billindenver
Contributor
- Messages
- 447
- Reaction score
- 16
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
We landed on Saturday afternoon in Cancun and started the taxi/ferry/taxi trip to cozumel. First thoughts, will never do that again. We both agreed that from now on we fly into cozumel. We couldn't find the private taxi's, ended up using the 'official' guys, who made a fortune on that drive. We arrived at the Ferry, walked four blocks or so in a carribean deluge of a rainstorm to find the Ferry just left. Tonia looked less than pleased about being drenched, she's not the rain fan that I am. So, a quick glance around found a Senor Frogs next to the Ferry and just like that, we were saved! We hauled our suitcases up to the table where some very friendly wait staff brought us drinks and shrimp...ahh, the good life.
An hour later we were on the next Ferry, but by the time we got to Coz, Blue XT Sea was closed. It didn't end up being a problem at all, they let us hand them the paperwork in the boat the next morning at Iberostar's pier. By the time you add up the taxi's, Ferry and most of all time it takes to make those trips back and forth...we will be flying into Coz from now on unless they are giving away the cancun flight.
Sunday's dives. We met Blanca and the crew who are all more than just friendly. They set up our gear in the few minutes ride from Iberostar to Palancar Bricks. Tonia struggled with bouyancy a lot but Blanca from Blue XT Sea handled her very well. Tonia was nervous the entire day and forgot half of what she already knew, but Blanca took her in hand and retaught her how to dive. Tonia had never been in the ocean before, never dove below 40 feet, never seen marine life like that...so it was all new to her and she was a bit overwhelmed. Blanca handled the whole thing like a pro. Here is a shot of Blanca and Tonia on that first dive.
Baby turtle.
Our second dive was Dalila which was delightful and it started with a laugh. Being a skydiver, pilot, racer, x-military etc I have a habit of doing a gear/safety check prior to pretty much anything. So, I take a couple shallow breaths off each reg while sitting on the side of the boat. I rolled in and we started down...and on the second or third inhale...nothing there. I surfaced and laughed at the captain for forgetting to turn my air back on. I also made a mental note that even when being pampered and coddled, I still keep an eye on what's going on with my gear. Its easy to just let the pro's do their thing and get caught up in the beauty etc around you. On the third or fourth day I found Tonia's shoulder strap unhooked just prior to rolling in while giving her a once over from across the boat (Zeagles have a quick clip), so that lesson was a good one.
The other people in the boat were not interested in afternoon dives so we took the afternoon off thinking we had plenty of dive time coming that week. Had we known the dreaded Norte was on its way, I probably would have jumped an afternoon dive with Dressel but as they say, live and learn. Tonia was not at a place where a cattle boat dive was even an option in either of our minds, so an afternoon at the pool/bar/beach was a great idea. This was my first time diving with a camera (sealife reefmaster mini) and I left it in land mode, didn't white balance once so all of my pictures have a nice green hue to them. I believe that is somewhat correctable with the right software, but I have yet to attempt it. I took between 80 and 100 pics per day, most turned out not so great but I am learning where either I, or my lack of a strobe is causing my problems. One more from that first dive day.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The dreded Norte moved in Sunday night and the harbor was closed.
The first day we rented a jeep and toured the island. We saw the ruins, went to coconuts, Senor Frogs,
shopped and did the tourist thing...thinking Tuesday would be diving again. But...the weather remained. So, we did the pool and the bar, the gym and just about everything else that can be done at Iberostar (not much). By the end of the third day, the ocean was looking better...and we were looking forward to some diving.
Thursday morning we were back in the water. First dive was Palancar Horseshoe and the second was Paso del Cedral.
Tonia and Blanca discussing the descent.
Tonia was still struggling with bouyancy and Blanca was still handling her with patience while slowly but surely pumping her knowledge and confidence into her. Meanwhile, I swam around the two of them and took pictures of everything I could. Most didn't turn out, but some were reasonable. I had the camera set on sea mode this time, hence the blue instead of green tint. I had not yet learned the white balance lesson...but it's coming.
