Blue Angel Dive Shop ¡V Dive Report 7/20/03 to 7/25/03
We used Blue Angel Dive shop for all of our dives while in Cozumel. We were very pleased with them. We had been recommended a couple of other ops, but chose to use them because of their location to our hotel and the package deal we could get for using both. Blue Angel uses the small fast boats ¡V although I wouldn¡¦t say they¡¦re super small. I think the boat we went out on was around 28 feet. It was called the Chiquimax. We never had more than 8 divers and we usually just had 6 divers plus the DM ¡V Jorge and our captain ¡V Francisco. The boats were roomy enough for all of us and were quick to get us out to the sites.
I read a lot about Aldora Divers and was also recommended them by a friend. They sounded good, but were more expensive and it worked out better with everything for Blue Angel. I have not dove with Blue Angel, but from what I¡¦ve read about Aldora and after diving with Blue Angel I would say that they are comparable (except that BA uses standard tanks and Aldora uses different ones). Blue Angel also lets you dive your computer. There is no ¡V whole group going up to the surface at the same time, except on the two dives noted below. Once you get to 700 psi you and your buddy must surface and the boat picks you up. Everyone stays down for as long as they have air or without going into deco. I also read a lot about Aldora Divers ¡§getting you out to the reef before everyone else.¡¨ Well¡KBlue Angel also delivered in this instance too. When we would go to a site, we would usually be the only boat around. When we surfaced there would be other boats showing up or just getting divers in the water. We would do the 2-tank morning dives. Our boat would leave at 8:30 and be back at the dock at 12:30 every day we dove.
I really feel that Blue Angel treated you better than ¡§just a customer.¡¨ They were always very interested in knowing where you wanted to go and what you wanted to see. When Jorge found out that I really liked sea turtles (after seeing 3 on one dive) he told me that he would take us to a place the next day that had 30-40 sea turtles. The last day I told him that I still hadn¡¦t seen a sea horse, so he took us to a spot where he said they would be ¡V sure enough he found us one! They aim to please! I think that this customized service makes them stand out above the crowd in being one of the best dive ops. We also highly recommend Jorge for the DM. We dove with him all week and then the last day they tried to put us with someone else. I told them that I wanted to go with him, so they switched us. I¡¦m sure the other DM¡¦s were just as good, but it was nice to stick with the same person. That way he knew the places we had been and where we had not been. He knew our experience levels and trusted our diving so we could go to the places we wanted to go to. He was also a very safe DM. If someone was doing something that was not right, you can be sure that he would say something about it! He also gave us a good briefing about the site and what we would see before we hit the water.
Once I got used to it I LOVED the drift diving of Cozumel. At first I wasn¡¦t used to it, so I was still kicking ¡V wasting my energy and air. Once you realize that you can cross your legs and just sit there and watch the world go by ¡V it¡¦s great! You can literally pretend that you are in a chair with your legs and arms crossed and just float on by. I had done a little drift diving in Belize, but the current was not as strong ¡V we still had to kick a little. I improved greatly at relaxing and conserving my air throughout the week. Another reason we kind of sucked a lot of air was because we were taking photographs. Drift diving is not good when trying to take pictures, because if you see something you have to kick against the current to keep yourself in that spot and that also sucks up your air. Please see my posting about Island Photo ¡V the place we rented our underwater digital camera.
Each night I would write down the places we went to and try to remember the things we saw ¡V unfortunately I couldn¡¦t remember everything! Below are the sites we dove.
7/20/03
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
Dive #1 Santa Rosa Wall ¡V Maximum depth was 80 feet. This was our first dive in a year ¡V so needless to say, we sucked air badly! We were only down for around 35 minutes and then had to go up for the safety stop. The coral was really incredible and there were some cool swim-thrus at this site. We saw large groupers, gray angels, queen angels, grunts, black durgon, and a lot of cool barrel sponges.
Dive #2 Delilah ¡V Maximum depth was 65 feet. This time I managed to stay down for an hour. This site was rich with sea life. We saw tons of fish ¡V jacks, surgeonfish, barracuda, French angels, parrotfish, spotted and scrawled filefish.
