Here's a trip report from our recent Coz adventure... Pix with my new
camerita will be up this weekend at http://www.rbdg.com/reb/dive (I'll
be out of town till then)
Friday July 20th - Friday July 27th 2001
It was a dark and stormy night, or so the internet forecasts gloomily
proscribed for this week's weather during our dive trip in Cozumel. By
now, I should know better than to waste my time with these psychic
meteorological predictions, since the weather for the entire week proves
to be beautiful. Temp of the air is in the mid 80's F and the water is
a pleasant 3mmR/81F.
Fresh from their cert dives in Lake Travis, friends Caryl and Evan (mom
and son now living in Austin, Texas) meet Elisa, Danna, and me at our
house to begin their first blue water dive trip to Cozumel. Our driver,
Wayne, picks us up in a van and efficiently whisks us to the wrong gate
at the airport. TransAir - AirTrans - ATA - TA, all different airlines
all at different gates. However, we discover our error early and luck
upon an empty airport cart heading our way. A 30-minute walk is turned
into a 5-minute ride as we pass other groups of pissed passengers who
have made the same mistake and are speed walking their way to our late
afternoon flight's departure gate.
Twenty minutes after we board the plane there's still no air
conditioning, not even so much as a dribble of hot stale air from the
vents, as people, soaking wet from the Texas heat index of 115F,
continue to stream down the steamy jetway. The flight attendant on the
mic is having great trouble reading the preboarding safety card and
doesn't appear to have a clue about much else. "It's extremely
important to completely fill out your immigration forms unless there are
areas that you shouldn't or can't fill out." Thanks, now that's lucid,
that's helpful. "If you don't have a passport don't write a passport
number in the blank area on the form that says 'passport number.'"
Perhaps it's heat stroke.
As soon as we get rolling I fall into a deep and drooling sleep until we
make a questionably controlled three-bounce crash landing in Cozumel.
We do the immigration thing and this time even Elisa is lucky with the
customs lottery. Outside it's a major effort to get anyone to pay
attention to five measly fares to 'el centro' (the center of town). I
tease with the pretty transportation dispatcher and it gets us a ride in
record time. As we check into our rooms at the Bahia, we find the
curtains pulled all the way back and unpack in a room aglow, illuminated
by a glorious sunset. Ahhhhhhhh!
We meet thirty minutes later in our luxurious Bahia penthouse suite with
Ventura and Heidi (Buena Ventura Diving) to discuss the week's dive
plan: 9:00am pick up across the street at the pro dive pier, air first
dive, beach surface interval, nitrox second dive, and back to the hotel
for a late lunch and a siesta. They take our equipment so that it'll be
there on the boat for us in the morning. All agree, it's going to be a
great week.
We're all starved and scurry off for dinner at Prima's. Although
Albert's not there, Juan Carlos is, taking care of business as usual.
Everything is excellent, steak, veal, chicken and pasta, all washed down
with a nice Chianti followed by strawberry parfait, tiramisu, and
espresso. burrrrp! *excuse me* :-)
Saturday July 21st
We're up at 7:45a to eat breakfast at Jeannie's Waffle House before our
dive. Ventura and the captain are at the pier waiting for us at nine
with all our equipment already setup.
Dive 1 - Palancar Caves
75ft for 0:55
Caryl can't stop smiling all the way to the site. I wish I could make
my first dive again. I guess sharing it is the next best thing. Almost
as soon as they hit the water, Caryl and Evan are stunned by the clarity
and visibility. (They've only been in Texas lakes) As they settle to
the bottom, a big hawksbill turtle performs on cue swimming lazy circles
around them. They are jazzed!
The captain beaches the boat and Ventura treats us to a relaxing surface
interval with snacks consisting of fruit (pineapple, watermelon, papaya,
cantaloupe, bananas) and fresh pastries (bread, pan dulce, croissants,
cheese Danish, and apple fritters). The girls wander off to pick up
shells and other treasure. We'll repeat this, to everyone's delight,
all week.
Dive 2 - Tormentos
65ft for 1:02
After no problems during our recent trip to the BVI, I'm feeling very
confident with my new little Canon digital housing and camera and,
instead of having the captain hand it down after I'm in the water, I
back roll off the boat with it clipped to my BC. A casual check reveals
a few drops or water inside. Yikes! Stupidity has its own rewards.
However, all the controls operate with no further leaks apparent and the
camera functions properly. Whew! No more back rolls with the
camerita! Doh!
