Trip report: CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Honduras May 9 May 16

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mikemill

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Sacramento, CA
# of dives
100 - 199
Multiple post report so I can get all the images and text in
I spent last week basking in the glorious diving on Roatan. I went with my brother and this was the first diving vacation for the both of us. We spent the week at CoCo View Resort (Map) in the over water cabiana #11.

The resort itself is very much centered around diving. Everything non-diving related had a very simple feel to it. They aren't trying to be a fancy resort and it shows. But it is clean, comfortable, and friendly. We were kinda surprised about the amount of older people there. I only know of three people younger then I was that was there. It didn't present any problems but wasn't what we had expected.

The basic diving routine is that you go out in the morning at 8:30. You do one dive with the DM showing the group around. Once everyone is back on the boat you have a surface interval around 45 mins to an hour and then you do a drop-off dive on Newman's wall. In the afternoon you do the same thing leaving at 2pm and dropping off on CoCo View Wall. Newman's runs mostly North/South and CoCo View runs mostly East/West and both lead you to the Prince Albert Wreck which has an anchor line with floating things attached to it that leads you back through the wall and to the resort.

We quickly found out that you can request modifications to the drop site. For example we had one group that liked to be dropped further away then the normal drop point. So a couple times we had them drop us right on top of the wreck and a few times had them drop us closer so we could really take our time looking around the walls.

The DM dives were more of a tour then a DM controlled dive. Before we'd leave the dock he'd brief us on the dive plan which included a representational map. We were free to deviate from the plan. One dive my brother was starting to get low so we moved towards the boat while the group continued on. Mark (the DM) was good about pointing out cool creatures (seahorses, eels, etc) that might be missed without rapping on his tank every minute.

The groups did get a little annoying at times but as the week progressed we spread out more and it became less of an issue.

There was a lot of macro life as well as larger life. I was surprised by how much less red I found compared to Monterey/Carmel area.

Note: I was really bad about writing down the name of the sites we went to.

May 9
The day began at the ungodly hour of 3:15am. We got to the airport a little after 4am for a 6am flight. Surprisingly by the time we had gotten through checking-in and security we arrive at the gate right as they started boarding. Seems like they are boarding much sooner then I remember.

From Sacramento we went to Houston where we got some kick arse Fijta Tacos. My brother forgot his sunglasses so he picked some up there. So after those two things it was time to reboard. Fortuantly we were able to get our seats changed to an asile and window in the exit row (with no one between us). That was really nice.

Once we got to Roatan and went through passport control we got to learn how bloody effiecient the resorts are. Each resort had their own luggage tag that they send you and each resort is a different color. They had groups pulling off the luggage that had the resort tags and were staging them together. All we had to do was talk to the rep from the resort to claim our bag and they took care of getting it to the resort.

Words of warning: The taxis are aggressive there so just say no you are good and find your friend ride to the resort. You aren't going to save any time by taking a taxi.

Once we got to the resort and got told where our room was we proceeded to unpack and put our gear in one of the lockers.

Since it was our first time there we had to wait and not go diving with some of the people we meet on the ride over.

Lots of little crabs in and around the walkways.
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View from our deck.
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Format for dive information: Dive Time / Max Depth / Average Depth

Sunday, May 10
In the morning we got the tour of the dive operation including the systems for air and nitrox tanks, the system for night diving (basically a check out/in system), and the rinse tanks, showers, and dry racks. Immediately following that we geared up and walked out to the platform for shore diving where we meetup with a DM (who turned out to be our boat's DM) for a checkout dive. The dive was just to make sure that our weighting was good, a quick mask flood/clear, reg recovery, and then a tour so we'd know how to get in and out of the area. Because it was a dive I figured I should pay some attention to I left my camera in the room. And of course I saw the only stingray I saw the entire trip.

Orientation Dive: 36 / 69 / 38

Afternoon DM Dive
Dive time: 42 mins
Max depth: 65 ft
Average depth: 32 ft

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CoCo View Wall Drop Off
Dive time: 39 mins
Max depth: 57 ft
Average depth: 36 ft
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We then meet up to do a night dive which was actually my brother's first. So after a briefing on signals and plan at the platform we went out to the wreck.

Prince Albert Night Dive
Dive time: 39 mins
Max depth: 62 ft
Average depth: 38 ft

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May 11
Morning DM Dive
Dive time: 38 mins
Max depth: 70 ft
Average depth: 38 ft

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Newman's Wall Drop Off
Dive time: 41 mins
Max depth: 61 ft
Average depth: 32 ft

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Afternoon DM Dive
Dive time: 47 mins
Max depth: 55 ft
Average depth: 32 ft

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CoCo View Wall Drop Off
Dive time: 36 mins
Max depth: 76 ft
Average depth: 45 ft

I made the mistake of leaving my camera and flash on during the SI and it was really low by the time I went to get in the water so I left it behind on the boat :(
 
May 12
Calvin's Crack (Morning DM Dive)
Dive time: 36 mins
Max depth: 89 ft
Average depth: 33 ft

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Prince Albert (Drop Off)
Dive time: 46 mins
Max depth: 51 ft
Average depth: 35 ft

We had heard there was a submerged aircraft near the Albert wreck. So we got some directions from the DM and then had them drop us off on top of the Albert. After about 15-20 minutes at the wreck we all had the seen enough and decided to head back to the Albert to play around. From there we got alerted to some squids close by that we just had to check out.

