I have to be honest, I was pretty nervous about my first real dive, and also about how I would feel on all of our other dives. There was only one way to find out if I was going to like it, so I put my recently acquired skills and training to good use.
Here we are on our very first shore dive. Shore dives are useful ways to get your weights adjusted, your buoyancy under control and get used to the visibility and temp of the water.
We were now ready for the real adventure, so we hopped on the boat and were off!......
Below: Scribbled Filefish (left) and French Angelfish (right)
I made it, I made it, I made it! =)
I was so thrilled to have just successfully experienced my first dive!! The knots in my stomach eased up a bit after this dive.
We spotted this Snowflake Moray eel while he was trying to get to his next hiding place. Even though it was kind of neat to see an eel out in the open, I was very careful to stay a good distance away.
Owen is giving me the international "I'm OK/Good" scuba signal, which by the way also means "A-hole" in some (possibly all) South American countries. Remind me not to give that sign unless I am diving, or trying to tell someone I think they're an A-hole! =)
Everything about Cozumel is so fantastic and amazing. The visibility was about 100 feet on all of our dives. The marine life is thriving and incredibly active. Water temps could not have been any better, about 80 degrees or thereabouts. Drift diving (with our divemasters) was a great way to see a lot in our limited time allowance, and it was also useful for getting our PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification.
In addition to drift diving being one our tasks towards completing advanced certification, we also completed a deep dive (100 feet), a night dive (I'm sad I couldn't get any pictures, but since it was our first night dive I was slightly more nervous and didn't want to have any distractions), and a boat dive (which all of our Cozumel dives were from a boat).
The pictures immediately above and below are from our deep dive. This was definitely one of my top 3 favorite dives of the trip.
Towards the end of the trip, our taking self-portrait skills improved quite a bit! It's tough coordinating breathing, so that we both have as little exhalation bubbles in the way as possible!
The two pictures below are from our penultimate dive, the C-53 Felipe Xicotenantl.
After 55 years of service as mine sweeper for the US Navy. C-53 was decommissioned and later donated to the Cozumel underwater park.
C-53 was sunk in 1999 in 82' of water just off shore from Chankanaab Park.
154 feet (56.3 mts) long
33 feet (10.10 mts) wide
40 feet (12 mts) high
Displacement: 1000 tons
Above: Barracuda.
I was pretty scared of these sinister looking fish. On our flight back to Houston, one of our instructors from Sea Sports told us a gruesome and frightening story about a colleague being attacked by a 'cuda on a night dive! Thankfully, the guy lived to tell the tale!
The dive company we used in Cozumel, Dive Paradise, deserves an outstanding review and recommendation. All of the crew and dive masters (guides) were so professional, knowledgeable, safe and friendly. Safety was always their main priority, and having fun was just a byproduct. Hubby and I would both highly recommend using them to dive in Cozumel.
Cozumel was so so so wonderful, and I cannot wait to dive there again sometime in the near future. I hope our next scuba adventure is as amazing as this one! Happy one year anniversary hubby!
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