Skittles's Trip Review- December 2013

[Skittl1321]

Okay, so this review is going to be really long... I'll start with the dives and then post about the trip in general, since I'm sure you mostly want to hear about the dives.
For those who don't want to read the whole thing, here is a quick recap: Scuba with Alison was AMAZING, Cozumel diving was AMAZING, I didn't suck nearly as much as I thought I would, I didn't get legionnaires staying at the Sabor and the hotel was actually fairly nice.

Dive Op: Scuba with Alison. This was a FABULOUS choice. I can't imagine anything better. I had a lot of pre-trip contact with Alison (I tried to keep it down, but I think it was like 8 emails...) and she was extremely accommodating, knowing that I was a beginner, and a very nervous beginner. She promised me that the first day we would stay at depths that were my comfort level (and she kept the promise). We used her rental BCs and regs and they were excellent quality. She also provides a computer with all rentals, and we noticed others who used rental fins, masks, and shorties- so she's full service. The use of rental gear was included in our quoted price. We brought our own SMBs (and my husband uses an air transmitter) and we left them attached to the BC (/reg) all week- so we used the same gear everyday. We also left our fins onboard which meant we didn't have to carry stuff around everyday.

We got picked up every morning on the dock at the Sabor (which no longer charges!) by the Maximus. Okay, so in Cozumel, from my observations it appears there are slow boats, fast boats, and then the Maximus. When Carlos put the boat to speed we FLEW by the other boats that were already flying. My commute was short, but if we were coming from the Caleta, I would be happy to be on the Maximus. It was a very comfortable boat as well: nice shaded area, padded seats, plenty of room for 8 divers and Alison and Carlos. You can giant stride or roll off the Maximus, and are assigned to a position and group for your entry. I mostly did giant stride but had to roll one day.


Alison runs her dives by letting each person dive their own tank/computer. She gives each buddy pair the pre-determined choice of going up together or the better air consumption buddy pairing up with another team and staying down longer. She accompanies each diver on their safety stop, and watches them surface AND get picked up before rejoining the group waiting below her (though she does a good job of watching that group too- quite the multi-tasker. She is very safety concious, going to the extreme of actually checking her new diver's gauges for them! I noticed she did that day 1, asked me a lot about my air on day 2, and by day 3 she left it to me to tell her, knowing that I paid good attention. She stayed with the more shallow divers and let the better divers go deeper with their buddy (or pony).

Carlos was an excellent Captain and I don't think I ever waited more than 2 minutes to get picked up after surfacing. And that "long" wait, Alison actually popped up out of the water to yell at him, to make sure he saw us. The first day we watched two divers float for over half an hour- we could see their boat, but Carlos couldn't get them on the radio. Those divers were in no danger, with like 20 boats around and pretty calm seas, but man, I'm sure that was a long float. That's when I learned it is important to know your boat's radio channel, in addition to its name


Alison also went out of her way to pick up some sea sick meds for my husband, since we were not staying in town. It was a 'going the extra mile' thing we really appreciated.

 

[Skittl1321]

Dives: Day 1

On the pier the first day I was ready to run away. I seriously had no idea what I was thinking. Why the hell did I want to do this? Once on the boat, I was clearly showing my nervousness, because halfway through the briefing Alison actually stopped and asked me if I was okay. I told her I'd be fine once I was in the water (I was) but I'm sure I didn't instill much confidence in her, or those who would be diving with me.

Before choosing sites, she asked me if I wanted to go to 20 ft, 40 ft, or 60 ft. I told her 60 would be fine, and she said okay, maybe a bit lower, don't go beyond 70, and we headed to Palancar Gardens.

Palancar Gardens
Max depth: 67 ft, Average Depth: 47 ft
Temperature 82 degrees (it was this everywhere all week, so I'm not going to include it anymore)
Dive time: 42 minutes

This was a great first dive. There was basically no current, so it was easy. I was one of two people who got to giant stride off the boat, and the giant stride from the boat is a million times easier than giant striding from a dock at the quarry (I usually freak out after jumping in, I didn't) I mostly held onto Kevin's hand (Alison had actually offered on the boat to hold onto mine...but I told her I'd let my buddy deal with me.) I had trouble descending and got a reminder to exhale. I think I was having trouble exhaling, because I didn't put ANY air in my BC the entire dive.

