How many ways are there to say we had a great time? Our adventure started the morning of March 23 and a dread of the upcoming hassles with security at the airport. TACA airlines were right on the ball and we got checked in pretty quick. The only noticeable difference in airport security was an extra checkpoint at the carry-on X-ray machine. I had all the new camera equipment in my backpack and was pulled aside for inspection of a shape they couldnt identify. Battery chargers look funny in those machines! 10 of the 12 folks on our trip were all at the airport so we had a chance to meet and visit for a bit before our flight. The flight was uneventful though there were some changes on TACA from last year. The dinner tray we have always been served has been changed to a deli-type sandwich and cardboard chips. One nice addition is the Discovery Channel program on the small screens that makes the 2.5-hour flight speed by.
Nora, CoCo Views travel rep was there to greet us at Roatan Airport to speed our way through customs and get us loaded on the bus for transport to the resort. CCV has added a new bus to their fleet and Morris is still driving and conducting his impromptu tour along the way. We got to the dock for our short boat ride to CCV just in time to provide sustenance for the No-seeums before dark. This was my fourth trip to CCV and Ive never seen the bugs so bad. Not expecting the onslaught, no one had applied any bug repellent so the majority of the bites we received for the week took place on the boat ride. The rest of the time DEET and Cactus Juice seemed to do the trick.
CCV is still my favorite home away from home place. We had the same bungalow we had last year; even the linens were the same! Its nothing fancy which is one of the reasons we like it so much. Everything is so laid back and totally geared to diving. The design of the dock area with its gear lockers, rinse tanks, drying racks, showers, Nitrox testing station, and boat access makes your diving so easy whether you are diving from the boat(s) or from shore. The daily schedule is arranged around your diving. Breakfast 6:30-8am, boat leaving at 8:30-9 depending on site. Lunch noon 1:30pm, boat leaving at 2pm. Dinner 7-8:30pm, shore night dives at your pleasure. If you are night diving from shore there are a couple of simple rules. You take the strobe, if you are first out, and your room tag with you and place both on the buoy chain at the mouth of the channel. When you return, you retrieve your room tags. If your tags are the only ones there, you also take the strobe. You replace your room tags on the board on the front of the gear shed. This assures all divers are accounted for. The night dock master knows who is out and keeps an eye on the board to check who is in and out. In their 20+ yrs, CCV has never had a problem with this system.
Doug and I were the only ones in our group who had been to CCV so we were allowed to dive without going through the orientation first. After getting settled in our bungalow and letting supper digest a bit, we did a night dive on the Prince Albert in CCVs front yard that first night. Because of a pinched nerve in my neck, I had been out of the water for 6 months the longest dry period Ive had to date. I decided not to take the camera until I could gauge my comfort level first. Of course, I saw things Ive never seen before, such as a small Basket Star. I never did find it again! That first dive was so nice but it showed where some changes needed to be made in my usual diving habits. As I mentioned, Im having trouble with a nerve that goes from my neck, across my left shoulder and down that arm. As a result, I cant wear full gear out of the water. I also had a hard time reaching my right fin to remove it, which required that someone had to do that for me. For the first time since I got certified, I cant take care of myself. Its the pits! Id like to thank Doug, Dave and Davis for all their help during the week. One or the other made sure they were behind me at the boat ladder to remove my fins underwater, making it possible for me to exit the water with the least amount discomfort. I only missed one dive all week and I couldnt have made the ones I did with out them. Thanks, Guys more than youll ever know!
As most of you know, and are probably tired of hearing about, I have a new digital camera and housing .Olympus C-4040/PT-010 housing and Sea & Sea YS90 DX strobe. I was excited and eager to try it yet nervous at the same time. I really like the compact size and easy use although I had some adjustments to make. During the week, I took almost 700 u/w photos! I took my old laptop for downloading the memory cards every day, which made it easy to check the photos for details and learn from my mistakes. Ive put some of the photos on Yahoo that you can see at the link below. If anyone is interested in the camera details, just let me know.