**Dive #3 - We decided to do a shore dive in front of Blue Angel with one of the other divers we met on our boat. He was going to eat lunch and then go out. We opted to skip lunch, just have a granola bar and hang out in the pool. We went out for our first shore dive in front of Blue Angel with Bill. He had done it many times, so he knew which way to go. There is an area that is marked off by buoys in front of Blue Angel where boats can¡¦t go. When we were under the water he showed us this landmark so we would know what to look for on the way back. The plan was to swim out to the buoys, then swim south against the current and float back. We were really impressed with this dive. There was so much to see right there in front of our hotel! Unfortunately we didn¡¦t have the digital camera with us ¡V we had used up the card and batteries. We had our little Bonica Snapper with us, but my husband forgot to turn it on before we hit the water! You have to turn it on before you close the housing. So we missed some really great photo ops. After doing this dive, we decided that we would need to take the digital with us on future shore dives. We saw scorpionfish, parrotfish, black durgon, sea cucumbers, puffer fish, eels, tons of juveniles, and an octopus. We loved this dive and decided that we would be doing it as part of our daily dive routine!
7/21/03
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
For these dives we contracted Edgard ¡§Joe¡¨ Mendoza to make a video for us. He is a really great guy and does great work. We highly recommend him for videos in Cozumel. You can reach him through Blue Angel. Or e-mail him at indiojoe_2000@yahoo.com .
Dive #4 ¡V Columbia Deep ¡V Maximum depth was 95 feet. This site has really AMAZING reef formations. We did not see a lot of fish on this particular dive, but the formations were incredible. We did see some spotted filefish, queen angels, black durgon, blue tangs and yellowtail snapper. This is also the dive where I saw my FIRST sea turtle! I was so stoked! They had them in Belize too, but I never saw any on the dives that I went on. I was so excited and got some good pictures that were up close and personal. We actually saw three of them. Joe also got some great footage of the turtles. At one point, one of them actually swims into his video camera lens! We only lasted 40 minutes on this dive ¡V I went crazy when I saw the turtle and started breathing really heavy while I was taking pictures! º
Dive #5 ¡V El Paso de Cedral ¡V Maximum depth was 70 feet. This was another amazing dive ¡V as were ALL dives in Cozumel! The focus on this dive was all the amazing sea life. We saw tons of fish here ¡V large groupers, french angels, queen angels, gray angels, filefish, parrotfish, a coney, queen triggerfish, spotted trunkfish, rock beauty, red hinds, squirrelfish and french grunt. This time Ronny sucked up all his air fast taking pictures, so again we were only down probably 45 minutes. The current was really strong here and so you really had to kick to stay in one spot to take pictures.
**2-tank twilight/night dive with B.A.
We left the dock at 5:30 p.m. and were back at 9:00 p.m.
Dive #6 ¡V Chankanaab Reef ¡V maximum depth 50 feet. This was our twilight dive, so it was still light out, but it was getting late in the day. This was a great dive that was full of marine life ¡V parrotfish, blue tang, blue chromis, schoolmaster snapper, bluestriped grunt, spotfin butterflyfish, indigo hamlet, gray angelfish, french angelfish, and a yellowline arrow crab. There were also tons of beautiful vase sponges and tube sponges on this dive. They were all very interesting to look at. I think we were down around an hour.
Dive #7 ¡V Paradise Reef ¡V maximum depth 50 feet. This was a night dive. It started off still light out when we got into the water, but was completely dark when we emerged. This was also my first night dive.
We had six divers in our group plus our DM. Well¡Kthis was the hot spot for the night dives, because there were a lot of other boats there. Jorge was very good about everything. He said that if another group got near us while we were down there to just stick together until they swam by and then we¡¦d go away from them. He didn¡¦t want us to get mixed up with other dive groups nor their groups with ours. Well at one point during this dive I had an idiot girl land on my head! I mean she was literally sitting on my head and pulling on my hoses! I don¡¦t know how it happened ¡V if she was descending from above ¡V not looking or if she swam over to us from the other group we could see and then landed on my head! My husband proceeded to shine his light right in her face and push her off me. Apparently there were two of these ¡§dazed and confused¡¨ girls that had somehow ended up in our group. My husband later told us on the boat that they were wearing diamond bracelets and necklaces while diving ¡V how classy! Then Jorge motioned for the idiot girls to get over with the other group that was theirs. They wouldn¡¦t leave! So finally he turned one of the girls around toward the other group and gave her tank a heave in the right direction!
