My own trip in November 1996
This trip started in Norway on November the 5th. and was including a 2 day stay in Washington to visit a friend. Before going, I also had some e-mail correspondance about diving Cozumel. Just before leaving, it turned out that he lives in Washington and we were going to Cozumel at the same time. It is really true that the world is getting smaller.
I went with Mexicana from Miami via Cancun to Cozumel. The plane was a little late leaving Miami due to a group arriving with a late plane, but never mind, the time between flights in Cancun was more than ample and there is not much to do when waiting for another plane at Cancun.
After having arrived at the El Presidente and checked in at 9 pm, I met a "cyber-friend" Ed (Mr Nice Guy) from Washington. During the diving the next day, it turned out that he really deserves this name. Ed has provided me with some of the underwater photographs in this report.
We had a brief meeting at the poolside bar before retiring for the night.
Happy divers waiting for the Aldora boat.
As usual when staying at El Presidente in Cozumel, I got up early in the morning and had breakfast at "El Caribeņo". After breakfast, I went to my room preparing for the diving. I had been told by Memo that I would be picked up around 0830. They arrived a little late as they had to hire a third boat since they were very busy (a lot of divers apparently enjoy going with them). I jumped into the boat to meet Ed again and there were also three other divers in the boat.
Aldora were promised the third boat before my arrival, but you know "maņana" and that was not Aldora's fault.. Buy the time this report is available, they have got their third boat and are waiting for their fourth, I have been told.
g
Aldora picking up at the hotel
After a while, we arrived at the first dive site, Palancar Cuevones, and were in the water a few minutes later. The weather was lovely and the water nice as usual, the lowest recorded temperature on my EON Solution was 84F. The viz was more than 100ft and maximum depth 27.4 m and time in water was 44 minutes.
Photo by Ed (Mr Nice Guy)
After a surface interval of almost 2 hours, we headed for Yucab were we had a beautiful dive with maximum depth of 15,2 meters with a total time in the water of 65 minutes. The water was a little warmer, with a minimum of 85F.
These dives were not the longest with Aldora, but of course one has to follow the divers who first get low on air and cannot surface by themselves. By the way, I am not thinking of Ed. He knows how to dive and was allowed to surface taking all precautins, and of course Memo "helped" him by letting the bouy surface so that the boat could see him. From "down under", it looked as Memo was fishing, but I do not know if he had any success :-)
Too bad that not all divers going with Aldora sticks to the rules that Aldora wants their divers to obey to. Aldora's rules are for your own safety and not sticking to those may spoil the diving for the rest of the group.
A short while after reaching the hotel, the rain was pouring down, so we were lucky not being in the boat then, we would certainly have been wet :-).
The rain caused a strong wind throughout the evening and the night.
I got up and as usual had breakfast at 7 in the morning. The wind was still strong. While eating breakfast, I received the bad news: The port was closed, meaning no diving :-(.
I received the good news in my room after breakfast, a sightseeing with friends was organised instead. This meant that most of the day was spent at the beach at the other side of the island, swimming, drinking talking and so on, with Lisa as pilot. Not the same as diving though, but I got a look at other places of the island, nothing I had done earlier as I wanted to get as much diving as possible on my other two visits to Cozumel and diving with Aldora.
Port still closed, nothing more to say about that. Only land based activity today. :-(
Memo is checking that everything is OK before leaving.
Port is open, but Aldora decided on leaving at 12 so that the sea would calm a little. Unfortunately, it did not calm, but we left around 12 with Aldora 2 heading for Palancar Horseshoe. Due to the skills of Elvis, the ride was not too rough. A very nice dive with corals and swim-throughs. Also lots of fish. Watertemp was 84F (lowest), bottomtime 57 and deepest part was down to about 70ft (21.6m).
At last, ready to go
Due to the late departure and the fairly rough sea (I had asked Elvis to change the direction of the waves while we were diving, but he did not manage that part), we had the surface interval in the boat on the way to Paradise reef.
