Playa Del Carmen Daily Dive Report! Geofish

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

January 7, 2011

Happy New Year everyone. Today the weather was perfect and it has been for the last week. Today the wind was blowing at 5 knots/6mph. The water is like glass right now.

Tortuga and Barracuda

Today Tortuga was great with the visibility at around 75-80ft. We ended up seeing 6 Turtles in total, 2 Southern Stingrays, and a school of about 10 Rainbow Parrotfish. I have never seen that many Parrotfish and they were all really nice size. We also saw a school of about 4 huge Cubera Snapper as well. Great dive with great people today!

Barracuda was really nice today as well with the visibility at about 80ft. It had a moderate current, which made the dive nice and effortless. We ended up seeing 2 turtles one at Barracuda and one at the beginning of Sabalos. We had a good group this morning so we were able to get through all of Barracuda and into about a 1/3 of Sabalos. The water temp is around 76F/25C, pretty chilly, but right now it is colder out of the water with the North winds today. Great day of diving!

January 8, 2011

Punta Venado and Islote

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

January 8, 2011

Punta Venado and Barracuda/Sabalos

Today was a great day for diving! With the winds blowing from the Southeast at 4knots/5mph left us will super calm water and visibility of about 100ft.

Punta Venado was awesome today. The current was moderate, which made for a very relaxing dive. We ended up seeing 2 turtles on this dive. Punta Venado is one of Playa's dives that rivals what they have in Cozumel. The coral formations, sloping wall to your right starting at about 76ft, and the amount of fish and critters you see there is like diving Cozumel. Absolutely beautiful dive as always.

Barracuda/Sabalos was great today as well. Visibility was at around 80ft. We ended up seeing 1 turtle, about 5 Eels, but the highlight of the dive was seeing two Spotted Eagle Rays towards the beginning. The diving right now is very nice, the water is still chill, but not too cold at around 75F. Very nice dives today.

January 9, 2011

Dos Ojos Cenote

Monday January 10, 2011

Moche Deep and Cueva Pargo

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

January 12, 2011

Mama Vina and Tortuga Shallow

The weather yesterday was pretty windy and wavy, but we got out and it turned out to be a wonderful morning of diving. The wind was blowing at 16knots/18mph from the NNE. It was a rainy and cloudy day, with wind and waves, but everyone was happy to get out. The temperature at the time of our dive was 72F/22C.

Mama Vina was amazing. We dropped down and right away we saw the massive amounts of Barracuda, Horse Eye and Yellow Jack, Atlantic Spadefish, as well as Permits. The current was quite strong so we did not do a full lap of the boat. We also saw two very big Hawksbill turtles off the Starboard side of the wreck. The highlight of the dive was when we broke off from the wreck and drifted along the auxiliary reef. We drifted for about 5 minutes along the reef and myself and our videographer spotted what looked like a Scorpionfish at first. We got closer and saw that it was not a Scorpionfish, but actually the super rare Polka-Dot Batfish. The Batfish is almost never seen in this part of the Caribbean. The photos of it are below. They are taken from a video that we made so the resolution is not so good, but it still shows the amazing discovery. Great dive, not only did we see the reclusive Polka-Dot Batfish, we also we able to dive with schools of thousands of fish today. Awesome day.

The harbor is closed today with winds coming from the NNE at 20knots/23 causing the waves to be 4m/12ft

 

[pmitchell7067]

I will be in Playa for a week this May, what can I expect in terms of water temp and marine life?

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

May is a great time to dive. You will be able to dive in just your swimming suit and maybe a rash guard. The water temp will be around 82F/28C and the water will be like glass. You can expect to see tons of fish, and the nice thing about the Summer is that the Tarpon are here. Tarpon are a big game fish and we usually see schools of about 20-30 and they are around 4-6ft long.

 

[kevin316]

Thanks for posting your reports.

I will be down there (staying at the Grand Myan) during the first week of March. I am a new diver (cert dives and pool dives only) so I'm looking forward to getting a day of diving while I'm there. Should I book ahead of time or can I just give you a call once I'm down there?

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

Hey Kevin, you can email us beforehand at info@geofishdive.com or you can call us when you are down here. Just in case we fill up it might be safer to email beforehand. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for reading the reports.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

January 21, 2011

Punta Venado and Barracuda/Sabalos

Today the weather was nice, a little windy and choppy, but nothing too crazy. The wind was blowing at 9knots/10mph from the SSE and the temperature at the time of our dive was 26C/79F. It was pretty much a perfect day, not too hot, a nice breeze, ultimately another day in paradise.

Punta Venado was great today. The viz was around 90ft/27m and the current was mild making the dive effortless and very comfortable. We ended up seeing 3 turtles, two big Southern Stingrays, and the highlight of the dive was seeing a Chain Moray Eel free swimming along the top of the reef. Great dive, Punta Venado is always a treat to dive.

Barracud/Sabalos was nice today. The current is super strong in this area right now, that is why we are doing both reefs in one dive, which is nice in a way. We ended up seeing one Hawksbill Turtle, and towards the end of Barracuda we saw two of the biggest Southern Stingrays I have ever seen. The diving is very nice right now, but in the coming months (April and May) is when the diving starts getting super nice. The Tarpon start showing up and the water temp rises to where all we have to wear while diving is swim trunks and a rash guard. But no complaints here! Happy Diving everyone.

January 22, 2011

Mama Vina and Barracuda/Sabalos

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

The weather yesterday was pretty windy with the wind coming from the SSE at 14 knots/16mph. The wind died down a little in the afternoon and we were able to take our students out. We don't usually post afternoon diving conditions just because they are all shallow water course dives, but today our first dive was awesome.

At Moche Shallow the visibility was around 70ft/21m and the current was mild and pleasant. We saw tons of fish as usual at this site. We also saw the resident Green Turtle cleaning its shell on the reef. But the highlight of the dive was seeing 3 Spotted Eagle Rays. The first was abour 5 minutes into the dive, then the last two were together right before the swim through. Great thing for students to see. Great dive!!!

Today: February 3, 2011

Pared Verde and Cueva Pargo

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

February 4, 2011

Tortugas and Barracuda/Sabalos

Today the weather was beautiful. The wind was blowing from the ESE at 7knots/8mph and the waves were at 1.2m/4ft, but where we were diving the water was pretty flat. The temperature has been rising this week and today at the time of our dive it was 25C/78F.

Tortugas was great today. The visibility was over 100ft/30m and there were tons of sea life to see today. We ended up seeing 4 Turtles, all Hawksbill, 3 huge Cubera Snapper, and the school of about 5 Rainbow Parrot Fish. We also saw two Green Moray Eels free swimming looking for a cave to post up in. All around it was a great day to dive Tortugas.

Barracuda/Sabalos was very nice today as well. The visibility was well over 100ft/30m and the fish were out in force today, as well as the Crabs. I think we saw a total of 3 Crabs and they were all really nice size........made me hungry. Great day of diving.

The weather is really nice right now. With the air and water temperature picking up it is really making the diving even more enjoyable. Happy Diving everyone and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.