Well, I am back and wish I wasn't. Its so hard to come home sometimes.
My trip was a cruise aboard the Carnival Valor and made port at Belize City, Roatan, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.
We made plans ahead of time to dive in all 4 ports and what a great idea that was. The ships excursions were loaded with upwards of 30-40 divers where we had no more than 6 on a boat in any trip. Here is a short summary of the dives and what we did on them.
Belize
Dive Operator: Sea Sports Belize
Dive Sites: Sand Chute, PrincessCanyon
Sea Sports Belize was a great outfit but was a bit pricey. The dive master was very young but I was rather impressed by him and his skills. His name is Valentine and I would dive with him any day. I think we paid 125 for two tank dives. We were fed well and had a great lunch. Unfortunately we had some rough seas and getting in and out of the boat was a bit rough. My wife cut herself on the prop when the boat surged. We went to some small caye about 10 miles off shore. Next trip will be to Ambergris Caye and not Belize City.
Roatan
Dive Operator: Subway Water Sports
Dive Sites: Marys Place, Fish Soup
All I can say about Roatan is summed up in one word AWESOME!
Marys Place was by far the best dive I have ever been on. If you get the chance, go there. Subway was a good outfit and the price was right at $60 for two tanks. They let us dive our own plans and treated us like adults which got us into some trouble because one of our group did not know her computer well enough and she went into deco mode and failed to do a 9 minute stop at 10 feet which locked her out for 24 hours. She turned out OK but missed the diving in Cayman as a result.
Marys place is a deep wall and crevasse dive. We hit a max depth of 110 FSW and then worked up to around 45 FSW. The next dive was equally deep on the wall and all of us ended up pushing the limits a bit much. I did some extra time on my SS as I was real close to DECO myself.
Grand Cayman
Dive Operator: Divers Down
Dive Sites: Slaughter House, South Aquarium
The weather did us in here. I really did not think we would dive but as luck had it we were able to get out in 4-5 foot seas and dive. The first dive was supposed to be at Sand Chute but the mooring was lost so we ended up in Slaughter house and over the wall to 110 FSW for a 5 minutes, up to 80 FSW for 10 minutes and then at 50-60 feet for the rest of the dive. We dove computers with the agreement that the first person to reach warning on Nitrogen level ended the dive for all. We ran out of air first. The second dive was a 50 FSW reef dive where I spent the last 25 minutes perfecting my bubble rings.
Cozumel
Dive Operator: Aqua Safari
Dive Sites: Santa Rosa Wall, Paradise Reef
Aqua Safari seemed to be a good outfit. I would dive with them again. My only complaint was the condition of the tank valves. They were pretty beat up and we had some trouble getting good seals. Once in the water the DM was fantastic and the Captain tracked us well on our drifts.
My first and second Drift Dive. WHAT A TRIP!
The Santa Rosa wall drifted by like a movie at about 2-3 knots. We dodged coral outcrops and flew like birds. My first 15 minutes were spent at 80 FSW and then we moved up to the reef because the girl who had violated her computer in Roatan discovered she was in an extremely conservative mode and had to stay at 30-40 FSW to keep her DC happy. My wife and I stayed on the reef and just drifted for another 20 minutes before our SS. It was awesome.
Paradise reef dive was great and another drift dive. We saw several Stone Fish and lots of Barracuda. One Cuda was the biggest yet at 6-7 feet. He was an awesome sight to see and was stationery above the reef with mouth wide open.
Of all the dives, Marys Place was my favorite
My trip was a cruise aboard the Carnival Valor and made port at Belize City, Roatan, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.
We made plans ahead of time to dive in all 4 ports and what a great idea that was. The ships excursions were loaded with upwards of 30-40 divers where we had no more than 6 on a boat in any trip. Here is a short summary of the dives and what we did on them.
Belize
Dive Operator: Sea Sports Belize
Dive Sites: Sand Chute, PrincessCanyon
Sea Sports Belize was a great outfit but was a bit pricey. The dive master was very young but I was rather impressed by him and his skills. His name is Valentine and I would dive with him any day. I think we paid 125 for two tank dives. We were fed well and had a great lunch. Unfortunately we had some rough seas and getting in and out of the boat was a bit rough. My wife cut herself on the prop when the boat surged. We went to some small caye about 10 miles off shore. Next trip will be to Ambergris Caye and not Belize City.
Roatan
Dive Operator: Subway Water Sports
Dive Sites: Marys Place, Fish Soup
All I can say about Roatan is summed up in one word AWESOME!
Marys Place was by far the best dive I have ever been on. If you get the chance, go there. Subway was a good outfit and the price was right at $60 for two tanks. They let us dive our own plans and treated us like adults which got us into some trouble because one of our group did not know her computer well enough and she went into deco mode and failed to do a 9 minute stop at 10 feet which locked her out for 24 hours. She turned out OK but missed the diving in Cayman as a result.
Marys place is a deep wall and crevasse dive. We hit a max depth of 110 FSW and then worked up to around 45 FSW. The next dive was equally deep on the wall and all of us ended up pushing the limits a bit much. I did some extra time on my SS as I was real close to DECO myself.
Grand Cayman
Dive Operator: Divers Down
Dive Sites: Slaughter House, South Aquarium
The weather did us in here. I really did not think we would dive but as luck had it we were able to get out in 4-5 foot seas and dive. The first dive was supposed to be at Sand Chute but the mooring was lost so we ended up in Slaughter house and over the wall to 110 FSW for a 5 minutes, up to 80 FSW for 10 minutes and then at 50-60 feet for the rest of the dive. We dove computers with the agreement that the first person to reach warning on Nitrogen level ended the dive for all. We ran out of air first. The second dive was a 50 FSW reef dive where I spent the last 25 minutes perfecting my bubble rings.
Cozumel
Dive Operator: Aqua Safari
Dive Sites: Santa Rosa Wall, Paradise Reef
Aqua Safari seemed to be a good outfit. I would dive with them again. My only complaint was the condition of the tank valves. They were pretty beat up and we had some trouble getting good seals. Once in the water the DM was fantastic and the Captain tracked us well on our drifts.
My first and second Drift Dive. WHAT A TRIP!
The Santa Rosa wall drifted by like a movie at about 2-3 knots. We dodged coral outcrops and flew like birds. My first 15 minutes were spent at 80 FSW and then we moved up to the reef because the girl who had violated her computer in Roatan discovered she was in an extremely conservative mode and had to stay at 30-40 FSW to keep her DC happy. My wife and I stayed on the reef and just drifted for another 20 minutes before our SS. It was awesome.
Paradise reef dive was great and another drift dive. We saw several Stone Fish and lots of Barracuda. One Cuda was the biggest yet at 6-7 feet. He was an awesome sight to see and was stationery above the reef with mouth wide open.
Of all the dives, Marys Place was my favorite
