Roatan dive buoy question

[rydog]

We are headed down to Roatan June 21-28 and will be staying on the south end east of CocoView at a private house that comes with a smaller boat (17' I believe). One of the people in the group is a captain but not a diver. I was wondering how easy it would be for us to head out by boat and do our own diving at named sites. We all have around 100 dives and are comfortable without a DM.

A couple of questions:
Are the moorings at the dive sites at the surface or are they the type that are underwater and you have to go down to retrieve to tie off? If they are below the surface, is there some sort of guidebook/website with coordinates that can be found anywhere?

Thanks in advance for any insight! We are very much excited about our upcoming trip!

 

[Doc]

The site markers... They float, easy to see and grab ahold of.

Check with CCV itself to ascertain the costs for tanks as you'll be staying in a beach house that is not per-se a part of the resort. They have any number of options including taking meals at the resort itself.

There are some maps that show dive sites, but not coordinates. Within a ten minute ride if the resort there are 30 or more of them. Each dive site has place mat sized sketches for a dive brief.

Many people are comfortable enough to dive without a DM, but the CCV DM's real function is that of a naturalist guide. If I hadn't followed them for years, I really wouldn't be as good as I have become in finding the cool stuff.

If the tank rental package puts you in the same category price range as diving with the resort's boats, I would encourage you to use them instead. A whole lot less hassle, and their design is perfect for south side conditions.

i am at CCV right now for our second of two weeks. Last week the sea was like glass, we dove many sites that otherwise would have been impossible otherwise. The 10' top of the CCV wall being one of those. Because of the usual surf conditions atop it, the corals are in fabulous conditn. Other than those few days, I wouldn't want to dive off any boat other than the resort boats. 3' swells can be problematic in a skiff.

 

[diversteve]

is there some sort of guidebook/website with coordinates that can be found anywhere?

If you can find a copy of this one, he lists GPS coordinates in each description - https://www.facebook.com/MarDiveGuides
Plus some pretty excellent looking site renderings. There's even a few south side sites here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.114386188660231.17721.114215165344000&type=3

 

[rydog]

Thanks guys for the info. I had a feeling I would hear from you Doc! Those are some pretty cool renderings, I can see why the guidebook is sold out. It looks like we are about 4 miles by water to CCV so probably doesn't make sense to go down to their sites to dive but i'll check with them on packages for sure. We might find that a couple days with them and then a couple days on the north side of the island is the way to go in the end. We tend to flow pretty freely on vacation... Now, to find a day sail to the far east end!

---------- Post added May 29th, 2013 at 02:49 PM ----------

Well Doc, it looks as though CCV has changed their policy for non-guests.... I got the following today when asking if we could rent tanks from them. I guess the 4 of us will have to give our money to someone else!

Hi Ryan,
As much as we would love to introduce you to the wonderful diving here at
CoCo View, the resort does not accept outside visitors or rent tanks. Our
Tanks and dive packages are limited to the guests that are staying here at
the resort. CoCo View is one of the world's best dedicated dive resorts, we
cater, take care of and totally spoil our guests! I hope you will consider
staying with us sometime in the future!

Mitch and Deb Karlson
CoCo View Resort