Brief review and some pix from Roatan (CocoView)

[under water]

.. Are the colors that vivid without a torch?

Not really. You need to add back the colors that are filtered out by the column of water above you. Bringing a torch or strobe is the only way to do that. It is incredible how much red sponge is under the overhangs, but very few people see the colors without bringing a little sun with them.
Without a good strobe and some white balancing to offset the lack of red, you would not see the colors in this small patch of reef very well.

The exception is when you are shallow. Within 20 feet of the surface on a sunny day, in clear water, you can see the colors quite well. Unfortunately, a lot of the colorful stuff isn't usually that close to the surface.
I use a wide angle lens so that I can get closer and maximize the amount of light that my strobes provide as well as minimize the effect of the water between the strobes and the subject.
The picture below shows the effect of the strobe highlighting the red whip coral. As the coral gets further from the strobe, the red color diminishes and fades to black. Without a light, the coral would pretty much look black.

 

[senseiern]

Wow! I am excited all over again. One thing photos cannot show is perspective. In the shot, it looks like a monster from the deep that is uncoiling to capture an unsuspecting dive. Is it that big?

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for the report

 

[ncchuck]

I do have to say that the CocoView wall is probably the nicest reef on Roatan and one of the most beautiful reefs anywhere in the Caribbean area.

Terrific report and nice pictures.

I'm a little surprised by the quote above however. Did you dive Morat Wall? Did you dive Reef House Wall? What about Calvin's Crack? What other Caribbean sites are you comparing this wall too? Have you been to Bloody Bay Wall on Little Cayman? What about Black Hills on Utila? Everyone certainly has there own opinion and I'm glad you enjoyed the CocoView wall.

I totally agree with your assessment of liveaboard diving versus resort diving. No comparison when you gear is right there and all you have to do is step off. I've been on at least one liveaboard where there were no diving restrictions at all and some people did 6 dives a day with some being over 80 minutes. I lived on Roatan and Utila and have visited as a tourist 10 times or more but nothing compares to the Utila or old Bay Islands Aggressor not to mention liveaboards in other places.

Again, great report.

 

[under water]

Wow! I am excited all over again. One thing photos cannot show is perspective. In the shot, it looks like a monster from the deep that is uncoiling to capture an unsuspecting diver. Is it that big?

The coral was quite long. Probably going about half way down to Jessica. Stretched out it could easily have reached her :shocked2:

 

[under water]

Terrific report and nice pictures.

I'm a little surprised by the quote above however. Did you dive Morat Wall? Did you dive Reef House Wall? What about Calvin's Crack? What other Caribbean sites are you comparing this wall too? Have you been to Bloody Bay Wall on Little Cayman? What about Black Hills on Utila? Everyone certainly has there own opinion and I'm glad you enjoyed the CocoView wall.
..

Thanks., I have dived a few of those places, but not all. I wasn't comparing it to Bloody Bay wall, but I found it to be beautiful. CocoView wall seemed underrated to me and I saw some divers racing back along it. The viz at the end was pretty bad though. It was chock full of life, especially around 50 feet or so. I prefered it to Calvin's Crack and Mary's Place. Maybe because we were doing it by ourselves as drop offs, not as group dives.. not sure.
We took our time, to the point that we we might have been going too slow.
It was the formations under the ledges that I particularly liked. We could spend 10 minutes exporing a few yards.
To be honest, I found the sunshine spearing its way through the kelp forests in Southern California, then bouncing off of the colorful nudibranchs and Garibaldi, to be the 'prettiest' dives I have taken.

 

[Pelagicsal]

Hi Frank!
I was there with you and remember you because of your double checking on the 100 cu tanks. I kept hearing that there was another active ScubaBoarder but couldn't figure out how to scout you out without looking like a total dweeb.

I never saw that nice viz on PA. Crappy every time I was there! Did ADORE the little jack knife fish
by PA...

Thanks for the bit of clarification on the incident. That was another place where I wasn't able to figure out how to find out what happened - even though I did think it was important! Not wanting to contribute to the rumor mill, I mostly kept my mouth shut about her.