The diving was phenomenal, as usual. Since there isnt a current to speak of, the visibility isnt as good as in other places, like Cozumel but I cant complain about 80+! On some sites there did seem to be more stuff in the water than I remember but it didnt hinder us at all. Of the 12 of us on this trip we had 8 divers on our boat every day. On a 50ft boat designed for 18-20 divers, it was a treat to have the Yellow Boat all to ourselves. There are four dive boats at CCV denoted by color, Yellow, Red, Blue and Green. Because of some mechanical problems with the Blue boat one day, we had a group of French Canadians join us on our boat. That was the day that Beast and I decided to shore dive all day. I can say Im glad we missed the boat! That group was one of the rudest, least friendly group of divers Ive ever been around. They were like that all week. I know now that not all Canadians are as nice and friendly as Marla and Jo!
Its always hard to describe the dives from a dive trip. One of my all time favorites is Calvins Crack. A short vertical chute turns into a tunnel and you guys know how much I enjoy those! Most moored boat dives consisted of dropping over the edge of the wall and going to whatever depth you wanted until someone reached 1500psi, although we normally stayed in the 60-70ft ranges. We would then turn the dive and make our way back to the mooring line. We putzed around under the boat until ready to end the dive. As Dave mentioned, the first boat dives, morning and afternoon, were on a moored site and the second was a drop off on either Newmans Wall or CCV Wall. We asked for fewer drop off dives and were able to do pickup dives several times. These are the same as live drift dives with no current! Gringo, our boat Capt. would drop us on a reef and follow us along until we ascended. These dives usually covered 3-4 separate reef sites. These were our favorites.
My most enjoyed dive all week was the last one Friday morning. I had decided not to dive that morning. I went to the dock and helped Beast carry some of his stuff onboard. The only ones in our group going out was Dave, Davis and Beast. I couldnt stand it! At the very last minute, we loaded my gear and in only a tank top and shorts (remember, I wasnt diving today!) I got on the boat with the best dive buddies around. This last dive was a pickup dive covering Parrots Tree to Pirates Point dive sites. It wasnt the most beautiful, or the most interesting of the weeks dives but it was the most peaceful. I didnt take many photos, just enjoyed the dive. Maybe it was because it was our last dive, but the four of us were diving as one. One unit cruising the reef, each with our own thoughts and recording our own memories but together in a way thats hard to explain to those who havent been there.
I did 22 dives during our stay. Max depth was 111ft with an average of 70ft. Bottom times varied from 45min to 67min, avg. 56 min, for a trip bottom time total of 20 hrs. 56 min.
Roatan 2002 Digital Photos
Nora, CoCo Views travel rep was there to greet us at Roatan Airport to speed our way through customs and get us loaded on the bus for transport to the resort. CCV has added a new bus to their fleet and Morris is still driving and conducting his impromptu tour along the way. We got to the dock for our short boat ride to CCV just in time to provide sustenance for the No-seeums before dark. This was my fourth trip to CCV and Ive never seen the bugs so bad. Not expecting the onslaught, no one had applied any bug repellent so the majority of the bites we received for the week took place on the boat ride. The rest of the time DEET and Cactus Juice seemed to do the trick.
CCV is still my favorite home away from home place. We had the same bungalow we had last year; even the linens were the same! Its nothing fancy which is one of the reasons we like it so much. Everything is so laid back and totally geared to diving. The design of the dock area with its gear lockers, rinse tanks, drying racks, showers, Nitrox testing station, and boat access makes your diving so easy whether you are diving from the boat(s) or from shore. The daily schedule is arranged around your diving. Breakfast 6:30-8am, boat leaving at 8:30-9 depending on site. Lunch noon 1:30pm, boat leaving at 2pm. Dinner 7-8:30pm, shore night dives at your pleasure. If you are night diving from shore there are a couple of simple rules. You take the strobe, if you are first out, and your room tag with you and place both on the buoy chain at the mouth of the channel. When you return, you retrieve your room tags. If your tags are the only ones there, you also take the strobe. You replace your room tags on the board on the front of the gear shed. This assures all divers are accounted for. The night dock master knows who is out and keeps an eye on the board to check who is in and out. In their 20+ yrs, CCV has never had a problem with this system.
