Daily Dive Log June 24 - 30, 2018

We saw a great week of diving to finish up June. We saw some repeat divers with Tommy and crew, added a bunch more new scuba divers, and welcomed a dozen girls from a Girl Scout troop for their first ever ocean dives. Along the way we saw many of the usual animals but had one incredible night dive where we saw not only multiple octopus, but a hat trick of turtles. And not just any three turtles but the trifecta of Hawksbill, Green, and Loggerhead all on the same dive. Awesome!

June 24, 2018 PM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Perfect day for diving!
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Santa Rosa Wall
Max Depth: 75 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Splendid Toadfish, Barracuda school
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: Today Geoffrey decided to take it easy, so we went to the southern reefs. An easy dive but deep and beautiful is Santa Rosa wall. We did the typical swim-throughs to find the splendid toad fish, actually three of them almost together! I knew about two but a few days ago and Henry found a third one. We did the entire dive along the wall, so we find the barracudas and horse eye jacks, and went to every swim-through. Nice dive to end up after one hour bottom time, cool!

Dive Two

Site: Punta Tunich
Max Depth: 60 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Midnight Parrotfish, Grunts
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: The current picked up a bit in this dive site, still nice and easy as Geoffrey wanted. We were able to stop in a couple of caves that are know to hold many fish. We also found a big and pretty midnight parrot fish, one of my favorite fish! After one hour we surfaced with a big smile, many things found.

Sparisoma viride displaying its initial phase coloration. The Stoplight Parrotfish will drastically change colors as it matures.

June 25, 2018 AM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Mostly cloudy
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Dalilah
Max Depth: 60 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Free-roaming lobster, Hawksbill turtle
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: It is time to complete certification for Tommy and Katy. They have done a good job so far, we have to take advantage of this beautiful spot so as we descend we start looking for fish and creatures. The lobster walking along the reef was pretty and the turtle too! At the safety stop we do what is required to complete skill wise and success!

Dive Two

Site: Cedral Pass
Max Depth: 60 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Hawksbill Turtle, Rainbow Parrtfish
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: The current was flowing at a nice speed here – good drift exercise for Tommy and Katy. Now they can say that they visited Cozumel! Pointing to every fish we see we are all excited. Their buoyancy just got perfect, so when we saw the turtle we were able to stop and take pictures – so nice! At the end when ready to ascend it was a shark sleeping under the coral, nice way to say good bye!

Clavelina puertosecensis if you wish to be formal, but otherwise we call these beautiful purple things Blue Bell Tunicates.

June 26, 2018 AM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Mostly cloudy
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Santa Rosa Wall
Max Depth: 60 feet
Dive Time: 49 minutes
Key Animals: Huge grouper, huge Barracuda
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: After certification we can do Santa Rosa Wall as first time to see the abyss. Above the reef is only 40ft, so Tommy and Katy can descend slow. Tagging along we have Thomas. We all want to enjoy the deep blue water of this site and as a bonus barracudas and groupers show up. The seascape is awesome – the coral formation is tall. We all had such a good dive, time to go up.

Dive Two

Site: La Francesca
Max Depth: 60 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Green moray, Splendid toadfish
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: The group is looking for an easy second dive so we all agree on La Francesca. It has been awhile since I’ve been here so I’m excited to jump in. Within minutes we have a free-swimming green moray. So awesome! Before we jumped in I heard the divers discussing the Splendid toadfish so I really wanted to find one on this dive – and did! Another great day of diving

Haemulon sciurus is one of those fish that is so plentiful on the reef that sometimes you miss them. You can usually find the Bluestriped Grunt hanging out in small schools under ledges.

June 27, 2018 AM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Mostly cloudy
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Santa Rosa Wall
Max Depth: 80 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: My buddy the Splendid Toadfish, Hawksbill turtle
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: Instructor Alex takes the Discover Diver to Santa Rosa shallows while Jessica, Karen and I head to the wall. The current was nice so we visited the swim-throughs and as it has become a tradition we visited the toad fish. This guy is becoming famous, we all want a picture of him. We did all the dive along the wall and at the end we found a sea turtle, cool!

Dive Two

Site: Yucab
Max Depth: 60 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Yellowhead jawfish, Lobster family
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: Jessica and friends were all together this time. Alex and I were at the sides of the group, it was amazing. So many fish passing at once. I did not know where to look at. When we decided to stop the drift a few jawfish were coming in and out of their houses. we also found lobsters under the coral, just amazing!

It’s tough to positively identify sponges but I’m thinking this is Svenzea zeai, the Dark Volcano sponge.