I was on Coco III, and DM Eddie was great at finding and IDing creatures. I don't remember disagreeing with any of his labels. He did have books out more than once during the week discussing creatures with us...

I was on TCI Explorer in Dec, too! I was aboard Christmas week. When were you on?

I got in the max 27 dives on TCEX - compared to 23 at CCV. There was much more effort at CCV, to be sure! I might've hit a few more, but I was satisfied with boat dives and dropoffs rather than expending the effort for more shore dives. My buddies didn't express interest in shore diving, so I went with the flow.

Really enjoyed TCEX. I was so glad to be diving with Liang again - an old friend from diving with Aldora in Cozumel. Would go diving anytime-anywhere with Joe, too! And Dawn was a scream in the water!

Wish we'd connected at CCV. Maybe next time!?!

 

[under water]

Hi Frank!
..Thanks for the bit of clarification on the incident. That was another place where I wasn't able to figure out how to find out what happened - even though I did think it was important! Not wanting to contribute to the rumor mill, I mostly kept my mouth shut about her.

Yes, It's a bit unnerving to see nothing written anywhere about this or addressed by the CCV management. To be honest, it makes me wonder how many more incidents we never hear about. I see Robin has posted something in the incidents forum with no responses yet.

I was on Coco III...
I was on TCI Explorer in Dec, too! I was aboard Christmas week. When were you on?

You were on the singing boat? We were on Coco IV.
We were on TCEX from Dec 12th -19th. probably passed you at the airport.

I got in the max 27 dives on TCEX - compared to 23 at CCV. There was much more effort at CCV, to be sure! I might've hit a few more, but I was satisfied with boat dives and dropoffs rather than expending the effort for more shore dives. My buddies didn't express interest in shore diving, so I went with the flow.

I noticed that a small % of the guests took advantage of the shore dives and even fewer took advantage of the shore dives at night. At least one night, we brought out and brought back the strobe. Most of the time it was hanging up, not on the reef, when we walked past the dive area.

Really enjoyed TCEX. I was so glad to be diving with Liang again - an old friend from diving with Aldora in Cozumel. Would go diving anytime-anywhere with Joe, too! And Dawn was a scream in the water!

Agree, they were fun. We did our own thing usually and rarely spent much time with them underwater. Plenty of chatting on board though!

Wish we'd connected at CCV. Maybe next time!?!

Agreed.. The boat seems like the place to meet new people. If you weren't on the same boat then mixing it up at the tables at meal times was the other way. We met some nice people that way.
Fiji or Phillipines in November??

 

[Pelagicsal]

I believe there are multitudes of dive incidents and dive deaths we never hear of. And I am not a cynic!

Yep, we were singing French Happy Birthday to a few of those folks. Something along the lines of "Bon fah-tu, Andre! Bon fah-tu Andre..." Phonetic b'day greetings from me...

Yep, I was probably in Gilley's eating some tuna on a green salad (it was REALLY good).
I travel on my own and am usually pretty happy hanging out with a good DM. Liang took the week off work (we were only 10 customers), so I got to dive with her a lot - always a fave u/w experience, as we both enjoy finding elusive creatures - and Joe did, too...

Great! I'd love to be in Fiji or the Phillipines for November, but I am still tied to school calendar for another year. So I have T'giving week off.

The boat is the place to get to know folks. We ended up diving a couple of mornings on Coco II, swapped some pix, and got to know some of them - as well as our gang on III. My buds were into eating outdoors (was quite pleasant) so I didn't do as much socializing at meals as is my usual M.O.

So... What are we doing in November 2011?
Sallye

 

[KentFromPGH]

I was one of Pelagicsal's buddies for the week. I also found it a little bit odd that there was nothing about the incident from CCV management but maybe they want to respect the privacy of those involved.

I and my wife enjoyed our stay at CCV but sure wished the night boat dive had not been cancelled. I guess we should have made more of an effort to do the shore dive 8-(.