Coz Trip Report

[richhagelin]

Cozumel May 11-12 for my son's first warm water diving.

My son (age 23) and I flew into Cancun and took the collectivo to Playa Del Carmen and then the ferry over to Cozumel. Stayed at Casa Mexicana (best hotel for the price in town). ..... Thanks to Doc Vikingo for the recommendation .......

Dove two days with Alison Dennis (www.scubawithalison.com). Since it was my son's first diving since certification, we requested that the dives be kept rather shallow.

Day 1: Tormentos and Yucab: lots of fish, great coral, two lobsters and 3 barracuda. 50-65' 40-45 min bottom time.

Day 2: Delilah and Cedral Wall (stayed on top of the wall at 60'): two sharks, 3 lobster and 2 turtles. Same basic dive profiles as the first day.

Visibility was good (about 100') but not great. Water was warm we were more than comfortable in shorties.

The drift diving was great with a small (5 people plus two dive masters) group. Once we had to wait out of the current behind a coral head while a group of about 40 divers off one of the bigger boats floated by. Then it was back to the relaxed small group.

Highly recommend Casa Mexicana if you are staying in town. Next time I think I will plan to stay farther south to avoid the early get-up and taxi down to the Marina and the long boat ride to the dive sites. But, if you want to be close to the action in town, Casa Mexicana is a good way to go.

Rich Hagelin

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

What did your son think of his first real diving?

 

[raviepoo]

You say the water was warm. Warm for you might be chilly for me. I'm trying to decide between a 3 mm and a .5 mm skin for my trip next Friday. Do you remember the bottom temps?

How was the weather? How hot was it? Did you get rain? Was the ocean calm?

Are the sea lice finally gone?

Which was your favorite of the reefs you dove?

 

[9driver]

Sounds like a great trip! We're leaving tomorrow, and I'm on the edge of my seat in anticipation!

I'm taking a full 3/2 and my wife a full 3. I may get a bit warm, but I'm wearing the full more for protection than anything else. Is it tomorrow yet???

 

[DocVikingo]

Sea lice are lessening, but not gone. Mobile pockets remain.

Scuba water temps have been running ~82 degrees.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

 

[richhagelin]

My son is hooked (good news is that he is an adult and will have to finance this addiction on his own).

I don't remember the bottom temps. On our boat there were people in skins, shorties only the DM wore a full 3mm. One dive master did not wear even a skin. Everyone was comfortable (though we stayed a little shallower than you might be going). On the other boats we saw, I saw mostly shorties and skins.

Weather was warm and humid. Highs in the low 90s. No rain in the two days we were there but there were fair weather clouds on the horizon each day. Winds were from the Southeast so it was calm near town and started to get a little more wave action the farther south you went.

No problems with sea lice. I saw a few thimble jellyfish but no one had a problem with them (there were far fewer thimble jellyfish then when I was down in early April).

All of the reefs were good and fairly similar. My son enjoyed Cedral Wall the most. We were working along the reef at the top of where the wall starts. You could move a little to the West and be hanging at 60' and look down to forever. That was kind of cool. We saw more "strange" critters on that dive also (sharks and turtles).
\
Hard to choose the best.

Rich

 

[5615mike]

raviepoo

You will be fine with a microprene or 1mm. My wife and I always use them and we never get cold.

We leave tomorrow and can't wait.