Is "Cozumel" Spanish for "Amity Island"?

[Brules]

Compared to the vast number of divers diving in Coz every day 365 days a year almost, those that go "missing" etc are fewwwwwwwwwwww and far between lol. Looks like Isla Mujeres has a problem though.

 

[Mark IV]

When I was working on Cozumel ( early 90's-2000's), I knew of several deceased or missing divers (or snorkelers, or jet skiers) . And most of those we either knew personally, or had to find out through the local grapevine, because such news was often suppressed. I believe i read of one here recently, that occured while i was living there, but don;t recall ever hearing at the time.
One of my best friends, a pretty well known Canadian that ran a small operation out of his house, was diving Barracuda with his sister, and got separated from the boat. Back at this time they'd started a search-and-rescue system on the isla, with a ready plane, and knowing i was friends with the guy, they showed up at our shop, and pulled me right from doing OW lectures with clients , and we were at the airport just about to board the small plane and go looking, when they got word they'd been spotted and picked up by a navy vessel,a little before dark.(they were actually skeptical about going to the trouble, given that dark was approaching, but I assured them that this guy definitely had a flashlight with him, so we were headed up).
Another time,I was coming back from dive sessions at Villa Blanca beach, in a taxi with 2 clients, and there was a small flatbed truck in front of us. Upon looking closer, we noticed two guys in back were holding down a sheet......over a body, with only his two feet sticking out !! That was NOT helpful with 2 brand new divers sitting in the back seat!! We later heard the guy had a heart attack down at Chankanaab.
Another time, with the same Canadian guy, a girl and a male buddy that came down regularly and we were friends with, just disappeared on a deep dive. My theory, given some of the things we knew leading up to the dive, was that she'd commited suicide for some unknown reason. This one was actually pretty big news on the island, and essentially wrecked my buddy's business on the island, and he ended up disappearing for a while (they were talking murder charges, and he already had a history of ruffling the feathers of the local PTB's), and after laying low a while,he ended up starting a couple successful dive/ jetski operations in Playa and then down in Playacar (I used to go work with them a lot, as well).
I knew another canadian instructor, one of the first "locals" I met when I first moved to the island, and who was into deep/technical stuff, as i was. But, he took a lot of chances, and i tried to get him to read the books that I practically lived by, from Brett Gilliam, and Tom Mount, but he wasn't real interested.
A while later, he got a gig dive mastering a liveaboard that was gonna start running from Cozumel, up to Cuba. He was all excited about this cool gig (it was a cool gig, we chartered that boat for a giant group one time, it was pretty sweet). This was on the inaugural trip of that new operation, and on their last day of diving he did a serious, solo, deep drop (300+), but when he surfaced he was completely wrecked, bleeding from his mouth, etc, and died shortly thereafter.
There was a jet skier that went missing, and was found after a couple days in the water, way further north. This story made international news, and I believe i read an account of it in Reader's Digest IIRC. He said he found a half-filled bottle of water floating by, with a cruise ship label on it, that turned out to be a real lifesaver.I believe he was picked up by a freighter, and his wife flew to Miami to meet him.

 

[mediumone]

When I was working on Cozumel ( early 90's-2000's), I knew of several deceased or missing divers (or snorkelers, or jet skiers) . And most of those we either knew personally, or had to find out through the local grapevine, because such news was often suppressed. I believe i read of one here recently, that occured while i was living there, but don;t recall ever hearing at the time.
One of my best friends, a pretty well known Canadian that ran a small operation out of his house, was diving Barracuda with his sister, and got separated from the boat. Back at this time they'd started a search-and-rescue system on the isla, with a ready plane, and knowing i was friends with the guy, they showed up at our shop, and pulled me right from doing OW lectures with clients , and we were at the airport just about to board the small plane and go looking, when they got word they'd been spotted and picked up by a navy vessel,a little before dark.(they were actually skeptical about going to the trouble, given that dark was approaching, but I assured them that this guy definitely had a flashlight with him, so we were headed up).
Another time,I was coming back from dive sessions at Villa Blanca beach, in a taxi with 2 clients, and there was a small flatbed truck in front of us. Upon looking closer, we noticed two guys in back were holding down a sheet......over a body, with only his two feet sticking out !! That was NOT helpful with 2 brand new divers sitting in the back seat!! We later heard the guy had a heart attack down at Chankanaab.
Another time, with the same Canadian guy, a girl and a male buddy that came down regularly and we were friends with, just disappeared on a deep dive. My theory, given some of the things we knew leading up to the dive, was that she'd commited suicide for some unknown reason. This one was actually pretty big news on the island, and essentially wrecked my buddy's business on the island, and he ended up disappearing for a while (they were talking murder charges, and he already had a history of ruffling the feathers of the local PTB's), and after laying low a while,he ended up starting a couple successful dive/ jetski operations in Playa and then down in Playacar (I used to go work with them a lot, as well).
I knew another canadian instructor, one of the first "locals" I met when I first moved to the island, and who was into deep/technical stuff, as i was. But, he took a lot of chances, and i tried to get him to read the books that I practically lived by, from Brett Gilliam, and Tom Mount, but he wasn't real interested.
A while later, he got a gig dive mastering a liveaboard that was gonna start running from Cozumel, up to Cuba. He was all excited about this cool gig (it was a cool gig, we chartered that boat for a giant group one time, it was pretty sweet). This was on the inaugural trip of that new operation, and on their last day of diving he did a serious, solo, deep drop (300+), but when he surfaced he was completely wrecked, bleeding from his mouth, etc, and died shortly thereafter.
There was a jet skier that went missing, and was found after a couple days in the water, way further north. This story made international news, and I believe i read an account of it in Reader's Digest IIRC. He said he found a half-filled bottle of water floating by, with a cruise ship label on it, that turned out to be a real lifesaver.I believe he was picked up by a freighter, and his wife flew to Miami to meet him.