In the afternoon, I gave Dressel a try at Iberostar. We did Palancar caves and then Palancar gardens for some swim thru's. Following is a write up I did in response to someone asking about Dressel.
Christi's boat pulled up to the dock at 12:45 and I walked over to Dressel with gear in hand. The Dressel boat leaves the dock at 1:00....which is not much surface interval considering the morning was spent near Iberostar. My Atmos told me I had 43 minutes at 65 feet if I chose to, and I could always cut the dives short if needbe, so I signed up. I still had another 15 minutes before the boat left, plus the ride time to palancar caves, plus the time it took to get the other two groups off the boat in order to off gas, which turned out not to be a problem. Dressel limits afternoon dives to 45 minutes anyway...though my DM and I were alone on the reef by 40 minutes and stayed until 50 before he signalled me to ascend. My computer showed 10 minutes of air left and nitrogen was still fine...probably due to the following.
One strange thing. If you sign a waiver, you can dive nitrox with Dressel without the class. That caught me off guard, probably not so bright....but I thought it would add a bit of safety to a rather compressed surface interval so I did it. My Atmos allows me to change to nitrox and it tracks my nitrogen with that in mind, so it couldn't hurt. As it turned out the interval between dive 3 and dive 4 was something like 35 minutes so I am happy I went with the nitrox. I guess I'll have to take that class now.
The boat. Yes, they are large and in my case pretty crowded. Dressel had a boat down for maintenance so they had three groups of 8 on my boat. Thats a lot of divers...but they split the entry time well and to be honest the crowd didn't bother me at all. Everyone was friendly, the DM's were helpful if needed....I really had no problem with 24 people on that boat, except that the door to the head forward was padlocked...there was some complaining from the sterile wetsuit crowd, especially after the nonexistant dock stop between dives. My DM was my dive buddy (Loic - French) and he said they normally don't put more than 16 on a boat, but three days of no diving from a Norte had a lot of divers wanting to go and one boat down meant large crowds. Between the dives they hand you a plastic cup with some water in it for the interval boat ride back to the dock...unlike Blue XT sea who has bottled water, fruit and muffins, on the beach...for an hour plus.
The Dives. Loic was patient and helpful, swam slowly through the swim throughs and waited for the group to gather up on the other side before proceeding. We did Palancar Caves and Palancar Gardens on our two dives with as I said a very short interval, just long enough to swap tanks at Iberostar's dock. That story they give you about having time for a snack or restroom between dives....do not believe it. DM's told everyone, you have about 5 minutes on the dock, don't go far. Most stayed in the boat. With 24 divers in the water, even when departure is separated by a few minutes you can end up with groups close to each other. At one point a photography type from another group who was lagging looked up and saw us on the other side of the reef...he started to swim over but I put both hands out in the universal stop signal...he stopped and I pointed to the bubbles behind him ...he looked, signaled ok to me and swam off. I sure hope that was his group, but he certainly wasn't from ours and that was the only bubbles in sight.
The Divers. As you can see by my dive number to the left (19 after that trip), I am not an expert but on both dives I felt like one because others were sucking through air at a rate that made me look good. By 30 minutes we had divers going up for their safety stops (DM deploys a sausage on a string, ascending divers loop a finger around that line and ascends along it...remaining with the drifting group. Swim throughs end when the first diver ascends. Both dives I had at least 10 minutes left before needing to ascend and get in the boat with 500psi but as I said, dives are on a timer (in contrast to what Dressel told me in email prior to the trip). At 45 minutes, you are done.