Having used up all the 'good camera karma' that I've built up over the
last several years in one dive, I vow to be my usual more careful self
for the remainder of the week. I meticulously prep the camera for the
next day and even install a safety backup absorption device consisting
of a 'Lightdays Kotex' pad, cut and trimmed to fit the space between the
bottom of the camera and the housing. Nothing's more absorptive and
it's saved many a photographer's camera, including mine, from imminent
disaster.
Caryl and Evan have obviously received excellent training from their
instructor in Austin and are very comfortable in the water. Their
buoyancy and air consumption is excellent, particularly for new divers.
We shower and head off starved to Las Palmeras for a late 2:30p lunch of
ceveche, quesadillas, and guacamole. Then back to the room for a siesta
that lasts till 6:30p.
As evening approaches, we stroll the square and eat at the French
Quarter, deciding to give it another chance after the disaster a few
months back with Bob and Sue. The food is excellent and the manager is
as nice as ever. None of us is particularly hungry so we order salads
and French onion soup - excellent! A yummy desert follows consisting of
mango topped vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake, and mango crème brule.
Fifty steps around the corner in our rooms at the Bahia, we fall into
bed by 10:30p.
Sunday July 22nd
We have a quick coffee and pastry breakfast at Coffee Bean across the
street and snack on some papaya and pineapple from the Bahia's breakfast
bar while we get suited up for the day's diving. Today we do a
three-tank trip.
Dive 3 - Columbia Deep
107 for 0:50
Ventura charters a Black Shark boat and captain to deliver us to the
reef. We see two Turtle, an 8' nurse shark, crab, and several stingray
During a surface interval anchored in a shallow sandy area (2'-3' deep)
we all enjoy exotic exfoliating sand baths. :-)
Dive 4 - Cedral
82' for 1:10
There are horse eyed jacks, stingray, 4 trunkfish swimming together, a
swimming shark, spotted eagle ray, and a spotted moray.
Dive 5 - Palmas
67 for 1:00
There is a spotted moray, crab, juvenile crab, four stoplight parrot
fish, several spotted drum, five splendid toad fish, and a tiny (4")
juvenile scrawled file fish (the first I've ever seen).
Tonight, dinner is at La Choza.
With no lunch today (we filled up on pastries and fruit), we are starved
and jog to dinner at 6:00p. Their chicken in black sauce (sauce from a
blend of 6 different peppers) is outstanding, yum! After that, we walk
to the ice cream/fruit drink place (La Flor de Mighoagan) for orange and
pina colada drinks for desert, yum, yum!
Monday July 23rd
This morning we have a breakfast of eggs migas (scrambled eggs w/ bacon
and tortilla chips) and ice-cold banana and mango smoothies at La
Choza.
Dive 6 - Palancar Caves
132 for 1:10
Today we dive with Heidi and Lupe (Ventura's nephew). We see several
big snapper while swimming in and out of the reef structure.
We enjoy another relaxing beach surface interval.
Dive 7 - North of Balones
66 for 1:01
Here, there's lots of small juvenile stuff. Caryl and Evan's buoyancy
control is really developing. They're already able to hover and look at
small stuff even in the current. Most impressive. Elisa, Danna, and I
are trying to demonstrate to them how to have a good time on any dive by
working with the conditions instead of fighting them.
Back at the Bahia, we call over to Carl's hotel to see if he is up for a
dive on Tuesday as planned, but the hotel says they have no Carl Heinz
there.
Dinner at Guidos with Heidi and Ventura
The pizzas and spinach & beef ravioli are excellent.
Heidi says that 4 divers have been lost in the last two months in Coz.
As a sad side note to echo that stat, after returning home, Caryl and
Evan find out that while we are diving on Tuesday, an instructor (Bob
Smith NAUI #8) from their shop in Austin is lost during a deep dive
somewhere in Coz.
Tonight I finish reading 'Last Dive', by Bernie Chowdhury about an
experienced father and son dive team that makes a fatal mistake in
judgment. Written in a similar author's perspective as 'Perfect Storm',
it is a must read for all serious divers. I drift off to sleep mulling
over the kernels of truth from their story to see what I can learn and
apply to my diving.
Tuesday July 24th
It starts out like any other day, but an equipment problem develops and
threatens, unsuccessfully, to ruin our dive.
Our equipment is onboard the boat and already set up when we are picked
up at the pro dive pier. Danna and I dive the same regulator
configuration, an Atomic primary on a 6' hose and an Atomic secondary on
a necklace. We dive Cochran Gemini air integrated computers that, to
date, have performed flawlessly. We both check our air before leaving
the dock and look to see that everything is rigged properly. All looks
good. Danna and I suit up for our first dive.
