Believe it or not, I actually
wanted to get up by 8 this morning. Even though I wrote about not being a
morning person on weekends or vacation in yesterday’s
blog, I got enough good sleep last night to justify waking up to the alarm.
Our arrival into Cozumel won’t be until 10, but we need to be ready to jump in
line pretty close to 10 so we can get off the ship as soon as we are allowed. I
didn’t want to have to rush through breakfast just to get stuck at the end of a
lonnnng line of people itching to get off the ship and start their day in
Cozumel.
It seems, though, that the Breeze
was taken over sometime in the early morning by a herd of towel animals. When
we went up to Lido for breakfast, I noticed this heard had completely taken
over the midship pool area. Then again, I kind of expected this, as I witnessed
a similar phenomenon on our last cruise.
I always enjoy seeing the towel
animal invasion on Lido. It’s as much a part of cruising as the hairy chest
contest. Barbara, Keith, Cindy and I were able to enjoy a relaxed breakfast on
Lido, not worried a bit by the time, and talk about our upcoming dives today.
Around 9:40, we were performing
the ritualistic slathering of sunscreen and making sure everything in our dive
bag was ready to go. One advantage of our cabin being on Deck 1 is that is
where the line to get off the ship starts. We as passengers aren’t allowed onto
Deck 0 (crew spaces) until given clearance by the ship’s staff that we may
disembark. The line grows quickly, though, and we have the advantage of already
being somewhat close to where the start of the line will form. Luckily, the
ship arrived just a little early and the Mexican officials cleared the ship for
disembarkation very rapidly. We were off the ship just a couple of minutes
before 10 and walking down that long pier to the taxi stand.
In Cozumel, we prefer using one
of two dive operators. Depending on availability, we’ll book with either Scuba with Alison or Chucho Divers. Both are top notch
dive operators and both will accommodate cruise ship schedules. The last couple
of times we’ve been in Cozumel we’ve used Chucho. As I mentioned about Cayman
Turtle Divers, both Chucho and Alison treat us more like friends and family
than just another customer. Both used to be based out of Caleta Marina, but
both are now at the “new” marina adjacent to Caleta. It’s a short cab ride from
the cruise terminal to the marina, so traffic isn’t a problem.
We could easily see our ship from
the new marina. Of course, it’s not like the Breeze is a small ship, and it
does tend to tower over the terminals we dock in while visiting the various islands in the Caribbean.
As our cab drove up to the new
marina, Chucho was waiting for us, and insisted on carrying Cindy’s dive bag to
the boat. I wasn’t going to let him carry my bag as well, so I carried it like
I’d normally do in other places.
Meet Chucho
We were diving with 4 other
people from Oklahoma, who had been diving with Chucho all week. Today is their
last day of diving before they fly home. Hhhhmmmm, four Texans and four Okies
on the same dive boat? I wish I would’ve
known this ahead of time. I would’ve made sure to wear my UT Longhorns shirt.
Hey, I know that boat! Looks like
we are diving off the Choco-Ha again. We were on that boat in 2013, the first
time we used Chucho. Chono, the boat captain, was still behind the wheel like
he was the first time. It’s like a family reunion here. Once the Okies arrived
and got settled on the boat, we talked about where we wanted to dive first. We
are diving nitrox 36 (air with 36% oxygen) today for both dives, so that will
limit our depth to about 100 feet.
Note: Before one of you dive professionals comments with something like: "Oh, come on, Patrick, you know the MOD (maximum operating depth) of Nitrox 36 at 1.4 ppO2 is 95 feet, not 100 feet." Yes, I do know that. Hence the "about" qualifier. See, Dave, I did pay attention in class. Besides, my dive computer would start griping at me if I exceeded my MOD.
Since Keith and Barbara haven’t
had a chance to dive the C-53 yet, and since we haven’t found the geocache
there, that was my first choice. Chucho said the current there today would be a
challenge, so we decided on Paseo del Cedral for our first dive. We’ve done
this site twice before, so I knew this would be a drift dive. The last time
we dove this, which happened to be with Chucho, we were flying along the reef! The current was ripping along that day and
it made me feel like Superman flying above the city. Today, though, the current
was more sedate, and we had a nice, slow drift along the reef. I like slower
currents, as it makes it much easier to swim against it if I need to go back
for a better photo angle.
Being the conscientious diver, I
monitored my computer frequently during the dive, as I do with every dive. Did
I mention that I already like diving with my new GoPro Hero 3 (white)? This
dive makes only the third dive using it. Grand Cayman yesterday was the first
chance I had to dive with it. Any of the stills in this and yesterday’s blog
that were taken under water are captures from the GoPro.
Yep, looks good to me!
