Ed and Beth's November 1999 Cozumel Trip
(Subtitled: The Seven Wunders of Cozumel)
Author: Ed C.
Author: Ed C.
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All text and images copyrighted by Ed and Beth C. They may be borrowed for non-commercial use only, provided credit is given to me and/or this web page
Special thanks to Dave Read, from whom I blatantly borrowed
some formatting ideas. 
For full-size pictures, click on the photo or caption.
 Banded Sea Star |
The Great Starfish of the Boat Pier |
Our second trip to Cozumel direct from Austin!
Continental delivered Beth and I there
in fine form, quickly, efficiently, and with that delightful snack that lets
you know that you, too, are loved by their flight attendants.
We arrived in the early afternoon and after the usual wait for Customs and for the Suburban, we were whisked off to Aqua Safari. There's something special about stepping off the plane in November and feeling the warm, salty air wash over you, that somehow makes your worries seem much less important. And all my baggage made it -- bonus!
The Vibrant Coral Fan of Columbia Shallows |
 Safari Inn Hotel |
 Sea Fan Columbia Shallows | Our hotel was the Safari Inn, an inexpensively priced but very nice hotel right downtown. You don't come to Safari Inn expecting a direct dial phone, color TV, breakfast in bed and drinkable faucet water. But what you do expect is clean, comfortable rooms, wonderful air conditioning, the sweetest, nicest maid service you could imagine, and a down-home environment right across the road from the ocean. If you're diving with Aqua Safari (and you should, even if you're not staying at the Inn :) you have unlimited shore diving tanks! Some of the very best critter day- and night-diving is right there at the Aqua Safari Pier and at the International Pier a few hundred feet down the shore. Beth has picked up my enthusiasm for two dives the first day -- one to check out weights (and play with the day life) and one at night to play with the nite critters. Great, relaxed super-shallow diving! |
There's no restaurant at the Safari Inn. But for a good, reasonably quick breakfast, Jeanie's Waffle House is literally underneath the Inn. The whole Pisces Scuba gang can be found there at 7 AM, sipping hot coffee, eating pancakes and awaiting the boat on the pier, 100 feet away. Don't worry, the boat will be here soon!
The Splendid Turtle of Palancar |
 Hawksbill Turtle |
Again we had the pleasure of diving with Aqua Safari, a distinctly class act. Some of my favorite features include:
 Aqua Safari Ocean One |
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All in all, a very professional operation in all respects. They don't hesitate to go the extra mile. I do wish they had larger tanks than AL80s, but large tanks are fairly rare in Cozumel. Aldora Divers is one of those exceptions; check out Dave Read's Web Page for a review.
The Temple of Cynthia at Columbia Shallows |
Instructor Abraham |
A great checkout dive! We tossed our clothes in the hotel room, unpacked
the dive gear and hit the water. From the hotel it's a one-hundred foot walk
to the water's shore, down six steps and you're in!
 West Indian Sea Egg |
We took a few minutes and checked our weight. Beth and I were joined by Jackie and her daughter Chancey, and we ensured everybody was set (and some folks swapped a few pounds to trim up). We waded out and began our dive. We headed to the right side of the pier, which ended up a bad decision. Unknowingly, small boats like to zip through our dive area on their way to a nearby pier. We saw at least a half dozen boats overhead, often uncomfortably close. In response we kept ourselves barely off the bottom, and sought deeper (30') and safer depths. One encounter was rather close... yikes! Beth and I kept a close eye on one another, ensuring we were safely below prop depth. |
Chancey isn't quite as hardcore as the rest of us
After the dive we had a great meal and relaxed a while in the lazy early evening. We debated a night dive but extreme satisfaction and calm spirits won over this time -- but we promised to do the next two night dives for sure! |
 Yellowline Arrow Crab |
 Hawksbill Turtle |
You never know when it will happen, but when you least expect it, you have one of those "life-changing" dive experiences that really drive home the beauty and magic of the underwater world. This was one of those dives. |
 Row Pore Rope Sponge |
We rolled smoothly out to our dive site on glassy waters, geared up and stepped off. Beth and I were among the first divers on the bottom -- and for our reward, a big, beautiful Hawksbill Turtle... four feet away from me! My heart was pounding in my chest as I carefully and slowly swam into position for photos, trying not to spook him. It worked! Three terrific pictures (two on this page) that I am very proud of! Wow! |
 Yellow Tube Sponge |
We saw Sand Divers, brilliant overhanging coral structures, a large Crab inside a big coral mouth and a curled-up Octopus. After the dive, we motored to the shore and relaxed on crystal white sands for our surface interval. Our fun was marred by one unfortunate event -- while horsing around with our rowdy group, one of the Divemasters seriously cut his foot on sharp bottom coral. We collected a special tip for him at the end of the trip since he was out the entire week. Ouch! |
 Crab in a Sponge |
Unfortunately, although I'd placed my camera in a safe location, a tank bumped against it and broke off the strobe arm. (That's twice in two Cozumel trips!) As a result the remaining photos are either dark (no flash) or with light-reflecting spots (using the internal flash).
