We dove with Liquid Blue and the same group of very experienced divers on all of our dives. One couple in our group owned a house in Cozumel and have dived Cozumel reefs for years. The women used steel 100s and the men, 120s. Fills were in the 2900 to 3100 range. Jorge was our DM for all of our dives and we couldn't have asked for a better dive master. We caught a tropical storm and had rain the entire time, but the dives more than made up for it.
10/1/2005 - Cedral - An Octopus's Garden, Depth: 78 ft. Time: 1:10, EAN21 - We had requested to dive Devil's Throat and Jorge told us that the conditions were good to dive it. I had a major sleep deficit and didn't feel my best. Our room was located next to the service elevator and ice machine and I awoke all night long to noises. We decided on Cedral which is always a great dive. On my previous Cozumel trip, I dived Cedral on 9/9/2005 and spotted a free swimming octopus. He (or his neighbor) was still there and he let the 7 of us come within 10 feet of him and acted nonchalant about the bubble blowers in his garden. He finally tired of us and bugged out. I was hanging out at a tube sponge watching some gobies clean a small grunt and out of the corner of my eye I saw a silver streak go by my head. I whipped around and it was a big cuda chasing something. I have never seen anything move as fast in the water. We saw all the usual reef suspects here along with a couple of splendid toadfish. Jorge attempted to lure one out of his hole with a fishing lure and attracted the attention of some coneys looking for a snack. I interrupted a couple of tilefish doing a dance together (maybe spawning?). It was a great dive, but we surfaced to pouring rain and headed to the Fiesta Americana's covered Reef Club for our SI where Michaela came by and chatted with everyone.
10/1/2005 - Las Palmas - Moray Hideaway, Depth: 87 ft. Time: 1:15, EAN36 - It was raining buckets so we decided to motor a few hundred yards out to Las Palmas, directly in front of the FA. We saw more morays on this dive than I can remember: several large green morays came out to play. Spotted morays peeked out of their holes. The highlight was the purple mouth moray that opened wide and showed his colors. We also followed a spotted snake eel around for a while and generally enjoyed reef life while cruising along. Saw lots of cushion sea stars and sand dollars in the sand and finally surfaced because we had run out of reef. A great first day of diving and the towels and rain parkas were greatly appreciated by all.
10/2/2005 - Punta Sur, Devil's Throat with Bonus Footage, Depth 142 ft. Time: 55 minutes, EAN21. I had slept like the dead the previous night and awoke to flat seas with a little drizzle. Conditions were perfect for Punta Sur. The two couples in our group were carrying lots of camera equipment and they decided to skip the swimthroughs and look for sharks above us. Jorge gave a very detailed dive briefing, explaining that we would go into deco and we planned stops at 40, 30, and 20 feet in order to clear out some nitrogen before surfacing. The dive plan was to go down the throat and back into the cathedral. If we had sufficient gas, we would do more swimthroughs and exit through the Chimney. We had a perfect drop off and descended in light current maybe 50 feet from the entrance. Jorge led us into the cavern and at a leisurely pace and then we saw the throat straight ahead. I expelled the air from my lungs and dropped down to the sand and entered the pitch black hole. I finger-walked my way through it being careful not to stir up silt. It was tight and my tank scraped a bit before popping out into a beautiful blue abyss with Jorge waiting. My computer showed 128 ft. After my buddy came out, Jorge inspected our computers and led us into the cathedral for a look at the sponge on the wall. We then went through several more tunnels and reached our deepest point of 142 feet where we came to a vertical shaft with light streaming through it. This is way cool, I was thinking, mildly buzzed from narcosis. So I followed Jorge into the Chimney and looked up at the sunlight. All I had to do was inhale deeply and float straight up into the light. It was awesome. My computer was lit up with alarms and flashing deco. I felt great, everything looked misty. We swam to the rest of our group where we wound our way up through the reef. The narcosis abated and I figured out that needed to clear my mask to make the misty go away. We made our stops floating leisurely along and seeing the occasional big grouper lurking in the shadows. We cleared our deco and ascended to a little sunshine. We headed to Playa Palancar for SI and saw green water coming in. Roberto dropped by and visited with us during our breakfast.
10/2/2005 - San Francisco, Depth: 59, Time: 1:18, EAN36 - San Francisco is one of my favorite fish dives and we saw everything here including more splendid toads. One diver reported that she saw a toadfish actually leave its hole, but I wasn't lucky enough to see it in its full glory. Lots and lots of angels and triggers, black durgeon, surgeons and doctors, white spotted filefish, cute little balloon fish, coneys in every corner. During our safety stop, I looked up and it was raining hard. My computer cleared and I signaled up to my buddy and he shook his head no. I ascended after Jorge and my buddy was the last to emerge. I asked him why he didn't ascend with me and he said he was waiting for the rain to stop! It didn't and we had a chilly, wet ride back to the hotel pier.
