Previous 25| Dive # 350 | Date: October 3, 1998. | Location: Kelvin Grove |
| Purpose: | Access: shore | Weather: gross |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 10' | PSI Used: 1300 psi air |
| Max depth: 119 feet | Time: 35 minutes | Total Hours: 192:12 |
| Comments: Visibility broke at about 50', nice and clear below. Both octopus were gone, and the fish all seemed to be hiding too. Couple of lings - one huge one - and a few rockfish and greenlings. But diving like pea soup in the top 40 feet. | ||
| Dive # 349 | Date: September 29, 1998. | Location: Keystone |
| Purpose: Environmental | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 53 F | Visibility: 15' | PSI Used: 800 psi Nitrox 26 |
| Max depth: 51 feet | Time: 20 minutes | Total Hours: 191:37 |
| Comments: People - lots and lots of people. | ||
| Dive # 348 | Date: September 29, 1998. | Location: Keystone |
| Purpose: Environmental | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 53 F | Visibility: 15' | PSI Used: 800 psi Nitrox 26 |
| Max depth: 43 feet | Time: 25 minutes | Total Hours: 191:17 |
| Comments: A few problems with weights - like a couple of underweighted people, and only so much weight to give up! :-) But we got it sorted out... Saw a couple of small octopus too. | ||
| Dive # 347 | Date: September 26, 1998. | Location: Mannion Bay |
| Purpose: | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 20' | PSI Used: 1000 psi air |
| Max depth: 46 feet | Time: 45 minutes | Total Hours: 190:53 |
| Comments: Bottle searching. Found a couple of neat ones too - an old one I think might date back to the mid 1800's, a milk bottle, and two others that I just thought were neat. | ||
| Dive # 346 | Date: September 26, 1998. | Location: Elephant Rock |
| Purpose: | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 20' | PSI Used: 1500 psi air |
| Max depth: 62 feet | Time: 45 minutes | Total Hours: 190:08 |
| Comments: Neat dive! Life is not super-concentrated, but we did see a couple of lings, rockfish, and greenlings. And octopus! At least four big ones, and a little tiny one scooting back under a rock in his den when I shone the light in. Very neat. The guys also saw a dogfish, although I missed it cuz I was messing with something else. A nice dive. | ||
| Dive # 345 | Date: September 16, 1998. | Location: Ansell Point |
| Purpose: night | Access: shore | Weather: clear |
| Water Temp: 53 F | Visibility: 30' | PSI Used: 1200 psi air |
| Max depth: 135 feet | Time: 33 minutes | Total Hours: 189:23 |
| Comments: Ratfish at about 110'. Followed him down to about 130, then left him to start heading back up. Bright orange *hairy* crab on the way - he waved his claws at us, but didn't seem too disturbed. Couple of lings, a red Irish Lord, a few baby sailfin sculpins. The wolf-eel was decidedly not interested in us or in the urchins I had for him. Lots of bioluminescence in the water - things sparkled like mad as we did our safety stop. | ||
| Dive #344 | Date: September 11, 1998. | Location: Columbia Shallows, Cozumel |
| Purpose: drift | Access: boat | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 85 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1900 psi air |
| Max depth: 32 feet | Time: 100 minutes | Total Hours: 188:50 |
| Comments: A lovely way to end our Cozumel trip, drifting lazily along with the fish. Incredible colors - and a couple of big barracuda too. A yellow fish, I think it might be called a trumpetfish, at the end of the dive too, as I was alone, enjoying the water. Angelfish, rays, lobster, king crabs, triggerfish, and a pufferfish, blowing himself up as our divemaster tried to coax him out. A toadfish too, glaring out from under his rock. Snorkellers and snuba people too, or POD PEOPLE as Rog reminded me. This diving is just too good. :-) | ||
| Dive # 343 | Date: September 11, 1998. | Location: Punta Sur, Cozumel |
| Purpose: Devil's Throat | Access: boat | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1300 psi air |
| Max depth: 117 feet | Time: 27 minutes | Total Hours: 187:10 |