June 28, 2018 PM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Sunny – yay!
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Yucan reef
Max Depth: 55 feet
Dive Time: 35 minutes
Key Animals: Nurse shark, midnight parrotfish
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: Miss Andrea is here with the group of girl scouts. We divided them in two groups of 5 divers and plan to take them to a shallow reef since they are young divers. Cheering and laughing we made it to Yucab reef. As soon as we descended we find the nurse shark sleeping under a sponge. He decided to swim a little and was making circles – cool! Then we saw the big midnight parrot fish among others and to finish the dive the shark showed up again, nice!

Dive Two

Site: Paradise
Max Depth: 40 feet
Dive Time: 45 minutes
Key Animals: Southern stingray, Grouper
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: For the second dive of the day the kids were happy to be in the picture so all of them knelt on the sandy bottom and at the count of three, smile! Souvenir picture… then we explored the site and found many colorful fish. It is cool to find the big grouper and that southern ray every time we visit the paradise reef. At the end we all were happy to share this experience.

Not the best photo but I had to share. The Longspine Squirrelfish, Holocentrus rufus, has an victim in it’s mouth!

June 28, 2018 NT Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Sunny – yay!
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: La Francesca
Max Depth: 55 feet
Dive Time: 45 minutes
Key Animals: Octopus! plus a Hawksbill and Green and Loggerhead – Hat trick!
Visibility: Torches
Notes: Diving at night is thrilling and for Tommy and Katy will be the first one ever plus Mr. Thomas joined. We entered the water a bit after the sunset. It was not completely dark so we can adjust our eyes and senses. Turtle one! We go and take a close look, pretty hawksbill. then the octopus, crawling, changing colors, nice! Second turtle, green, smooth looking shell, rounded face – cute! Then we turned the flashlights off to see the plankton glowing. The shapes and shadows – just amazing! Later the third turtle, this was a huge one! A loggerhead and tons of barnacles. Before I thought that is an old turtle. Now i know those many barnacles are not exactly helping her so probably next time I see it i will pull my tool out to remove them. Looked kinda cool but it is actually not cool at all – the turtles actually scrape their shells on the ref to remove them. Anyway, we all were surprised how the barnacles were coming in and out. When we surfaced we all were wow!

A stunning cluster of the Blue Bell Tunicates along with the Social Feather Duster, Bispira brunnea.

June 29, 2018 AM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Sunny
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Colombia
Max Depth: 90 feet
Dive Time: 45 minutes
Key Animals: School of Permit, Green turle
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: Last day of diving for Tommy, Katy and Thomas plus they were joined by Janine, Michael and Lauren enjoying their first time in Cozumel, Colombia reef as first dive. Nice and slow current so we descend and enjoy for a minute this awesome seascape. The coral formations rise from 70 feet to 40 feet and it is wide and lets us swim underneath. The turtle was easy to spot in this reef. Then we visited the anchor and at the end we found the permits, awesome dive!

Dive Two

Site: Caracolillo
Max Depth: 55 feet
Dive Time: 51 minutes
Key Animals: Hawksbill turtle, Green moray
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: We wanted a bit more drift on our next dive so Caracolillo reef is a good option. It is only 55 feet and here we go. Lobster here, crab there, parrot fish, file fish, trumpet fish, see this? See that? Well at the end the turtle finally shows up to let us know that we need to ascend. It was a 51 minute dive but it happened as if it was only 15 minutes!

I just love these reef scenes that are packed with so many different animals!

June 30, 2018 AM Boat Trip

Captain: Domingo
Divemaster / Instructor: Ray
Weather: Sunny
Water Temperature: 80 degrees

Dive One

Site: Cedral Wall
Max Depth: 70 feet
Dive Time: 45 minutes
Key Animals: Nurse shark, Green moray, Hawksbill
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: Henry is joining to video Mike and Janine. We thought of Cedral Wall since the turtles and sharks are around here. After 30 minutes we saw ‘only’ a bunch of colorful fish but no shark or turtle. We were looking under the reef and there! A green moray, awesome surprise. Towards the end of the dive we were swimming to the shallow area and finally the turtle is found – got the video! Ok mission accomplished, oh no wait, Janine spots the nurse shark sleeping under the coral, perfect dive!

Dive Two

Site: Yucab
Max Depth: 50 feet
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Key Animals: Spotted Eagle Ray, Porcupine pufferfish
Visibility: 100+ feet
Notes: In Yucab is guaranteed that the small fish be around. We were stopping in every single coral head finding macro life. It was a big porcupine fish hovering on top of a sponge, pretty! Then we saw a couple of eagle rays ‘dancing’, They made a circle clock wise, then another circle in the opposite direction, then they scratched themselves in the sand, one at a time, just hovering there for us! The current was really slow so we stayed with them for a few minutes. i love these guys! The time was up, 60 minutes just fly…