As for sea life, these are the things we saw ¡V ocean surgeonfish, bluestriped grunt, juvenile gray angelfish, longspine squirrelfish, spotted drum, a large octopus, and an indigo hamlet.
Aside from having the girl on my head, I thought this dive was ok. We did get to see some neat things, but I didn¡¦t like just being able to see where the light was shined. I think it¡¦s cooler to see ¡§the big picture¡¨ during the day. If we would spot something everyone would crowd in really close. I don¡¦t like being that crammed together. I think that I would enjoy a night dive if my husband and I just did a shore dive alone together. We had actually planned on doing that, but never got around to it.
7/22/03
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
Dive #8 ¡V Tortugas ¡V Maximum depth was 50 feet. Jorge decided the day before that they would take us to this special site, because of my love for sea turtles! After he saw how happy I was the day before from seeing 3, he told us that he would take us to a place where we would see 30-40 and large schools of tarpon. Boy does he deliver! This site was not near the island of Cozumel. It was over across by the mainland near Playa del Carmen. He told us that this would be a site where we would all have to ascend together. He said that we had to do this because of the current and said that the first person to get to 700 psi would need to go to him and buddy breathe for a while and then we¡¦d go up. I was a little concerned that would be me, since I¡¦d been sucking air taking pictures. I opted to have Ronny take pictures on these dives so I could relax more. We saw TONS of turtles! We must have seen at least 30-40! We saw little ones, big ones, sleeping ones, eating ones, swimming ones ¡V you name it ¡V we saw them! It was fantastic! As much as I liked the turtles, I really liked the end of the dive ¡V the tarpon! Jorge had told us before entering the water that after the turtles we would get to the tarpon. He told us to get low to the bottom and grab hold of a sponge or rock with your fingers. He said that once the tarpon saw that we weren¡¦t there to hurt them that they would come closer. You bet they did! It was amazing! At one point I motioned for Ronny to look around ¡V we were literally in a TUNNEL of hundreds of tarpon that were bigger than we were! It was so cool. I wasn¡¦t running out of air and so I wanted to stay forever! As you know¡Kwe can¡¦t do that¡Kit was time to ascend. We stayed down for 50 minutes.
We did our surface interval at a nearby beach. We hung out in the boat and explored the shore.
Dive #9 ¡V Tortugas ¡V Maximum depth was 50 feet. Then we went back and did the same dive again. It was AWESOME! Again we stayed down for almost 60 minutes. We had to go up, because we were getting deco warnings from our computer.
**Dive #10 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 30 feet. We stayed out for an hour on this dive. This was our first time doing the shore dive by ourselves. We had no problem finding the way out and back. We really enjoyed these shore dives on our own, because we could sit and just stare at something for five-ten minutes if we wanted to. There is really a lot to look at out there. The more times we went out and the closer we looked, the more we saw! We were armed with the digital camera this time ¡V ready for action! We saw a ton of fish ¡V parrotfish, squirrelfish, butterflyfish, rock beauty, lizard fish, carolina hake, damselfish, gobies, grunts, schoolmaster snapper, torpedo ray, sharptail eel, bristle worm, bristle star, blue tang, goatfish, balloonfish, starfish, seabiscuits, filefish, black durgon, lots of anemones, a flamingo tongue, feather dusters, tons of sea urchins and a special sea urchin ¡V I can¡¦t remember the name, Holly at Island Photo said it was ¡§Mother¡¨ something. Its spines were placed differently than other sea urchins I¡¦d seen and it also had this fluorescent coloring on it. We were out there for an hour.
Dive #11 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 20 feet. Once we got back in from that first dive we looked at the photos and deleted off the pictures we didn¡¦t like. We decided to put on another tank and go back out again to take more pictures until the card was full. We stayed out another 40 minutes.
