Trip Report : Feb 23-27

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charlesml3

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Raleigh, NC
# of dives
500 - 999
Gang,

Just got back from a relatively short trip to Coz. We were also there this past August for a week so it was interesting to see the changes over the past six months. Most everything looks better than it did. The Presidente is open but we didn't stay there. Almost all of the shops and businesses on the waterfront are rebuilt or are actively being worked. The trees all look a lot better as well. Much more green around town than there was in August.

We stayed at the Barracuda again. It's still one of my favorites. Perfect location and it has improved dramatically since the hurricane.

OK, the diving! We dove 4 days. 4 tanks on one day, 3 tanks on two other days. Total of 11 dives. Two of those were night dives and two others were twilight dives.

If we would classify the diving before Wilma to be Excellent then I would give the current state to be "fair" to "good." I honestly can't say the any of the dive sites are Very Good or Excellent at this time. That said, I do see some improvements since August. There is more color on the reef now. Some purple, orange, red, and blue. The reefs are still very sandy but they do look a bit better. I think we're a year or two away from them looking as colorful as they did. The dive sites further South looked better than the ones North. We spent most of our time on Colombia and Palancar. Tormentos looked pretty bad. Cedral not much better. The best of all was Colombia Shallow which is still very surprising. It's a shallow dive and I can't really understand why the hurricane didn't beat this reef up as bad as it did on Las Palmas. We tried to get down to Maracaibo but the weather just wouldn't cooperate. It was far too rough to make a decent dive there.

Colombia deep is still very majestic and probably my favorite deep dive right now. Santa Rosa was my favorite before Wilma.

We did see a bunch of turtles, octopus, eels, and a few stingrays. No spotted eagle rays. Heard some really loud toadfish at night but never managed to spot one. Not as many lobsters as last August but that's probably seasonal. Did see quite a few Spanish Lobsters. Man, those things are UGLY!

Overall, I would say that most everything in Coz looks better than it did six months ago, but we still have a long way to go.

-Charles
 
Glad to hear you had a great time! Now post some pictures! I'm anxious to see what it looks like since I've been there!
 
94GTStang

No pics
I was diving w/Charles and had the camera...bad news...flooded. Likely my fault, not enough silicone on the seal I think. I did get some great shots of a fairly good size squid on a night dive....trying to salvage from the CF card...wish me luck.

Saw a lot more creatures than last Sept....Charles did not mention the HUGE moray we found on a twilight dive. All around the diving was great! Coz always is.

-Glen
 
Glad to here your comment on the Barracuda Hotel. I will be staying there in two weeks. Thanks for the report.
 
Glen@SC:
94GTStang

No pics
I was diving w/Charles and had the camera...bad news...flooded. Likely my fault, not enough silicone on the seal I think.
-Glen

Sorry to hear your camera flooded. That is a royal bummer.

Actually, too much silicone on the o-rings is more likely to cause a flood than not enough.

The purpose of the silicone is to keep the o-ring lubricated to keep it from cracking. You only need enough to have a very light glossy coating on the o-ring. It should not be gooped on as I've seen so many people do. This (heavy silicone application) can actually keep the housing from sealing properly and can also trap more fibers/hairs, sand/salt grians etc. which can also affect the seal.

I hope your camera can be repaired and better luck in the future.
 
Glen@SC:
94GTStang

No pics
I was diving w/Charles and had the camera...bad news...flooded. Likely my fault, not enough silicone on the seal I think. I did get some great shots of a fairly good size squid on a night dive....trying to salvage from the CF card...wish me luck.

Saw a lot more creatures than last Sept....Charles did not mention the HUGE moray we found on a twilight dive. All around the diving was great! Coz always is.

-Glen

Glen, I hope you can salvage more of your pics. And doesn't it always seem to happen on a trip where you had a chance at that amazing, once in a lifetime shot?

For future reference, if you're not insured I can tell you first hand that DEPP is well worth the cost. A couple years ago my husband has a flooded housing (embarassingly in about 4' of water, very rough surf). The camera was a 5yr old Oly. The claim was a breeze and since we had all the original receipts he was given the original purchase value. They told him which stores he could shop at, or he could get a check less a minimal service charge. We've got 2 cameras and housings, two video cams and housings, and all our dive gear on a DEPP policy. Based on how they handled the camera flood claim, as long as we're traveling I'll keep paying the premium.
 
Sorry for bumping the thread....


but sorry to hear about your camera. At least you have the memories! I'm still waiting to see a squid
 
Glen@SC:
94GTStang

No pics
I was diving w/Charles and had the camera...bad news...flooded. Likely my fault, not enough silicone on the seal I think. I did get some great shots of a fairly good size squid on a night dive....trying to salvage from the CF card...wish me luck.

Saw a lot more creatures than last Sept....Charles did not mention the HUGE moray we found on a twilight dive. All around the diving was great! Coz always is.

-Glen

Sorry to hear about your camera flooding. I just wanted to step in and clarify something so you don't think it was a lack of silicon issue that caused the flooding. Just so you are clear for the future, the only thing the silicon does is reduce friction on an o-ring so it won't bind and will slip into place without any trouble. So, the problem (unless your oring was totally dry) was probably due to debris in the o-ring, or some other issue.

Just wanted to make sure you didn't try and over do the silicon the next time since that will acutally cause more problems and flooding potential. :no
 

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