Rebreather Diving on Cozumel: Dives 380 – 383

On Friday, Patrick asked me if I was interested in joining a trip to Cozumel for a couple of days of CCR reef diving.  I hadn’t been to Cozumel in more then a year and the opportunity to do some CCR dives on our own boat was just too juicy.  The trip was organized by Protech of Playa Del Carmen.  They provided access to O2, Trimix, Air, Sorb, two guides and the boat.  Patrick was on his Megalodon and provided the CCR expertise for the trip.  The other guide was Dario, a native born dive master of 25 years and boat owner.  Dario is a super laid back guide and plenty of fun.  The boat’s name is Eusmilia and it is excellent.  It is about 10 meters in length and has space for 10 divers.  Each diver gets a locker under their seat to store their gear.  The captain is stationed on a tower.  And the boat is plenty fast.

The plan was to pick up the group of Canadians at 9:30, load up the units and go for two dives.  The first day the group wanted to do an 85ft dive for 45 minutes.  I was disappointed.  I didn’t make the trip over to the island to do dives I could do on a single 80.  I am here to make some CCR dives.  We discussed this a little an opened the range up to max depth of 100 feet for 60 minutes.  They were concerned about using Air as a diluent below 100 feet.  The actual dive ended up having a max depth of 120ft with a run time of 83 minutes.  The group elected to extend the dive while in progress.  The dive was made on Santa Rosa wall.  It was a nice dive, nothing extraordinary but beautiful none the less.

The second dive was in the same class but a little shallower.  We dove Santa Rosa reef.  We had a run time of 72 minutes and a max depth of 60ft.  At the end of the day I had to make a decision on whether I was going to return the next day.  I asked the group what they wanted to do the next day.  They answered, “What will bring you back, Hans?”  I answered in my normal manner and explained that I wanted to go a little deeper then we had today and make longer dives.  I suggested we head down to the southern end of the island for the Devils Throat or the Punta Sur area.  We discussed doing a 130-150 foot dive.  The group agreed and the Canadians requested their fills be Trimix 12/35.

Sunday came and the wind was blowing out of the South East.  This was not very promising for a run down to Punta Sur.  The island curves around and the reefs are exposed to the South Easterly wind.  So it can be a rough and wet ride.  Patrick and I made the trip over to the island and we picked up the other guests.  We started to load up the gear and we explained to them that the boat ride would be at least 45 minutes and it would be rough.  The Canadians were troopers and volunteered.

The Eusmilia is a very stable and capable boat.  The ride down was not that bad at all.  When we arrived at Devils Throat the Plan was for a max depth of 130feet and a run time of 60-80 minutes.  We all geared up and dropped in to meet the Dario on the bottom at 100ft.  The first thing that I noticed was my VR3 wasn’t giving me any depth.  It wasn’t in dive mode.  I thought to myself, “F*ck, the batteries are messed up?”  Then I remembered, the night before I was being slick and added a patch of Velcro to the back of the VR3 to keep it from slipping around.  The genius that I am, I placed it over the hole for the depth sensor.  Dur!  Now I am getting ready to enter the swim through trying to remove this piece of Velcro.  I got it off and the dive went as planned.  The VR3 reset and then started working correctly.  Note to self, don’t cover the depth sensor on your dive computer.  The dive ran for 76 minutes.  I had a total deco obligation of about 15 minutes.  It was amazing.  I just hung out off the wall watching the deep blue and the coral heads pass buy for an hour.  It was exactly what I needed.  The current did all the work.

The second dive was a little more eventful.  It was planned for a max depth of 100ft and a run time of 60 minutes.  We dropped in and went our separate ways, exploring the numerous swim throughs working our way back and fourth through the pinnacles.  It was awesome.  When we were ready to surface, I neck clipped my BO bottles to my left hip.  I was using two 40cuft tanks, one with air the other with 70%.  The two bottles got tangled.  I decided to unclip one and work it out of the tangle.  As luck would have it, I bobbled it and it landed on my calves.  I reached for it and it slipped through my legs.  I stuck my head up and told Patrick, I lost my BO bottle.  He just looked at me and told me to go get it.  I dropped down to 30 feet to get the bottle.  On the way up, I did another safety stop and shot my SMB.  While I was stowing my SMB, I dropped my spool.  I thought I had clipped it off, but when I got on the boat, it was gone.  Patrick says the water gods are angry with me for using bright green line.  I just think I am a klutz.  I traded a spool for a BO bottle and regulator.  I guess that was the cost.

If you are traveling to Playa Del Carmen or Cozumel and want to do some rebreather diving, Protech is fully equipped to handle all your needs.  Patrick and Co did a great job and made both days very enjoyable.