Puerto Vallarta thermoclines

[afdgf]

We just came back from diving in Puerto Vallarta with Sue and Marc at PVSea Dive. They were great and we had a good time. There was much more life in the ocean than I expected. Visibility was not bad varying 20-50 feet. What fooled us is that we were looking at ocean temperature for deciding what wetsuit to bring. The surface temps were 78-80 on our computers, but this was the largest thermoclines that we had ever experienced. The bottom of our dives was 67. Even though we had the Thermalution heated undershirt, we were still cold in our 3 mm wetsuits. We wish we had brought our 6.5 mm. They were good about providing us with one of their 7 mm which fit better than expected, although it compressed more than our own suits would have. We were comfortable with the 7mm and the heated vest (blue). We saw very large angle fish, eels we had never seen before, seahorse, a lot of small rays that seemed to be having party, and some baitballs. I know other people have reported large thermoclines in other areas, but we were not expecting this and it surprised us.

 

[bennenrkc]

Sue and Marc are great. Good to hear that the seahorses are still there. There were still really big thermoclines when we were there as well. My wife who is always cold absolutely hated diving with 7mm and dove it all with 3mm.

 

[afdgf]

What I learned tonight is that one of the reasons the thermoclines were so extreme is because the water surface was so calm. This was the calmest we had ever seen an ocean. This means that the different parts of the ocean are not mixing with each other, thus the thermoclines. If the surface is choppier, then there is more mixing of hot and cold water together.

 

[Earl Grey]

I dove Majahuitas area on 4/14 and it was prob the best conditions I have seen in PV. The bay was very calm and surface temps near 79-80F. Viz was 50-60' which I have not had in the bay. Also experienced the thermoclines though it didn't get as cold for me - dropped to low 70s around 50-55' depending on the location.