| Comments: Spectacular, absolutely amazing. The Devil's Throat is basically a hole in the floor of a cavern - you enter at about 90 feet, swim straight down, and pop out around 120. We descended, swam over a reef, and into a short dark tunnel that bent around slightly. Back into the open again, and in through a couple more small caverns. Just outside the next one, our divemaster pointed to this throat and started swimming in, telling me this was the Throat. In we went... and up to a dark hole in the back of a dark cave, and our divemaster disappeared. What a rush!!! Headfirst into the hole, it's so dark, and suddenly there's the incredible blue water again. Then back up to do our safety stops - an incredible dive! Oh, I think there might have been some fish and stuff too..... but I couldn't get over the Devil's Throat! | ||
| Dive # 342 | Date: September 10, 1998. | Location: Paso de Cedral, Cozumel |
| Purpose: drift | Access: boat | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1200 psi air |
| Max depth: 54 feet | Time: 46 minutes | Total Hours: 186:43 |
| Comments: Lots of moray eels, a couple of king crabs, and lobsters. And some gigantic groupers too - Manuel settled down in the sand and held a hand out, and one actually came over to see him - close enough that Manuel could pat him. Incredible! Couple of barracuda too - one was huge. A toadfish, under a rock. Some neat caverns to swim through - I'm really starting to like this. The caverns are neat - you swim in, and there's incredible colors inside, despite the darkness. And the openings are amazing - all you can see is the food-coloring blue water, with yellow, blue, black, purple fish swimming everywhere. It's fish, fish, and more fish. Angelfish, triggerfish, squirrelfish - and zillions that I don't know the names of. | ||
| Dive # 341 | Date: September 10, 1998. | Location: Delilah Reef, Cozumel |
| Purpose: drift | Access: boat | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1500 psi air |
| Max depth: 95 feet | Time: 38 minutes | Total Hours: 185:57 |
| Comments: Found a couple of morays - one had an angelfish swimming in front of him, trying to share the den. The eel seemed less that impressed, though! Pretty dive - the wall starts at 80 feet, and seems to drop on forever. Swarms of big groupers - they were everywhere. Even had the fortune to have the JAWS soundeffects happening as the groupers swam towards us - thanks Roger... :-) A shark too, moments later, as we started to ascend to do our safety stop - there is was, maybe three of four feet long, cruising slowly along the sandy bottom. Tried everything to get my buddies' attentiontoo... but all I got were wide-eyed stares when I caught up to the amd tried to explain what I'd seen underwater.... | ||
| Dive # 340 | Date: September 9, 1998. | Location: Paradise Reef, Cozumel |
| Purpose: night | Access: boat | Weather: clear |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1200 psi air |
| Max depth: 42 feet | Time: 63 minutes | Total Hours: 185:19 |
| Comments: WOW! What an incredible dive! First thing I noticed was how unreal and alien things looked with that amount of visibility - light rays dancing from the surface to the sand, and people rolling off boats above us. The dive was great - lots of octopus. Esteban held one out, and he danced across my palm. A slightly bigger one later one tried to crawl inside the BC with the divemaster - had me laughing so hard I had to hold my reg in. Morays too, out in the open, swimming every which way. One caught a fish and was eating it as we started to ascend. Seasnakes (yuck!), huge king crabs and lobsters - the crabs were so big that when Esteban held it out by its claws his arms were almost fully extended. Lots of toadfish, the odd one came out of its den so we could see the bright blue and yellow, complete with funny whiskers. Most of the other fish appeared to be sleeping, and other people complained of things biting them. Bioluminescence too, but not huge amounts. And a couple of small rays. As I continued to say during dinner - WOW! | ||