7/23/03 Domino Safari ¡V through Blue Angel
No diving this day. We scheduled a trip to see the whale sharks through Blue Angel. It was quite the trip! See my posting about our ¡§Domino Safari.¡¨
7/24/03
**2-tank dive with B.A.
Dive #12 ¡V Palancar Bricks ¡V Maximum depth of 90 feet. The coral formations at this dive site were amazing!!! We also saw turtles, barracuda, large groupers, and lots of cool sponges. There was no current at this site. We were down for 50 minutes on this dive.
Dive #13 ¡V Yucab Reef ¡V Maximum depth of 50 feet. The current here was sort of medium. We went to this site so Jorge could show us the Splendid Toadfish. We did see that and much, much more! I really liked this site. There was so much sea life to see ¡V aside from Tortugas, this was probably one of my favorite dive sites. We did see many splendid toadfish ¡V I was just mad at myself, because I couldn¡¦t get the camera to focus in on one down in their hole. I did get a picture of one trying to back down into its hole. We also saw white spotted and scrawled filefish, bluestriped grunt, schoolmaster, gray angels, barracuda, mutton snapper, honeycomb cowfish, longspine squirrelfish, coney, bearded fireworm, and red hinds. We were down for 60 minutes.
**Dive #14 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 30 feet. This time we were able to stay out for an hour and 45 minutes on one tank! We were mostly in 20 feet of water. We saw scorpionfish, brittle star, spotfin butterflyfish, flamingo tongues, christmas tree worms, goldentail moray eels, longspine squirrelfish, balloonfish, bearded fireworm and a peacock flounder.
7/25/03
This was a sad day, because it was the last day we could dive! Our flight left the next evening.
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
Dive #15 ¡V Las Palmas ¡V Maximum depth of 70 feet. Again Jorge took my special request. We specifically went to this site, so that I could see a sea horse. I had never seen one and I heard that there were many in Cozumel. Jorge told us that we would see sea horses on this dive. Again ¡V he delivered what he promised! We found the cutest little longsnout seahorse! We got a really great picture of it. It looks like it¡¦s snowing around the sea horse. We also saw parrotfish, gray angels, yellowtail arrow crab, a pipefish (also really cool creatures ¡V didn¡¦t get a good photo of this one), brittle star and a nassau grouper. Length of the dive was 50 minutes.
Dive #16 ¡V Paradise Reef ¡V Maximum depth of 50 feet. We had been to this site before, but during a night dive. I liked it much more during the day! We saw lobsters, yellowtail damselfish, feather dusters, french grunt, queen angels, bluestriped grunt, gray angels, cottonwick grunts, goldentail moray eels, and longspine squirrelfish. We also saw lots of cool barrel and tube sponges. Dive time was 73 minutes.
**Dive #17 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 30 feet. We were very sad, because this was our last dive! We did one of our favorite dive sites for the last time. It was amazing as usual. Unfortunately right after we started this dive I accidentally touched a bearded fireworm ¡V not good! Those suckers hurt like hell! I was trying to steady myself to take a picture of a flamingo tongue and I put my left pinky and ring finger down in the sand to balance myself. Well¡KI made the mistake of not looking first and put my fingers right on one of those things! I saw the little bristles in my finger ¡V they almost look like hairs on your finger. That thing did a number on me ¡V my arm felt tingly and weird, but I decided to keep diving anyway ¡V it was my last dive! Aside from that it was a good dive. We saw lots of things ¡V sea stars, bristle stars, yellow stingray, flamingo tongues, banded coral shrimp, coney, an octopus, goldentail moray eels, trumpetfish, harlequin bass, spotted moray eel, french grunt, blue tang, spotfin butterflyfish, french angels, snapper, porcupinefish, honeycomb cowfish, lizardfish, foureye butterflyfish, and parrotfish. This time we were out on one tank for almost 2 hours. It was a great last dive ¡V aside from the fireworm incident!
***We loved Cozumel and can see why people return year after year to go diving. You could dive the same spot hundreds of times and see something new each time. We WILL be back!