Since we have new divers with us onboard and we will be going a little
bit deeper today, I will be buddying with one of the newbees and
relocate my kit to the stern of the boat. As we begin to suit up for
the dive Danna calls out that her computer is malfunctioning. The wrist
unit is flashing (indicating loss of transmitter signal) but it is still
displaying some current data from the tank unit. I reset the computer
and still no joy. I verify that we are each wearing the proper wrist
units coded for our respective units. That's not the problem. I
speculate that we have an intermittent computer malfunction. Rats!
In preparation for a time just like this we always carry a spare
depth/pressure gage in case of catastrophic computer failure. (In fact,
I carry a spare just about everything)
We quickly spin in the backup analog gages to her first stage and in a
few minutes she's ready to dive using her back up computer (Orca
Skinnydipper). I head back to my kit at the stern and guess what, now
my computer is malfunctioning as well. Same symptoms. Sheeeh! Have I
been bit twice by the dreaded Cochran legend? Although my wrist unit is
flashing, indicating no signal from the tank unit, it is still showing
recent updated tank pressure and information. It must be an
intermittent problem. Water in the pressure sensor? Can't be low
batteries, they are good for a 1,000 hours and, besides, I checked them
already.
The first problem with Danna's rig was solved quickly while everyone is
suiting up, but everyone is now waiting, tanks on their back, masks full
of fresh spit, ready for me to sort out my computer problem and get in
the water. Should I dive like the good old days, with no pressure gage
and no j-valve? I still have my backup computer for depth and deco
info. I choose to abort the dive. But Venture refuses to let me abort
and quickly cannibalizes a backup regulator to harvest a set of analog
gages. In another few minutes, I'm in business, we're all in the water,
and we all enjoy a nice relaxed dive.
Throughout the dive I periodically get updated information from the tank
unit so I believe that the computer is still functioning since the
depth, statistics, and air pressure seem to match my analog gage info.
We complete a great dive to 100' for over an hour of bottom time with no
further mishaps.
Back on board after I take my kit off, I figure out the problem when I
finally carefully examine our kits and discover the subtle differences
between our regulators and put the solution together. I've been diving
Danna's regulators and computer tank unit and she's been diving mine.
We were far enough apart on the boat to get out of range indications
from our respective transmitters, but close enough that they would
periodically update the information to the wrist units. While we were
diving, whenever we swam close to each other, my wrist unit would pick
up updated information from my tank unit that she was diving and vice
versa.
Things I relearned:
1. Always set up your own kit. If someone else 'helps you', make sure
that everything is in perfect order when they're done, and then recheck
it.
2. Have backups on hand. Backup gages and backup computers allowed us
to continue with our diving in the face of a computer failure. Belt,
suspenders, and safety pins.
3. Don't listen to anyone else about what's safe or what's an acceptable
risk for you. Although I used to dive (late 60's) with no tank pressure
gage, J-valve, and even sometimes without a depth gage, I would never do
that now. I have a family that I love dearly and can't bear the thought
of ruining their dive by getting seriously hurt or dying stupidly.
4. In all the years of diving air-integrated computers, I am pleased
that we've never had this problem before. I guess it shows that we all
three pay close attention to our equipment setup, which is a good
thing. However, it also shows that it only takes a little bit of
inattention to have a problem.
5. Even if your flight to return home is delayed taking off from Cozumel
by as much as 6 hours and even if the airport quesadillas from the
grotty little airport restaurant are compliments of your sorry airline,
do NOT, I repeat DO NOT eat them! :-( But I get ahead of myself. More
on that later.
Dive 8 - End of Columbia Deep
100 for 1:03
In addition to our computer intrigue, Danna breaks a fin buckle trying
to heard a large nurse shark back toward our group. This is the third
Mares buckle that's broken in as many years. The strap guide pin falls
out of the retaining holes. A real pisser! We 'ghetto-rig' it on the
spot by tying the strap in a knot to the buckle and it holds like that
for the rest of the week.
Dive 9 - Palancar Horseshoe
66 for 1:02
We see two swimming shark, six lobster under a ledge, and a huge and
very curious barracuda.
This is Heidi and Ventura's last day diving before heading off for a
vacation in California, where Heidi will be in a friend's wedding.
We have dinner at Prima's again. Margaritas, O-rings (calamari), Caesar
salad, shrimp scampi, & key lime pie.
July 25th
Breakfast at Rock'n Java.
Blueberry French toast, coffee, smoothies, and juice. Boat pick up this
morning is at 10:00a.
The navy has three new boats and man are they fast! They shoot past us
like we're standing still. They must be doing more than 40 knots. We
see them almost every day running through the heavy swell about a
half-mile out from the reef. The whole boat practically comes out of
the water.