And your point is?

 

[Mark IV]

And your point is?

An even better question is, what's your point?
While my post may have been some admittedly self-indulgent reminiscing, it was also quite germane to the OP's post, or did you not actually read it??

.......... We hear about dive accidents everywhere else in the world, but not frequently in Cozumel. But it sounds like something is amiss. And, having heard that various dive ops lost several divers in one month alone earlier this year, and using the Internet to dig deeper it seems like people go missing with some regularity, my question is how much of that sort of thing is going on while the powers that be assure everyone that the water is completely safe?

 

[Ron Lee]

That tag line is mine. I agree that the number of missing divers is probably low compared to the number of dives made daily, but some of the disappearances may have been relatively low experience divers.

One was a woman diving with her two brothers. Details/memory are sketchy but they may have entered a swim through and she was never seen again.

Another event with less details/memory was a father who was seen ascending and soon thereafter he went missing.

My opinion is that new divers with relatively low total scuba experience can be casually monitored by others during a dive. I count divers frequently during a dive. It takes mere seconds.

I also sometimes trail the group. On one Devil's Throat dive two people ahead of me elected to not go down the throat after they entered the structure. I led them out and waited with them on the north side of that coral complex. No issue.

Other divers aren't obligated to do this. Maybe they are too intent on taking pictures or hunting lionfish or me when I stay in a spot a while and watch a young yellowtail damselfish. Trunkfish are another favorite.

Cozumel is a great place to dive. Some consider it bad for new divers because of the current but if you ignore Barracuda, and maybe Tormentos at times, the current is not bad.

I would like to see events where someone goes missing while in a group be reduced. Simple desire.

 

[ggunn]

Cozumel is a great place to dive. Some consider it bad for new divers because of the current but if you ignore Barracuda, and maybe Tormentos at times, the current is not bad.

Do you maybe mean Tuniche rather than Tormentos? Despite its scary sounding name (it means "tropical storm", I believe), I've not found Tormentos to be especially consistently challenging for fast current. Tuniche, on the other hand, and in my experience, usually has faster current on a given day than other nearby reefs.

 

[Mark IV]

Do you maybe mean Tuniche rather than Tormentos? Despite its scary sounding name (it means "tropical storm", I believe), I've not found Tormentos to be especially consistently challenging for fast current. Tuniche, on the other hand, and in my experience, usually has faster current on a given day than other nearby reefs.

While I'd agree that Tormentos isn't normally excessively fast, as I recall, it tended to be among the faster currents, for one of the typical 2nd dive locations, (that wasn't a wall dive). I recall it making photography a bit more challenging, versus someplace like Paradise. Again, as I recall, Tunich is one of the more northern wall dives, and one that tends to be kinda flat on top, and doesn;t have the giant coral heads and hidden gaps to obstruct the current, and to hide behind, like everything from Columbia, Palanacar to Santa Rosa. You're more exposed to the current for the duration (especially if it's a 2nd dive, where the divers would normally stay shallower, along the top rim of the wall/reef), like on nearby San Francisco wall, so the current often zooms along pretty well there.
And I'd always heard Tormentos just meant "storm", not necessarily "tropical storm", but i dunno. My Spanish was always lacking !

edit: now that I think about it, i recall doing dives at Yucab, and having the current scoot us along so fast we'd finish the reef with time to spare, then head across the open sand toward the 1:00-2:00 o'clock direction, and run into the start of tormentos, and then do all or most of Tormentos, on the same dive! So, yeah, it can be kinda speedy around there.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Punta Tunich has distinct land features that can create eddys and faster current.
It's a point.

 

[Mark IV]

I never felt that Tunich was any more prone to eddys or unusually fast currents than any of the other reefs. They all (particularly the walls) can have peculiar eddys, reverse currents, up and downdrafts,etc.on a given day. I was just pointing out that Tunich is typically a 2nd dive, so divers will generally run along over the top of the reef, which is largely a flat reef right on top of the wall edge, so divers tend to be more exposed to whatever the currents are doing that day, than they might be at the more southern reefs that have all the towering features that afford some shielding from the current..

 

[ColoDale]

FWIW, Tormento - torment; Tormenta - storm. Punta Tunich, Tormentos and Yucab can have faster currents than other southern sites but not always. I have not had any issues with them other than a fast ride on occasion (and sometimes backwards).