Went FLYING today...

[GameChanger]

Barracuda Reef! Man, the current was ripping! What a thrill!

I give a lot of credit to DM Mauricio with Blue Angel for getting us ready for this exciting dive. His pre-dive briefing was serious, very thorough and very direct. He was very clear as to the necessity for all of us to descend as a group, stay together, shoot our DSMB's and surface as a group. He also went over the circumstances for calling the dive (which didn't happen). Mauricio made a very challenging dive very doable.

We dropped as a group to about 93 ft right off the boat and we took off FLYING! We hit a couple strong out-drafts in the wall-valleys but nothing we couldn't handle. To be honest, I was focused on not doing a fly-by on our DM who did an awesome job keeping us together. Nobody took cameras because you couldn't stop for the shot anyway and you couldn't grab onto anything, Our average depth was 61 ft for this see-saw dive and we all surfaced at about the 45 min mark. I had 650 psi at the SS.

Our 2nd dive was San Juan and there was a very strong current as well. It's not a wall dive and there was a lot of marine life to see. Lots of large turtles, some lion fish, groupers, parrots, eels and I didn't see it but someone spotted a nurse shark. Lots of coral (orange).
This dive was almost effortless! We just flew north. In fact, we ended the dive at the beginning of Barracuda.

I know Barracuda is not for everyone. Having a great DM sure makes it easier though.

 

[ChuckP]

The last few weeks the current has been so blahhh - Baracudda is a great flight when it's ripping and your with a great group....

We were working on some side mount stuff late afternoon at Cozumel Marine World, stayed and did a night dive, current went from mild to wild in 15 minutes......

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

Barracuda is one of my all time favorites when it is ripping. If Mauricio is the same DM that used to be at Aldora, he is a great DM. Always enjoyed diving with him.

Every time we dive Barracuda, as soon as I drop in I can't get the theme from Topgun out of my head as I soar above the peaks....grinning to the point that water makes it around my mouthpiece.

Safe Travels,
Jay

 

[GameChanger]

Barracuda is one of my all time favorites when it is ripping. If Mauricio is the same DM that used to be at Aldora, he is a great DM. Always enjoyed diving with him.

Every time we dive Barracuda, as soon as I drop in I can't get the theme from Topgun out of my head as I soar above the peaks....grinning to the point that water makes it around my mouthpiece.

Safe Travels,
Jay

Yes, it's the same Mauricio. Funny you mention the Top Gun theme...it was playing in my head too! LOL!

 

[cozcharlie]

Currents were weird yesterday. I was up north yesterday also, but well inside of the wall (off Península/Palmas Reales area ). Was snorkeling in morning and diving in afternoon.
Current was very strong in morning running north while snorkeling right at shoreline (and I’ve done that a 100 times now, probably top 5 in terms of current ).
Odd thing thing was afternoon. We dove about 150 yards offshore (from a boat, not a shore dive), i think we essentially had four or five current changes in a 65 minute dive. Hopped in it was blowing hard to northwest (pushing us away from shore, cost me 700 psi in 7 minutes from the kicking ) , then was a traditional moderate north bound current , then moderate south , then moderate north , then moderate south then finished moderate /strong north. I think I saw the same pair of scorpionfish 3 times. We were intentionally doing a longer/shallow dive well in from the wall so the current changes were never much of a safety issue—we had fairly shallow hard bottom for quite a ways in every direction and as I mentioned our boat was with us the whole way

It’s blowing hard north again right now btw . I can see the sargazo flying by