| Dive # 339 | Date: September 9, 1998. | Location: Yucab, Cozumel |
| Purpose: | Access: boat | Weather: partly sunny |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1200 psi air |
| Max depth: 58 feet | Time: 55 minutes | Total Hours: 184:16 |
| Comments: Small rays along the bottom. Couple of groupers. The odd barracuda too, shallower. And the usual ton of fish. Pretty dive, lots of life. | ||
| Dive # 338 | Date: September 9, 1998. | Location: Palancar, Cozumel |
| Purpose: | Access: boat | Weather: partly sunny |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 100' | PSI Used: 1000 psi air |
| Max depth: 90 feet | Time: 41 minutes | Total Hours: 183:21 |
| Comments: Neat. neat dive.... the rocks and coral are just incredible! And the colors... like a rainbow but more, everywhere. A toadfish under a rock - apparently they are only here in Cozumel. Neat little thing, could just see his whiskers as he glared at us. And a centipede like "buggy thing", as well as all the colorful fish. This is supposed to be the *best* dive in the area... Nice, ubt I like the fishies better! | ||
| Dive # 337 | Date: September 8, 1998. | Location: San Francisco Reef, Cozumel |
| Purpose: drfit | Access: boat | Weather: partly sunny |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 2200 psi air |
| Max depth: 64 feet | Time: 46 minutes | Total Hours: 182:40 |
| Comments: Very similar to Santa Rosa.... nice dive with a fairly good current (I love this drift diving!) and lots of life. The queen angelfish just amaze me - they are so big! And then there's the groupers, even bigger than I had imagined. Yet I don't feel unnerved in the least by a fish that's the same size as me... just wish they would come close enough to pat! | ||
| Dive # 336 | Date: September 8, 1998. | Location: Santa Rosa |
| Purpose: drift | Access: boat | Weather: high overcast |
| Water Temp: 84 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1100 psi air |
| Max depth: 81 feet | Time: 35 minutes | Total Hours: 181:54 |
| Comments: I love the way all the fish swarm around you as you descend and start following the drift! There's one fellow that I swear just swims along with us - every time you turn your head, there he is. And he doesn't even hesitate to swim right up to you to have a look - I wonder if he's there for me to look at or the other way around! :-) An extremely pretty dive, though. Glad we got to do it twice. They say it's the second best dive in Cozumel... I can't wait to do the *best* one! | ||
| Dive # 335 | Date: September 7, 1998. | Location: Punta Tunich, Cozumel |
| Purpose: drift | Access: boat | Weather: partly sunny |
| Water Temp: 85 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1200 psi air |
| Max depth: 62 feet | Time: 44 minutes | Total Hours: 181:19 |
| Comments: And I thought there was a current at Santa Rosa! Mind you, I think I really like this drift diving idea - you barely kick, and you see so much! More fish - even more than at Santa Rosa! Queen angelfish swimming up to your fingers as you rubbed them together, schools of something else (oops, I don't know my Carribbean fish!) swimming around too. Fish like butterflies - flapping their fins in a flying motion. And a turtle, under a rock. He came swimming out. VERY NEAT! Apparently there was a shark too, chasing after something, but I missed it. All I saw was the dust. Now did somebody say Corona? | ||
| Dive # 334 | Date: September 7, 1998. | Location: Santa Rosa, Cozumel |
| Purpose: drift | Access: boat | Weather: partly sunny |
| Water Temp: 85 F | Visibility: 150' | PSI Used: 1400 psi air |
| Max depth: 85 feet | Time: 35 minutes | Total Hours: 180:25 |
| Comments: Incredible! Dropped in swimming-pool temperature water to be able to see forever! And the fish! Everywhere I looked there were more - swimming up to see us, and then darting away. Amazing colors too - so vibrant and bright it isn't funny. And I couldn't get over the color of the water - looked rather like someone had dumped in too much blue food coloring. The white sand, blue water, colorful corals, and stunning fish were almost too much, yet the divemaster still managed to excite me even more by taking us through a small cavern. The dive ended too quickly, thouhg, and we were up to do our safety stop and have a Coke. :-) | ||
