First Warm Water dive (Carribean Cruise)

[jlehigh]

I returrned last week from my first warm water dives in Grand Cayman and Cozumel.. I havent and still dont have time to detail every dive but I never thought warm water diving could be THAT awesome... I have plenty of cold water locals to check out and things to see, but what a great experience for a new diver like myself to have!

Here's a brief summary of one of my dives in Cozumel:

"In Cozumel my buddy and I dove with a small group through two "Thru Caves" to a reef wall that dropped from 70' to 2500' straight down into a royal blue abyss. We entered a cave at 50' through a dark 6' diameter opening under an overhang on a reef structure sitting on sandy substrate and popped out at 70' on the sheer reef wall where we dove down to 115'. At 115' I could see all the way up the reef wall to the glimmering surface. At one point I rolled on my back just in time to watch a sea turtle swim over me 30' above with the sun illuminating emerald water.. I looked down and ~70' below me were Black Tip sharks. Looking up the reef wall I could see a rainbow of Large Polyp Stony coral, sea fans, sponge-life, gorgonians among vast overhangs and obstract formations, but the FISH.. OMG the Parrot Fish, Tangs, Angels, Chromis, Damsels, Butterflies ect ect... Heading back at 70' on the wall we swam totally vertical into another thru cave with a small dark opening. Both caves were pitch black upon entering only to be illuminated by "skylights" where the sun showed every color of sponge in the rainbow throughout the caverns. The dive profile was 46 minutes with a max depth of 114' and a 4minute+ decompression stop following several minutes around 50'. There were several regular warm water divers with 200+ logged dives and they all reported this was the dive of all dives.. a perfect dive.."

I've enjoyed cold water diving, but exciting sights asside I can't help but get a big grin remembering diving with only 10lbs and a dive skin under my regular trunks..

[Sounder]

Aaah... warm water. Can you believe that there are people who are paid to take people on tours there - i.e. "You pay me to dive with you in beautiful clear fish-tank water." Maui was amazing too - but doesn't sound nearly as nice as your dive in Cozumel! Good report!

[bnboly]

Sounds like you had a fantastic vacation! So far I have only 5 cold water dives and no warm water - yet. Next month we are going to Curacao for 2 weeks. I hope my dives are as rewarding as yours were.

[reed]

Well, John hit it pretty good. We had 2 great dives in Cozumel with perfect vis. The sea life was incredible and the swim through were cool. John forgot the nurse shark and the eel we saw.

The Cayman dives were a blast too. Good vis, good dive masters, great life. My wife and I were buddied up for the Cayman dives and on the second dive they let s loose to go explore on our own. We decended to about 50 feet, swam around a little over the reef, saw a nice open sandy area and went over there. Stopped, looked around, looked at each other, then we saw it...a grey shadow that cleared into a black tip shark coming right at us. We were in awe. It swm right toward us them changed direction effortlessly and swam off as quick as it appeared. 1st shark encounter and was just awesome. We also saw sea turtles, loads of fish, stony corals, sea fans, and plenty of jelly fish, and a wreck at the end. All-in-all a great trip.

I would dive both locations again without hesitation.