in the past. This was at least partly due to the three (!) tropical weather events that happened during our stay on the island and the spotty port closures during that time; the official go/no-go from the harbor master every day did not come out until about 8:30AM.

I did not see any particular difference in the diving, either, though getting back to the hotel at 2-3PM instead of 12N-1PM was less ideal for planning the rest of the day. I would rather have gone out at 8AM but my wife liked the 10AM time.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

When starting Aldora Divers in 92 I chose an early 7:30 departure for several reasons. 1 was that our divers got to be the ones to scare the sharks away, 2 that we seldom found our far south dive sites crowded. Indeed our divers noticed that we were often the only ones at a site, only to surface and find hoards of other boats.

Now that it is common for other operators to go way south and earlier, that may have changed.

Dave Dillehay

 

[mediumone]

our divers noticed that we were often the only ones at a site



Dave Dillehay

We always do afternoon dives.
We rarely encounter another group.

 

[sefuchs]

We always do afternoon dives.

I don't always do afternoon dives but am enjoying them more and more. The wife prefers morning, but she is starting to change her opinion as well. Used to like going early (7:00-7:30) but now we head out at 9:00 and don't notice any difference in the number of fish or overpopulated dive sites. The last few years we started shifting more of our dives to the afternoon. My only complaint is getting back so late to head out to dinner but it's okay.

My 'perfect' Coz dive schedule would be a 3-tank trip heading out about 10:00-11:00 am. Alternately a 3-tank afternoon, twilight and night dive would fantastic!

 

[ggunn]

We always do afternoon dives.
We rarely encounter another group.

For the first week of our trip last month everything from the north end of Palancar southward was closed due to unusually strong SE winds, Paradise was closed all month, and no one was diving Chankanaab because the viz was terrible due to runoff from all the rain. We got tangled with other groups two or three times because all the divers were crowded into half the sites.

Of course, when the southern reefs opened back up, that's where everyone wanted to go, so...

 

[ReefHound]

I don't always do afternoon dives but am enjoying them more and more. The wife prefers morning, but she is starting to change her opinion as well. Used to like going early (7:00-7:30) but now we head out at 9:00 and don't notice any difference in the number of fish or overpopulated dive sites. The last few years we started shifting more of our dives to the afternoon. My only complaint is getting back so late to head out to dinner but it's okay.

My 'perfect' Coz dive schedule would be a 3-tank trip heading out about 10:00-11:00 am. Alternately a 3-tank afternoon, twilight and night dive would fantastic!

Maybe there is a little niche in the market for someone to offer that? Call it the Late Bird. Well suited to the night owls and bar hoppers that get to bed late and get up late.

 

[sefuchs]

Well I get up kinda early and not a night owl (anymore) so maybe call it the Laid Back schedule.

I don’t like to rush to the boat in the morning and enjoy going out for dinner and a cocktail or two after diving (but b4 8-9 at night) I’m a bit on the older side so the typical 2-tanker in the morning and in the afternoon wears me out too much. I think a 3-tank mid-day schedule would be the perfect ticket but apparently there isn’t a market for that schedule. So I’ll stick to my 2-tank a day dives and since I’m retired it gives me a reason to stay an extra couple weeks so I reach my target of at least 40 dives a trip.