Morning vs afternoon dive trips

[Dogbowl]

My hubby and I like to sleep in, have a leisurely late breakfast (brunch), and dive in the afternoon. Then we’d go back to the hotel for a shower and we’d be ready for dinner. Then call it a day. This is what we did on our most recent trip to Coz. There’s also less boats in the water and less people on the reefs. But we noticed that visibility wasn’t as good as previous trips. Is visibility worse in the afternoon or did we just have bad days?

 

[morecowbells]

I am not a fan of getting up early on my vacation either. I agree with your points on the benefits of afternoon dives, especially the part about fewer divers and boats. In my experience, it seems that winds tend to pick up in the afternoon making the water somewhat choppy. This tends to affect visibility when shore diving other places, but not sure about Cozumel. I love the different lighting and warmer surface intervals you get during the afternoon, but it seems that some of the marine life gets lazy and not as active as in the mornings. I actually changed dive ops because they changed their schedule for the 2 tank dives to depart at 7:30. Sometimes a well timed, later departure gets you on the reef as the other divers are finishing up.

 

[mediumone]

We've only gone out in the afternoons. I will never, never set my alarm while I'm on vacation. To add insult to injury, it takes me a good strong hour to get the brain and tongue in sync after I've stumbled out of the sack.

Aside from my personal issues, a huge incentive to go out in the afternoons is the lack of other boats and divers. A busy day on Palancar might see 5 or 6 boats. It's highly unusual for us to run into another group.

Visibility?? Honestly, I've never heard of anyone saying that it was inferior in either in the morning or afternoon of the same day.

I guess it might be a little windier in the afternoon, but we've never had to cancel an afternoon trip when the morning guys made it out. We did have to go back to port one afternoon after the first dive when we surfaced to a thunderstorm and big waves, and the harbor master's boys were chasing everyone in -- and rightly so.

I like the coral, and boss woman likes the marine life. She's never felt like she's missed out on quantity or diversity by going out in the afternoon, after comparing notes with other morning divers or the dm's.

We'll be going out in the afternoons the last part of March and first week of April, then generally a plastic chaired place for dinner. We'd enjoy the company of other Democrats...... pm me if we sound compatible, and a dinner sounds good.

 

[flyboy08]

I love sleeping in. And having a leisurely breakfast too! We alternated between am and pm dives this recent trip and IMHO, the viz was the worst I've ever seen in COZ regardless of the time of day. Now don't all get bent out of shape as the viz was still great....just not as pristine as in the past. I'm not one to question why, I'm just to dive and enjoy it!

 

[Dogbowl]

We've only gone out in the afternoons. I will never, never set my alarm while I'm on vacation. To add insult to injury, it takes me a good strong hour to get the brain and tongue in sync after I've stumbled out of the sack.

Aside from my personal issues, a huge incentive to go out in the afternoons is the lack of other boats and divers. A busy day on Palancar might see 5 or 6 boats. It's highly unusual for us to run into another group.

Visibility?? Honestly, I've never heard of anyone saying that it was inferior in either in the morning or afternoon of the same day.

I guess it might be a little windier in the afternoon, but we've never had to cancel an afternoon trip when the morning guys made it out. We did have to go back to port one afternoon after the first dive when we surfaced to a thunderstorm and big waves, and the harbor master's boys were chasing everyone in -- and rightly so.

I like the coral, and boss woman likes the marine life. She's never felt like she's missed out on quantity or diversity by going out in the afternoon, after comparing notes with other morning divers or the dm's.

We'll be going out in the afternoons the last part of March and first week of April, then generally a plastic chaired place for dinner. We'd enjoy the company of other Democrats...... pm me if we sound compatible, and a dinner sounds good.

Thanks for the invite! Unfortunately, we won’t be back in Coz this spring. Hope you have fun! And yes, plastic chaired places are one of the reasons why we go to Coz. And the habanero sauce. Oh and the diving, yes the diving!