We used Blue Angel Dive shop for all of our dives while in Cozumel. We were very pleased with them. We had been recommended a couple of other ops, but chose to use them because of their location to our hotel and the package deal we could get for using both. Blue Angel uses the small fast boats ¡V although I wouldn¡¦t say they¡¦re super small. I think the boat we went out on was around 28 feet. It was called the Chiquimax. We never had more than 8 divers and we usually just had 6 divers plus the DM ¡V Jorge and our captain ¡V Francisco. The boats were roomy enough for all of us and were quick to get us out to the sites.
I read a lot about Aldora Divers and was also recommended them by a friend. They sounded good, but were more expensive and it worked out better with everything for Blue Angel. I have not dove with Blue Angel, but from what I¡¦ve read about Aldora and after diving with Blue Angel I would say that they are comparable (except that BA uses standard tanks and Aldora uses different ones). Blue Angel also lets you dive your computer. There is no ¡V whole group going up to the surface at the same time, except on the two dives noted below. Once you get to 700 psi you and your buddy must surface and the boat picks you up. Everyone stays down for as long as they have air or without going into deco. I also read a lot about Aldora Divers ¡§getting you out to the reef before everyone else.¡¨ Well¡KBlue Angel also delivered in this instance too. When we would go to a site, we would usually be the only boat around. When we surfaced there would be other boats showing up or just getting divers in the water. We would do the 2-tank morning dives. Our boat would leave at 8:30 and be back at the dock at 12:30 every day we dove.
I really feel that Blue Angel treated you better than ¡§just a customer.¡¨ They were always very interested in knowing where you wanted to go and what you wanted to see. When Jorge found out that I really liked sea turtles (after seeing 3 on one dive) he told me that he would take us to a place the next day that had 30-40 sea turtles. The last day I told him that I still hadn¡¦t seen a sea horse, so he took us to a spot where he said they would be ¡V sure enough he found us one! They aim to please! I think that this customized service makes them stand out above the crowd in being one of the best dive ops. We also highly recommend Jorge for the DM. We dove with him all week and then the last day they tried to put us with someone else. I told them that I wanted to go with him, so they switched us. I¡¦m sure the other DM¡¦s were just as good, but it was nice to stick with the same person. That way he knew the places we had been and where we had not been. He knew our experience levels and trusted our diving so we could go to the places we wanted to go to. He was also a very safe DM. If someone was doing something that was not right, you can be sure that he would say something about it! He also gave us a good briefing about the site and what we would see before we hit the water.
Once I got used to it I LOVED the drift diving of Cozumel. At first I wasn¡¦t used to it, so I was still kicking ¡V wasting my energy and air. Once you realize that you can cross your legs and just sit there and watch the world go by ¡V it¡¦s great! You can literally pretend that you are in a chair with your legs and arms crossed and just float on by. I had done a little drift diving in Belize, but the current was not as strong ¡V we still had to kick a little. I improved greatly at relaxing and conserving my air throughout the week. Another reason we kind of sucked a lot of air was because we were taking photographs. Drift diving is not good when trying to take pictures, because if you see something you have to kick against the current to keep yourself in that spot and that also sucks up your air. Please see my posting about Island Photo ¡V the place we rented our underwater digital camera.
Each night I would write down the places we went to and try to remember the things we saw ¡V unfortunately I couldn¡¦t remember everything! Below are the sites we dove.
7/20/03
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
Dive #1 Santa Rosa Wall ¡V Maximum depth was 80 feet. This was our first dive in a year ¡V so needless to say, we sucked air badly! We were only down for around 35 minutes and then had to go up for the safety stop. The coral was really incredible and there were some cool swim-thrus at this site. We saw large groupers, gray angels, queen angels, grunts, black durgon, and a lot of cool barrel sponges.
Dive #2 Delilah ¡V Maximum depth was 65 feet. This time I managed to stay down for an hour. This site was rich with sea life. We saw tons of fish ¡V jacks, surgeonfish, barracuda, French angels, parrotfish, spotted and scrawled filefish.
