The Diving

The diving was spectacular! I dove 40 times. I've plotted my depths and times in a spreadsheet (this trip was dive #133-#172). Visibility was approximately 75 feet. Water temperatures were usually 80F at depth and 82F at the surface. The shallows near the shore at Coco View reach 85F after a full day of sun.

The reefs off Coco View are abundant with sponges, sea fans, and gorgonians. We identified many species of fish, but I'd classify the fish life as limited. If big schools of fish are your thing, you might be dissapointed with Coco View.

All the dive sites are close to Coco View. I think the longest boat ride we took was 20 minutes. The shortest was maybe 5 minutes. Sometimes the sites are so close that you are still within eyesite of the resort. We enjoyed Calvin's Crack and Mary's Place. Even though I have no desire to become a cave diver, I really like the cathedral effect of sunlight coming in though a archway or crevice system.

A nice feature of diving with Coco View are the drop-off dives. When returning from the dive sites, you have the option of being dropped off on one of 2 walls adjacent to Coco View. In the morning, the drop-off was typically on Newman's wall. In the afternoon, the drop-off was on Coco View wall. Both walls converge on the wreck of the Prince Albert - an intentionally sunk 150 foot freighter right in Coco View's front yard.

We took a NITROX class from Lynn Barrows. The class was completed quickly in one afternoon since we had already bought and read our books and materials. I enjoyed using NITROX. I felt less tired and enjoyed the extra bottom time without being pegged to the W, X, and Y pressure groups. Coco View's NITROX service was acceptable but non-optimum. Often there was a line of divers waiting to test the mix. Often the blend recorded on the tank was off from the 32% advertised, and my measurement of the blend was even lower than the measurement from the person who filled the tank. One of Kati's NITROX fills tasted "bad" and we had to buddy breath off my tank all the way back along Newman's wall.

There was quite a bit of surface wave action and chop. Coco View's boats are very stable, but even still, some moorings were uncomfortable as the boats got cross-wise to the wind and waves. The tanks in their tank holders would slam back and forth. At one point, Kati's 50 cubic foot tank (she loves the smaller tanks to increase the comfort of her dive) was thrown from the boat due to wave action. The tank was easy to retrieve in 30 feet of water, and since the dive boats all have a central hatchway for ease of exiting the water, I just lifted the tank to the boat captain through the hatch.

2 times we had battery problems, and our dive boat's engine did not start. This was not a big deal. Other Coco View dive boats were only about 10 minutes away, but we had to suffer the humiliation of being towed back to the dock. Here is Daniel checking the battery. It was pretty funny when the other divers on the boat started singing the Gilligan's Island theme song. Also, the "Coco View, Coco View" radio call used to summon the tow boat was popular.

One of our dives was a "drift dive" on Carib Point. Is this is what Cozumel is all about, its not for me. The current was so swift, that all our effort was spent avoiding crashing into the reef. The boat moved from the drop-off point to the pick-up point, and the divemaster tied it up to the down-current mooring. Several divers were swept past the boat and we wound up performing a search and rescue.

We saw the following list of fish, coral, creatures, and more. There are just too many to remember.
If the sighting is followed by a number in parenthesis, I've put an estimated number of times we saw this animal.

Seahorse (10)
Stoplight Parrotfish
Rainbow Parrotfish
Midnight Parrotfish (2)
Hawksbill Turtle (1)
Spawning Parrotfish (1)
Groupers
Yellow Head Jawfish
Green Moray
Spoted Moray
Banded Cleaner Shrimp
Arrow Crab
King Crab
Pufferfish (5)
Red Lipped Blenny (1)
Scorpionfish (4)
Spotted Drum(1)
Tigertail Sea Cucmber
Sea Pearl
Lobsters
Peacock Flounder
Flying Fish (1)
Lizard Fish
Nurse Shark
Fire Worm
Red Encrusteing Sponge
Sea Fans
Black Coral
Barrel Sponges
Azure Vase Sponge
Blue Tang
Four Eye Butterflyfish
Squid (2)
Flamingo Tongue Cowrie
Sand Dollar
Black Durgeon (1)
French Angelsifh
Rock Beauty
Barracuda
Pipefish
Trumpetfish
Needlefish
Silversides
Black Margate
Yellowtail Damsel
Ocean Sergeonfish
Seargant Majors
Blue Chromis
Brown Chromis
Ocean Triggerfish
Filefish

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