Paso de Cedral, the "Cedar Pass". This is always a lovely dive, with brilliant corals and plenty of fish life. This time was no exception. I took plenty of dark photos of Grouper, a Barracuda, Queen Trigger, Spotted Filefish, Goatfish, Spotted Eels and one Stoplight Parrotfish that was positively huge!
I opted not to scan any of my all-too-bloo photos from this dive.
This was a really intriguing dive! Taking Danny's advice we swam left this time, well out of the boat path. We swam straight out, seeing the strange "puffy" seaweed, Skates, Shrimp and other teenies. But once we arrived at the white sand, things grew strange!
Once you hit the twenty-foot depth depth, there's an odd "rise". A two-foot-tall, five foot wide "hump" of sand runs parallel to the shore. Once past it, the grassy bottom turns into crystal white sand! Over the span of five feet the bottom characteristic changes completely.
We saw a large Sand Diver resting quietly. But what was more surprising was the anchor. A big anchor was dropped in the sand, with a rope tied to a float on the surface. It was a quiet, glassy day, so the rope dangled loosely.
Swimming around the anchor was a Skate. When we approached he stopped shuffling the sand and searching for food, and watched us unblinkingly for a minute. Beth and I waited quietly. He decided we were harmless, and continued stirring up the sand and anchor rope in search of some delicious morsels.
All in all it was a very odd, very surreal (but fun) dive! The photos are very good but rather dark, and did not scan well. Hook up with me at Pisces sometime and I'll show you!
This was a pleasant dive but otherwise not noteworthy. A long, relaxing time. I had camera problems and none of my photos turned out (ugh). But I do love night dives in Cozumel.
There was a soft cool breeze blowing in, and a shining white moon on the way out and back. On the trip we passed several huge cruise ships, looking like giant brilliant floating light bulbs, with thousands of lights peeking from every possible vantage point. There wasn't one square foot of unlit space on any one of them! Incredible.
After the dive we grabbed some food and crashed hard, totally exhausted.
Great diving, four today alone! Whooo hooo!
Wonderful dive! I didn't log much data, allowing instead my photographs to tell the tale for me. Saw a large African Pompano in the distance, looking at first glance like a Dolphin! (Little did I know that later in the trip...) Beth saw an Eagle Ray but I missed it.
San Francisco Wall is a coral-and sponge-lover's dream, with an amazing variety of colors and sizes and shapes. I always blow a full roll of film on this dive. Saw one of my favorites, a black-and-orange Tube Sponge, more Row Pore Rope Sponges, a large Stoplight Parrotfish and several Lobsters.
Since I didn't take any truly unique photos, I chose not to scan any of them. Check out my pictures from Cozumel 1998 for some nice coral pictures from San Francisco.