The coral here was absolutely beautiful as were the large variety of fish. We saw a nurse shark, a green moray eel, and a jawfish. I had no problems at all during the dive, so it was a good start! We agreed ahead of time my husband would come up when I ran out of air, and he told me today after looking at the graphs he did his safety stop with 1000 psi. Sorry honey! However, as nervous as I was, going up on my own would not have been acceptable!

Columbia Shallows
Max depth: 30 ft, Average Depth: 23 ft
Dive time: 76 minutes

I wasn't at all surprised to go to this dive site as research here showed it was an easy one I'd be at for sure. I was surprised how long my dive was! (I think the longest dive in our group was 2 hours!) I noted that the coral here was less colorful than at Palancar gardens but there was a lot of life. We saw schools of fish, a spotted eel, sting rays, nurse shark, a scorpion fish.

Because I hadn't used any air in my BC the previous dive, Alison added 2 pounds of weight to my belt (putting me at 16 pounds), but she took it out when I was having trouble holding the safety stop. Turns out 14 pounds was right (at the end of the week, I think I could have gone to 12), and I was just holding a lot of air in my lungs.

This was one of two dives shallow enough to take our camera on (husband manned the camera, not me- though I have dove with a camera before. It's a little point and shoot, so it doesn't really take much from the dive.)

 

[Skittl1321]

Dives: Day 2

Day 2 I felt a lot better on the pier, and was raring to go after such a great day the day before. Well, it was Friday the 13th and I didn't get off to a good start. Instead of stepping into the boat, I decided to belly flop into it... Alison was holding my arm to help me step in when it happened, and she pulled up, which probably cushioned my fall quite a bit, but I have a bad shoulder, so I started off the day in a bit of shoulder pain, and later found that my hip was bruised fairly well, to the point I had to start sleeping on the other side for a few days. What an entrance!

Palancar Caves
Max depth: 68 ft, Average Depth: 47 ft
Dive time: 44 minutes

Palancar Caves also had beautiful coral and I saw my first turtle. We mostly saw small fish. It was here that I decided I did not like swim throughs. We obviously only did very small ones, with lots of light- but I still did not like the single file line. I didn't like to worry about getting kicked, and I didn't like that it was hard to determine if my buddy behind me was okay. Thankfully, we only did very few of these during the week.


Cedral Wall
Max depth: 62 ft, Average Depth: 44 ft
Dive time: 50 minutes

This was the first dive I did that was a real drift dive (and while there were a few others with current, this might have been the only real drift of the whole week.) I thought it felt like being on a moving walkway at the airport, but set to a slightly higher speed. In general, I liked the drift, but I was really frustrated when we'd stop to look at something, because it was very hard to kick against the current.

However, this was the dive where there were really things to stop to look at- saw 3 GIANT eagle rays. It was just the most amazing thing (I think people who stayed down longer than me saw even more). We also saw tons (more than 5) big turtles (including one that had a whole bunch of fish on his back- beautiful) and lots of large fish. There was also a nurse shark that was out swimming.

Seeing all the awesome stuff made the difficulty of drifting worth it.


Paradise Reef
Max depth: 38 ft, Average Depth: 31 ft
Dive time: 66 minutes

During the day, we planned a night dive- I think almost everyone on the boat came. For night dive, instead of going up individually at 700 psi, we would go up as a group at 500 psi. We had one major air hog on the boat, so I think the plan was to get him a 100 tank instead of an 80. IIRC, that happened, and he still used his air up so quickly that Alison changed the plan and she brought him up and the rest of the group stayed together, and then we went up together about 25 minutes later! I'm also happy to note, I was not the catalyst to going to the safety stop (not sure who was, actually- I think it was the girl who was the buddy of the guy who went up first.)

For this dive, Alison provided everyone with rental flashlights and CVChief gave us all glow bands he had left over from Carnivale. We put them in pairs by color so you could tell who buddy pairs were. Alison had briefed me that this dive might be a little harder for me, maybe a bit more claustrophobic, but it turns out training in a mudhole was a good way to get ready for this, because it was my best dive to date and the first time I had more air than my husband at the end of the dive (I had 750 back on the boat, he had about 550). I actually thought one of the cooler things about the night dive was seeing the flashlights of the other groups. It was like being in an alien movie with dim lights everywhere.

