Brief review and some pix from Roatan (CocoView)

[under water]

First, I would like to thank the folks that have posted helpful information about CocoView on SB. Those helped me make the decision to go there.
My wife and I got our first scuba experience and were certified in August of 2005 on Roatan at BIBR. We weren't sure that was what we were going to do, but it worked out just fine. Last week was our first time back to Roatan after about 200 dives and a lot of other places.

First, a few pictures from this trip.

The wreck of the Price Albert on Coco view's doorstep.
This picture is a bit misleading. Most of the time the viz was horrendous around the wreck. It gave it that eerie wreck feeling, but I would have preferred better viz. This is not unexpected as the wreck is pretty close to the "bay" where the turbidity of the water really increases. When you do the drop-offs on the Cocoview and Newman's walls you can easily see the viz deteriorate as you get closer to the shore.
Also, if you don't have a decent strobe (or two), it isn't going to look like this!

One of many seahorses that we saw. We saw more seahorses in this week than in the last 5 years combined. This picture was taken through a fogged housing due to having to open the housing in the humidity.

Plenty of Lion fish. This was one of 3 that we saw on CocoView wall on one dive.
We actually saw a one inch juvenile Lion Fish right near the beach. It was absolutely the most beautiful fish I have ever seen and I didn't have my camera!! It was right in the path and while we under the water, (in 3 feet of water) admiring it's beauty, some divers came and stepped on it (accidentally)!

Juvenile Jackknife fish just a few feet from the Prince Albert. There were a few of these around.

Slender Filefish. I love finding these as they are so well camouflaged.

Banded Coral Shrimp on the wreck at night. I was using my UCL-165M67 that night and got lucky with focus.

Friendly Gecko.

 

[under water]

Lodging:
Well, we reserved too late to insure that we got a room on the resort. Instead they booked us into a beach house. It was beach house 11, the largest and farthest away. Some people there that week had paid extra to stay at a beach house. We paid the standard resort rate.
We would have preferred to stay at the resort.
Why.. well, it is just too far to conveniently haul anything back and forth and that is what I usually do at the end of the day with my camera gear. You can't conveniently go back to your room to change before & after dives. They do have bikes, but I found it inconvenient.
I found myself changing batteries and memory cards outside and until I started using the dive shop to do that, I was getting fogging caused by the humidity I was letting into the housing. If I was going to go back to CocoView and I was still using a camera, I would not stay at a beach house.

The Beach house itself was fine. Bigger than the 2 of us needed. We only needed one of the two bedrooms available, but a spare bedroom was available just in case . Only the downstairs was available, the upstairs was locked up. Although we had a "Beach House" there really was no beach where we were, just some grass leading down to the water. It did provide a lot of privacy, if we needed it. There were a couple of dogs that greeted us frequently, sometime boisterously. We are dog people, other may not appreciate them.

The dive setup. Excellent! You have an area that you put your gear and it stays there all week. You get a little wood tile with your room number on it and if it is hanging in the right place, your BC and tanks will be put on the boat prior to the dives. They will only move nitrox tanks on the boat if you have checked and recorded them of course.
It was pretty close to live-aboard, but you did have to remove your BC and swap tanks. On most live-aboards I have been on, they fill your tank during the SI and your BC never leaves the tank.
Speaking of tanks, I prefer to dive with larger tanks and fortunately I had spoken to Patty, the dive shop owner and she offered me the use of her two larger (100cf) tanks. Thank you Patty!
Our boat had 11 people maximum on it. Most of the time it was between 7 and 9. Plenty of room. The ladder in the middle of the boat came in handy a couple a few times as we had some pretty decent swells and coming up with a camera was easier (a lot easier!) through the middle of the boat.

The dive staff was great. Friendly and professional.
Melgar, our DM, actually jumped in and retrieved the rotating bezel from my compass that had fallen off as I climbed into the boat. If he can find that he can find just about anything.

The coolest fish we saw were 2 very large black Large-eyed Toadfish. Again, I didn't have my camera!

Shore diving area..

The food: OK. plenty of it. not always exactly what was described on the menu, but I can't complain about the food. I'm a true gourmand. It was tasty and I never felt the need to snack in between meals like I do back here at home.

