Tropical Depression 2

[Dave Dillehay]

How will reefs, dive boats and scuba diving be hurt if coz gets 50 mile hour winds? How many days would dive boats not be running?

Reefs should be NO Problem. We expect to have boats out diving Saturday if the Harbor Master drops the port closure. Certainly by Sunday.

Dave Dillehay

 

[AggressorBLUE]

So, what does the local scene look like? Any boats still in the water other than the ferries? Store windows boarded? Hotels down in occupancy. The island may well get Tropical Storm effect even if not hit, and I hope for the best, but the less that has to be saved and rebuilt the better.

As an ignorant tourist from the North East US (Philly area) who just completed his first 24 hours here; the vibe is similar to what home feels like when a major winter storm is coming. A familiar cocktail of professional preparedness, measured concern, and abundant caution garnished with a hint of annoyance. People are quietly going about motions they have clearly done many times before: Storm shutters(many are permanent installations designed to quickly be deployed/retracted) are being installed/secured, others are boarding up. shops are closing early, events are being canceled.

This morning the weather looked beautiful, you’d have no idea a hurricane is literally just over the horizon. But the boats weren’t going out, and the house reef was only ‘open’ till noon. By the time we were enjoying lunch, weather still looked good, but the wind was up and white caps were sprinkling the ocean. We felt the chop slowly building during our otherwise lovely 10AM dive.

Meals are being modified; we’re getting dinner included tonight (normally Scuba Club Cozumel only includes breakfast and Lunch with your stay, dinner is extra) as it sounds like we wont get breakfast tomorrow, and are getting a pre-prepped sandwich for lunch; seems like staff anticipate their on-site kitchen being out of commission for lots of tomorrow.

The house keeping staff taped giant “X” on the windows as a precaution. All guests are staying in the building that is internal to the campus, to keep exposure to wind and water to a minimum.

The SCC staff have all been polite, professional, and apologetic about the weather (not that there’s anything they can do about it!). It’s clear they know what they’re doing and I feel like my wife and I in good hands. They didn't ask for this weather but they’re ready to answer for it.

Wife and I stocked a few bottles of wine, a cheese tray, and movies on the ipad. Have a couple puzzles and games on my laptop too. And we’ll go through our first days pictures.

It still beats a day in the office.

 

[ggunn]

How will reefs, dive boats and scuba diving be hurt if coz gets 50 mile hour winds? How many days would dive boats not be running?

As long as the center of the storm stays south of Cozumel the wind will be from the east, and wind and wave damage will be minimal in the hotel zone

 

[cozcharlie]

As an ignorant tourist from the North East US (Philly area) who just completed his first 24 hours here; the vibe is similar to what home feels like when a major winter storm is coming. A familiar cocktail of professional preparedness, measured concern, and abundant caution garnished with a hint of annoyance. People are quietly going about motions they have clearly done many times before: Storm shutters(many are permanent installations designed to quickly be deployed/retracted) are being installed/secured, others are boarding up. shops are closing early, events are being canceled.

This morning the weather looked beautiful, you’d have no idea a hurricane is literally just over the horizon. But the boats weren’t going out, and the house reef was only ‘open’ till noon. By the time we were enjoying lunch, weather still looked good, but the wind was up and white caps were sprinkling the ocean. We felt the chop slowly building during our otherwise lovely 10AM dive.

Meals are being modified; we’re getting dinner included tonight (normally Scuba Club Cozumel only includes breakfast and Lunch with your stay, dinner is extra) as it sounds like we wont get breakfast tomorrow, and are getting a pre-prepped sandwich for lunch; seems like staff anticipate their on-site kitchen being out of commission for lots of tomorrow.

The house keeping staff taped giant “X” on the windows as a precaution. All guests are staying in the building that is internal to the campus, to keep exposure to wind and water to a minimum.

The SCC staff have all been polite, professional, and apologetic about the weather (not that there’s anything they can do about it!). It’s clear they know what they’re doing and I feel like my wife and I in good hands. They didn't ask for this weather but they’re ready to answer for it.

Wife and I stocked a few bottles of wine, a cheese tray, and movies on the ipad. Have a couple puzzles and games on my laptop too. And we’ll go through our first days pictures.

It still beats a day in the office.

Not that really matters (and not that you control SCC housekeeping ) , but it seems most experts don’t recommend taping windows anymore. Seemed to be the thing to do in the 70s but has been disproven more or less .

 

[OregonDM]

Watching the webcams and the clouds just started rolling in. Pretty eerie to watch from afar.

Stay safe everybody!!

 

[gopbroek]

 

[ibj40]

Not that really matters (and not that you control SCC housekeeping ) , but it seems most experts don’t recommend taping windows anymore. Seemed to be the thing to do in the 70s but has been disproven more or less .

I was on St. Kitts, staying at the Jack Tar Village resort, with an East-facing first floor room when Hurricane Hugo hit the island in 1989.

The resort staff had X-taped the sliding glass doors in our room. I remember watching those doors bow to the extent that the horizontal rain blew unabated through the gap between the two panels. With that, the glass never yielded.

In the morning there was at least six inches of water on the floor of our unit, but the glass was intact and the doors opened.

I’m a believer, regardless of what “most experts don’t recommend”.

 

[DandyDon]

experts don’t recommend taping windows anymore.

I see agreement with that on a google search, but it might depend on the tape.

 

[ibj40]

I see agreement with that on a google search, but it might depend on the tape.

If I have a choice between shattering glass and glass retained by (duct) tape, I’m going with tape every time.

 

[cozcharlie]

I don’t really care one way or the other , but evidently the theory in using tape is that the tape reduced the number of shards flying around (not that tape strengthens the window ). They realized that while the tape reduces the number of shards flying around , the ones that are flying around are larger and more lethal .

I use aluminum shutters