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We'll we are back from a really great trip to Cozumel. The diving was the best. Here is a list of the people that went on this trip:
Linda Crabb
Nancy Eberly
Pamela Forand
Mike Leas
Michelle & Bird Mellinger
Sharon & Bernie Smolick
Ralph & Sandy Spayd
John & Pat Gross
We met the bus at the Service Merchandiser in Lancaster at 3:30AM on Sat, May 25, 2002. The bus to BWI was uneventful. At BWI we checked in and got our boarding passes in 45 minutes. However the security line went on and on. In fact they were pulling people out of line as your flight time approached. We finally discovered that the security line was actually a holding line. You just waited in that line until you flight time approached then they would pull you to go through security. Security was random.
Pat's carryon got searched but mine didn't. Since my carryon had my mask and regulator in it I was expecting to get manually inspected, but it never happened. From BWI we went to Charlotte, NC. We had less then an hour to catch our flight to Cozumel.
We arrived in Cozumel around 1PM. Everyone was hungry since the airline didn't serve any food on either flight. The only nourishment we got on the plane was one small bag of pretzels and a beverage. After checking in and eating we checked out the dive operation, Dive Paradise. There building is under construction and they don't have any electricity. So shore night diving was scraped since you had no lighting to see to climb out and the ladder was very slippery and at night it would be very dangerous. One day while we were waiting on our boat the building next door collapsed. Thank goodness no one was in it.
We did five 2 tank morning boat dives, 4 shore day dives, 1 night boat dive. Congratulations to Linda Crabb and Pamela Forand for finishing their Open Water Diver certification while in Cozumel. I also had three divers, Sandy Spayd, Sharon Smolick, and Bernie Smolick, get their Advanced Open Water diver Certification in Cozumel. If you see any of these divers be sure and congratulate them on their hard work. If you don't think it was hard work just ask him how hard John "rides" his students. If you want to know the rest of this story you will have to talk to Bernie Smolick or wait to see the video when it comes out!
The weather and diving was really great. I can't remember a past trip when we saw as much stuff as we did this year. In fact you would have to combine our past four trips to see everything we saw on this one trip. Briefly, we saw, groupers jewfish, squid, octopus (5 to be exact), lobsters, BIG crabs, sea turtles, seahorses, angel fish, butterfly fish, eels, toadfish, and many more. The visibility was over 100 ft and temperature in the water was 80-82 degrees. Most divers got to depths of around 110-120 feet on one dive. Must of our dives were around 60-80 feet. Everyone got to dive on an intact gunboat. It is standing up right in about 85 feet of water. This included penetration though three levels below deck. What an experience!
The entire week our group had one boat and two divemaster to ourselves, except for the night dive. On the night dive they combined us with another group on one boat and then split us into three different groups with each group having its on divemaster. The night dive was our last dive. We didn't dive on Friday in preparation of our flight home, Saturday. After coming up from her first night dive, Sharon Smolick, said, "If I knew it was this great I would have dove every night instead of an afternoon shore five." Shore diving from the Costa Club left a lot to be desired. In fact the three people in our group that did last years trip and this years trip we all agreed that LaCeiba shore diving is much better then Costa Club's. When we go back we will definitely return to LaCeiba. Attached are some photos from my digital camera. I can't take credit for these photos. Sandy Spayd borrowed my camera when hers failed to work for the Advanced Underwater Photography dive. Remember these are the first underwater photos she ever took. She did really good. The one female in the photos is fellow traveler Sharon Smolick. The one male is one of our divemaster, Reuben.
One Friday, our day off from diving, everyone did their on thing. Some went parasailing (Sharon & Bernie), some went on a tour Chitzen Itza (Ralph, Sandy, Michelle, and Bird), some went in town shopping (Mike), and some went to Chankanaab National Park (Pat & Nancy), but three of use (Pamela, Linda and myself) stayed at the pool and relaxed until dinner time.
The return flight was nice with a one hour delay at Charlotte, waiting for thunderstorms to clear. Why don't you make plans to come join us next year and see for yourself how much fun we have and experience this GREAT diving and good food!
See ya!
John Gross
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