Dive 10 - Columbia Deep again by popular request.
124 for 1:02
We see another swimming shark. We see nurse shark on almost every dive
this week. The big catfish are out!
During our snack on the beach, the captain, Lupe, and I fix another bad
valve on a tank. This is the fourth one this week. The island fill
station maybe falling down on the job with regard to maintenance. All
fills are 3000psi or less including the nitrox fills, there are no hot
fills this week.
Dive 11 - San Francisco
64 for 1:14
There's another swimming shark and a friendly baby turtle.
Evan and Caryl are diving like they've been doing this for years. They
both seem at ease in the water and come up grinning from ear to ear
after every dive. 70' for 1:15 minutes! Amazing!
We're back to the pier at 2:00p
As usual, the girls go walking and I spend my afternoon with an orange
drink from La Flor de Mighoagan downloading digi pix to my laptop,
reading, and snoozing.
Dinner at Azul Cobalto
A wonderful eggplant lasagna appetizer, Caesar salad, and steak w/
spinach sauce is topped off with canolli for dessert and a perfect
expresso. Evan has the best calzone ever from their wood burning pizza
oven.
July 26th
Breakfast at Rock'n Java
Ahhhh, breakfast tacos
We opt for the leisurely 10:00a boat pickup again.
Dive 12 - Columbia Bricks
171 for 1:01
Yet another swimming shark is spotted along with a 10" diameter 'giant
hermit' crab and a feeding turtle.
Our SI is on the beach with the usual spread.
Dive 13 - Cedral
107 for 0:55
Yes, we see a swimming shark (yawn :-)), an octopus, we weave our way in
and out of fun swim throughs, spy another turtle, and a large black
grouper with an escorting mob of surly chubs follow us around for most
of the dive. It's a perfect way to end our week of diving.
We're back at the dock at 3:00p
We clean our gear in the huge hot tub in our room, set it out to dry on
the porch, and, with resolve, promenade across the square to celebrate
with an orange drink from La Flor de Mighoagan.
Later that night, we have dinner at La Choza and enjoy a superb shrimp
chili relleno. Afterward we amble several times slowly around the
square before hitting the sack for our final night.
Since our plane departs late Friday afternoon, we sleep in and have a
late breakfast at Rock'n Java. Before noon, we meander over to a shop
that specializes in hand made musical instruments. There is a wide
selection of percussion instruments and Mayan aquarena flutes made from
clay. The owner plays many of the instruments for us. On the way back
we stop at the new Uruguayan empanada restaurant, R.O.DEL.U. Empanada
Uruguyas, two blocks south from La Flor de Mighoagan. They are fresh,
delicious, inexpensive, and the owner is delightful company (an
architect from Uruguay) who's soon to open a full restaurant.
Of course, there must always be some obstacle to a perfect trip and the
scheduled late afternoon plane ride home, now delayed by almost six
hours, pushes us to our limit. However, our vacation has been such fun
we take it all in stride, even knowing that we'll be arriving home well
after midnight. The airline provides a 'free meal' pass for the Cozumel
Airport Restaurant to those of us who've been there the longest (and
haven't been complaining). Second prize, two 'free meal' passes. I get
the quesadillas.
Although it doesn't seem to affect anyone else, I spend much of the next
three days... well, you don't really want to know the details. Thank
goodness for the C-pro tablets I bought (and never opened but always
carry) during the Coz99NEDfest at the recommendation of Bob and Sue and
John Nitrox's personal nurse Brooxie. Mexico's over the counter
antibiotics save the day again.
Thirteen dives in six days of diving will certainly not set any records
for the most dives in a week for Crusty's Crew. However, for pure
enjoyment, great friends, and leisurely fun, this week is right up there
with the best of our trips.
After clearing immigration and customs, we stumble out of the airport's
secure area to find the smiling face of Wayne waiting with the van.
Most everyone else of the 400 people on our plane now have to schlep ALL
of their gear ALL the way back to the mock entry point that seemed to
fool most everyone on the outbound check-in. Uhggggg! In a matter of
minutes we're in the van on our way home to a shower and our very own
beds.
As a post script, our late return home impacts Danna the hardest since
she must repack her gear in preparation for a 5:30am crack of dawn drive
to an east Texas scuba park for an day of training dives. Several of
her friends recently took their certification training with a
friend/instructor and Danna has agreed to assist her with their final
checkout dives. Although she stays up the rest of the night getting
ready and is dead tired, she manages to pull off her 49-hour day without
a hitch.
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