khacken
Contributor
I had a great time on my cruise. I expected it to not be all that great. It was on the Splendor of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. Not ever being on cruise before, I thought that not being able to get off the boat would be an issue. However, I found that I was never bored and that I actually missed some things I wanted to do. The food was excellent. I made some new friends that were just great to be around. The people and staff were friendly beyond what I have ever seen. Dining was great. I was never hungry and the food was very good. The buffet was so so, but the formal dining overcame that. The cabin I was in had an ocean view, and while I wasn't in it much, it was nice to have the window during the day. It really gives you a feel for how fast the boat is moving. During the trip, I hardly ever felt the boat moving and it was really easy to forget you are on a boat. Instead I felt like I was in a hotel. One thing I wish I would have done is to sneak some alcohol on board. I ended up paying through the nose on my bar tab. Drinks were $3.50 for beer and $.25 for mixed drinks. I spent my days at the pool and night at the dance club. The night club was fun because there wasn't the normal stuck-up feeling you get here in Dallas. Everyone was out to have a good time and make sure others were as well. My roommate spent most of his time in the casino, and actually walked away with $800.
When we got to Cozumel, we were in line early for the tenders. However, they would not let us board them as priority was given to the people that bought trips with the ship. Since we had to be at the dive shop at 8am, we decided to sneak into line when security wasn't looking and got on the boat. Our dive shop, Deep Blue was just a short walk from where the tender dropped us off. We ordered 100cf tanks and the first thing they said to us when we told them our names is that we must be air hogs and gave us a hard time. My buddy forgot his cards and that just made matters worse. They finally let us dive after I showed him my logs of my buddy diving with me at the shop last year. The topper was that I thought they had Nitrox computers for my buddy to use. The guys at the shop started to go nuts, asking if we knew what we were doing. I told him my buddy would just dive it like air as he would be gas limited anyways, as he is definitely an air hog. So the guy finally let us head to the dock.
Our DM for the first two dives did not seem or act like he wanted to be there. Very quiet guy and wore about 10mm of neoprene. Every one else was in shorties or 3mm fulls. The boat had six divers. The most experienced was a guy from Canada that is the president of the artificial reef club up there. He really loved to talk and felt like he had to one up everything we discussed, so that was annoying to me. However, he was a good diver and I found myself usually swapping buddies to dive with him. This also allow my buddy to dive with another guy from the cruise to have fun and chase all the fish away hahah. One strange thing was that everyone on this trip was very overweighed. The actually used up all of the weight that was on the boat. Most of them wore over 20 pounds in shorties. I ended up with four pounds at the end of the day, and would have gone to two pounds, but they did not have any ones. Yeah, I could have put it on a belt, but I am lazy and was a little worried about being to light and I never went below 1000 psi during the day.
1: Santa Rosa Wall 85fsw 47min 83F 60ft vis 21% mix 100cf 8lbs
This dive had a light current that I could swim against to take a picture or two. There were some fish and corals, but nothing great. I had a horrible time getting down, due to ears not clearing, but was able to slowly get down without. We ran into a cattle boat that was going against the current and were bunched up. I got my regulator kicked out, which caused one of the tab to get bitten off by me.
We went into the swimthroughs, which were pretty fun, to get away from the other divers. At one point some of them tried to follow us, but DM shooed them away. Never had to pull out the divelight as it was very bright in there. Some of the swimthroughs did get tight and I knocked my tank a few times. At the end of one of them, a buddy team does uncontrolled ascent, no signs or symptoms of DCS. I did not witness it, so I thought they had just somehow gotten way ahead of me. Near the end of my dive, we saw a nice large turtle munching on some sponges. One diver saw over to get a picture taken and got scolded by the DM. I was glad to see that as I wanted to enjoy the turtle hanging out with us for a bit.
2: Punta Sur 68fsw 58min :55 sit 81F 50ft vis 32% mix 100cf 6lbs
This was a strong but easy current as it follow the reef perfectly and never changed direction on us. I got in a nice relaxed position that looked pretty much like I was sitting down. I really enjoyed this. However, there really wasn't much in ways of formations, corals, or marine life. I ended up getting cold because I hardly moved at all and lost the DM when he went back to get a buddy team that stopped for pictures. We later joined back up after I gathered the other buddy pair and kneeled in an eddy in the sand. My buddy headed up without me when I stopped to take a picture, so I joined up with another diver who just had his buddy sent up by the DM. At the end we took a nice five minute safety stop as we waited for the others to board the boat.