Funny thing about diving in
Cozumel. I never really thought much about this, but after watching video from
both Cayman and Coz, it occurred to me how much “noisier” the reef is in
Cozumel….at least to me. The reef crackles like Rice Krispies and with more
boat traffic, it’s definitely not as quiet as Grand Cayman seems to be. Any
other divers out there reading this that would like to add their comment? I’d
love to hear your thoughts.
Chucho deployed his SMB and those in
our group lowest on air started ascending to their safety stop under it. Most
of us carry our own SMB, but the typical protocol is for the divemaster to
deploy his. Cindy and I were the last out of the water and once everyone was
back on the boat we cruised over to a beach resort for our surface interval.
Chucho had fresh watermelon and cantaloupe for us along with bottled water. My
favorite fresh fruit on a surface interval is pineapple, but watermelon is a
close second. Cozumel has many resorts with piers for dive boats, and it is common
practice to tie up to one of these piers and let the divers relax on something
besides a dive boat. The Choco-Ha is a Panga style boat, so it
isn’t overly large to begin with. By letting us relax at the resort, Chucho and
Chono had room to change our tanks out.
Our second dive site today was
Yucab, another site we’ve dove before. I like Yucab, and the reef is quite
beautiful. There’s practically no current there, so it’s a very easy dive. Keith
had some equipment issues from his last dive, so he sat the second dive out. I
enjoyed listening to his and Barbara’s conversation about whether or not she
would dive. Since getting her certification, she’s only had Keith as a dive
buddy, so Keith was concerned about her being uncomfortable diving with someone
else.
Keith: Now honey, even though I’m not diving, you should still dive
without me, I won’t mind, in fact….
Barbara: SPLASH!
I guess that settled that. Cindy
and I splashed right behind her and off we went. I wish I would’ve had my
GoPro going so I could record the look on his face. Barbara did just fine,
though, and had not only Chucho looking after her, but Cindy and me as well. She
was never more than a couple of kicks away from any of us.
This dive lasted just over an
hour, and felt like 15 minutes. There’s always so much to see, and if your head
isn’t on a swivel, you are going to miss something (although chances are you’ll
still miss something cool anyway). Chucho is good about pointing out
interesting fish, though, so pay attention to your divemaster, boys and girls.
Having said that, I feel no shame taking the obligatory selfie once in a while.
Why not, digital photos are cheap.
Scuba selfie!
Climbing back in the dive boat
after this dive, I was contemplating asking Chucho to return to the marina for
a third tank for us. Since Keith would have to sit that one out as well, I
thought the better of it and we called it a day. Chucho had a cab waiting for
us by the time we got back to the marina and unloaded our gear. If you need a
recommendation for a dive op in Cozumel, you won’t go wrong with Chucho. He’ll
take great care of you and give you some fantastic dives.
We got back to Puerta Maya (the
cruise terminal area) and did a little shopping there. Cozumel is a great place
for souvenirs, especially t-shirts. Wow, it’s almost 3:30 and even though “all
aboard” isn’t until 5:30, we still need to rinse our dive gear. The best place
to do this, at least for us, is the Lido pool. I’ll usually go to the aft pool
because it is less crowded. There are fresh water showers by the pool, so I’ll
stay in my swim trunks and just stand under the shower rinsing our gear. We’ll
then spread it out on the sun loungers and let it dry in the sun while we get
back in the pool. It’s too close to dinner for a big lunch, but I’m hungry! A
slice of pizza will do nicely and it’s just a short walk to the pizza place on
Lido.
We let our gear dry until 5, then
hauled everything downstairs so we could get cleaned up for dinner. It was
mostly dry, and more importantly had all the salt water rinsed off. A cool
shower felt good and got all the salt water off of us as well. We got dressed
and headed to the MDR.
Carnival’s “American Table” menu
features cuisine from the ports of call, so since we are in Mexico today
naturally one of the entrée selections is steak tacos. I’ve had these before
and they are actually pretty tasty for being something prepared on this scale.
Appetizer: Baked
meatballs in a smoky tomato sauce – Yummy
Main: Steak tacos
(2 orders of 2)
Dessert: Blueberry
pie a la mode – most excellent!
Barbara, Keith, Cindy and I said goodbye to our other tablemates, as tomorrow night we are having dinner at the steakhouse. You’ll
hear more about it in tomorrow’s blog. After dinner we strolled around on
Promenade Deck (deck 5) for a bit and eventually made our way into the Ovation
theatre on Deck 3 forward for the main show. This was a magic act featuring two
magicians called “Two Men Without Assistance.” They put on an entertaining
show, and I’m glad we decided to watch them. There’s just one more sea day left
before our cruise ends. Time really does fly when you are having fun.
It’s been a long, but fun two
days of diving, and all of us are ready for a little down time in the cabin. I
want dive back in, no pun intended, into Heart of the Maya
to see what other trouble Mike Scott has gotten into. Mr. Douglas, you’re
killin’ me here. I’m losing sleep because I can’t put my Kindle down until it
keeps hitting me in the face.
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