Cozumel - January 2016 Days 5,6 and 7

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We completed our last two dives today, but I will go back to where I left off and write about the high points over the last three days. Before I start, I'm sure it is evident that I haven't blogged about anything but diving. That's because this portion of the trip is only diving. Get up at 7:00, eat a light breakfast and gear up. On the boat by 8:30 or it leaves the dock without you, and it's an hour trip to almost ever dive site. Complete a dive (45-60 minutes) depending on air consumption, back on the boat to gas off, and in for the second dive. Another 45-60 minute dive and back on the boat for the hour ride back to shore. That's the first six hours of every day. We get back about lunch, and after that we take some down time, to read, nap or sit by the pool. So if diving doesn't interest you, best to skip these blogs. Next week we will be on the mainland and hopefully will do a few more touristy things that I'll be able to write about.

Thursday - January 7th

We completed our first dive and headed back toward the resort for our second dive to a site called Punta Tunich. The dive master said it would be a shallowe dive with an abundance of different types of fish. Before we jumped in the water, I noticed several of the divers looking over the side of the boat saying, "oh my God there are hundreds of them", but not wanting to be nosey I didn't pay much attention and went to gear up. I was the first person in the water, and as I hit the water I found out quickly what they were referring to, JELLY FISH! And there weren't hundreds of them, there were thousands of them! It was like landing on a pillow when you hit the water. They were everywhere. So I deflated my BC and sunk immediately to the bottom thinking, we wouldn't find them at depth. Wrong, they stayed with us the entire dive. When I looked up toward the surface from the bottom it was like looking at the ocean covered with a piece of bubble wrap, only the bubbles were much bigger. Everyone got stung at least once, but suprisingly they were not painful stings, just annoying. I think the anxiety of being surrounded by that many jelly fish shortened our dive, because people seemed to run out of air at a much faster pace and we were all glad to get back on the boat.

Friday - January 8th

I am not able to post videos on this blog site, but Jim got a great video of a Nurse Shark attacking a piece of soft coral while hunting for food. Just about the time we think he got to his prey, a big green Moray Eel (BIG) swam right over to the shark, we assume to see if the shark would share what he found. It's a great piece of video and if your my friend on FB you can see it there.

After our second dive we decided to dive a wreck, called the C-53. The C-53 is a minesweeper the United States sold to the Mexican government. They used it for about 10 years and then sunk it to make an artifical reef. The ship sits at the bottom of the ocean at about 70' with it's hull firmly anchored in the sand. It's 180 feet long and weighs 600 tons. Julio our Dive Master took 5 divers and we penetrated the ship through a hole on deck. It was very tight quarters. Divers had to go in single file and many times if you entered a room, you had to exit back out so the next diver could go in. We explored the ship stern to bow and back, and swam through most of the inside portions of the ship that are accessible including the engine room, and the bathroom! Personally, I wouldn't do this dive again, as I'm a bit claustraphobic and there were a few times I had to talk myself off the ledge. However, I paid my money so i figured I might as well do the ride. Again Jim videoed the dive on our Go Pro and it turned out great, I only wish I could share with you on this blog.

We did 11 dives in 5 days, which for us isn't all that many when you consider we do approximately 20 dives when diving in Bonaire. The difference being boat diving vs- shore diving.

Tonight and in the morning we're packing up our gear to take the ferry to Playa del Carmen and then down to Akumal for the rest of the week. The winds are howling, and the waves are crashing against the breakwater outside the resort. I'm not much of a sailor so I'm hoping things calm down before we board the ferry for the 45 minute trip over to Playa del Carmen.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Always love the turtles
Nice