All in all, the cattle boat experience was not a bad one. If they let us dive our computers, I would use them again. As it is, I likely wont. The Dressel dives were numbers 14 and 15 in my log book and I was still cut short of using an entire tank on either dive. For an experienced diver whose air consumption would be less than mine...I think you would be in the boat (on the afternoon dives) with 1200 psi in your tank. I did not have to show them my logbook, only my cert card and credit card. Paperwork was done in 2 minutes, never asked my number of dives or experience level....just took my money, copied my card and put me on the boat. That was the first time I felt like I was a diver in charge of my own destiny...watch my computer and pay attention to nitrogen because there wasn't a conservative DM watching my back. Being a skydiving instructor amoungst a few other things I like being left alone, but in contrast I would never have put Tonia on that boat in those circumstances. 24 divers gearing up, you better know what you are doing and not be nervous about it. The DM's were trying to help the people who were really lost, but there are not enough of them to go around. One of my group lost a weight pocket in the first 15 feet of descent...he was not in a wetsuit so didn't notice the loss (not much weight)...one of the others from the group swam off on her own to retrieve it, but nobody knew what she was doing or why....there we all sat waiting for her to find it and come back. Fun dives, as well run as I could expect them to be with so many on the boat...but a bit of a cluster if you know what I mean. You just can't put 24 divers in a boat and not have a bit of confusion. Still, they did very well considering.
Day three. Palancar Gardens without the swim thru's followed by La Francesa. I had concluded after looking at day 2's pics, that the reefmaster mini's sea mode was not cutting it color wise, and white balancing was in order. While I was balancing on occasion, still nowhere near often enough as I would find once I got back to Iberostar to view my pics. Tonia was feeling better, and more importantly Blanca was feeling better about Tonia. A great morning of diving after which we took the afternoon off. The pics get better each day as I learn how to use the camera. Still not great, but you can get the idea.
Dive day 4. We extended our trip by a day since we lost three, and dove one more morning. This time, I'm white balancing a lot and the pics get presentable. The focus on the reefmaster mini still leaves a lot to be desired, but about 10% of the pics turned out well on this morning which is the best result of the 4 days.
On the last dive of the last day, I am happy to report that Tonia "Got It". Her bouyancy was good, her breathing was good, we put in a one hour dive with a max depth of 72 feet and Blanca never touched her. All in all, a great end to a fabulous trip. Tonia says we are going back to Coz in March...I'm thinking December or January...and March. We shall see....
One more, of Tonia discovering what it's like to be a scuba diver without a DM holding your tank valve.
An hour later we were on the next Ferry, but by the time we got to Coz, Blue XT Sea was closed. It didn't end up being a problem at all, they let us hand them the paperwork in the boat the next morning at Iberostar's pier. By the time you add up the taxi's, Ferry and most of all time it takes to make those trips back and forth...we will be flying into Coz from now on unless they are giving away the cancun flight.
Sunday's dives. We met Blanca and the crew who are all more than just friendly. They set up our gear in the few minutes ride from Iberostar to Palancar Bricks. Tonia struggled with bouyancy a lot but Blanca from Blue XT Sea handled her very well. Tonia was nervous the entire day and forgot half of what she already knew, but Blanca took her in hand and retaught her how to dive. Tonia had never been in the ocean before, never dove below 40 feet, never seen marine life like that...so it was all new to her and she was a bit overwhelmed. Blanca handled the whole thing like a pro. Here is a shot of Blanca and Tonia on that first dive.
Baby turtle.
Our second dive was Dalila which was delightful and it started with a laugh. Being a skydiver, pilot, racer, x-military etc I have a habit of doing a gear/safety check prior to pretty much anything. So, I take a couple shallow breaths off each reg while sitting on the side of the boat. I rolled in and we started down...and on the second or third inhale...nothing there. I surfaced and laughed at the captain for forgetting to turn my air back on. I also made a mental note that even when being pampered and coddled, I still keep an eye on what's going on with my gear. Its easy to just let the pro's do their thing and get caught up in the beauty etc around you. On the third or fourth day I found Tonia's shoulder strap unhooked just prior to rolling in while giving her a once over from across the boat (Zeagles have a quick clip), so that lesson was a good one.
