(Very long) trip report. February in Cozumel with Aldora

[blue steal]

Great read annlaur. sorry to hear about the hit, but glad you are better. At least you got to do quite a few land based things. Hope to run across you someday in COZ. Will hopefully return in October for a mere 11 days, (airfare prices permitting).

 

[firstdive2005]

Hi Anne! I remember seeing you at Scubamau and you said that you had been for the chamber ride, man my heart broke as it was so early in your holiday.
And poor Maria, when we where over on the east side after the first dive I tried to warm her with a hug, I thought she was a corpse that was still smilling. She looked good with blue lips.
By the way my hot tub is working again.
Sure hope to meet up one day again, be well. kevin

 

[annlaur]

Great read annlaur. sorry to hear about the hit, but glad you are better. At least you got to do quite a few land based things. Hope to run across you someday in COZ. Will hopefully return in October for a mere 11 days, (airfare prices permitting).

Thanks. Will hopefully be on the island in October too, bank account permitting…

Hi Anne! I remember seeing you at Scubamau and you said that you had been for the chamber ride, man my heart broke as it was so early in your holiday.
And poor Maria, when we where over on the east side after the first dive I tried to warm her with a hug, I thought she was a corpse that was still smilling. She looked good with blue lips.
By the way my hot tub is working again.
Sure hope to meet up one day again, be well. kevin

Yeah, Maria needs to either invest in a dry-suit… or dive in a hot tub like yours
I do remember that day I got stuck by the rain on the scooter and took shelter at Scubamau. Really nice people.
Your rental VW was pretty hot-tubesque that day too, if memory serves well.
Considering you too spend so much time on the island (beware of Bill's wrath), I'm sure we'll meet again some day.

As for the DCS hit : thank you everyone for the kind words. It was a bummer and scary at first, but I still had a wonderful time and did some unforgettable dives prior to it. So no regret whatsoever, it was well worth it.

 

[vlkr]

nice to see chino getting some pub. he is usually an unsung hero of our vacations.
sorry about the hit. i think your idea of nitrox is a good one. perhaps someone with more knowledge can contibute here, but i believe cold can be a contributor. if so, maybe all you have to do is go a little later in the year, use a hood, and of course get nitrox.
btw i noticed that the hit came after long dives and not the deep one. a theory i have based on my own experiences with feeling lousy sometimes down there is that it is dehydration from breathing out of tanks for a long period. this seems to be borne out by the fact that guzzling gatoraid makes it go away rapidly.

 

[annlaur]

Chino is indeed a beautiful soul, so nice and hardworking and always willing to help.
The hit actually came after some of the shortest and shallowest dives of my trip (go figure !) : 70 minutes at a max of 50 feet, then 71 minutes at a max of 45 ft (most of both dives were actually spent between 40 and 20 feet). That includes a full 5 min safety stop at 15 feet. My computer hadn't looked that "green" all week (I did get close to the orange part a couple of times the previous days), and no one else on the boat (I had been diving with pretty much the same group for over a week) got any symptom.
I dive in a full 5 mm in Cozumel, and got much colder before in the Med and the Red Sea.

I'm thinking too much coffee, not enough water nor sleep. Being out of shape probably doesn't help either but… how can one resist an extra order of Los Otates tacos ?

 

[MMM]

Thankfully I've never been bent, in spite of some very long dives on steel tanks. There are lots of contributing factors, cold being one, but one thing I've always done is remain warm. Some people yuk it up over all my neoprene (5 mm full suit plus 3 mm hooded vest) but I'd rather be too warm than too cold. I can do lots about the former but not much about the latter.

 

[farsidefan1]

Wow, interesting cooincidence. I took an unprovoked DCS hit in Coz last Aurust. I was checked for PFO and found I did indeed have one which was rectified in December. Now I'm getting ready for my first dive trip since since then. Cocoview in 3 weeks. I'm planning on using nitrox the entire week even though southside diving is very shallow for the most part. I saw Dr. Piccolo and he told me no diving for 6 months. When I asked him if this meant I was more vulnerable in the future he said "no conclusive research (grr, would have preferred a definitive answer but he is as well read as anyone on the topic). He gets a lot of work there in Coz. I hope you can get back to diving soon, best wishes.

 

[leslief]

I loved reading your trip reports. Sorry about your hit and I hope your back in the water soon. I wanted to ask you about the Saolina Hotel. Where is it located and does it have air conditioning? Thanks for the info.

 

[pelagic_by_nature]

When I asked him if this meant I was more vulnerable in the future he said "no conclusive research (grr, would have preferred a definitive answer

That's better than a definitive yes!!

 

[farsidefan1]

Lol, tru dat!