Mike Mc Manigal
- Mike Mc Manigal's trip Fun Dive, Cozumel
Orientation to drift dive for Paul & Sue Nothing really spectacular as far as sealife but a nice, relaxing dive to get Sue, Paul & Rachel into the swing of Cozumel diving. Sue's buoyancy much better. Paul was all over it; buddied up with Becky. Rachel dove with Wendy and they saw a ray towards the end.
COZUMEL DECO MODE: 10'/7 minutes Found the reef at about 50'. Followed it down through a few swim throughs. On the second swim through, saw a nurse shark approximately 3-1/2 feet. Continued through, back on the reef and into another swim through to a white coral cross. Wendy does not think it was the right one. After the nurse shark, saw the HUGEST barracuda I have ever seen! Had to be four and a half feet, at least. Wendy got a few good shots with her Nikonos. The sand was littered sea stars at descent. Visibility about 40' because of the recent hurricane that hit Belize.
COZUMEL HUGE lobsters in a gaggle, got photos. Good sized spotted moray; Israel coaxed him out so Wendy could get some good shots. Plenty of flat, furry catfish (toad fish). Wendy got a good shot of a huge hermit crab. Good dive!
COZUMEL Not much to see on this dive. Didn't make it to the wall until just before ascent. Israel took the Hammerhead guys up, so Wendy and I with two experienced Brit divers continued on. Wendy saw a large grouper along the wall while we were heading up to the stop, but I didn't see what stopped for. Very bad dive!
COZUMEL Used Wendy's MX-5 to get photos of two turtles ... one of which came out okay, but not great. Saw some good coral/damsel fish shots, but camera washes out coral with the flash most of the time. A couple of good shots of Wendy. A couple of guys from the Houston Hammerheads club joined us. It was readily apparent that it had been several years since their last dive. I had fun!
COZUMEL Down on the reef again, Saw the same nurse shark twice, but it was too fast for a photo both times. Israel had the food, so we had a mutton snapper and three groupers for company the whole time. I sat in the sand waiting for a photo as Israel coaxed a spotted moray eel out, but the larger grouper and the snapper kept chasing the moray back in. Israel took Doug and Steve up, then came back. As I ran low, I went up for my stop just as Israel spotted a big turtle along the reef at the edge of the wall. Good dive!
COZUMEL Down on the reef again. Saw the same nurse shark twice, but it was too fast for a photo both times. Israel had the food, so we had a mutton snapper and three groupers for company the whole time. I sat on the sand waiting for a photo as Israel coaxed a spotted moray eel out but the largest grouper and the mutton snapper kept chasing the moray back in. Israel took Doug and Steve up, then came back. As I ran low, I went up for my stop just as Israel spotted a big turtle along the reef at the edge of the wall. Good dive!
COZUMEL Long and shallow with plenty of photo opportunities. Tried to get a good close-up of a very cool anemone shrimp, but it didn't come out. Starfish, angels, chubs, stone fish, reef rays ... good dive!
COZUMEL Wendy wanted to see if we could get a better shot of the cross. Also, we really wanted to see if that HUGE barracuda was still there. Came up short in that department. Did a couple of swim throughs, then let Israel take Doug and Steve (the two guys from the Houston Hammerheads) up. None of the shots from Wendy's camera came out.
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