**Dive #3 - We decided to do a shore dive in front of Blue Angel with one of the other divers we met on our boat. He was going to eat lunch and then go out. We opted to skip lunch, just have a granola bar and hang out in the pool. We went out for our first shore dive in front of Blue Angel with Bill. He had done it many times, so he knew which way to go. There is an area that is marked off by buoys in front of Blue Angel where boats can¡¦t go. When we were under the water he showed us this landmark so we would know what to look for on the way back. The plan was to swim out to the buoys, then swim south against the current and float back. We were really impressed with this dive. There was so much to see right there in front of our hotel! Unfortunately we didn¡¦t have the digital camera with us ¡V we had used up the card and batteries. We had our little Bonica Snapper with us, but my husband forgot to turn it on before we hit the water! You have to turn it on before you close the housing. So we missed some really great photo ops. After doing this dive, we decided that we would need to take the digital with us on future shore dives. We saw scorpionfish, parrotfish, black durgon, sea cucumbers, puffer fish, eels, tons of juveniles, and an octopus. We loved this dive and decided that we would be doing it as part of our daily dive routine!
7/21/03
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
For these dives we contracted Edgard ¡§Joe¡¨ Mendoza to make a video for us. He is a really great guy and does great work. We highly recommend him for videos in Cozumel. You can reach him through Blue Angel. Or e-mail him at indiojoe_2000@yahoo.com .
Dive #4 ¡V Columbia Deep ¡V Maximum depth was 95 feet. This site has really AMAZING reef formations. We did not see a lot of fish on this particular dive, but the formations were incredible. We did see some spotted filefish, queen angels, black durgon, blue tangs and yellowtail snapper. This is also the dive where I saw my FIRST sea turtle! I was so stoked! They had them in Belize too, but I never saw any on the dives that I went on. I was so excited and got some good pictures that were up close and personal. We actually saw three of them. Joe also got some great footage of the turtles. At one point, one of them actually swims into his video camera lens! We only lasted 40 minutes on this dive ¡V I went crazy when I saw the turtle and started breathing really heavy while I was taking pictures! º
Dive #5 ¡V El Paso de Cedral ¡V Maximum depth was 70 feet. This was another amazing dive ¡V as were ALL dives in Cozumel! The focus on this dive was all the amazing sea life. We saw tons of fish here ¡V large groupers, french angels, queen angels, gray angels, filefish, parrotfish, a coney, queen triggerfish, spotted trunkfish, rock beauty, red hinds, squirrelfish and french grunt. This time Ronny sucked up all his air fast taking pictures, so again we were only down probably 45 minutes. The current was really strong here and so you really had to kick to stay in one spot to take pictures.
**2-tank twilight/night dive with B.A.
We left the dock at 5:30 p.m. and were back at 9:00 p.m.
Dive #6 ¡V Chankanaab Reef ¡V maximum depth 50 feet. This was our twilight dive, so it was still light out, but it was getting late in the day. This was a great dive that was full of marine life ¡V parrotfish, blue tang, blue chromis, schoolmaster snapper, bluestriped grunt, spotfin butterflyfish, indigo hamlet, gray angelfish, french angelfish, and a yellowline arrow crab. There were also tons of beautiful vase sponges and tube sponges on this dive. They were all very interesting to look at. I think we were down around an hour.
Dive #7 ¡V Paradise Reef ¡V maximum depth 50 feet. This was a night dive. It started off still light out when we got into the water, but was completely dark when we emerged. This was also my first night dive.
We had six divers in our group plus our DM. Well¡Kthis was the hot spot for the night dives, because there were a lot of other boats there. Jorge was very good about everything. He said that if another group got near us while we were down there to just stick together until they swam by and then we¡¦d go away from them. He didn¡¦t want us to get mixed up with other dive groups nor their groups with ours. Well at one point during this dive I had an idiot girl land on my head! I mean she was literally sitting on my head and pulling on my hoses! I don¡¦t know how it happened ¡V if she was descending from above ¡V not looking or if she swam over to us from the other group we could see and then landed on my head! My husband proceeded to shine his light right in her face and push her off me. Apparently there were two of these ¡§dazed and confused¡¨ girls that had somehow ended up in our group. My husband later told us on the boat that they were wearing diamond bracelets and necklaces while diving ¡V how classy! Then Jorge motioned for the idiot girls to get over with the other group that was theirs. They wouldn¡¦t leave! So finally he turned one of the girls around toward the other group and gave her tank a heave in the right direction!