The dive itself was very beautiful. The coral that is dull orange during the day was a brilliant red, but wasn't "coming to life" as much as I expected. However, we saw a ton of huge crabs and lobsters and a ton of octopodes (see other thread for discussion on how to properly pluralize octopus). I loved seeing them change color as they would situate themselves on the coral.

This dive did make me wonder what the "night dive" cert class is- because it seemed like the only difference for night diving was waiting until the sun went down to do it. Of course, our dive was very shallow.

Thanks to CVChief for breaking me out of the Sabor and driving me around the island

---------- Post added December 21st, 2013 at 10:00 AM ----------

Dives: Day 3

Palancar Bricks
Max depth: 73 ft, Average Depth: 43ft
Dive time: 52 minutes

Our tour of Palancar continued (I found out when we got home we missed Horseshoe- guess I'll have to go back to Cozumel). This dive was another beautiful one- saw a giant nurse shark hiding under a rock, saw a few turtles (turtles are the best, except eagle rays). This dive kept my "I hate swim throughs" mantra- but for other reasons. See, my fear of swim throughs is because of other people who aren't watching what they are doing and screwing me over. This was a problem TWICE during the swim through- first was the embarassing one- I saw a guy who was above, and behind me, was descending to get into the swim through. He didn't see me at all. I reached my hand up, to so that he wouldn't just fall right on top of me, and rather than hit his chest, or his leg, or you know, any other part of him, I basically grabbed his junk. That was a fun one. And my husband flooded his mask laughing because he saw it happen. Right after that happened (he was a good sport about it on the boat- basically saying it was his fault since he had no idea I was there and wasn't watching where he was going), he kicked to go ahead of me and so his buddy- who was quite a bit behind me, then starts kicking to try to pass me- kicking me in the face in the process. Don't pass people in swim throughs! I was not amused.

This dive was also the one where Alison went into a head first torpedo ascent to grab a guy from about 95 feet. Turns out his computer was dead, and he didn't think to mention it to her- so he had no depth gauge at all! About 10 minute of this dive was also spent hanging out around 35 feet waiting for a girl who was having trouble equalizing. She spent so much time at 5 ft, we all thought she had thrown in the towel and was waiting for the boat to come get her! There is a thread in the basic scuba discussions about how to piss off a DM, and I wanted to contribute something someone else did on this dive: dive through caves at 60 feet while the rest of your group waits at 30-40 while the dive master is at 5-10 feet and can't see you! (The guy was a decent diver, but terrible at being in a group.)

During the surface interval this dive was described as a "circus down there". It made me feel slightly better about my diving that she'd tell me that...
You will all be shocked to hear that these were all cruise divers.


French Reef
Max depth: 59ft, Average Depth: 44 ft
Dive time: 45 minutes
This was the first time we saw lionfish. I feel so bad they have to die, because they are so pretty. My husband spotted the first one, but Alison missed it (she got the second one). It was funny watching him try to signal what it was- we have no idea what the signal for lionfish is. First he tried to show a mane around his head to me, then he punched at it, and we have this inside joke about how he wants to punch a dolphin, so I got really excited thinking there was a dolphin there! Finally, he went with a machine gun like signal, and Alison figured out what he was saying. It was a nice display of what real skill looks like the way she whipped her BC off to get her spear and then put it back on. I basically go through a cirque-du-soleil routine when I doff and don my gear underwater.

On this dive we were promised to see a pipe horse, and of course, I'm up at my safety stop when Alison writes on her slate "pipehorse below" and after I went up the group saw a giant loggerhead turtle, so this was more about could have beens than actually saw for me We did see a number of giant lobster, and again the coral was really pretty.

I went up early because my tank started 200 psi short (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) and I think I was a little stressed because this was the first dive where my NDLs were getting low at all. We were in a swim through (do not like! And this one was long) when it got down to like 8 minutes... I swam up a bit, but I still don't like it in the single digits!

CVChief had called us on the boat (it is really hard to hear a phone conversation on a boat) and told us to invite everyone on the boat for dinner. Alison and Carlos had plans, 4 of the divers were cruisers, but the other pair and Kevin and I all went to dinner with them- more about that after the dive part of the review.

