Blacktip Shark
This was our last dive day in Cozumel. Antonio (dive master from the first day) was our dive master today. We started late, at around noon, because of rough seas in the morning. We did our first dive far south, and this late in the day we were the only boat in sight.
| |
Blacktip Shark |
This dive started just south of Devil's Throat, and no I didn't make a mistake in the name of this site. Antonio at the start of this dive mentioned that being this far south late in the day with no one around we might have a chance at seeing some black tip sharks. This dive started very deep on an impressive wall. Shortly after getting to the wall I saw what I am reasonably sure was black tip shark, at first I couldn't tell what it was until it turned away at which point the outline was pretty clear. It quickly swam away just as it came into view, too far away to make any size estimate and just barely close enough to identify (about 100 ft away). We had a nice long dive along the wall with many swim throughs and we passed over the entrances to Devil's Throat about half way through the dive. In order to outgas some nitrogen while not being completely bored we headed into shallower water with a sandy bottom and watched a lot of sting rays cruise along the bottom and eventually came to a large starfish garden. We found one with six arms. The boat picked us up in about 15 ft of water in no current and the water on the surface was very warm at this time of day.
 |
Yellow Stingray |
This dive was almost a twilight dive this late in the day and there were lots of fish out feeding. Right at the start of the dive we saw a big 6 foot moray eel that had been out feeding making a break for his hole. We saw lots and lots of stingrays. Antonio spent the better part of the dive flirting with a college sophomore who was diving with her parents. I think both of them were unaware that I was cruising pretty high over the reef this day and could easily see everything Antonio wrote on his slate. Antonio, if you're reading this, we need to work on your pick up lines. At the end of the dive, again in an attempt to cure the boredom of a long safety stop our group had a moonwalk race in which you take off your fins on a sandy bottom, make yourself slightly negative and have a footrace along the bottom. Of course it ends up looking like a slow motion race and if you've optimized your weight for diving it should be pretty troublesome to become negative at all at the end of the dive. I ended up having to do my running with my lungs almost empty to be negative enough plant my feet and each time I took a breath I ended up doing sort of a slow motion long jump. I pretty much had to not breath with empty lungs to keep up with dive master who carries extra weight in case anybody needs it during the dive. I would have felt really stupid if I gotten shallow water blackout while moonwalking. Anyway, this was our last dive in Cozumel and while maybe not the most spectacular of the week it was a good finish and like all the dives in Cozumel was absolutely spectacular.
Go back to Ken's Main Page