Midlife crisis, Cocoview July 2011, yippee!

[hdtran]

I've decided to have a late midlife crisis, so I'm headed to CCV in July 2011! (Week July 2 to July 9)

Yippee!

 

[Doc]

Enjoy the fireworks.

This is a great time of year to dive the Bay Islands. The water column will be thick with critters. I hope you do the shore dive a lot and night dive every night.

Prepare to be very happy.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

"WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME OLLIE"

No need to wait for a midlife crisis, have a great time,(we know you will)

 

[hdtran]

Thanks, Cajuncru & Doc!

I was looking for a live-aboard on land. I was going to go by myself, but I talked my spouse & youngest into coming along. They like to snorkel, so I don't think they'll be bored while I'm off diving

 

[Doc]

I was looking for a live-aboard on land.

You found one with CoCoView.

I am old and tired and manage to do 27 dives in a week with no strain.

It is a diver's resort, not a resort that offers diving. Kind of a shock for some folks, a delight for most of the others. http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/Doc_Adelman/CoCoView Explained in Pictures/

Sometimes we'll have the night dockmaster schlepp a spare full tank the 100 feet to the shore entry. We do one night dive, change tanks, have some liquids and head back out for a second night dive.

Sleep comes easily.

I have heard about "dawn dives" and I think I may have done one once. I do know thatis ready at 6 a.m.

They like to snorkel, so I don't think they'll be bored while I'm off diving

The "Front Yard", the part the most divers ignore, is not only superb for divers, but excellent hunting grounds for snorkelers. The resort is taken over by snorkelers once a year- they have a ball. There is so much to see on what amounts to a "shore dive".

 

[Warmwater Wank]

HD--Now if you're real lucky you could have a night dive like this one:
Alert Diver Online

My wife and her friend Vivian (who wrote the article) were at CoCo View late Aug./early Sept. last year and caught a coral spawn on a night dive from the dock. Dummy me, I had to stay home. Jeez, if only I coulda had a mid-life crisis too... // ww

 

[gb_williams]

My wife and I will be at CoCo View Jan. 29 til Feb. 5. Our first trip to Roatan.

Thanks for your comments, RoatanMan.

We've enjoyed many shore dives (day and night) at Cobalt Coast in Grand Cayman. We're looking forward to trying something different in Roatan. Can't wait!

 

[Tool Belt]

We'll be there March 19th! GB, put up a trip report when you get back.

 

[Doc]

We've enjoyed many shore dives (day and night) at Cobalt Coast in Grand Cayman. We're looking forward to trying something different in Roatan. Can't wait!

Not only trying something different in Roatan, but absolutely unique to CoCoView.

The shore dive starts at the steps of your room.

Looking out your screened porch at the water a few feet below is one of our favorite "critter spotting" activities. There are wooden walkways that parallel the shore, sometime turning into pier walkways over the ocean itself. In the evenings, we always carry a flashlight for looking in the water when walking in the otherwise well-lit path. Lots of Octopus and Eels right under your feet. People often mistake the protruding wing of the turning Ray as a Shark fin.

While once staying at one of the 2nd floor on-shore rooms, I looked down to see a 2' Nurse Shark chasing a Lobster through 8" of water. I think the Shark had butter and garlic with him.

You grab your gear out of the well lighted storage areas and plod the 100 paces across hard pack sand to the shore entry. Engage the exiting divers on their return as the gurgle about where to see their spotted treasures. As you quietly walk out into the Front Yard to the wooden table in 4' of water, scan the well worn sandy path with your flashlight. Small Barracuda and juveniles of all sorts are easily found. Lots of Crabs and Jawfish, an occasional Mantis Shrimp. If you look around the platform in 4fsw, as you gear up, you'll likely spot Sailfin Blennies.

On my way out once, in 4fsw, we watched two Octopi get into a tussle, then one killed and ate the other. In 6fsw, I have seen a Squid get eaten by an Octopus. You follow, from that platform, an achor chain of the prince Albert- it is laid out through the reef and the other end is tied off to the wreck, some 300' out, lying in 45fsw. Most of thge path along that chain is in 4-7fsw, the last 100' of the chain path makes that drop from 16' to 45'.

In that first 200 feet, the shallowest part- that's where snorkelers play, and unfortunately... it is the smae area that most divers go too fast. It is a virtual aquarium. Slow down, look all around... and up. Lots to see, Squid frequent the area.

The Channel floor is another place most divers go too fast. Most never see the Garden eels- there are two groups under the buoyancy training diamonds.

I got very familiar quickly with the environs of the shore dive. I did this by doing dive #2 and #4, commonly referred to as the "drop off" dive, just a bit differently. Instead of being dropped off to scuba back to the resort on either of two walls, I asked to be dropped, right in front of the resort, on "the wreck". I have spent more hours quietly floating around the Prince Albert wreck than I can calculate. I got to know every bit of it so well that I am never lost when I night dive, quite often solo on this inviting wreck.

It is common the see Rays of all kinds between the Wreck and CCV- plus the miriad Crustaceans that lurk in plain sight on her hulk.

Years back, we saw a Whale Shark and her calf in a place that was accessible as a CoCoView Shoredive. It's all there, but you can't see it from the bar or the comfort of your bed. Hmmm... but naps do have their use, after all.

Here is where some good reading is available in regards to the diving at CCV: Diving and snorkeling at CCV - CoCo Chat

It is no coincidence that this is the precise place writers and photographers stay who come to Roatan.

 

[browntrout]

My wife and I will be at CoCo View Jan. 29 til Feb. 5. Our first trip to Roatan.

Thanks for your comments, RoatanMan.

We've enjoyed many shore dives (day and night) at Cobalt Coast in Grand Cayman. We're looking forward to trying something different in Roatan. Can't wait!

My wife and I will be there the same week. Our first trip to Roatan as well.