New to diving - Trip in June - looking for advice

[jon m]

We also dive the C-56 sunken mine-sweeper at a max depth of 90 ft.

. IMHO

btw- where is this and who dives it? we'll be there at the end of may!

 

[jon m]

btw- where is this and who dives it? we'll be there at the end of may!

duh, found it!

 

[Scott Riemer]

btw- where is this and who dives it? we'll be there at the end of may!

We dive it every year with Dive Puerto Morelos Here's a couple of pics:

 

[scubawife]

The C-56 looks very similar to Cozumel's C-53. Can you penetrate the C-56?

 

[akbpilot]

Is the drifting good or not good. Or both depending on what we want??? I was thinking it wasn't good by the reviews.

also, if we did scuba in Cancun, where is the best place you would recommend for the sea life (I really want to see Turtles - either scuba or snorkel) so if we don't scuba where there are turtles we can always snorkel (which I am reading Tulum is the place to go)....

Anyway - recommendations for mainland diving, and dive shops (I know a few have already been mentioned).

Like the other posters have said, snorkeling Akumal Bay is a sure bet for turtles. Stay alert though, as there is a lot of boat traffic in the north end of Akumal bay. Snorkeling along the inside of the reef holds a great number of fish species also. On an hour and a half snorkel one morning I saw 4 huge turtles (one came off the bottom so close in front of me I could feel the "propwash" from its flippers), 2 big barracuda, 4 southern rays, thousands of "pretty fishies" of all flavors, and one of the highlights of our 2 week diving trip, a squadron of 7 large reef squid that let me keep pace with them at arms length for 15 minutes.

I have not done any diving in Akumal, but did check the prices when we were there in February (one night stay when traveling from Xcalak to Cancun), and thought they were very high compared to the other two places we dove on this trip. In fact the prices were the most expensive of any of the places we stopped to investigate on the way way back up to Cancun. Myself, I would probably bypass diving this area, although I do like staying and exploring out of Akumal.

Curiosity has gotten the best of me. What reviews on drift diving did you read that lead you to believe it wasn't good? Pm me if you don't want to post them here.

 

[Scott Riemer]

The C-56 looks very similar to Cozumel's C-53. Can you penetrate the C-56?

Yes, it's easily penetrable. Usually a great place to see some large pelagics. Found this on bigblueplanet.com:

As part of their artificial reef project, Mexico has sunk four former US Coast Guard Cutters, three of them along the eastern coast. The C-56, sunk three years ago off Puerto Morelos, sits upright in 104' of water, and is an excellent model of diver and fish friendly artificial reef projects.

Interesting it says they are US Coast Guard Cutters. Somehow I thought I was told they were Mexican mine sweepers, oh well. Also, I don't know how long ago this was written but the C-56 has definitely been down longer than 3 years and the deepest I've ever seen on my computer was 91 ft.

 

[jon m]

WOW!!!! i can't wait !!!! my first "wreck dive" lol!! ain't no way i'm going in that thing, but it wii be soooo cool to drop down on it!!!!
any sharks on the boat??? need some of those, too!!!
thanks for the pic
-me

 

[Scott Riemer]

WOW!!!! i can't wait !!!! my first "wreck dive" lol!! ain't no way i'm going in that thing, but it wii be soooo cool to drop down on it!!!!
any sharks on the boat??? need some of those, too!!!
thanks for the pic
-me

I haven't seen any sharks on it but I have seen some huge barracuda and last year in the sand next to it, we saw this:

 

[scubawife]

WOW!!!! i can't wait !!!! my first "wreck dive" lol!! ain't no way i'm going in that thing, but it wii be soooo cool to drop down on it!!!!
any sharks on the boat??? need some of those, too!!!
thanks for the pic
-me

From Scott's comments and the photos it seems to be very similar to the C-53 in Cozumel. That "wreck" was stripped inside and made diver safe. It's sort of a wreck with training wheels. I've done it a few times. The DM we dive with takes us around the exterior at the base and then we work our way up to the main deck (taking time to look in the portholes along the way). He takes us down to the bottom deck through a hatch, then we make our way around each level until we exit onto the main deck. Swim around there awhile and ascend on a line. It's not a hard dive and if at any point a diver isn't comfortable with being in an enclosed space, the group can always exit through one of the many open portholes on each deck.

I will always take a nice wall dive over a reef, and a nice reef over a wreck. But, since I don't plan to do any local wreck diving, the C-53 is fun to do once in awhile. I'm sure the C-56 would also be a fun dive.

 

[Spratman]

No local wreck diving!!!???:11: C'mon, woman....say it ain't so!!

Man, there are so many good wrecks on the south shore...I wish I could get out more, but it runs nearly $300 when I factor in the boat, tips, gas and a place to stay, for every trip....

I hope to get at least a two tanker in Cancun. Plus all the other stuff, of course.