| Dive # 333 | Date: September 3, 1998. | Location: Kelvin Grove |
| Purpose: OW #4 | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 20' | PSI Used: 500 psi air |
| Max depth: 62 feet | Time: 26 minutes | Total Hours: 179:50 |
| Comments: Vis broke around 50 feet and was beautiful below that. A grunt sculpin, lots of ronquils and gobies too, as well as a few small lings and greenlings. | ||
| Dive # 332 | Date: September 3, 1998. | Location: Kelvin Grove |
| Purpose: OW #3 | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 10' | PSI Used: 700 psi air |
| Max depth: 59 feet | Time: 24 minutes | Total Hours: 179:24 |
| Comments: Starting to clear below 50 feet, but pretty yucky above that. Nice dive, though, lots of fish to look at, and an octopus too. | ||
| Dive # 331 | Date: September 2, 1998. | Location: Whytecliff |
| Purpose: OW #2 | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 56 F | Visibility: 15' | PSI Used: 500 psi air |
| Max depth: 24 feet | Time: 24 minutes | Total Hours: 179:00 |
| Comments: More skills, and we actually saw a couple of fish! And crabs too, and clams. | ||
| Dive # 330 | Date: September 2, 1998. | Location: Whytecliff |
| Purpose: OW #1 | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 56 F | Visibility: 20' | PSI Used: 800 psi air |
| Max depth: 43 feet | Time: 24 minutes | Total Hours: 178:36 |
| Comments: No vis. And skills. What a fun combination. :-) | ||
| Dive # 329 | Date: August 31, 1998. | Location: Lookout Point |
| Purpose: night | Access: shore | Weather: clear |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 30' | PSI Used: 1900 psi air |
| Max depth: 114 feet | Time: 52 minutes | Total Hours: 178:12 |
| Comments: Beautiful night to dive - could see the moon streaming through the water as we came back in. Top 10 feet were beautifully clear like a swimming pool, below that to about 20 was somewhat murky. But it cleared up again below 30 feet. Some neat rocks looming up out of nowhere, and lots of lings and greenlings. And a current too, around 80 feet and a ways around the point. | ||
| Dive # 328 | Date: August 30, 1998. | Location: Keystone |
| Purpose: drysuits | Access: shore | Weather: gorgeous |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 5' | PSI Used: 800 psi Nitrox 27 |
| Max depth: 52 feet | Time: 23 minutes | Total Hours: 177:20 |
| Comments: More people, lots of problems. Divers confused about inflate vs. deflate, and forgetting about the currents at the end of the jetty.... You have to stay low! The big ling was there hiding from the onslaught of divers behind a rock. Other than that, all I saw were fins and people - don't think I'll be coming back on a weekend any time soon. | ||
| Dive # 327 | Date: August 30, 1998. | Location: Keystone |
| Purpose: drysuits | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 5' | PSI Used: 800 psi Nitrox 27 |
| Max depth: 54 feet | Time: 23 minutes | Total Hours: 176:57 |
| Comments: People, people, people. Normally such a nice site, today there was next to no visibility and people everywhere you looked. But we did luck out - playing around in the reddish kelp, I found a large octopus out of his den. We messed with him a bit - he didn't seem terribly upset by us. He finally decided it was time to go back in his den and left us. | ||
| Dive # 326 | Date: August 29, 1998. | Location: Ansell Point |
| Purpose: | Access: shore | Weather: sunny |
| Water Temp: 51 F | Visibility: 80' | PSI Used: 1200 psi air |
| Max depth: 81 feet | Time: 37 minutes | Total Hours: 176:34 |
| Comments: An octopus in a crack in the wall - kinda hard to see, and he wasn't interested in seeing us. Greenlings, tunicates, nudibranchs, lots of perch too. A very pretty dive. And the visibility was aboslutely incredible! Down at 75, and you could see the bubbles breaking on the surface. | ||