10/3/2005 - Barracuda Reef, Depth: 102 ft, Time: 55 minutes, EAN21 - Jorge announced that conditions were good for doing the northern reefs and asked us if that was OK. We said sure, why not? I had never dived them and didn't know much about them. He gave us a very detailed briefing about the current and potential for down drafts and how to avoid them. We were to wear gloves because we were out of the marine park. It was OK to use dead coral for handholds. I didn't bring my gloves, but my DH sacrificed his right glove to me and wore his left one. We were to hug the wall and the dive would be over when the first person reached 1000 psi. We did a 1, 2 3, altogether backroll and made a flying descent. This was the fastest current I had ever experienced and I caught myself breathing hard because of the adrenaline coursing through my system. I stayed close to the reef and tried to assimilate the stuff whipping by. I see Jorge up ahead and he is stopped. Oh s**t, I need to exhale and find something to grab. Missed my first handhold and grabbed the second one and pulled myself back to where Jorge was trying to entice a turtle as big as a VW beetle out of its cave. Wow! We're off again and I look behind me and see my Biofins are bent completely over my heels. (Note to self: wear stiffer fins next time). We saw several large turtles and a never-ending school of horse eye jacks seemed to shadow us from above. I was almost out of NDL minutes and I signaled Jorge and he blew the bag and we made our way up to a flying safety stop, landing at a hotel beach for SI.
10/3/2005 - San Juan - a Magic Carpet Ride, Depth: 65 ft., Time: 57 minutes, EAN36 - 1, 2, 3, GO! and we're off again and the current has picked up to 4 knots. Whoa! I'm glad I pulled my hood over my mask. We fly over a bottom covered in orange sponges, finger coral and hydroids. I see an eye below (is that an octopus?). No turning back to find out. A doctorfish careens in front of me and hits my mask. I don't know which of us was more surprised. I'm flying 6 inches above the carpet below and spot bubbles directly ahead. I veer to my right and the current spins me 360 and I smack his camera. I signal sorry; he understands. Time for a turtle stop and I don't see anything to grab so I wrap myself around a barrel sponge and claw my way over to the group. My ungloved hand paid dearly for it. We're all working extremely hard in this current and my buddy has only 800 PSI after 45 minutes. He signals to Jorge who blows the bag and slowly winds it up for our safety stop. It's raining again and I huddle in my parka all the way to the hotel pier where we bid farewell to Jorge and the rest of the group.
It was an unforgettable experience and a fantastic trip in spite of the weather.
10/1/2005 - Cedral - An Octopus's Garden, Depth: 78 ft. Time: 1:10, EAN21 - We had requested to dive Devil's Throat and Jorge told us that the conditions were good to dive it. I had a major sleep deficit and didn't feel my best. Our room was located next to the service elevator and ice machine and I awoke all night long to noises. We decided on Cedral which is always a great dive. On my previous Cozumel trip, I dived Cedral on 9/9/2005 and spotted a free swimming octopus. He (or his neighbor) was still there and he let the 7 of us come within 10 feet of him and acted nonchalant about the bubble blowers in his garden. He finally tired of us and bugged out. I was hanging out at a tube sponge watching some gobies clean a small grunt and out of the corner of my eye I saw a silver streak go by my head. I whipped around and it was a big cuda chasing something. I have never seen anything move as fast in the water. We saw all the usual reef suspects here along with a couple of splendid toadfish. Jorge attempted to lure one out of his hole with a fishing lure and attracted the attention of some coneys looking for a snack. I interrupted a couple of tilefish doing a dance together (maybe spawning?). It was a great dive, but we surfaced to pouring rain and headed to the Fiesta Americana's covered Reef Club for our SI where Michaela came by and chatted with everyone.
10/1/2005 - Las Palmas - Moray Hideaway, Depth: 87 ft. Time: 1:15, EAN36 - It was raining buckets so we decided to motor a few hundred yards out to Las Palmas, directly in front of the FA. We saw more morays on this dive than I can remember: several large green morays came out to play. Spotted morays peeked out of their holes. The highlight was the purple mouth moray that opened wide and showed his colors. We also followed a spotted snake eel around for a while and generally enjoyed reef life while cruising along. Saw lots of cushion sea stars and sand dollars in the sand and finally surfaced because we had run out of reef. A great first day of diving and the towels and rain parkas were greatly appreciated by all.