 

[Dogbowl]

I love sleeping in. And having a leisurely breakfast too! We alternated between am and pm dives this recent trip and IMHO, the viz was the worst I've ever seen in COZ regardless of the time of day. Now don't all get bent out of shape as the viz was still great....just not as pristine as in the past. I'm not one to question why, I'm just to dive and enjoy it!

So you noticed the poor viz too...not just us...and we were there around the same time over Christmas. So that means it’s probably not a morning vs afternoon thing and we can continue to do our afternoon dives. Thanks!

Just to clarify, when I say poor I mean maybe 50-75 feet vs over 100 we’ve seen in the past? Some sites I thought closer to 50 and that was weird for us in Coz. We were watching sharks, turtles and eagle rays swim away and they disappeared quickly into the milkiness.

 

[Trailboss123]

So you noticed the poor viz too...not just us...and we were there around the same time over Christmas. So that means it’s probably not a morning vs afternoon thing and we can continue to do our afternoon dives. Thanks!

Just to clarify, when I say poor I mean maybe 50-75 feet vs over 100 we’ve seen in the past? Some sites I thought closer to 50 and that was weird for us in Coz. We were watching sharks, turtles and eagle rays swim away and they disappeared quickly into the milkiness.

@Dogbowl-- as you know, I was there the same time as you-- Unfortunately, we never did get a chance to meet. Just got home last night after 10 days. I concur with @flyboy08 - I dove mornings and afternoons most days. A couple of days just AM and 1 day just PM. There was no significant difference in water clarity between the two. This was my first trip in December and I just attributed it to the time of year. Other trips have been in February, April and September. Feedback I have received is that the water is typically its most gin clear in the summer months. That being said, as we all experienced, the diving was outstanding, as usual. It was a Spotted Eagle Ray fest everyday:

 

[Dogbowl]

@Dogbowl-- as you know, I was there the same time as you-- Unfortunately, we never did get a chance to meet. Just got home last night after 10 days. I concur with @flyboy08 - I dove mornings and afternoons most days. A couple of days just AM and 1 day just PM. There was no significant difference in water clarity between the two. This was my first trip in December and I just attributed it to the time of year. Other trips have been in February, April and September. Feedback I have received is that the water is typically its most gin clear in the summer months. That being said, as we all experienced, the diving was outstanding, as usual. It was a Spotted Eagle Ray fest everyday:
View attachment 440591

@Trailboss123 , sorry we missed you. As you can see from this post, we ended up diving mainly in the afternoons and didn’t make it down to breakfast until after 10:00am most mornings.

Breakfast was yummy as usual. Weather was just fantastic all week we were there. And the highlights of this trip for us were big sleeping nurse sharks and frolicking eagle rays. We just hovered for several minutes watching while it played on the sand. Wonderful!

 

[Hoag]

To be honest, on vacation, I am somewhat flexible. I am ok with either sleeping in and diving in the afternoon, or with diving in the morning and having an afternoon nap. On a LOB, however, if there is daylight, then I am up for a dive. (I usually skip the night dives -- 4 dives a day is enough for me.)

@Dogbowl, I think that the important thing is its your vacation. Do what works for you. Have fun.

 

[ggunn]

FWIW, I love diving in the morning. It's weird; up here in what passes for the real world every morning I have to drag myself out of bed at the last minute, and I am nearly always up until 11PM or midnight. When I am on Cozumel, though, my internal clock shifts so that I am up at first light (sometimes before it, no alarm necessary) and by 9PM or so I am yawning. By the time the hotel starts waking up I am in a hammock with coffee and a book and by dive boat time I'll have been up for hours.

I like the morning lighting, too; on the deep first dive the sun is sending shafts of light down through through gaps in the reef and on the shallow second dive the sun is just about directly overhead, which is great for "aquarium" dives.

YMMV and DSFDF, of course.