Cozumel Diving Dec 19-22 2020
Four days (8 dives) of diving before Christmas and some photos.
I dove with Raul and Bottom Time Divers, dove south sites and many of the Palancars as some on the boat had not been there or much before. We dove Cedral Pass, Cedral wall, Dalila and a hybrid of the flats in front of the white house/Cedral Wall/Cedral pass - a bit of swimming.
Raul just finished painting and fixing up his boat. Looks nice. At times I didn't recognize it from below.
Currents were at times non-existent to medium on Cedral wall. Overall slow current.
Water temps were 80 to 81 F on all dives.
Visibility was decent to good.
Average dive time 67 minutes per dive.
Weather has been mostly clear with light winds some days.
There was a bit of surface chop at times due to wind but was not bad. Other times the water was flat with sun.
Parking at the marina is still a pain.
By report the new park fee kicks in next year.
A friend on vacation in PDC came over one day on the first 8 am Ultramar ferry to dive and said it was packed. We warned him to get in line early for screening and occupancy.
These dives I used wide angle two days and a normal zoom lens for two. I was hoping for eagle ray schools but no luck. Many of the shots I took of things up close were wide angle. I was trying some close focus wide angle and it did fairly well but I noticed I really had to watch strobe angle and power more.
The large dome port did affect buoyancy a bit over the flat port.
This trip I noticed as in November, many more yellow sting rays. The green eels are in the usual spots, alot of lobster (smaller in groups under ledges) and less turtles although we saw them on almost every dive and all hawksbill. Lots of fish on Palancars, Dalila and Cedral Pass. Note in one of the Green Moray Eel photos, someone tried feeding it a piece of hot dog. When there, taking the photo, I thought it was a piece of sponge in the sand - a hogfish and the eel kept going at it. I spotted it after downloading photos.
While some have seen Eagle Rays in groups, we saw 5 singles and all seemed to be going south on a mission.
Looking at my dive log, I had 76 dives in 2020 with quarantine and 4 more than last year. I expected less this year.
Barrucuda
Black Durgon
Channel crab
Green Moray Eel - Before we arrived, somebody tried feeding it a hot dog.
Green Moray
Hawksbill turtle
Hawksbill turtle coming back down
Juvenile Spotted Drum
Lesser electric ray
Nurse shark. The free swimming eel above went in next to the shark.
Four days (8 dives) of diving before Christmas and some photos.
I dove with Raul and Bottom Time Divers, dove south sites and many of the Palancars as some on the boat had not been there or much before. We dove Cedral Pass, Cedral wall, Dalila and a hybrid of the flats in front of the white house/Cedral Wall/Cedral pass - a bit of swimming.
Raul just finished painting and fixing up his boat. Looks nice. At times I didn't recognize it from below.
Currents were at times non-existent to medium on Cedral wall. Overall slow current.
Water temps were 80 to 81 F on all dives.
Visibility was decent to good.
Average dive time 67 minutes per dive.
Weather has been mostly clear with light winds some days.
There was a bit of surface chop at times due to wind but was not bad. Other times the water was flat with sun.
Parking at the marina is still a pain.
By report the new park fee kicks in next year.
A friend on vacation in PDC came over one day on the first 8 am Ultramar ferry to dive and said it was packed. We warned him to get in line early for screening and occupancy.
These dives I used wide angle two days and a normal zoom lens for two. I was hoping for eagle ray schools but no luck. Many of the shots I took of things up close were wide angle. I was trying some close focus wide angle and it did fairly well but I noticed I really had to watch strobe angle and power more.
The large dome port did affect buoyancy a bit over the flat port.
This trip I noticed as in November, many more yellow sting rays. The green eels are in the usual spots, alot of lobster (smaller in groups under ledges) and less turtles although we saw them on almost every dive and all hawksbill. Lots of fish on Palancars, Dalila and Cedral Pass. Note in one of the Green Moray Eel photos, someone tried feeding it a piece of hot dog. When there, taking the photo, I thought it was a piece of sponge in the sand - a hogfish and the eel kept going at it. I spotted it after downloading photos.
While some have seen Eagle Rays in groups, we saw 5 singles and all seemed to be going south on a mission.
Looking at my dive log, I had 76 dives in 2020 with quarantine and 4 more than last year. I expected less this year.
Barrucuda
Black Durgon
Channel crab
Green Moray Eel - Before we arrived, somebody tried feeding it a hot dog.
Green Moray
Hawksbill turtle
Hawksbill turtle coming back down
Juvenile Spotted Drum
Lesser electric ray
Nurse shark. The free swimming eel above went in next to the shark.