 

[Steve_C]

I remember your posts while getting certified. Glad you stuck with it and had great dives.

 

[Skittl1321]

So the night before (day 3) it was looking like the port would be closed on Monday (day 5), so day 4 was our last day. I had asked Alison if we could go somewhere shallow enough that we could take our camera and Carlos suggested Paradise Reef. Alison was NOT interested until I told her we would take a taxi home (knowing that the reason was likely because Paradise was way North, and she'd have to take the boat all the way down south to drop us off again.) Thankfully, my taxi ended up being CVChief, so it's really affordable (for me...)

The night before she also told me we would be going to Santa Rosa Wall or Columbia deep. This set my nerves off big time again, as I know both of these are not 'easy, beginner' type dives. (Maybe some of the others I did aren't either- but I didn't know their reputation by name.) I know Santa Rosa is a dive that TONS of people do, but I also recognize it as the dive that a fair number of divers are lost at each year... So I was kind of freaking out again.

We get on the boat, and we are going to Santa Rosa. Additionally because of the mix of divers on the boat, of the two of us who giant strided the day before, one of us has to give up our spot to a veteran who always has claim to it. I had been doing so much better, so I gave up my spot and did a roll. I asked to roll in group 2, knowing that Kevin (and Alison) would already be in the water- for some reason, that made me feel a little more comfortable. Except that I was told I did a backflip, my first roll went really well, except I didn't go right when I was supposed to, when Carlos said go, I said "I can't yet!" but then I went and it was no problem. My second, not so much on the okay- I actually screamed a bit from the pain, but wasn't seriously hurt. However when I got back to the hotel I found out that my upper calf has a huge, 3-inch bruise from hitting the boat. Apparently I straightened my legs out when rolling. Don't do that. Luckily, the Maximus was okay. (The bruise is currently like 10 vivid shades of purple, yellow, and red.)

Santa Rosa Wall
Max depth: 72 ft, Average Depth: 52ft
Dive time: 48 minutes
Despite being terrified of this dive, it turned out to be one of my favorites. The coral life was absolutely beautiful. And seeing the drop off was really incredible. I'm sure you can tell by my depths that I didn't go over the side of the wall at all, staying on top of it instead. Thankfully because of the way Alison runs her groups, my insistence on not going deep didn't really effect others, who were still able to do their dives over the side. I don't have any note about seeing fish or anything else here, I just remember it was beautiful and I can really see how it is one of the signature dives of Cozumel. We were really lucky that there was just a light current and a beautiful day. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if the currents were strong.

Paradise Reef
Max depth: 42 ft, Average Depth: 33 ft
Dive time: 62 minutes

Compare this to the picture of me at Columbia Shallows- I got so much better! I never had terrible buoyancy issues, but my trim got so much better as the week went on.
View attachment 173769

Lots to see- and totally different from the night dive. I would have never known it was the same place. Spotted eels, jawfish (that I found myself!), black durgens, rays, queen angelfish, splendid toadfish (I found one myself too!), and a drum fish. When we came up it was pouring rain, brrr. But you'd never know underwater. I also was really amused this dive by all the snorkelers that were overhead.
View attachment 173766View attachment 173767View attachment 173768

---------- Post added December 21st, 2013 at 10:22 AM ----------

I remember your posts while getting certified. Glad you stuck with it and had great dives.

Getting certified was a bit of a disaster for me... I'm still practicing skills but turns out during regular diving they never make you remove your regulator or take your mask off
It is pretty out of character for me, since I am not a risk taker, but diving is the coolest thing I've ever done- I'm so glad I did.

---------- Post added December 21st, 2013 at 10:35 AM ----------

So unfortunately for Alison, who was doing a happy dance the day before about a potential day off, the port did not close on Monday. She sent us an email saying we had to have a late start for cruisers, the port was open "with caution", the water would be really rough and potentially tough on Kevin's stomach- are we sure we still wanted to go? I felt really badly, but since this was our last chance to dive for probably a couple of years, we said we really did want to go as long as the cruisers didn't cancel (we didn't think she would run the boat with just 2 people).

