We had heard about the awesomeness (real word) of diving in Cozumel for a long time. Many divers have extolled the joys of drift diving at this wonderful spot. I was particularly excited about this dive for that reason, the idea of following the current along the reef seemed very cool.
We arrived at the Blue Angel dive shop mid-morning ready to rock-n-roll. The sky was cloudy but it was very warm. We met our guide, Edgar, and waited for our boat to arrive. One thing that was cool about Blue Angel was they they were full service. They prepared all of our gear and took care of everything. All we really had to do was enjoy the boat ride and patiently wait.
Our first dive was supposed to be along the wall.It was about a 60'-65' dive. One thing cool about the wall is as you drift along, you look down and see nothing but blue. Apparently the depth is far enough to not be able to see the bottom. After Edgar explained the dive to us and we discussed the plan, it was time to go. This dive was doomed from the beginning. As soon as I jumped in, my regulator started to free-flow. This means that air flows through without stopping.Luckily, the dive shop had an extra regulator so they hooked me up with a replacement.
This did throw me off a little. I don't have much experience, so whenever anything unusual happens it takes me a minute to pull it together. But pull it together I did, and it was time to descend. Once we got to about 27', Shelby signaled she wanted to go to the surface. We didn't really know what was wrong, so we went up. Once we popped up at the surface, Shelby let us know she had been stung by a jelly-fish. What a bummer. She was pretty upset and we went back to the boat.
On the boat the Blue Angel folks were great. They had vinegar on board and were very kind and gentle with Shelby. There was no pressure to get back in and Edgar in particular was very understanding. After about 40 minutes we picked up the other divers and headed for the reef. I really didn't think Shelby would want to go back in, but once we arrived at the dive spot she said she wanted to try.
I am so grateful she made that decision, the dive was wonderful. The water was 79ยบ and wonderful. The current was pretty strong which led to a pretty fun dive. We drifted along the reef at between 20' and 40'. The reef was beautiful.
We saw a wide variety of fish.Some of the highlights included a giant eagle ray and, of course, a barracuda. The entire experience was wonderful. I was really happy for
Shelby, it took a lot of courage for her to jump back in. Despite the jelly fish, Cozumel diving was a definite thumbs up. I'm sure we will dive there again.
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