 French Angel |
Day 3, dive #2: Punta Dunich (24 Nov. 1999)Punta Dunich, or "Rock Point"; a pleasant if not amazing dive. Plenty of Queen and French Angels, fire coral, Coneys and other lovelies. There was very little current and we did quite a bit of swimming to keep up with the Divemasters. I finished up this dive with a dozen of the obligatory photos of the dive gang. While I didn't scan any of them, it does show the crazy Pisces gang at our finest. |
Balones, "The Balloons". What a unique dive this was! The site is named for its oblong coral heads; part way through the dive the coral heads have large, bulbous growths straight up... like large balloons! You can't miss them. This was my workout for the day. There was zero current and we were already a little tired from serious swimming at Dunich. At Balones we did some very hard swimming, to keep up with Divemasters intent on skipping most of the "ordinary" coral to bring us to the Balones. Ah, the travesty! The sadness! It's those "ordinary" coral heads that have the most impressive macro life -- you just have to look close. But no, they were on a "see as much as you can" bent. Oh well. |
 Red Rope Sponge |
 It's me! Ed C. |
A large French Angel must have felt we had food to offer since he
dogged our group for the first ten minutes of the dive. He would weave in and
out of the divers, and at one point buzzed me so close I couldn't fit him in
my view frame! (I took the picture anyway. But what really amazed us was the submarine!! Yes, the Atlantis Submersible Tour boat was taking a group of poor sods who could not scuba on a tour of the Balones at 50 feet. It was moving slowly via one screw and we could see faces pressed against the glass windows. If it had not been a hundred feet away, and had we not been so tired, we'd have swam over and returned their gaze. Instead I simply waved from a distance and shook my head. Wild! |
Boy, we were tired! We went home, had dinner and crashed for a bit. Then we started rounding up enthusiasts for a night dive on the pier. The large International Pier is about 250 feet down the shore from Aqua Safari. Danny told great tales of the amazing fish life at night, and we planned a nice easy swim out with the whole group. Well, one by one, divers started sizing up their condition and most decided that three dives was enough -- a fourth was too much. One by one they dropped off the list. Finally it was just five of us -- Jackie, Chancey, Brenda, Beth and me. We five hardcore divers would assault the nocturnal wonders! We swam straight out, following the path from our Aqua Safari Pier (Left) dive. Once we reached the "rise" we turned left and swam slowly, enjoying the night life. I captured a photo of a Banded Tube-Dwelling Anemone, saw an Octopus, and many Puffers at full inflation watching us curiously. |
Banded Sea Star - Running! |
 Banded Tube-Dwelling Anemone |
After twenty minutes we encountered parts of the original pier, and then the new pier. What a pile of junk was strewn about -- and how the fish life loved it! We saw beautiful tiny Juvenile French Angels, the ubiquitious urchins everywhere, more puffers, and a beautiful Banded Sea Star that was making serious time. I don't know where he was going but all five legs were headed there in a hurry! We also saw a Banded Tube-Dwelling Anemone. The base of the Anemone digs itself into the sand, exposing tentacles and a maw to provide food. After 44 minutes we were wearied. We surfaced (we were only in 15 feet of water) and discovered we were actually in the Naval Base waters. Although the Mexican Navy is at peace they don't appreciate tourists. We began swimming immediately under the pier, and then kicked our way back on the surface. (The circuitous underwater route would have taken another twenty minutes, and we were, frankly, tired.) It ended up taking us ten minutes of fairly brisk swimming to make it to shore, and we were all wiped out by the end. Rest at long last. |
Ah! The lovely Punta Sur, "South Point". I've done Punta Sur several times and all were similar: The amazing Devil's Throat cave, then a leisurely swim (slowly ascending) enjoying the marvellous corals and then doing a long safety stop. This time it was different.
We descended to 75 feet, to a gaping hole that marks the start of the Throat. It wasn't the usual entrance. I knew that the cave system extends throughout the reef but I hadn't seen evidence of it. Beth and I waited for our chance and entered the cave with the rest of the group. We're off!
We swam downward, head first, and there were a few tight squeezes. We flipped on our lights as it was quite dark. Unfortunately the two divers ahead of us were not clearing the bottom and had silted out the cave. At times I had to strain to see Beth at all. Suddenly we exited the cave at 127 feet -- and in front of us was the abyss! The vast depths of blue rolled out in front of us, dropping off into infinity as we floated motionless. We turned and followed the Divemaster, who to our surprise took us back into another entrance nearby.
We entered this cave, scanning the walls, the fish hidden in darkness, and the scattered corals, ascending until we exited at 85 feet. There, deep inside this second cave channel, off in the corner I saw the cross.