The other people in the boat were not interested in afternoon dives so we took the afternoon off thinking we had plenty of dive time coming that week. Had we known the dreaded Norte was on its way, I probably would have jumped an afternoon dive with Dressel but as they say, live and learn. Tonia was not at a place where a cattle boat dive was even an option in either of our minds, so an afternoon at the pool/bar/beach was a great idea. This was my first time diving with a camera (sealife reefmaster mini) and I left it in land mode, didn't white balance once so all of my pictures have a nice green hue to them. I believe that is somewhat correctable with the right software, but I have yet to attempt it. I took between 80 and 100 pics per day, most turned out not so great but I am learning where either I, or my lack of a strobe is causing my problems. One more from that first dive day.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The dreded Norte moved in Sunday night and the harbor was closed.
The first day we rented a jeep and toured the island. We saw the ruins, went to coconuts, Senor Frogs,
shopped and did the tourist thing...thinking Tuesday would be diving again. But...the weather remained. So, we did the pool and the bar, the gym and just about everything else that can be done at Iberostar (not much). By the end of the third day, the ocean was looking better...and we were looking forward to some diving.
Thursday morning we were back in the water. First dive was Palancar Horseshoe and the second was Paso del Cedral.
Tonia and Blanca discussing the descent.
Tonia was still struggling with bouyancy and Blanca was still handling her with patience while slowly but surely pumping her knowledge and confidence into her. Meanwhile, I swam around the two of them and took pictures of everything I could. Most didn't turn out, but some were reasonable. I had the camera set on sea mode this time, hence the blue instead of green tint. I had not yet learned the white balance lesson...but it's coming.
In the afternoon, I gave Dressel a try at Iberostar. We did Palancar caves and then Palancar gardens for some swim thru's. Following is a write up I did in response to someone asking about Dressel.
Christi's boat pulled up to the dock at 12:45 and I walked over to Dressel with gear in hand. The Dressel boat leaves the dock at 1:00....which is not much surface interval considering the morning was spent near Iberostar. My Atmos told me I had 43 minutes at 65 feet if I chose to, and I could always cut the dives short if needbe, so I signed up. I still had another 15 minutes before the boat left, plus the ride time to palancar caves, plus the time it took to get the other two groups off the boat in order to off gas, which turned out not to be a problem. Dressel limits afternoon dives to 45 minutes anyway...though my DM and I were alone on the reef by 40 minutes and stayed until 50 before he signalled me to ascend. My computer showed 10 minutes of air left and nitrogen was still fine...probably due to the following.
One strange thing. If you sign a waiver, you can dive nitrox with Dressel without the class. That caught me off guard, probably not so bright....but I thought it would add a bit of safety to a rather compressed surface interval so I did it. My Atmos allows me to change to nitrox and it tracks my nitrogen with that in mind, so it couldn't hurt. As it turned out the interval between dive 3 and dive 4 was something like 35 minutes so I am happy I went with the nitrox. I guess I'll have to take that class now.
The boat. Yes, they are large and in my case pretty crowded. Dressel had a boat down for maintenance so they had three groups of 8 on my boat. Thats a lot of divers...but they split the entry time well and to be honest the crowd didn't bother me at all. Everyone was friendly, the DM's were helpful if needed....I really had no problem with 24 people on that boat, except that the door to the head forward was padlocked...there was some complaining from the sterile wetsuit crowd, especially after the nonexistant dock stop between dives. My DM was my dive buddy (Loic - French) and he said they normally don't put more than 16 on a boat, but three days of no diving from a Norte had a lot of divers wanting to go and one boat down meant large crowds. Between the dives they hand you a plastic cup with some water in it for the interval boat ride back to the dock...unlike Blue XT sea who has bottled water, fruit and muffins, on the beach...for an hour plus.