One thing I will mention is that the shore diving can be a bit iffy if there is any kind of current and there were some times when there was current. The current seemed worse in the shallows, which I have never experienced before.

We met some very nice people while we were there. On more than one occasion we served as buddies for folks that couldn't talk the rest of their group into a night dive.

There was one unfortunate incident. During the week one of the guests died. She was assisted in from a shore dive and was apparently dead shortly after. There was no discussion of this from the management of the resort, but it did bring home the issue of mortality and made the trip a bit more reflective than expected. She was relatively young. As usual there were different stories about what happened. I met her before the accident so she was not a faceless person to me. It is something that I truly wish did not happen.

By the end of the week the spirits seemed to pick up again and we were sad to leave.
Getting there and back can be long and arduous, depending on where you live.
For first timers going there, arrival and transport to CocoView is very confusing.
You aren't sure who works for Cocoview and who works for the airport, etc. Maybe that was because our plane landed a bit early and the Cocoview person wasn't there yet.

Overall, it was one of the best resorts that I have been too, but if I ever did go back, I would stay much closer to the dive operations.
The managers of the resort (they are relatively new in this position) mentioned that it was like a live-aboard but much cheaper. I couldn't really agree with that.
We spent a week on the Turks & Caicos explorer last December. The live-aboard ended up costing us less money overall (airfare + resort / live-aboard cost), we had more dives, had better food and saw about the same (or more) variety of fauna on the dives. Certainly more sharks and fewer seahorses.
If you have been going to Cocoview year after year (many people do) and have not yet tried a live-aboard, I encourage you to try it at least once and then make the comparison.
They are both great!

Now that I have enjoyed my week in Cocoview I am planning my next trip.. this time to the Philippines or Fiji.

 

[CajunDiva]

I can highly recommend Fiji. We just returned from the island of Taveuni, where we dove the AMAZING Rainbow Reef. Not only did we see plenty of fish life and sharks, but the soft coral is something everyone should experience once in their dive lives

It can be done on a live-aboard, but I HIGHLY recommend Garden Island Resort

 

[Didje]

Thanks for the great report and amazing pictures!
I'm very surprised to read about the "incident"!

 

[tarponchik]

Nice pictures!

2 comments, if this could help you in the future.

1. We found that visibility on PA wreck was much better early in the morning. You have to be underwater by at least 6 am which we did every day (we stayed across the bay, in FI). We did a couple of night dives there but then dropped this idea cause by night water was totally messed up. I forgot when exaxtly we were there, but this was the same time of the year (April-May 07).

2. To defeat fogging, always put a small pack of silica gel into the housing.

 

[Doc]

One thing I will mention is that the shore diving can be a bit iffy if there is any kind of current and there were some times when there was current. The current seemed worse in the shallows, which I have never experienced before.

You were diving in an unusual geographic zone. Here's more:

The current you were sensing was "outflow surge". The first 200 feet in front of CoCoView is essentially a big swimming pool (The Front Yard) caused by the lagoon enclosure of the reef head wall. When the waves are crashing over CoCoView Wall, the Sea pushes into the lagoon- there is only one outflow exit... over the "chain" that marks your path from shore to wreck.

This "chain" path is exceptionally shallow and is the only exit from the lagoon, back into the Ocean. The large volume that is pushed over the wall, a half mile away... it all is forced through this narrow slot. It is fairly rare. You're feeling the pulsation of the wave crashes through that surge.

This current evidences itself as a pulsating, intermittent surge. The first time I experienced it, I kicked like mad in 6' of water, trying to get back in after the dive. Later, I figured out that you should kick when it's going with you, relax when it's not.

When ending their dive, many people make the very bad decision to grab ahold of the anchor chain laid along the bottom. Since it has lain in 5' of sea water for 25 years, it tends to break to bits when this happens. It's pretty evident when you see how many pieces it now lies in.

How to avoid it? You'll easily see from shore when the waves are crashing over the reef- it's pretty rare... and spectacular! As you begin your shore dive in 4' of water, you'll soon feel the very light current. The sea grass will by slowly waving. In 6>8 feet, you'll note that you don't have to swim very hard to go out on your dive. You may notice the dive flag buoy chain in 15fsw taking a decided lean to the channel and wreck to the South.