3: Palancar Caves 95fsw 44min 1:52 sit 79F 70ft vis 21% mix 100cf 4lbs
This is one of my favorite dives ever. It was just amazing in its beauty. The caves is really a bunch of canyons and seemed to have been protected from the hurricane. Many more fish and corals here. We got to see some huge barracudas and turtles hanging out as well. Again I had problems equalizing and had some pain in the first swimthrough which was angled down with a current running through it. However, I was able to clear just enough to avoid aborting the dive there. One issue I faced was the divers in front of me silting up the smaller swimthroughs horribly. After a few of those, I hung back and just followed the silt trails. Yes, I was basically solo diving, but I felt safer than being in zero vis. At the end of the dive, I hung out with the DM and we waited at 20ft for the others to board the boat. I ended up with a nice eight minute safety stop. Yeah, I know, not necessary. But hey, I was underwater and I had paid for that air haha. Why be on the surface waiting when I can be under watching the fish. When we got back on board, I found out that one of the divers dropped a light at the start of the dive. We went back to where we started and could actually see the light without a mask as the water was so clear and calm. The DM did a freedive to get it and did not seem to happy doing that to his body, but did not want one of us doing it.
4: C-53 Wreck 72ft 50min 1:01 sit 83F 70ft vis 32% mix 100cf 4lbs
Yup, this is a wreck. Now, before you flame me for going into it, be aware that this is a sanitized shipwreck and not a a true penetration dive. This boat was an old Mexican Navy boat sunk to be an artificial reef. It was originally deeper, but got washed in closer by the hurricane. That had the effect of killing the corals on the outside, but I still loved this dive. The lower decks were too dangerous as they had some damage from the hurricane, so we stayed on the upper levels. There were guide ropes inside, but really only needed if some really silted the place up and I could always see an exit. Also, there was not much silt in there at all. I am guessing the combination of tons of divers and the currents keep it fairly silt free. The highlight of the dive was sitting on the head and getting my picture taken. That was really fun. Near the wheel house there was a good amount of macro life and really wished my camera had not died on me. After the wreck we headed over to some other coral heads and saw a huge eagle ray. I ended the dive with the DM as he was punished for the freedive and had to do a long safety stop. I stay with him as I had the huge tank and a ton of air. He never needed to share any, but it was nice to have an excuse for a 15 minute safety stop with just one other person around.
I really loved diving with Deep Blue despite getting looked down upon for the 100cf tanks. The second DM was great and fun and really loved diving. Also, they never have more than six divers on the boat and watching those cattle boats vomit their divers into the water really made me happy to be on a small boat. With the long safety stops and Nitrox, I never pushed the Nitrogen loading limits and that along with the big tanks really helped me to focus on enjoying the dive and not having to stress at all with loading or air management.
When we got to Cozumel, we were in line early for the tenders. However, they would not let us board them as priority was given to the people that bought trips with the ship. Since we had to be at the dive shop at 8am, we decided to sneak into line when security wasn't looking and got on the boat. Our dive shop, Deep Blue was just a short walk from where the tender dropped us off. We ordered 100cf tanks and the first thing they said to us when we told them our names is that we must be air hogs and gave us a hard time. My buddy forgot his cards and that just made matters worse. They finally let us dive after I showed him my logs of my buddy diving with me at the shop last year. The topper was that I thought they had Nitrox computers for my buddy to use. The guys at the shop started to go nuts, asking if we knew what we were doing. I told him my buddy would just dive it like air as he would be gas limited anyways, as he is definitely an air hog. So the guy finally let us head to the dock.
Our DM for the first two dives did not seem or act like he wanted to be there. Very quiet guy and wore about 10mm of neoprene. Every one else was in shorties or 3mm fulls. The boat had six divers. The most experienced was a guy from Canada that is the president of the artificial reef club up there. He really loved to talk and felt like he had to one up everything we discussed, so that was annoying to me. However, he was a good diver and I found myself usually swapping buddies to dive with him. This also allow my buddy to dive with another guy from the cruise to have fun and chase all the fish away hahah. One strange thing was that everyone on this trip was very overweighed. The actually used up all of the weight that was on the boat. Most of them wore over 20 pounds in shorties. I ended up with four pounds at the end of the day, and would have gone to two pounds, but they did not have any ones. Yeah, I could have put it on a belt, but I am lazy and was a little worried about being to light and I never went below 1000 psi during the day.