The Dives. Loic was patient and helpful, swam slowly through the swim throughs and waited for the group to gather up on the other side before proceeding. We did Palancar Caves and Palancar Gardens on our two dives with as I said a very short interval, just long enough to swap tanks at Iberostar's dock. That story they give you about having time for a snack or restroom between dives....do not believe it. DM's told everyone, you have about 5 minutes on the dock, don't go far. Most stayed in the boat. With 24 divers in the water, even when departure is separated by a few minutes you can end up with groups close to each other. At one point a photography type from another group who was lagging looked up and saw us on the other side of the reef...he started to swim over but I put both hands out in the universal stop signal...he stopped and I pointed to the bubbles behind him ...he looked, signaled ok to me and swam off. I sure hope that was his group, but he certainly wasn't from ours and that was the only bubbles in sight.
The Divers. As you can see by my dive number to the left (19 after that trip), I am not an expert but on both dives I felt like one because others were sucking through air at a rate that made me look good. By 30 minutes we had divers going up for their safety stops (DM deploys a sausage on a string, ascending divers loop a finger around that line and ascends along it...remaining with the drifting group. Swim throughs end when the first diver ascends. Both dives I had at least 10 minutes left before needing to ascend and get in the boat with 500psi but as I said, dives are on a timer (in contrast to what Dressel told me in email prior to the trip). At 45 minutes, you are done.
All in all, the cattle boat experience was not a bad one. If they let us dive our computers, I would use them again. As it is, I likely wont. The Dressel dives were numbers 14 and 15 in my log book and I was still cut short of using an entire tank on either dive. For an experienced diver whose air consumption would be less than mine...I think you would be in the boat (on the afternoon dives) with 1200 psi in your tank. I did not have to show them my logbook, only my cert card and credit card. Paperwork was done in 2 minutes, never asked my number of dives or experience level....just took my money, copied my card and put me on the boat. That was the first time I felt like I was a diver in charge of my own destiny...watch my computer and pay attention to nitrogen because there wasn't a conservative DM watching my back. Being a skydiving instructor amoungst a few other things I like being left alone, but in contrast I would never have put Tonia on that boat in those circumstances. 24 divers gearing up, you better know what you are doing and not be nervous about it. The DM's were trying to help the people who were really lost, but there are not enough of them to go around. One of my group lost a weight pocket in the first 15 feet of descent...he was not in a wetsuit so didn't notice the loss (not much weight)...one of the others from the group swam off on her own to retrieve it, but nobody knew what she was doing or why....there we all sat waiting for her to find it and come back. Fun dives, as well run as I could expect them to be with so many on the boat...but a bit of a cluster if you know what I mean. You just can't put 24 divers in a boat and not have a bit of confusion. Still, they did very well considering.
Day three. Palancar Gardens without the swim thru's followed by La Francesa. I had concluded after looking at day 2's pics, that the reefmaster mini's sea mode was not cutting it color wise, and white balancing was in order. While I was balancing on occasion, still nowhere near often enough as I would find once I got back to Iberostar to view my pics. Tonia was feeling better, and more importantly Blanca was feeling better about Tonia. A great morning of diving after which we took the afternoon off. The pics get better each day as I learn how to use the camera. Still not great, but you can get the idea.
Dive day 4. We extended our trip by a day since we lost three, and dove one more morning. This time, I'm white balancing a lot and the pics get presentable. The focus on the reefmaster mini still leaves a lot to be desired, but about 10% of the pics turned out well on this morning which is the best result of the 4 days.
On the last dive of the last day, I am happy to report that Tonia "Got It". Her bouyancy was good, her breathing was good, we put in a one hour dive with a max depth of 72 feet and Blanca never touched her. All in all, a great end to a fabulous trip. Tonia says we are going back to Coz in March...I'm thinking December or January...and March. We shall see....
One more, of Tonia discovering what it's like to be a scuba diver without a DM holding your tank valve.
Last edited:
I know there are private taxis around there somewhere but didn't know how to get to them. The bus would have been a great idea, except we were really pressed for time trying to get to Christi before she closed shop (paperwork, credit card etc), so we spent $90 on a taxi 
Live and learn.