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Afternoon DM Dive
Dive time: 54 mins
Max depth: 60 ft
Average depth: 24 ft

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Prince Albert (Drop Off)
Dive time: 32 mins
Max depth: 54 ft
Average depth: 31 ft

Since Wayne's camera eats its battery he didn't get any shots of the squids in the morning. So it was back to squid hunting. And boy did it pay off.

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CoCo View Wall (Night Dive)
Dive time: 36 mins
Max depth: 76 ft
Average depth: 45 ft

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May 13
Shark dive
Dive time: 37 mins
Max depth: 70 ft
Average depth: 51 ft

Almost our entire boat had signed up to the do the shark dive. It was a blast.

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Afternoon DM Dive
Dive time: 54 mins
Max depth: 53 ft
Average depth: 34 ft

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CoCo View Wall Drop Off
Dive time: 53 mins
Max depth: 60 ft
Average depth: 39 ft

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Prince Albert (Night dive)
Dive time: 26 mins
Max depth: 50 ft
Average depth: 28 ft

Current and surge had picked up some and I wasn't feeling like struggling so just a nice short dive to get some great pictures.

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May 14
Morning DM Dive
Dive time: 47 mins
Max depth: 64 ft
Average depth: 41 ft

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One of the women on the boat requested a trip to see the monkeys so during our SI that is what we did.

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Newman's Wall Drop Off
Dive time: 43 mins
Max depth: 68 ft
Average depth: 35 ft

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Afternoon DM Dive
Dive time: 49 mins
Max depth: 54 ft
Average depth: 36 ft

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Prince Albert Drop Off
Dive time: 45 mins
Max depth: 63 ft
Average depth: 34 ft

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Newman's Wall / DC-3 Night Dive
Dive time: 50 mins
Max depth: 52 ft
Average depth: 33 ft

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May 15
Front yard early morning dive
Dive time: 62 mins
Max depth: 32 ft
Average depth: 21 ft

Throughout the week we talked about doing a pre-dawn dive scheduled so that it would become light while we were underwater. Well because the idea of waking up at 3:30am while on vacation didn't appeal to us we didn't do it. After the previous night's dive we decided to do it on our last day. It was freakin awesome. We got up at 3:30am, got to the gear locker and the third guy that was going to show us wasn't there. So while we waited I decided to hit the computer and double check sunrise times. We adjusted our in-water time from 3:50 to a few minutes after 4am. It was so cool starting it as a night dive and watching more and more stuff come into view. We got rewarded by a large crab that was walking around. He was kinda funny because when you'd put your light on him he'd stop. So we were able to hold him on top of a rock patch while we snapped some pictures :D After the dive we went back to bed.

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And to try and get a sense of scale I pulled out a clip. Now because I like my fingers and I respect the crab I didn't actually put it down or touch him. So my hand is probably a few inches or more from his back.

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Mary's Place (Morning DM Dive)
Dive time: 45 mins
Max depth: 86 ft
Average depth: 43 ft

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Newman's Wall (Drop Off)
Dive time: 54 mins
Max depth: 53 ft
Average depth: 35 ft

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Afternoon DM Dive
Dive time: 55 mins
Max depth: 61 ft
Average depth: 35 ft

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CoCo View Wall (Drop Off)
Dive time: 64 mins
Max depth: 34 ft
Average depth: 20 ft

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That night they had some fire dancers come out to perform. My brother had to go back to the room and get me as I just passed out.

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May 16
After getting our gear together we took a tour around the beach houses and chilled in lounge area. We left CoCo View at 12:30pm and got to the airport, checked in, through passport and security control, and were waiting at least two hours for our 3:45pm flight.

We jammed through customs in Houston in about 30 mins total (including going back through security), grabbed some more fijta tacos, and got to our gate just in time to say high to Ron and Carrie before we boarded for the flight home.

For the flight from Roatan to Houston we spotted a row of seats in the emergency exit row that weren't taken and as soon as everyone had boarded quickly snagged those seats. However, luck was not with us from Houston to Sacramento as that flight was full. Fortuantly we both had aisle seats but they weren't exit row seats so we were a bit cramped.


Very enjoyable trip and I can see myself going back to CoCo View. Probably not right away as I'd like to visit a few more places.

The water was pretty consistant at 82 degrees. I only wore the wetsuit during one of the night dives and didn't care for it.
 
Great report Mike! Brings back some great memories!I was there about 4 years ago and had a great time..we rented one of the houses down the road. Glad you did the shark dive that was great too!Did you get a chance to dive the site Calvins Crack..kind of a mini Marys Place?
I had plans of returning some day as well and probably will, but my next trip was to Bonaire and I was hooked,and I have been a total of three times now for 4 weeks!
I had a long list of places to go but Bonaire is hard to beat for many reasons!

Great photos BTW!

Drew
 
Mike,

Thank you for sharing. Looks like you had a great trip! I'm going to Roatan, staying at CCV as well, in July and now I'm even more excited about going. :D
 
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Mike, you make me wish I could go somewhere like this soon! I doubt its going to be the next couple years now with the baby.

However I did hear that Ron was going to take me back with him next time, all expenses paid! How nice of him.
 

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