The cruisers did end up coming out, so we attempted to stay on the dock and not get blown over by the wind until the boat got to us. Thankfully, despite the rough water I was able to get on the boat without issue (I think everyone was waiting for another belly flop). They weren't kidding that the water would be rough. This was the first day I wore my fleece at all, and the poor cruiser was a teeny tiny girl who wore a 1 mm skin and TWO shorty wetsuits and was shivering the whole time. This ended up being one of our best days, so I am so glad we went.

Columbia Deep
Max depth: 74 ft, Average Depth: 54 ft
Dive time: 46 minutes

So, was this the shallowest dive at Columbia deep ever? Today was a nice relaxing day because these cruisers were not crazy. Columbia deep had beautiful coral, but only a few fish. I was pointing out a large lobster to Kevin and noticed a beautiful lionfish right next to it. I machine gun signaled to Alison and she came over and got it, and fed it to a large fish right away. We hadn't talked about the lionfish on the boat, so I think the cruisers were a bit mystified by what was going on- but really amused by the great video they were able to get. I did my safety stop at 800 psi because Kevin was at 700, the last few days I started either being equal to him or out breathing him just a bit. While we had gotten comfortable sending me up and leaving him below, I wasn't comfortable staying down without him. The waves on the surface were absolutely insane and getting onto the boat was a huge challenge. I'm really glad I went up with him, because I would not have wanted to deal with that on my own! The cruisers joined us on the boat about 5 minutes later, so we were a pretty even group.

Delilah
Max depth: 63 ft, Average Depth: 46 ft
Dive time: 57 minutes
Our last dive of the trip was a real show stopper. At first, it was just a few fish, and nothing too exciting. I floated quite a bit above Alison because again my NDLs were ticking down and I kept thinking "I want time left if she sees something cool and I need to dive down to go see it." I am SO glad I went with this plan, because when she signaled for shark I was able to dive down and keep my NDL at 6 minutes (we were taught to never let it get below 5...). Well, that nurse shark didn't stay in its hole, and went swimming across the reef. THEN it was immediatly followed by a turtle who was doing circles between the reef and the surface. And THEN, we heard Alison screaming through her regulator (not her typical noise maker...): a green moray eel (which apparently she was looking for in the cave she found the nurse shark) was our swimming on the reef. It was HUGE! We all did our safety stop together as a group, and then getting back on the boat was even harder than the first time- the waves were just crazy.

So that sums up my week of diving. I'll be back later with some above water activities and hotel reviews, but this novel should suffice for now.

 

[diverokc]

THanks for the report 20 days to go for me.

 

[Mike]

Sounds like you had a nice time. It's cool to read your daily diving and watch your confidence and progress increase with each day!

 

[blue steal]

Thanks for the nice report. Can't wait to hear about all your topside activities.

 

[Midge907]

Thanks for the report, like the detail of each spot. I will also be back there in 20 days. Saw your post on the other thread you started, and must say that you should be happy that you were only able to take you camera on the two shallower dives at your current comfort level. Multi tasking during the first stages of open water diving to me never seems like the best idea, I know I took a camera on my first dives with a high comfort level, and as I look back I don't think I should of ever had one in my hands until later on. Hope you can get back out there, as it only gets better

 

[Skittl1321]

Thanks for the report, like the detail of each spot. I will also be back there in 20 days. Saw your post on the other thread you started, and must say that you should be happy that you were only able to take you camera on the two shallower dives at your current comfort level. Multi tasking during the first stages of open water diving to me never seems like the best idea, I know I took a camera on my first dives with a high comfort level, and as I look back I don't think I should of ever had one in my hands until later on. Hope you can get back out there, as it only gets better

Yeah- I took about 10 minutes of pictures on Paradise Reef and handed the camera back to him, it made buoyancy a lot harder. We don't really go for perfect pictures though, it's only a point and shoot, just more the "we were there" kind of picture, and have no problem putting it away if there are other things that need to be done, so it isn't that big of a deal to have it. It isn't as distracting as the divers who have the major camera set ups and are there for great photos. I had practiced with the camera a bit in the mud-hole (because he had to deal with the dive flag- I did that too, and that is way harder) so I was used to having it and having to concentrate on other things: really, mud hole diving was great practice, because once I could actually see it made diving a lot easier.

Knowing it could only go to 45 feet though was a nice excuse to not have to worry about photography. I'm sad we don't have pictures of the eagle rays, turtles, etc- but just getting to enjoy it was pretty great too.