As for sea life, these are the things we saw ¡V ocean surgeonfish, bluestriped grunt, juvenile gray angelfish, longspine squirrelfish, spotted drum, a large octopus, and an indigo hamlet.
Aside from having the girl on my head, I thought this dive was ok. We did get to see some neat things, but I didn¡¦t like just being able to see where the light was shined. I think it¡¦s cooler to see ¡§the big picture¡¨ during the day. If we would spot something everyone would crowd in really close. I don¡¦t like being that crammed together. I think that I would enjoy a night dive if my husband and I just did a shore dive alone together. We had actually planned on doing that, but never got around to it.
7/22/03
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
Dive #8 ¡V Tortugas ¡V Maximum depth was 50 feet. Jorge decided the day before that they would take us to this special site, because of my love for sea turtles! After he saw how happy I was the day before from seeing 3, he told us that he would take us to a place where we would see 30-40 and large schools of tarpon. Boy does he deliver! This site was not near the island of Cozumel. It was over across by the mainland near Playa del Carmen. He told us that this would be a site where we would all have to ascend together. He said that we had to do this because of the current and said that the first person to get to 700 psi would need to go to him and buddy breathe for a while and then we¡¦d go up. I was a little concerned that would be me, since I¡¦d been sucking air taking pictures. I opted to have Ronny take pictures on these dives so I could relax more. We saw TONS of turtles! We must have seen at least 30-40! We saw little ones, big ones, sleeping ones, eating ones, swimming ones ¡V you name it ¡V we saw them! It was fantastic! As much as I liked the turtles, I really liked the end of the dive ¡V the tarpon! Jorge had told us before entering the water that after the turtles we would get to the tarpon. He told us to get low to the bottom and grab hold of a sponge or rock with your fingers. He said that once the tarpon saw that we weren¡¦t there to hurt them that they would come closer. You bet they did! It was amazing! At one point I motioned for Ronny to look around ¡V we were literally in a TUNNEL of hundreds of tarpon that were bigger than we were! It was so cool. I wasn¡¦t running out of air and so I wanted to stay forever! As you know¡Kwe can¡¦t do that¡Kit was time to ascend. We stayed down for 50 minutes.
We did our surface interval at a nearby beach. We hung out in the boat and explored the shore.
Dive #9 ¡V Tortugas ¡V Maximum depth was 50 feet. Then we went back and did the same dive again. It was AWESOME! Again we stayed down for almost 60 minutes. We had to go up, because we were getting deco warnings from our computer.
**Dive #10 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 30 feet. We stayed out for an hour on this dive. This was our first time doing the shore dive by ourselves. We had no problem finding the way out and back. We really enjoyed these shore dives on our own, because we could sit and just stare at something for five-ten minutes if we wanted to. There is really a lot to look at out there. The more times we went out and the closer we looked, the more we saw! We were armed with the digital camera this time ¡V ready for action! We saw a ton of fish ¡V parrotfish, squirrelfish, butterflyfish, rock beauty, lizard fish, carolina hake, damselfish, gobies, grunts, schoolmaster snapper, torpedo ray, sharptail eel, bristle worm, bristle star, blue tang, goatfish, balloonfish, starfish, seabiscuits, filefish, black durgon, lots of anemones, a flamingo tongue, feather dusters, tons of sea urchins and a special sea urchin ¡V I can¡¦t remember the name, Holly at Island Photo said it was ¡§Mother¡¨ something. Its spines were placed differently than other sea urchins I¡¦d seen and it also had this fluorescent coloring on it. We were out there for an hour.
Dive #11 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 20 feet. Once we got back in from that first dive we looked at the photos and deleted off the pictures we didn¡¦t like. We decided to put on another tank and go back out again to take more pictures until the card was full. We stayed out another 40 minutes.
