The weather cooperated for us. It was a bit rough the day we arrived and the day we left. The rest of the week was absolutely beautiful, enabling us to get to some of the premiere dive sites

The service at Scuba Club Cozumel was outstanding. The entire staff took great care of us and even hosted a Mexican beach party. Diving was provided by the on-site dive center, Scuba Cozumel. We enjoyed five days of two tank boat dives with our dive masters Luis (Chocky) and Francisco aboard the Dive Cat. We also enjoyed unlimited shore diving (great night dives). In addition to the house reef, dive sites we visited were Dalila, Columbia Wall, Tormentos, Santa Rosa Wall, Villa Blanca, Palancar Garden, Chankanaab, Palancar Caves and San Francisco Wall. Most of us even managed to squeeze in the wreck of the C-53 and a full moon night dive on Paradise Reef. Check out the video below!

We made some new friends from Canada, Michigan, California, North Dakota and Arizona while diving aboard the Dive Cat and staying at Scuba Club Cozumel. It’s a diver’s resort so you can’t help but meet some nice people who share our passion for diving.

Five of us wrapped up the week with a day trip to Playa Del Carmen on the Yucatan peninsula where we met up with Dive Aventuras. They brought us a short ride south and into the jungle a bit for a couple of dives in the Chac Mool conote. That was quite an experience!

If you haven’t tried drift diving, you really should; and this is the place to do it. Scuba Club Cozumel is a special place for divers. I’m already making plans to go back next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7dskPaSNw

Scuba Shack visited Bonaire the last week of September to experience the best of both worlds, boat diving and shore diving. Our group of 18 had tons of fun in the sun. Come to think of it, we had a pretty good time after the sun went down as well.

Joy & Maureen

Future Diver

Our 14 divers of various levels of training and experience had our own boat for the week which we took advantage of to visit many of the sites on Klein Bonaire such as Nearest Point, Keepsake, Monte’s Divi and Forrest as well as some of the more difficult to reach locations on Bonaire including Karpata, Bon Bini Na Cas, and Small Wall. Of course no trip to Bonaire is complete with out a visit to the Hilma Hooker where we were lucky enough to have an encounter with a pod of dolphins during our surface interval. Man those suckers can swim fast! Other creatures sighted during our week include sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, many varieties of moray eels, sharptail eels, sea horse and frog fish.

Spotted Cleaner Shrimp

Longlure Frogfish

Sea Horse

Shore diving was done in smaller groups but still big fun. Some of the sites visited include 1000 Steps, The Invisibles, Red Slave, Oil Slick Leap and several dives from the house reef at Plaza Resort.

Fran Takes a Leap

Several divers took advantage of the clear, clam waters to pursue an advanced certification completing deep, navigation, wreck and night dives to name a few. Congratulations to those divers achieving the Advanced Open Water certification. Several of us made night dives each evening. We were escorted by the resident tarpon population. Some of the other nocturnal marine life included squid, octopus, crabs, spiny lobsters and slipper lobsters.

Boy’s Night Out

Others folks opted to relax after sundown. We managed to get in to some of the best restaurants on Bonaire and enjoyed some wonderful meals with good company while reflecting on the day’s dives.

Ralph & Jackie After Dinner

Town Pier

Our 1st dive was on the wreck of the Puszta on the Northeast shore of Block Island. The 384 foot freighter ran aground in 1934 in less than 20 feet of water. The shallow depths, surf and years have taken there toll on the wreck. We managed to find some fairly significant portions of the wreck still intact among the boulders. The entire dive did not exceed 20 feet. There was a bit of surge on the site which contributed to reduced visibility, about 8 – 10 feet.

We had to choose an alternate site for our 2nd dive as the surf was too heavy on the south side of the island to dive the Lightburn. For our 2nd dive we choose the barge in Pt. Judith Harbor of refuge. This barge is upside down and a haven for all sorts of marine life including fluke and blackfish. Max depth was about 30 feet with visibility approximately 6 – 8 feet.