Our Nov 4 through 14 ten day trip from Denver turned into nine days since we had an overnight in Dallas due to weather so we missed the DFW CZM flight. Even though we could not land in Dallas, the Cozumel flight somehow managed to leave on time. We did spend some quality time on a tarmac in Austin before leaving again for Dallas. Other people on the plane told us the next day that they had been diverted to Houston and Tulsa.
We met our friends at the airport whose flight from Toronto came in an hour after ours. The guys took the shuttle and the bags to the hotel. My wife and my buddies girlfriend trekked to Mega for supplies and met us back at the hotel. We met up with Lou (Loudives on SB) and his wife who had been there for a few days.
We stayed at Sunscapes (Reef Regency). For diving we used the wood pier to the south. Dive House, running the dive op at the north end, wanted $2 per day per diver to use the concrete pier. Dive Paradise is operating from Secrets to the south if I didn't mix them up. There have been many changes in the last few years there.
We made it into town twice for dinner at Guidos, our favorite. The ladies got some shopping in as well.
The first two days had great weather and mild currents.
The third day a north wind picked up and the currents became faster and switched directions at Palancar Gardens. Did a circle and ended up roughly where we started. We all teased Raul about us having to find a DM that didn't dive in circles. These winds did not last and a few days later, a mild Norte came in and closed the port for a few hours in the morning. We had to wait to go diving but went out later. We did not miss any diving days.
Overall the weather was good for the whole trip
The increased currents the rest of the week stirred up a lot of sand, seaweed, and particles so that visibility went down. Many of the wide angle shots are almost unviewable due to backscatter even with strobe placement and lower power. We dove Tormentos for a first dive and the current was very slow but the second dive at Punta Tunich was very fast.
The water temps varied from 79 to 82 F for all dives.
We dove with Bottom Time Divers and Raul Platas. The day we arrived he got his boat back in the water after maintenance. It looked really good. We met up with other divers we knew from previous trips on the boat so we had a full boat most days.
I bought a 60 mm macro lens for my Olympus OMD EM5 which I had only tested with land shots in the hope of getting better macro shots than with the 12-50 mm lens on macro. I shot only two days with it as the currents made it tough to get good macro. I ended up with quite a few good ones but not as many as I had hoped. After the two days I switched back to the 12-50 mm. I should have started the trip with the macro lens as the currents were slower. The macro on the 12-50 mm lens is ok but the 60 mm is so much better.
I notice that with the macro lens on I spend much more time with my nose in the sand or closer to the bottom so a whale could have swum over me and I would not have noticed. Juvenile drums are a pain with the macro lens as they move out of frame so quickly.
This trip seemed to have many eagle rays, green moray eels, nurse sharks, scorpion fish, pipe horses, and lettuce sea slugs. I did not see as many drums, toadfish, spotted or golden eels. I had not seen lettuce sea slugs before but my wife found a few and Raul found about five on one dive. I was keeping my eyes open for Pederson, other cleaner shrimp, maybe sole but did not find any. Raul is much better than I at finding them. We looked for sea horses and a frogfish that Raul saw before but didn't find any.
We saw quite a lot of eagle rays and on a whim on the boat on day we decided to go to Punta Sur (pinnacles) - not Devils throat. We planned a max depth of 100 feet but as I was dropping down I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and there were 4 large eagle rays coming in my direction and below me. I had not powered on my camera or strobes yet much less detached the lanyard clip. I powered everything up and started shooting not quite sure of initial settings. Luckily the rays turned in formation, came up, circled above us and came back down. I ended up at 108 and my buddy went down initially and ended up at 120 feet. When they left I found on strobe on max power and one on min and the shots to surface had caused me to end up at f22. If I had just 60 seconds more before the eagle rays came I would have been better prepared.
After the rays left I stayed higher looking for more rays but a couple of the group paid a visit to what Raul said was the cathedral (not Devils throat).
Raul found quite a lot of pipe horses and some very small. In one spot in a cut in the reef he found two. My intention was to shoot the first and then move to the second a few feet to my right but divers from cattle boat op saw me and the first guy dropped right in next to me, laid on the sand and prepared his point and shoot to shove in between my camera and the pipehorse. My dirty looks did not deter him. It was like the guy thought we were at a zoo and tried to compel me to move on with expectant (indignant?) looks. Raul came over and waived him off a bit and pointed out the second one to him to my right. He almost smashed the second one - didn't even see it. When he was done the other divers in the large group (seemed like there were at least 15 of them) took turns coming in next to me and over me while sometimes lying on my fins. I never did get to shoot the second as they were still lining up but I made sure when I left that I stirred up a bit of sand for backscatter.
Our friends had planned two weeks so after we left they went across the channel to dive a cenote. I am waiting for the photos of that. Raul had a dive op friend that met them at the ferry pier in San Miguel and sheparded them all the way. I think it was just the three of them in the group.
