Greetings fellow DIR project members,

Just a quick update on a spontaneous dive trip to Cozumel. If you haven't been here yet, this is the home of the Caribbean's best drift diving. Sometimes the currents can get ripping and if you are lucky you will see several kilometers of reef at a pretty high rate of knots. There might be better reefs in the Caribbean and more fish varieties, but Cozumel has a charm all it's own. The viz here is usually excellent and usually well over 150'. This means that as you are zipping along at about 50', you can see tons of fish swimming around, under, and over you. It is aquatic sightseeing at it's best. 

You are also going to see a lot of dive boats and divers. And lets just say that many of them are less than, how can it say it, "moderately skilled".......This makes for a whole different bunch of sight seeing actually, as some times your fellow divers are more exciting to watch than the fish.......Today I was only kicked twice and somehow someone was able to squeeze between me and the reef when I was about 2 feet off the reef watching juvenile smooth skin trunkfish...... Very interesting. Kim and I get a lot of laughs and have a lot of sympathy for the dive guides. Most dive operations are pretty professional though and looks like everyone has a great time. So far, spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks, midnight parrotfish, rainbow parrotfish, lobsters, eels, southern stingrays, lots of turtles, schools of snapper and permit, a huge goliath grouper as big as Kim, and a zillion smaller fish or every variety. I get a kick out of the huge parrotfish as they really take some good chunks out of the coral and you can hear them crunch. 

All in all, very nice diving in about 80 degree F water (don't ask me what that is in Celsius, I was born before metric...) and lots of sun. 

As long as no one kicks me too badly tomorrow, I will add another update in a couple of days. :-)

Safe Dives 

Guy