Cocos Island trip with Undersea Hunter Group

[peeweediver]

Lots has been written about diving in Cocos Island's waters, so I'll keep this brief. Despite poor visibility (20-40 feet), some strong current and surge, we saw exactly what we hoped to see. Large schools of hammerheads and very, very close encounters. Multiple arms length passes. I felt like I could have taken over the duties of the cleaner Barber Fish and cleaned their teeth. Tigers, galapagos sharks, dolphins, mantas, brief whaleshark sighting and white tips galore. We could not have been happier.
Two points about the boat (Sea Hunter). Great and fun crew that made us smile everyday. Safety was paramount. GPS for every diver and two used it when current took them away because they went down after a light that detached from camera set-up after entry. From instigation of the GPS unit when they surfaced to pick up was 5-7 minutes. Great experience of safety precautions in action.
As with most good boats, food was very good (our veggie and gluten free divers were well served), boat was clean and it had more space for us to lounge around than we anticipated from the photos.
Though half the group was a bit sick during the crossing, all felt great from then on and the return was a piece of cake. All in all, when a scuba trip that your group has been planning for almost 3 years exceeds your daydreams....not a bad outcome.
Great group of folks from the Sea Hunter helping us truly enjoy the trip.

Rob

 

[drrich2]

Did the hammerheads seem bothered by open circuit divers' bubbles? I ask because I think I recall reading that mentioned in another account somewhere.

Glad you had a great trip. Were any of the tiger shark encounters close? Any idea what sizes?

Richard.

 

[peeweediver]

Richard:
Yes and no on bubbles issue. We were all surprised how close they came. We did make concerted efforts to either hold our breath or breath very slowly when we thought they would be coming close. Best dives were when the three or four folks around me all synchronized our quiet time. On a number of dives we had 15-20 right around us, a few going by or over us within touching distance, and the rest of the school up or more out in the blue, but still visible. The rest of the dives they stayed 10-15 feet away or so. It may have been the bad viz that had them coming closer because they didn't see us until late or maybe they are getting used to divers. No clue, really. Crew told us that they do come closer with rebreathers, but I can't see them coming any closer to them than us because on many dives I could have cleaned their teeth. We saw tigers on about a third to half of the dives. Not as close and never touchable distance. They were about 12-14 feet in size. They swim so differently and confidently that it's a bit unnerving. Always solo.

Rob