The Paradise reef was a fairly nice one, may be too long, with time in water reaching 81 minutes. One thing I did not like though, was the surge. The long dive time made the second dive almost end up as a night dive. The time was almost 5.30 pm when David left me at El Presidente.
Deep dive at Punta Sur, Sur with a max. depth of 30.8 m and 57 min. in the water. 35 m visibility, very nice dive. We had the 2 hour surface time at Playa Sol, something David could not believe with the rough sea outside his Condo. The 2nd dive was Tormentos, 18.3 m, 1 hour 11 minutes in the water. Probably due to the rough sea, the viz was only about 25 m, but apart from that a could dive.
Photo by Ed (Mr Nice Guy)
A night dive was planned, but due to worsening conditions, it was called of at 4pm, so I had a go at David's new computer which did not work. I managed to get it printing, but that was all. So if anyone has had problems with reaching Aldora during this week of November, the reason has been computer problems. The old one was malfunctioning and the new one would not work properly.
The morning dive was Devil's throat, a very nice dive indeed with good visibility (30 m plus). Max. depth 125ft, 47 min. in water. Saw a turtle and eagle ray while doing the safety stop. The second dive was Paso del Cedra, max. 65 ft. and 64 min. in water. There were lots of spotted eels and a very large green Morray. We also saw a very large Grouper trying to hide in a small passage, some in our group called it enourmous.
Photo by Ed (Mr Nice Guy)
It was real nice to have lots of air today when feeding the fish. There were som large crowds coming the same way today and we could just sit down, relax and let the others pass and stay with the groupers for a long time.
According to David, there has been no ferries running today, so you can imagine how rough it has been. Fortunately, the wind direction has been so that the usual dive spots well protected, so that it is still possible to dive.
I had lost my own Suunto computer in a jeep being driven back to the hotel last night, and had rely on the "backup" with ft. and getting no profiles recorded today. Thanks to immediate action from David this morning, my "baby" was found in the jeep before it was returned to the rental company. Thank you to Aldora for quick action and good service (as usual).
The final day has arrived. Fairly nice weather, in fact the best so far apart from Friday last week. Met Aldora in the port as has been usual this week to make the loading easy. We were 4 in Aldora II today going with Daniel to Palancar caves for the first dive. It was a wonderful dive with lots of light this time as the sun was shining. Nice corals and lots of things to see. Temp. 82F as usual, viz 35 m, max. depth 27.7m and the dive lasting 58min.
The second dive was to Paso del Cedral. Again a lot of spotted eels, no Morrays to be seen today. Because of the sun shining it was marvelous down there with all the fishes and it was fantastic with the swim through with all the glassy sweepers as usual there were lots of groupers hanging around to "take a bite" of the action. A petty that it was only a "short" dive here to a max. of 16.7m and only 61 min. I wish I could have stayed down there using up most of the air before surfacing (1300 psi when getting out of the water), but when the DM says up, you just have to go. The viz must have been 40 m.
Feeding the grouper.
(Maybe it was the right moment for getting out of the water, only 10 minutes after getting out of the boat and being on dry land, the rain was pouring down like someone had opened all the sluses up there.)
What a way to finish a weeks diving! As a matter of fact I would have loved to stay on, but one has to work every now and then, so I just have to leave.
It was been a nice week in Cozumel, although it has been better, but that is not the fault of Aldora. Although they make diving a real pleasure here, it is nothing they can do with the weather being sent down from the States. Maybe David should start working on the weather?
I have seen a lot of comments about Aldora on Compuserve and would like to send info on others that may tell you what they think about Aldora. I have had comments on Internet saying "why having such urgency to reach the dive sites, why not just relax and let the slow boats take you there". I saw lots of divers having little time on this trip. The reason was keeping up with their group and also to get out of the water as they were quickly running out of air when not diving with Aldora.
I can certainly say that I would rather get to the dive site quickly and get a very long time in the water (usually around 2 hours total on 2 dives) instead of sitting a long on the boat and getting a short time in the water.
You certainly get a lot more time in the water pr. dollar.
Back to friends of Aldora
.