Cozumel - 2016 Days 3-4

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I'm Back!!!

The weather finally improved Wednesday morning so we did a check out dive from shore to see what was working and what wasn't working, equipment wise. Unfortunately for me, my new fins I just bought were one of the things not working, they wouldn't stay clipped so I had to borrow a pair of fins from my friend for my check out dive and then go buy a pair. Other than having to add a little more weight to my new BCD, (vest that holds your tank on) things seemed pretty good. I ran across the street to the dive shop and bought a new pair of fins for the dive, boarded the boat and we left the dock at 1:30.

We arrived at our first dive site about 2:30, geared up and jumped in the water. That's when things started to fall apart. I've been using the same gear for 13 years and just this year bought a few new pieces, something a little lighter to travel with, to decrease the weight in my dive locker to meet the airlines 50# limit. What a mistake! I couldn't descend after adding another 2# more of weight and had to kick to the bottom. Between the lighter BCD and lighter fins, I was like a cork. I'd swim along and pretty soon I was 20 feet higher than I had been a minute before, so I had to kick back to the bottom. Thankfully Jim saw me ascending like a helium balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and just held the tip of one of my fins to keep me down so I could finish the dive. I came back on board the boat so mad, I swore I'd never get in the water again. But by the time we were ready for the second dive, with the help of the crew, Jim and Dave, we had remedied my equipment problems, and the second dive was fantastic.

Diving in Cozumel is effortless because it's all drift diving. From the minute you hit the water your moving, and sometimes your moving 5-6 miles an hour without any propulsion on your part. It reminds me of being on a moving sidewalk at the airport and watching a mural go by. So if you want to stop and look at something, you have to kick to the bottom and stick a finger from each hand in the sand to hold yourself in place. Your not suppose to touch the coral or sponges or anything on the ocean floor (including fish). We've never done drift diving like this, so it was something we just learned this trip, and it works great! When you pull your fingers out, your off like they just lifted the gates at the Kentucky Derby.

Yesterday and today we saw an abundance of marine life, including sharks, lobsters, crab, parrot fish, file fish, two turtles, queen angels, french angels to name just a few. Also because the waters off Cozumel are a marine park and there is no fishing or spearing allowed, the marine life appears to be larger. The water is the most beautiful aquamarine, and the water temperature is about 80 degrees, just right for diving.

Tomorrow we are doing two dives in the morning and in the afternoon are going to dive an American battleship that was sold to the Mexican Navy. They used it for several years and then sunk it off the coast to be used as a dive reef. It has a long Aztec name, so they shortened it to C-53. We have dove a couple of wrecks in the past, but never an American battleship, so this should be interesting.

Unfortunately this blog site won't allow you to load video's and that is most of what Jim shot today, but I will upload the few pictures he did take. Tomorrow I'll have him do more stills.

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Photos

Reef Diver
Our dive boat today.