A totally natural piece of white coral, it grew in the shape of a cross and is considered very special by many Divemasters. It was beautiful! I did not scan my photo; there was so much backscatter that it is difficult to see. I hope to clean it up one day, or better yet, go back for a new photo!
I took very few photos on this dive. Instead, I was busy watching my dive computer and with good reason. With the deep depths and considerable bottom time I pushed my computer to 100% full green. After the third leg I began to ascend to try and reduce my Nitrogen loading. I spent ten minutes hanging at 30 feet, suspended 60 feet over the bottom, and then 8 minutes at 15 feet. For my troubles I only cleared two of the green bars, a scant improvement. Ironically, when I slid down to 20 feet one green bar would pop in, but returning to 15 feet would clear it. Intriguing!
Day 4, dive #2: Columbia Shallows (25 Nov. 1999)This is always a terrific dive! A shallow dive, long in duration and rich with corals and fish, this one was especially wonderful! We saw Chub, Goatfish, Wrasse, Queen Angels, wonderful corals, the immense coral fan, and... and... a Nurse Shark! And Dolphins! |
Instructor Abraham |
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Coral Fan |
Most of the dive was very relaxing and lovely. We swam slowly, playing around the different coral heads, peering closely to see the amazing macro life. I was enjoying a very casual time, drifting with the light current, when one of our group signalled to me -- "Come here! Come here!" They made the sign for a shark!! |
I swam hard after him (Beth had already seen it) and there nestled
under the reef was the Nurse Shark, sleeping! The Divemaster was in the
only spot suitable for a picture so I handed him my camera and he snapped this
picture! Again, there are a few backscatter spots but it's still a great
shot. My first Nurse Shark! |
 Nurse Shark! |
 Bottlenose Dolphins! |
But that wasn't everything. While motoring back to the dock we encountered a school of Dolphins! At least six were swimming around near our boat. Divers hit the water, one swimming within a foot or two of the beauties! I ran around like a madman with my camera, taking shot after shot... half of which turned out well. Another dive shop's boat circled the area, and the Dolphins enjoyed playing in the wake and running in front of their craft. It was amazing, a rare event in the high-traffic lanes of Cozumel! And a perfect end to a great dive trip. |
The Wondrous Anemone of Aqua Safari |
Banded Tube-Dwelling Anemone |
We were wiped! We'd both done two four-dive days and this was our chance
to relax... and eat! We were famished! So while the rest of the group went to
the Paradise Cafe on the far side, Beth and I had a wonderfully slow, careful,
delicious meal in town. Then we went for a walk and did some window-shopping
while vendors called out cheerfully, "You come in! What a bargain!"
 Diving Log Book |
The Lighthearted Ed C. at Balones (Ed's Dive Log)Here are the rest of the details from my dive log. Specifics about each dive are in the write-up above, with only brief comments here for reference. In the section "N2 loading" I describe the relative loading of the nitrogen bars on my Data Plus computer -- mostly for personal reference, I'll admit, but it gives me an idea how conservatively I dove. For those who aren't aware, the Data Plus is a slightly "liberal" computer, but has a significant loading penalty on deeper repetitive dives -- as you can see below. |
Dive Location Depth Time N2 Loading Comments Number (FSW) (min) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Aq. Safari Pier/R 12 34 1 green bar Scorpionfish, Boats 2 Palancar Caves 84 43 Nearly full Turtle! 3 Paso de Cedral 52 49 2/3 full Huge Parrotfish 4 Aq. Safari Pier/L 19 18 1 green bar Skate at Anchor 5 Paraiso Reef 42 53 Half full Boats, Moonlight 6 San Francisco Wall 80 37 3/4 full Pompano, Sponges 7 Punta Dunich 62 41 Nearly full Angels, Long swim 8 Chankanaab Balones 56 45 Full green Submarine, Balloons 9 Internat'l Pier 18 44 A few green bars Sea Star, Anemone 10 Punta Sur 127 33 Full green Coral Cross, Caves 11 Columbia Shallows 31 62 Half full Shark, Dolphins!
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Bye! |
The Splendid Turtle Waves Adieu |
A list of the gear that I felt essential to bring with me to the dive trip. Note that the days of my Aquashot 3e are numbered; more capable cameras are in my future!