eastern reefs
- Thread starter Giggi
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Giggi:
windward side of the island is extremely rough. Would be very diffiuclt at best to dive from shore. I know of several people who have ventured over there for dives and both go into trouble due to conditions. Both were very experienced technical divers. Neither will try it again....lol. With so many wonderful places to dive why do you ask about the windward side?
Have been to Cozumel on numerous trips. The east side looks very tempting.
Swimmers get swept away due to the strong currents and undertow. As others have said way too many good challenging dive sites on the west side to put your life in danger. I know of one dive boat that made the trip the trip and was turned over by the rough seas and the divers had to swim to shore. I To me it's not worth it.
Swimmers get swept away due to the strong currents and undertow. As others have said way too many good challenging dive sites on the west side to put your life in danger. I know of one dive boat that made the trip the trip and was turned over by the rough seas and the divers had to swim to shore. I To me it's not worth it.
Out of curiosity...
Are there never times when it would be appropriate to try diving there? I have dived a few sites in the past and hit them at just the right time to be able to go into areas where you normally can't (I've also hit normally good sites with the weather or conditions just wrong, making for hazardous diving where it is usually pretty easy). I understand that many places are closed for recreational diving by prevailing conditions, but just wondered if that is always true of Cozumel, or just that good diving conditions don't occur on the east side often enough to make it worthwhile to bother with it.
Are there never times when it would be appropriate to try diving there? I have dived a few sites in the past and hit them at just the right time to be able to go into areas where you normally can't (I've also hit normally good sites with the weather or conditions just wrong, making for hazardous diving where it is usually pretty easy). I understand that many places are closed for recreational diving by prevailing conditions, but just wondered if that is always true of Cozumel, or just that good diving conditions don't occur on the east side often enough to make it worthwhile to bother with it.
RP Diver:
Rick
When your dealing with the windward side of an island your going to be looking at a once in a very great while that this side would warrent anything other than expert divers. Your timing would have to be perfect.
5615mike:
A couple of points...
People do dive the east side. It's not commonly done, but some dive shops do it. They prefer to go when conditions are favorable, but I don't think it's a hard and fast rule that the east side has to be dead calm before they will go.
Also, the east shore of Cozumel is not that different from the east coast of the Yucatan, and people dive over there all the time.
Mawg
Contributor
Giggi:
I have made 2 dives over there. The first one was in 1996. Felipe Quinones took his boat, the Cinpatica, all the way around the southern end and met us at Mescalitos. We swam out to his boat , about 300 yards, and headed north for about 45 minutes. Felipe was taking us to see an old wreck of a Spanish Galleon. I had done some research on shipwrecks in that area and discovered that a galleon had been caught in a storm and burned off that side of the island in 1729. When we got to the site it was only 19 feet of water and about 200 yards off shore. Felipe went down and attached the anchor line to a large cannon that was protruding from a small coral head. We got down quick and soon discovered 9 cannons in all lying in the sand and coral. Six of us, including crew, scoured the area for about an hour and came up with cannon balls, rigging and burnt wood. One of the crew found one coin that was very tarnished. When we got back on the boat, Felipe cleaned it up and it glistened like a brand new dime. It was a minted spanish real and the date on it was 1727. We left at that point and headed back to Mescalitos and swam ashore where we left Felipes truck. The Mexican army was waiting for us with automatic weapons. They wanted to knowjust WHAT we were doing. Our truck driver soon explained everything and we were on our way. I made another dive over there in 1999 with Simone Rossini , trying to find the wreck but we could not. This time we came up the jungle road, bumpy as hell, and swam out from shore. No big deal. It was a beautiful dive. We went further out, with Simone leading, and got into the reef in 65 feet of water. I have never seen a reef so pristine and loaded with life.
If you get the chance, go but, go with someone who has been there and knows the reef.
Mawg:
Hummm.... interesting story.
My other sport interest is fly fishing. I once had an acquittance open up a US Forest Service map, point to a small stretch of rarely fished stream on the Idaho/Montana boarder, and ask me if I knew anything about it.
"Nothing there", I told him about this wonderful, isolated cutthroat trout stream. "Just a few small brookies, not worth the tough hike in. Lots of bears up there too. You might try here," I said, pointing to a well known section of another stream. "Easy access and lots of good parking."
Sounds like Cozumel. "Stay away from the east side. Long trip, dangerous wind, bad currents and nothing to see. However, on the west side at Columbia Wall...."
Maybe once I have at least 100 more dives logged, a few more classes under my belt, and a heck of a lot more confidence in my diving abilities, I might just try it out. Thanks for the recap of your interesting adventure.
Like I said in my first post, I was just curious. While I could see the reefs from the shore, even moreso, I could almost hear them calling to me (if they hadn't been drowned out -pun intended- by the visible riptides).
Like I said in my first post, I was just curious. While I could see the reefs from the shore, even moreso, I could almost hear them calling to me (if they hadn't been drowned out -pun intended- by the visible riptides).
ggunn:
I guess you missed my point. I did not say that people dont dive the eastern side of the island. The post asked about possible shore diving and I gave my opinion and experience/knowledge. I have to disagree about comparing the coast of the Yucatan to the windward side of Cozumel. Comparing the coast to an island that is 30 miles off shore is not apples to apples. Sorry gunn. I will leave it at that and we can agree to disagree. Have a great trip to Coz. Wish I was going sooner.
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