10/2/2005 - Punta Sur, Devil's Throat with Bonus Footage, Depth 142 ft. Time: 55 minutes, EAN21. I had slept like the dead the previous night and awoke to flat seas with a little drizzle. Conditions were perfect for Punta Sur. The two couples in our group were carrying lots of camera equipment and they decided to skip the swimthroughs and look for sharks above us. Jorge gave a very detailed dive briefing, explaining that we would go into deco and we planned stops at 40, 30, and 20 feet in order to clear out some nitrogen before surfacing. The dive plan was to go down the throat and back into the cathedral. If we had sufficient gas, we would do more swimthroughs and exit through the Chimney. We had a perfect drop off and descended in light current maybe 50 feet from the entrance. Jorge led us into the cavern and at a leisurely pace and then we saw the throat straight ahead. I expelled the air from my lungs and dropped down to the sand and entered the pitch black hole. I finger-walked my way through it being careful not to stir up silt. It was tight and my tank scraped a bit before popping out into a beautiful blue abyss with Jorge waiting. My computer showed 128 ft. After my buddy came out, Jorge inspected our computers and led us into the cathedral for a look at the sponge on the wall. We then went through several more tunnels and reached our deepest point of 142 feet where we came to a vertical shaft with light streaming through it. This is way cool, I was thinking, mildly buzzed from narcosis. So I followed Jorge into the Chimney and looked up at the sunlight. All I had to do was inhale deeply and float straight up into the light. It was awesome. My computer was lit up with alarms and flashing deco. I felt great, everything looked misty. We swam to the rest of our group where we wound our way up through the reef. The narcosis abated and I figured out that needed to clear my mask to make the misty go away. We made our stops floating leisurely along and seeing the occasional big grouper lurking in the shadows. We cleared our deco and ascended to a little sunshine. We headed to Playa Palancar for SI and saw green water coming in. Roberto dropped by and visited with us during our breakfast.
10/2/2005 - San Francisco, Depth: 59, Time: 1:18, EAN36 - San Francisco is one of my favorite fish dives and we saw everything here including more splendid toads. One diver reported that she saw a toadfish actually leave its hole, but I wasn't lucky enough to see it in its full glory. Lots and lots of angels and triggers, black durgeon, surgeons and doctors, white spotted filefish, cute little balloon fish, coneys in every corner. During our safety stop, I looked up and it was raining hard. My computer cleared and I signaled up to my buddy and he shook his head no. I ascended after Jorge and my buddy was the last to emerge. I asked him why he didn't ascend with me and he said he was waiting for the rain to stop! It didn't and we had a chilly, wet ride back to the hotel pier.
10/3/2005 - Barracuda Reef, Depth: 102 ft, Time: 55 minutes, EAN21 - Jorge announced that conditions were good for doing the northern reefs and asked us if that was OK. We said sure, why not? I had never dived them and didn't know much about them. He gave us a very detailed briefing about the current and potential for down drafts and how to avoid them. We were to wear gloves because we were out of the marine park. It was OK to use dead coral for handholds. I didn't bring my gloves, but my DH sacrificed his right glove to me and wore his left one. We were to hug the wall and the dive would be over when the first person reached 1000 psi. We did a 1, 2 3, altogether backroll and made a flying descent. This was the fastest current I had ever experienced and I caught myself breathing hard because of the adrenaline coursing through my system. I stayed close to the reef and tried to assimilate the stuff whipping by. I see Jorge up ahead and he is stopped. Oh s**t, I need to exhale and find something to grab. Missed my first handhold and grabbed the second one and pulled myself back to where Jorge was trying to entice a turtle as big as a VW beetle out of its cave. Wow! We're off again and I look behind me and see my Biofins are bent completely over my heels. (Note to self: wear stiffer fins next time). We saw several large turtles and a never-ending school of horse eye jacks seemed to shadow us from above. I was almost out of NDL minutes and I signaled Jorge and he blew the bag and we made our way up to a flying safety stop, landing at a hotel beach for SI.
10/3/2005 - San Juan - a Magic Carpet Ride, Depth: 65 ft., Time: 57 minutes, EAN36 - 1, 2, 3, GO! and we're off again and the current has picked up to 4 knots. Whoa! I'm glad I pulled my hood over my mask. We fly over a bottom covered in orange sponges, finger coral and hydroids. I see an eye below (is that an octopus?). No turning back to find out. A doctorfish careens in front of me and hits my mask. I don't know which of us was more surprised. I'm flying 6 inches above the carpet below and spot bubbles directly ahead. I veer to my right and the current spins me 360 and I smack his camera. I signal sorry; he understands. Time for a turtle stop and I don't see anything to grab so I wrap myself around a barrel sponge and claw my way over to the group. My ungloved hand paid dearly for it. We're all working extremely hard in this current and my buddy has only 800 PSI after 45 minutes. He signals to Jorge who blows the bag and slowly winds it up for our safety stop. It's raining again and I huddle in my parka all the way to the hotel pier where we bid farewell to Jorge and the rest of the group.
It was an unforgettable experience and a fantastic trip in spite of the weather.
