Picking a new op with pier pickup at Blue Angel

[nodakdive]

Sorry. He’s with Blue Project. Brain fart.

We are considering BA and actually have booked that way, but our once 8 person group shrunk to 4 (they missed booking) and were told a large group coming in. Looking at options as we don’t necessarily want to get subsumed by that group which may dictate who goes on what boat. I really would not want to go out on a 10 am boat

Restaurant time can be an issue as we know that at 7 the kitchen gets busy and backed up, and eating can get rushed so I’d usually just get the smoothie as it was quicker. Pre ordering is a great idea

Imo and fwiw, if BA is leaving at 9am, that's a selling point to me. Where I stay I watch many rushed, tensed up divers coming to breakfast on a mission to eat and get on the pier for their 8am departures. I'm up very early, and have pah-lenty of time to drink some coffee, eat some breakfast, get my gear ready, drink some gatorade and just chill the whole time, because the shop I dive with leaves at 9am. In close to 400 dives with that shop, I've only encountered divers that aren't in our group 3 or 4 times. When we're back-rolling, most of the 8am shops are just about to start their SI.

This is just a guess, but if there's a big group, they'll likely be on the big boat. I'd tell the shop you don't want to be on a big boat with your 3 buddies, and this is another guess, but I suspect they'd accommodate you.

 

[USdiver1]

Say what you want about the No Problem and it's 10:00 am departure, but if there is one saving grace about a slow and late departing vessel it is that the No Problem is the only BA boat with a head. Not so much an issue for me, but ask my wife who after diving from the Jibara learned of the No Problem's great benefit and, "poof" we were 10:00 am troopers for the rest of the week. YMMV

 

[ggunn]

...I'm up very early, and have pah-lenty of time to drink some coffee, eat some breakfast, get my gear ready, drink some gatorade and just chill the whole time, because the shop I dive with leaves at 9am. In close to 400 dives with that shop, I've only encountered divers that aren't in our group 3 or 4 times. When we're back-rolling, most of the 8am shops are just about to start their SI.

This is just a guess, but if there's a big group, they'll likely be on the big boat. I'd tell the shop you don't want to be on a big boat with your 3 buddies, and this is another guess, but I suspect they'd accommodate you.

I am usually up at first light or before when I am on Cozumel; I love getting into a hammock with a cup of coffee at dawn and watching the island wake up. Pretty much every morning when it is just getting light, a swarm of swallows comes by; for a couple of minutes they are everywhere, swooping around chasing bugs, and then they are gone. By 8AM I am ready to go diving, and when I was there last year in April, I was on an 8AM boat most days.

You are correct; when a large group comes to stay and dive at BA they usually go out on the No Problem and it goes out whenever they want it to.

 

[GameChanger]

I just checked my dive logs from my BA dives last June and I splashed at Columbia Deep at 0947. I think the boat left the BA pier at 0900.

 

[ggunn]

I just checked my dive logs from my BA dives last June and I splashed at Columbia Deep at 0947. I think the boat left the BA pier at 0900.

Was your computer set for the correct time zone?

 

[GameChanger]

Of course.

 

[ChrisM]

Ha most of my dives end up being logged at something like 3 am