Dale
Photos
Spotted Eel using the macro lens
While shooting this eel I heard its jaws snap. He missed the fish who didnt really seem uptight during the whole thing
Using the macro lens, the fireworms move a lot faster than I thought
This is what happens when halfway through the dive I realize I havent taken any photos
We met our friends at the airport whose flight from Toronto came in an hour after ours. The guys took the shuttle and the bags to the hotel. My wife and my buddies girlfriend trekked to Mega for supplies and met us back at the hotel. We met up with Lou (Loudives on SB) and his wife who had been there for a few days.
We stayed at Sunscapes (Reef Regency). For diving we used the wood pier to the south. Dive House, running the dive op at the north end, wanted $2 per day per diver to use the concrete pier. Dive Paradise is operating from Secrets to the south if I didn't mix them up. There have been many changes in the last few years there.
We made it into town twice for dinner at Guidos, our favorite. The ladies got some shopping in as well.
The first two days had great weather and mild currents.
The third day a north wind picked up and the currents became faster and switched directions at Palancar Gardens. Did a circle and ended up roughly where we started. We all teased Raul about us having to find a DM that didn't dive in circles. These winds did not last and a few days later, a mild Norte came in and closed the port for a few hours in the morning. We had to wait to go diving but went out later. We did not miss any diving days.
Overall the weather was good for the whole trip
The increased currents the rest of the week stirred up a lot of sand, seaweed, and particles so that visibility went down. Many of the wide angle shots are almost unviewable due to backscatter even with strobe placement and lower power. We dove Tormentos for a first dive and the current was very slow but the second dive at Punta Tunich was very fast.
The water temps varied from 79 to 82 F for all dives.
We dove with Bottom Time Divers and Raul Platas. The day we arrived he got his boat back in the water after maintenance. It looked really good. We met up with other divers we knew from previous trips on the boat so we had a full boat most days.
I bought a 60 mm macro lens for my Olympus OMD EM5 which I had only tested with land shots in the hope of getting better macro shots than with the 12-50 mm lens on macro. I shot only two days with it as the currents made it tough to get good macro. I ended up with quite a few good ones but not as many as I had hoped. After the two days I switched back to the 12-50 mm. I should have started the trip with the macro lens as the currents were slower. The macro on the 12-50 mm lens is ok but the 60 mm is so much better.
I notice that with the macro lens on I spend much more time with my nose in the sand or closer to the bottom so a whale could have swum over me and I would not have noticed. Juvenile drums are a pain with the macro lens as they move out of frame so quickly.
This trip seemed to have many eagle rays, green moray eels, nurse sharks, scorpion fish, pipe horses, and lettuce sea slugs. I did not see as many drums, toadfish, spotted or golden eels. I had not seen lettuce sea slugs before but my wife found a few and Raul found about five on one dive. I was keeping my eyes open for Pederson, other cleaner shrimp, maybe sole but did not find any. Raul is much better than I at finding them. We looked for sea horses and a frogfish that Raul saw before but didn't find any.
We saw quite a lot of eagle rays and on a whim on the boat on day we decided to go to Punta Sur (pinnacles) - not Devils throat. We planned a max depth of 100 feet but as I was dropping down I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and there were 4 large eagle rays coming in my direction and below me. I had not powered on my camera or strobes yet much less detached the lanyard clip. I powered everything up and started shooting not quite sure of initial settings. Luckily the rays turned in formation, came up, circled above us and came back down. I ended up at 108 and my buddy went down initially and ended up at 120 feet. When they left I found on strobe on max power and one on min and the shots to surface had caused me to end up at f22. If I had just 60 seconds more before the eagle rays came I would have been better prepared.
After the rays left I stayed higher looking for more rays but a couple of the group paid a visit to what Raul said was the cathedral (not Devils throat).
Raul found quite a lot of pipe horses and some very small. In one spot in a cut in the reef he found two. My intention was to shoot the first and then move to the second a few feet to my right but divers from cattle boat op saw me and the first guy dropped right in next to me, laid on the sand and prepared his point and shoot to shove in between my camera and the pipehorse. My dirty looks did not deter him. It was like the guy thought we were at a zoo and tried to compel me to move on with expectant (indignant?) looks. Raul came over and waived him off a bit and pointed out the second one to him to my right. He almost smashed the second one - didn't even see it. When he was done the other divers in the large group (seemed like there were at least 15 of them) took turns coming in next to me and over me while sometimes lying on my fins. I never did get to shoot the second as they were still lining up but I made sure when I left that I stirred up a bit of sand for backscatter.
Our friends had planned two weeks so after we left they went across the channel to dive a cenote. I am waiting for the photos of that. Raul had a dive op friend that met them at the ferry pier in San Miguel and sheparded them all the way. I think it was just the three of them in the group.
Dale
Photos
Spotted Eel using the macro lens
While shooting this eel I heard its jaws snap. He missed the fish who didnt really seem uptight during the whole thing
Using the macro lens, the fireworms move a lot faster than I thought
This is what happens when halfway through the dive I realize I havent taken any photos
