Viz was pretty good. When diving the wreck (in 80') I could not see the wreck from the surface. However, I could almost make out the waves from the bottom looking up, because it was lit up more.
So, quick story about the day I did the wreck dive.
We arrived in Cancun on Wednesday, I did two reef dives on Thursday, and then did the wreck dive on Saturday.
I was the only one in our party of 7 diving, so I got up on Saturday and was out in front of the hotel a little after 7:00am. I hopped on a bus to go to the marina (had to be there by 7:30) and well, missed my stop. After a while I realized this was taking too long, went and asked the bus driver if we'd passed it and he promptly pulled over and dropped me off.
So I crossed the street to catch another bus going back, but every bus was filled to capacity. I finally caught a cab and made it there about 10 minutes before the boat left @ 8:00.
We got out to the location to dive the wreck, and we were doing a fast descent. When we were all in the water we started going down, after a little bit I checked my computer for depth and realized my computer wasn't on (Pro Plus isn't water activated). Great!!! Signaled to the DM I'm going back up, and coming back down because of computer problems, he says OK. So I surfaced, turned on the computer, and descended again and met the group on the wreck.
We spent about 20 minutes on the wreck, and then we all regrouped and followed the DM away from the wreck, to where we were going to surface. After a while I realized my camera was gone!!! I started freaking out. Earlier I had asked my buddy to take my picture (above, so obviously you guys know this story has a happy ending). When I got the camera back I forgot to put the wrist strap back on. I took a couple more pictures, then we were out of there. I let go of the camera and lost it.
I signaled the DM that yes, SNorman the n00b, had now lost his camera. I signaled that I thought it had floated to the surface. He was asking if I'm sure, then he showed me someone else's camera, and it sunk. Now I'm not so sure if mine floats or sinks. My buddy asked if I wanted to go back to look, but I didn't have enough air to swim back to the wreck, look around, then surface slowly.
Unknown to me, my buddy and one of the DMs had enough air and went back to look for my camera. I didn't notice them do this! I surfaced with the group, very slowly and agonizing the whole way. Camera, gone $$$. New underwater housing, gone $$$. 2 GB memory card gone $$$. All pictures from my first two dives, at the resort, on the beach, gone
.
We finally surfaced, and the DM & guys on the boat were speaking in Spanish and since my Spanish is no muy bueno I could just tell they were talking about my camera and that maybe it floats. We got on the boat, and they suggested I go up above and start looking. At this point the guys who went looking for my camera got back on the boat and let me know they didn't find it
.
I looked around and saw nothing but sea. At this time I had pretty much written the camera off. Part of me was wondering what my wife was going to say when I lost her (yes her) camera.
When all groups had surfaced the captain turned the boat in the direction the current was going to drove for a bit, and after about a minute we saw something glinting brightly in the sun. No.... freaking... way. We pulled by it and one of the guys from the boat jumped in and retrieved it. It was my camera!!!
I was so excited, I went to climb back down the ladder and slipped on the first step and my leg went through the ladder and I banged up my knee and thigh pretty good. I have a pretty good bruise now, but at least I have my camera!! And since I have it, I took a picture of my knee, which I'll post as soon as I can.
So not much happened after that, except I lost my balance after suiting up for the next dive and had to sit down on a bench and SNorman the n00b landed an Al 80 right on top of the boat photographer's video camera housing.
Luckily it was OK.
The next dive we spend swimming non stop trying to get some photos of sharks. By the time the dive was over I was dead tired. The DM was pretty fast!! And I did get a few pictures.
So, not much happened after that except when I got home and realized I left my Cetacea retractor for my computer attached to the rental BCD.
I'm sure there were a couple other things I inflicted on myself that I forgot. Needless to say when I got back to the resort I just laid down by the pool and rested... I think I deserved it!
