COZUMEL

COZUMEL

2014

Cozumel is an island in Mexico 12 miles off the coast of the Mayan Riviera.

The diving there is great. Mostly drift diving due to the mild to strong currents.

This is a link to the resort I stayed at:

Scroll down to see pictures from our trip, my dive log or links to other dive trips.

Kim and I went to Cozumel again for a week of diving. We were joined by our friend, Pam, who we met on Grand Cayman in 2012. Pam lives in London. We had a great week of diving. The weather was warm and sunny until the last two days. Thursday was rainy and cool. Friday was overcast but warm. The water temp was around 82.

We dove with Paradise Divers. They have a dive shop across the street from our hotel and the boats picked us up there every day. On Tuesday we had Isidro for out divemaster. He was great. He gives very clear, informative dive briefings so that you know what to expect before you get in the water. He was a great divemaster under water, too. He knew the reef and where to find lots of creatures. We requested that he be on our boat the rest of the week. If you are going to Cozumel, I highly recommend requesting Isidro at Paradise Divers.

We spent over 17 and a half hours under water on 18 dives.

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This spotted moray eel was hiding under a ledge of coral.

An arrow crab uses his blue claws to eat in the shelter of an anemone.

This barracuda hovers beside the reef.

A juvenile cow fish.

Kim floats along on a drift dive watching the reefs pass by.

A lionfish-kabob the dive master gigged three lion fish on one spear.

A large lobster peaks out from his hiding place.

Queen Angel Fish.

Queen trigger Fish.

A Scrawled File F ish.

SHARK!! This guy was feeding when we came upon him. The video of that should be interesting.

A small trunk fish tries to hide in the shade of an arch of coral.

Here is Kim swimming on an afternoon dive on Monday. Notice all the bubbles of air coming from the hose on her left side? Well, for those of you who are not divers, that is not supposed to happen.

Here is a better look at her high pressure hose. It has up to 3,000 psi of pressure in it. She noticed the leaks just before the dive but there wasn't time to fix it. Her choices were to skip the dive or make the dive with leaking high pressure hose and hope it did not explode (that would be bad). Well, you can see what her choice was. The hose did not explode. She finished a one hour dive with 1,800 psi still in the tank. It amazes me that she can still have that much air left in a 60 cu. ft. short tank after an hour even if there was not a leak in her hose. I replaced the hosed before our next dive.

Lots of turtles on this trip. This guy cruised by to check me out.

Here is one checking out Pam. She is a dive buddy from London that Kim and I met in Grand Cayman in 2012.

Another turtle takes a break from eating to watch us drift past.

Lots of Scrawled File Fish, too.

Even though we are drifting across the reefs with the current, there are occasions when I have time to get shot of some really small creatures. Here is a harlequin shrimp in front of an anemone.

A golden eel pops his head out of the coral.

Queen Angels are abundant here. We are seeing dozens of them every day.

Kim drifts along doing her yoga.

Pam drifts by. The current is moving to the left in this shot. She is facing into the current and kicking lightly to control speed.

This scene reminded me of all my friends up north. I looks like a snow-covered hillside with rocks and shrubs poking up through the snow. The sand is so white and beautiful.

Kim and other divers wait on the surface for the boat in the background to come pick us up after a great dive.

Another Queen Angel.

The barracuda is always stalking the reef.

A big crab crawls to a hiding place in the coral.

This guy didn't want his picture taken. He came shooting out from under the coral head to attack me.

A juvenile French Angel Fish hides under the coral.

This lobster was out for an afternoon stroll on the sand.

Big blue parrot fish.

Another Queen Angel Fish.

A snapper follows a southern stingray across the sand to eat anything that the ray stirs up.

The reef is a busy place. Lots of different types of fish. Can you find three Queen Angel fish?

The Croney fish decided to photo bomb this picture of the golden eel.

A Hog Fish on the sand.

This juvenile drum fish dances in the sand.

Kim swims over a large coral head as air bubbles up through reef. Yes, the bubbles are going sideways. remember this is Cozumel. There is always current.

Kim travels though a tunnel in the coral.

Kim and Pam under the water.

Kim and Pam above the water.

Pam comes out of a tunnel in the coral.

Another Queen Angel Fish.

A pair of Queen angels on a small coral head.

A Queen Trigger Fish.

A small ray moves through the grassy bottom.

A school of snappers.

A blue striped shrimp.

A yellow tail snapper.

A Bearded Splendid Toad Fish hiding in the coral. These are shy fish. You rarely see more of them than their face and beard.

The coral reef is very colorful.

Fins on the deck of the boat ready to dive.

Kim, Pam and Isidro descend for a dive.

A Goliath Grouper swims with q large tang.

Kim and Pam signal that they just saw a shark.

There are tons of Queen Angels in Cozumel but you also see the occasional Gray Angels.

Kim swims between coral formations.

Kim and Pam swim over the top of the reef.

One of the turtles that we saw looking for something to eat on the wall.

Kim and Pam smile for the camera.

The boat is coming to pick us up. When you are on a drift dive you don't have to find your way back to the boat. The boat has to find you.

Date	Location	Dive Site	Maximum Depth	Bottom Time
3/8/2014	Cozumel	Hotel Cozumel Reef	21	63
3/9/2014	Cozumel	Palancar Horseshoe	82	64
3/9/2014	Cozumel	Paso del Cedral	56	61
3/9/2014	Cozumel	Paradise Shallows	53	62
3/10/2014	Cozumel	Columbia Deep	78	56
3/10/2014	Cozumel	Chankanaab Reef	57	65
3/10/2014	Cozumel	Paradise Shallows	39	53
3/11/2014	Cozumel	Santa Rosa Wall	77	52
3/11/2014	Cozumel	Las Palmas	58	63
3/11/2014	Cozumel	Yucab Reef	61	55
3/12/2014	Cozumel	Palancar Horseshoe	68	59
3/12/2014	Cozumel	Tormentos Reef	61	66
3/12/2014	Cozumel	Las Palmas	66	55
3/13/2014	Cozumel	Santa Rosa Wall	73	54
3/13/2014	Cozumel	Tormentos	59	62
3/13/2014	Cozumel	Paradise Reef	43	55
3/14/2014	Cozumel	Palancar Horseshoe	75	48
3/14/2014	Cozumel	Yucab Reef	56	61

To see pictures from other dive trips, click on the button below to go to my SCUBA page. It has links to other pages of pictures and dive reports from many different dive trips over the years.

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