Brief trip report with Sea Robin

[WOODMAN]

We just got back from a week with Sea Robin Diving, and were most impressed with them. Eduardo Canche, the co-owner and divemaster took excellent care of us, and he ran a first class operation. He came to our hotel that first night, and collected our dive gear, and then took care of it untill our last night, when he delivered it back to us at the hotel. He provided steel high capacity tanks for me, (although they were not filled to the 3500 psi level that they were rated for-this is always a problem for me in Cozumel) and this helped extend my bottom times considerably. His boat is the Balleena, which is a thoughtfully reengineered boat with several nice touches. He has arranged room for about 8 divers, but the boat could seat many more if he squeezed them in like certain other ops have been known to do. The boat is wide enough to allow comfortable foot room with fins on, and the boat is about 80% covered, with good lighting provided for night dives. He has twin 100hp motors on her, and she is about as fast as anything else we have seen down there. He provided plenty of water and fruit for the surface intervals, and was extremely good about working out the dive locations with us and getting us the best diving for the conditions (we had a lot of wind, and decided not to attempt the way out areas due to excessive wave action on a couple of the days.) He was really good about finding critters for us, and the boat was always attentive and waiting for us when we came up. We were most pleased with the operation, and will remember them when we travel this way again.

[Cozdreamer]

I've never heard of this dive op. Did the dive op pick you up at a hotel pier, or did you have to taxi to the caleta?

[WOODMAN]

I've never heard of this dive op. Did the dive op pick you up at a hotel pier, or did you have to taxi to the caleta?

Either way. They were quite content to pick us up at the Barracuda pier, or to get an earlier start, they would meet us at the caleta and leave directly from there. Eduardo was most accomodating to whatever we wanted. Oh, I forgot. Their website is searobincozumel.com- if anyone is interested. Woody

[ggunn]

The boat is wide enough to allow comfortable foot room with fins on, and the boat is about 80% covered, with good lighting provided for night dives. He has twin 100hp motors on her, and she is about as fast as anything else we have seen down there.

I got to dive off Sea Robin's boat a few times last May when Blue Angel rented it while one of their boats was down. It really is nice, and those engines are 4 stroke motors (most outboards are 2 stroke), which means they are tremendously quieter and the exhaust doesn't have oil smoke in it.

[WOODMAN]

As I said, thoughtfully laid out and designed, by someone who understands diving. Oh, and one other thing, for you photographers out there. They actually provided a large fresh water rinse tank for my camera, and it was big enough to accomodate my housed rig with both strobes without a quibble. That was a first for cozumel, at least for me. Usually I have to make do with a 5 gallon bucket, and sometimes I have to bitch a little to get that. Woody