Doug and I were the only ones in our group who had been to CCV so we were allowed to dive without going through the orientation first. After getting settled in our bungalow and letting supper digest a bit, we did a night dive on the Prince Albert in CCVs front yard that first night. Because of a pinched nerve in my neck, I had been out of the water for 6 months the longest dry period Ive had to date. I decided not to take the camera until I could gauge my comfort level first. Of course, I saw things Ive never seen before, such as a small Basket Star. I never did find it again! That first dive was so nice but it showed where some changes needed to be made in my usual diving habits. As I mentioned, Im having trouble with a nerve that goes from my neck, across my left shoulder and down that arm. As a result, I cant wear full gear out of the water. I also had a hard time reaching my right fin to remove it, which required that someone had to do that for me. For the first time since I got certified, I cant take care of myself. Its the pits! Id like to thank Doug, Dave and Davis for all their help during the week. One or the other made sure they were behind me at the boat ladder to remove my fins underwater, making it possible for me to exit the water with the least amount discomfort. I only missed one dive all week and I couldnt have made the ones I did with out them. Thanks, Guys more than youll ever know!
As most of you know, and are probably tired of hearing about, I have a new digital camera and housing .Olympus C-4040/PT-010 housing and Sea & Sea YS90 DX strobe. I was excited and eager to try it yet nervous at the same time. I really like the compact size and easy use although I had some adjustments to make. During the week, I took almost 700 u/w photos! I took my old laptop for downloading the memory cards every day, which made it easy to check the photos for details and learn from my mistakes. Ive put some of the photos on Yahoo that you can see at the link below. If anyone is interested in the camera details, just let me know.
The diving was phenomenal, as usual. Since there isnt a current to speak of, the visibility isnt as good as in other places, like Cozumel but I cant complain about 80+! On some sites there did seem to be more stuff in the water than I remember but it didnt hinder us at all. Of the 12 of us on this trip we had 8 divers on our boat every day. On a 50ft boat designed for 18-20 divers, it was a treat to have the Yellow Boat all to ourselves. There are four dive boats at CCV denoted by color, Yellow, Red, Blue and Green. Because of some mechanical problems with the Blue boat one day, we had a group of French Canadians join us on our boat. That was the day that Beast and I decided to shore dive all day. I can say Im glad we missed the boat! That group was one of the rudest, least friendly group of divers Ive ever been around. They were like that all week. I know now that not all Canadians are as nice and friendly as Marla and Jo!
Its always hard to describe the dives from a dive trip. One of my all time favorites is Calvins Crack. A short vertical chute turns into a tunnel and you guys know how much I enjoy those! Most moored boat dives consisted of dropping over the edge of the wall and going to whatever depth you wanted until someone reached 1500psi, although we normally stayed in the 60-70ft ranges. We would then turn the dive and make our way back to the mooring line. We putzed around under the boat until ready to end the dive. As Dave mentioned, the first boat dives, morning and afternoon, were on a moored site and the second was a drop off on either Newmans Wall or CCV Wall. We asked for fewer drop off dives and were able to do pickup dives several times. These are the same as live drift dives with no current! Gringo, our boat Capt. would drop us on a reef and follow us along until we ascended. These dives usually covered 3-4 separate reef sites. These were our favorites.
My most enjoyed dive all week was the last one Friday morning. I had decided not to dive that morning. I went to the dock and helped Beast carry some of his stuff onboard. The only ones in our group going out was Dave, Davis and Beast. I couldnt stand it! At the very last minute, we loaded my gear and in only a tank top and shorts (remember, I wasnt diving today!) I got on the boat with the best dive buddies around. This last dive was a pickup dive covering Parrots Tree to Pirates Point dive sites. It wasnt the most beautiful, or the most interesting of the weeks dives but it was the most peaceful. I didnt take many photos, just enjoyed the dive. Maybe it was because it was our last dive, but the four of us were diving as one. One unit cruising the reef, each with our own thoughts and recording our own memories but together in a way thats hard to explain to those who havent been there.
I did 22 dives during our stay. Max depth was 111ft with an average of 70ft. Bottom times varied from 45min to 67min, avg. 56 min, for a trip bottom time total of 20 hrs. 56 min.
Roatan 2002 Digital Photos