At any time, you can abort your dive, or simply decide to stay within the confines of the "Front Yard" dive site. If you do decide to go to the Prince Albert Wreck, just be aware that during your return, other divers with you will react differently to this sensation when they are returning, now at 1000psi. You can coach them in advance, but they are going to have to sort out the concept of "kick with the surge". Even in 5 feet of water, when you are sitting at 800psi, it can be kind of scary. Like I always say, "try standing up".
-
I too have seen returning divers stomp on stuff that is in the walkway... we always SCUBA in "until we run out of water", crawling in on our bellies. I guess that points up a new shore dive issue for the Caribbean- booties are now a "must have" for shore dives
-
UW.... You mention "number of dives" as a reference. I usually get 27>30 in a week (sometimes with 2 night dives per day). Since that's a big part of what CCV offers, and since you were comparing that to a liveabaord, how did your BT Log come out when all was said and done?

Thanks for posting a report (and nice pix- love that Gekko's lighting! The Banded Coral Shrimp? Lucky? I'd take it!)

Many people ask questions here on SB, unfortunately very few take the time to write such a well thought-out trip report! Thanks!

 

[robint]

great photo of the PA wreck!!!

And thanks for the report! Yes, I agree that CCV is similar to doing a liveaboard because of the ease of diving and the number of dives you can get in. Not sure about the price thing though.

BTW - in Roatan you didn't see a black spendid toadfish, they are a toadfish but called "large-eyed toadfish", same family just different species

and yes, they are much bigger than the Cozumel splendid toadfish!!

Does anyone know any more details about the woman's death?

robin

 

[under water]

You were diving in an unusual geographic zone. ..
This current evidences itself as a pulsating, intermittent surge. The first time I experienced it, I kicked like mad in 6' of water, trying to get back in after the dive. Later, I figured out that you should kick when it's going with you, relax when it's not.

Thanks for that explanation of what was going on. Going out was not a problem, it was the return and probably was exactly what you described. It was hard to just let go of that kick kick kick feeling when the you are getting pushed into the reef sideways. The chain was my friend for a few yards I didn't notice any breaks in it. We were told later that some FI divers couldn't get back to FI from the Prince Albert that night but did manage to climb on shore at CCV.

UW.... You mention "number of dives" as a reference. I usually get 27>30 in a week (sometimes with 2 night dives per day). Since that's a big part of what CCV offers, and since you were comparing that to a live-aboard, how did your BT Log come out when all was said and done?

Well I got 25 dives on the Explorer in December and 22 dives last week at CCV.
We could have gotten many more dives I'm sure, but no way was it as easy as falling off the back of the boat on a live-aboard. I agree that you could probably do more dives in a week at CCV since you could do a LOT of shallow dives. The effort to dive (change, set up, walk out to the reef) was more effort at CCV and magnified by the fact that our "Beach House" was a 15 minute return trip bike ride away from the dive 'lockers'. My wife had her fill of diving usually around 3 or 4 at Cocoview and that was our limiting factor.
I, who am eager to do every dive on a Live-aboard, was content to just do the 3 or 4 most days at CCV. Again, it comes down to convenience.
Speaking of BT. The 45 minute limit (guideline) for boat dives was about 15 minutes shorter than we were getting on the Explorer in general. (I used a big tank there too.) Not sure why that is, perhaps it was because we did something we don't usually do, hung out with the DM led group. On the Live-aboards and pretty much anywhere else, we usually take it really slow and do our own thing, not chase the pack. We talked about this and didn't really understand why we followed the pack on this trip.
I do have to say that the CocoView wall is probably "one of" the nicest reefs on Roatan and one of the most beautiful reefs anywhere in the Caribbean area.

 

[under water]

great photo of the PA wreck!!!
..BTW - in Roatan you didn't see a black spendid toadfish, they are a toadfish but called "large-eyed toadfish", same family just different species
and yes, they are much bigger than the Cozumel splendid toadfish!!
.. robin

Thanks Robin, I did notice that the crew weren't the best as IDing fish and I did wonder about that since the Splendid Toadfish I saw in Coz seemed like a whole different fish. I did have to point out the difference between a Tiger Grouper and a Nassau Grouper to them. I'll update the description on the post.

 

[senseiern]

Thanks for the pictures! Those pictures are exactly why I am excited about diving...but to experience them myself. Are the colors that vivid without a torch?