Well, never actually stayed in Playa. PM, Tulum, Cancun, Mahajual, Xcalak, Bacalar. But never PDC. No problem. Seen ports closed many times. First time in Cancun in November, 1996. Finally chartered a Cessna to Cozumel to get in a couple dives because the ferry wasn't running. But in all the cases I've seen, when the port was closed, it probably needed to be closed.
Port closure
- Thread starter flyboy08
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Ray isn't diving that little reef - he's going way beyond it and as he's said, you really need lots of navigational experience to do that. No one in their right mind would recommend going out to the wall from a shore dive - it's not to say it doesn't happen.
The reef you are talking about is just south of Tikila, it's a great shore dive as long as the current isn't too bad. You can park right there in front of Tikila. I park in front of the dive boutique (moto) and enter at Cozumel Marine World cause we know people there - it's all the same. I'm not sure if you can rent tanks from CMW or not. They do a lot of shore diving and DSD classes in that area.
Just something about shore diving - one night dive there - we get in the water and all is fine, 15 minutes later, the current starts ripping so bad that you could not make headway directly against the current and it virtually was a claw your way back to shore along the bottom - the conditions changed in a snap.
Doesn't sound like we are talking about the same dive. If you want to put in a Tikila and putter around between shore and the little 10' relief line at about 30' depth, or drift in 25' north, that's easy-peazy. We were talking about swimming out 1000 yards to the 40' and deeper reef that the boats dive on, drifting north a mile, then swimming back to shore. It's risky because you are a long long way from shore and you have no boat support.
The near-shore dive is nice and I've done that a dozen or so times. To put it in perspective, when you get to the mini-wall there, you're about a quarter of the way. We've rented tanks from Tikila, CMW, and Roberta's. The mini-wall actually turns and comes very close to shore because of the channel cut for the sub. The coral nursery platform is also near there, a bit south of the sub pier.
I've done that a few times, but I don't think the wall is 1000 yards offshore. We went in at La Ceiba and surface swam out through the sailboat moorings, then we dropped to the bottom and swam out to the wall; it wasn't that far.
One time we did that dive we gave a boat captain and his mate a nice tip to let us hitch a ride with them to the Caleta but to drop us on the wall out in front of La Ceiba. They dropped us off; we drifted down the Villablanca Wall to the pier at Papa Hog's. It was very cool.
I hasten to add that I have been diving Cozumel for 25+ years. What I have been describing may or may not not be appropriate for Cozumel Newbies, no offense intended.
I meant 1000 feet. Yards would be over half a mile.
DiverN2H2O
Contributor
There is a video taken from the golf course of one of the passion island ferries. It on FB Cozumel 4 You
Even 40’+ boats had issues in the afternoon.
Even 40’+ boats had issues in the afternoon.
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