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Dive Log Dated: 11 February, 1998
Dive Buddy: Kerry A.
Dive Sight: Maracaibo Reef Cozumel Mexico
It is another beautiful morning on the island of Cozumel off the eastern coast of Mexico. It is 7:00 AM. Our dive boat is scheduled to arrive at 8:00. We are eating breakfast in the open air. There is a slight breeze, the sky is clear and it is already near 80* (F). After breakfast we gather our gear and make the short walk to the pier in front of the La Ceiba Hotel where we are staying.
The dive boats on Cozumel run as the taxies do in New York City. One after another they arrive at the pier to pick up their passengers. When our boat arrives our gear is handed over and we step aboard and the boat moves away. We are diving from a "fast boat." A fast boat is a smaller boat (about twenty one feet) and able to move faster than the bigger boats (thirty feet or more) that carry more divers. We have been diving with the same people all week. A couple from California and a young man named Miguel.
We are planning to try for Maracaibo Reef again today. We tried to get to this reef a couple of days previous but the seas were too rough. We speed past many resorts and the conversation goes from past dives to future dives and the weather of the day. Maracaibo Reef is past the southern end of the island in the open sea. This reef is less visited than most due to the fact that it is farther from the hotels, deeper and considered to be for advanced divers only. The water there is much rougher than many of the more protected reefs along the coast of the island and the current much stronger.
We notice a change in the waves as we move past the southern end of the island. The water is now breaking over the bow of the boat. Most of us are seated. It has turned to a rough ride. The spray pelts us over and over. The boats captain and the dive master speak rapidly in Spanish. We do not understand the words but we understand that they are concerned about the size of the seas. We push on another two or three minutes. They are shaking their heads and the captain turns the boat around and we head back toward the protection of the lee side of the island. The divemaster tells us the seas are just too big to continue on. We will go back and dive a different reef, maybe Punta Sir. We are disappointed but understand. A number of dive boats have gone to the bottom in heavy seas and they do not want to join that number and neither do we.
Suddenly we are turning again and headed back out. The divemaster and captain are speaking in Spanish again and we do not understand. The divemaster returns and tells us the captain says we are too close not to try to reach Maracaibo. The boat is breaking through the waves and sending spray the entire length of the boat.
The divemaster says we must be ready to enter the water the minute the boat stops because of the heavy seas. We are ready to go and slip into our BCs. A few more minutes and the divemaster is over the side. He is checking the bottom to see where we are. He gives the signal that we are there and in less than a minute we are all in the water. The brackish taste of the salt water is familiar. The waves are between six and eight feet high and the boat is being tossed like a cork. The captain moves the boat away a short distance as he realizes the danger it poses to the divers in the water.
As soon as we are all in the water we begin our trip to the bottom. As the air escapes our BCs and we begin our decent we see the bottom at one hundred ten feet. As we descend we begin putting air back in our BCs to compensate for the increased pressure. For every thirty three feet we descend the pressure on our bodies doubles. We gather at the bottom, which is covered with a coarse white sand, and follow the divemaster to the edge of the wall. We swim out over the abyss and begin to drop again. The color of the water has changed from aqua to a beautiful deep blue. We can not see the bottom.
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