1: Santa Rosa Wall 85fsw 47min 83F 60ft vis 21% mix 100cf 8lbs
This dive had a light current that I could swim against to take a picture or two. There were some fish and corals, but nothing great. I had a horrible time getting down, due to ears not clearing, but was able to slowly get down without. We ran into a cattle boat that was going against the current and were bunched up. I got my regulator kicked out, which caused one of the tab to get bitten off by me.
We went into the swimthroughs, which were pretty fun, to get away from the other divers. At one point some of them tried to follow us, but DM shooed them away. Never had to pull out the divelight as it was very bright in there. Some of the swimthroughs did get tight and I knocked my tank a few times. At the end of one of them, a buddy team does uncontrolled ascent, no signs or symptoms of DCS. I did not witness it, so I thought they had just somehow gotten way ahead of me. Near the end of my dive, we saw a nice large turtle munching on some sponges. One diver saw over to get a picture taken and got scolded by the DM. I was glad to see that as I wanted to enjoy the turtle hanging out with us for a bit.
2: Punta Sur 68fsw 58min :55 sit 81F 50ft vis 32% mix 100cf 6lbs
This was a strong but easy current as it follow the reef perfectly and never changed direction on us. I got in a nice relaxed position that looked pretty much like I was sitting down. I really enjoyed this. However, there really wasn't much in ways of formations, corals, or marine life. I ended up getting cold because I hardly moved at all and lost the DM when he went back to get a buddy team that stopped for pictures. We later joined back up after I gathered the other buddy pair and kneeled in an eddy in the sand. My buddy headed up without me when I stopped to take a picture, so I joined up with another diver who just had his buddy sent up by the DM. At the end we took a nice five minute safety stop as we waited for the others to board the boat.
3: Palancar Caves 95fsw 44min 1:52 sit 79F 70ft vis 21% mix 100cf 4lbs
This is one of my favorite dives ever. It was just amazing in its beauty. The caves is really a bunch of canyons and seemed to have been protected from the hurricane. Many more fish and corals here. We got to see some huge barracudas and turtles hanging out as well. Again I had problems equalizing and had some pain in the first swimthrough which was angled down with a current running through it. However, I was able to clear just enough to avoid aborting the dive there. One issue I faced was the divers in front of me silting up the smaller swimthroughs horribly. After a few of those, I hung back and just followed the silt trails. Yes, I was basically solo diving, but I felt safer than being in zero vis. At the end of the dive, I hung out with the DM and we waited at 20ft for the others to board the boat. I ended up with a nice eight minute safety stop. Yeah, I know, not necessary. But hey, I was underwater and I had paid for that air haha. Why be on the surface waiting when I can be under watching the fish. When we got back on board, I found out that one of the divers dropped a light at the start of the dive. We went back to where we started and could actually see the light without a mask as the water was so clear and calm. The DM did a freedive to get it and did not seem to happy doing that to his body, but did not want one of us doing it.
4: C-53 Wreck 72ft 50min 1:01 sit 83F 70ft vis 32% mix 100cf 4lbs
Yup, this is a wreck. Now, before you flame me for going into it, be aware that this is a sanitized shipwreck and not a a true penetration dive. This boat was an old Mexican Navy boat sunk to be an artificial reef. It was originally deeper, but got washed in closer by the hurricane. That had the effect of killing the corals on the outside, but I still loved this dive. The lower decks were too dangerous as they had some damage from the hurricane, so we stayed on the upper levels. There were guide ropes inside, but really only needed if some really silted the place up and I could always see an exit. Also, there was not much silt in there at all. I am guessing the combination of tons of divers and the currents keep it fairly silt free. The highlight of the dive was sitting on the head and getting my picture taken. That was really fun. Near the wheel house there was a good amount of macro life and really wished my camera had not died on me. After the wreck we headed over to some other coral heads and saw a huge eagle ray. I ended the dive with the DM as he was punished for the freedive and had to do a long safety stop. I stay with him as I had the huge tank and a ton of air. He never needed to share any, but it was nice to have an excuse for a 15 minute safety stop with just one other person around.
I really loved diving with Deep Blue despite getting looked down upon for the 100cf tanks. The second DM was great and fun and really loved diving. Also, they never have more than six divers on the boat and watching those cattle boats vomit their divers into the water really made me happy to be on a small boat. With the long safety stops and Nitrox, I never pushed the Nitrogen loading limits and that along with the big tanks really helped me to focus on enjoying the dive and not having to stress at all with loading or air management.