7/23/03 Domino Safari ¡V through Blue Angel
No diving this day. We scheduled a trip to see the whale sharks through Blue Angel. It was quite the trip! See my posting about our ¡§Domino Safari.¡¨
7/24/03
**2-tank dive with B.A.
Dive #12 ¡V Palancar Bricks ¡V Maximum depth of 90 feet. The coral formations at this dive site were amazing!!! We also saw turtles, barracuda, large groupers, and lots of cool sponges. There was no current at this site. We were down for 50 minutes on this dive.
Dive #13 ¡V Yucab Reef ¡V Maximum depth of 50 feet. The current here was sort of medium. We went to this site so Jorge could show us the Splendid Toadfish. We did see that and much, much more! I really liked this site. There was so much sea life to see ¡V aside from Tortugas, this was probably one of my favorite dive sites. We did see many splendid toadfish ¡V I was just mad at myself, because I couldn¡¦t get the camera to focus in on one down in their hole. I did get a picture of one trying to back down into its hole. We also saw white spotted and scrawled filefish, bluestriped grunt, schoolmaster, gray angels, barracuda, mutton snapper, honeycomb cowfish, longspine squirrelfish, coney, bearded fireworm, and red hinds. We were down for 60 minutes.
**Dive #14 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 30 feet. This time we were able to stay out for an hour and 45 minutes on one tank! We were mostly in 20 feet of water. We saw scorpionfish, brittle star, spotfin butterflyfish, flamingo tongues, christmas tree worms, goldentail moray eels, longspine squirrelfish, balloonfish, bearded fireworm and a peacock flounder.
7/25/03
This was a sad day, because it was the last day we could dive! Our flight left the next evening.
**2-tank morning dive with B.A.
Dive #15 ¡V Las Palmas ¡V Maximum depth of 70 feet. Again Jorge took my special request. We specifically went to this site, so that I could see a sea horse. I had never seen one and I heard that there were many in Cozumel. Jorge told us that we would see sea horses on this dive. Again ¡V he delivered what he promised! We found the cutest little longsnout seahorse! We got a really great picture of it. It looks like it¡¦s snowing around the sea horse. We also saw parrotfish, gray angels, yellowtail arrow crab, a pipefish (also really cool creatures ¡V didn¡¦t get a good photo of this one), brittle star and a nassau grouper. Length of the dive was 50 minutes.
Dive #16 ¡V Paradise Reef ¡V Maximum depth of 50 feet. We had been to this site before, but during a night dive. I liked it much more during the day! We saw lobsters, yellowtail damselfish, feather dusters, french grunt, queen angels, bluestriped grunt, gray angels, cottonwick grunts, goldentail moray eels, and longspine squirrelfish. We also saw lots of cool barrel and tube sponges. Dive time was 73 minutes.
**Dive #17 ¡V Shore dive in front of Blue Angel ¡V Maximum depth of 30 feet. We were very sad, because this was our last dive! We did one of our favorite dive sites for the last time. It was amazing as usual. Unfortunately right after we started this dive I accidentally touched a bearded fireworm ¡V not good! Those suckers hurt like hell! I was trying to steady myself to take a picture of a flamingo tongue and I put my left pinky and ring finger down in the sand to balance myself. Well¡KI made the mistake of not looking first and put my fingers right on one of those things! I saw the little bristles in my finger ¡V they almost look like hairs on your finger. That thing did a number on me ¡V my arm felt tingly and weird, but I decided to keep diving anyway ¡V it was my last dive! Aside from that it was a good dive. We saw lots of things ¡V sea stars, bristle stars, yellow stingray, flamingo tongues, banded coral shrimp, coney, an octopus, goldentail moray eels, trumpetfish, harlequin bass, spotted moray eel, french grunt, blue tang, spotfin butterflyfish, french angels, snapper, porcupinefish, honeycomb cowfish, lizardfish, foureye butterflyfish, and parrotfish. This time we were out on one tank for almost 2 hours. It was a great last dive ¡V aside from the fireworm incident!
***We loved Cozumel and can see why people return year after year to go diving. You could dive the same spot hundreds of times and see something new each time. We WILL be back!
