Sarah Goes Scuba Diving: July 1st, 2008: Cozumel Diving Day 3

Day 3 of diving and I was loving it! The first thing we saw as we started our first dive of the day at Santa Rosa was a huge Goliath Grouper, trying to hid (unsuccessfully) under some sea rods. Soon we were headed off along the site, ducking under swim throughs that reminded Mark and I off the ski slopes of Tahoe. All over the walls of the reef were tiny fish flitting in and out of the reef – beautifully going about their business as we drifted by,

taking in the scenery. The dive ended all too soon and soon we were about to begin our descent. Before we were able to head up, a blue tang past by me quickly, just barely was I able to snap a photo of him.

After our surface interval, we were headed to Tormentos Reef. Tormentos is another beautiful site – long flat sections, covered in sponges, rods and brain corals. A ray accompanied by a fish sad tenderly on the bottom. The reefs were, again, just teeming with life – small fish all over the reef including Sergeant majors, four-eye butterfly fish, Queen angel fish, and, as always, grunts. Perhaps my favorites, however, were the Sergeant majors who just were everywhere! Almost everywhere you’d look they’d be hanging out, almost checking out the scene.

As we crossed through a sandy bit over the top of the reef, we were greeted by a whole school of yellow tail jacks, traveling through the area. They were amazing – watchful of us, they swam right past, leaving me feeling completely awestruck.

Tormentos was a beautiful dive site. The expansive vistas were amazingly gorgeous. Combined with the water clarify, I was just amazed. I could have stayed down for the entire day.

Dive #68 – Tuesday 7/1/08 – Santa Rosa Wall – Cozumel, Mexico. 8:45 AM. Max depth 81 feet, average 54 feet. Bottom time 44 minutes. 660 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82°, vis approximately 60-75 feet. Surface interval – 50 minutes.

Dive #69 – Tuesday, 7/1/08 – Tormentos Reef – Cozumel, Meixco. 10:20 AM. Max depth 54 feet, average 43 feet. Bottom time 44 minutes, 750 PSI at end of dive. Water temp 82 °, vis approximately 50-80 feet.