Trip Report: Tres Pelicanos (mid July)

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

MargaritaMike

Divemaster
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
895
Reaction score
816
Location
On a non-divable lake in SE Texas
# of dives
1000 - 2499
It all started when I saw a friend at the grocery store and they said, “I’m going to Cozumel July 14th through July 21st.” The trip was on! I went home, checked the flights and almost cried. The flights were booked solid on those dates. I always go to Coz for a week so what do I do? I know! I’ll go on the Wednesday before and stay until the Wednesday after. Wait a minute. That’s TWO weeks. I checked the flights and they were wide open. Now to sell the other half. She’s a lot like many here on SB who often want me to go away, and when I mentioned the trip asking her if she would like to go to Cozumel for a couple of weeks, she said, “No, not really, buy you go and have fun.” I almost fell over. Now to see if I can really get on the flights. Turns out that I could. So at 5:30 a.m. I get up and get my stuff all together, kiss the wife goodbye (she was awake already), and headed for Houston Intercontinental. Things went amazingly easy until I put my stuff in the container to go through security, when I dropped my phone. The holder for my phone hit the floor and broke. Uh-oh. Is this the sign for things to come? I pick up the pieces, put them in my pocket and press on with my fingers crossed.

I get on board the direct flight to CZM and have a good flight. I pre-filled my entry and exit cards using this link: ENTRY/EXIT FORM. It worked like a champ. I had creased the fold many times and tore it most of the way. I walked up to the immigration officer, handed my card and passport, watched him scan my passport and the barcode on the form, stamp, stamp, stamp, tear and I was out of there.

On to baggage. I had 3 bags and a young man behind me helped me with one of them to get it on the bag scanner. Got my bags through and the young lady interviewing passengers asked me what was in my bags and why I had some of the stuff I did. She bought my explanation, but then said “Hit the button”. There was a sudden wave of fear and momentary pause while I was thinking I would have to repack my dive bag and two suitcases. I pushed the button, and, just as sudden, a wave of relief swept over me with a green light, and I was moving again.

After a near argument with the shuttle ticket lady about which zone I was in, I finally paid for my ticket and headed for a shuttle bus. I was home by 1:30 p.m. I quickly unpacked and repacked my essentials. I called Pony at Tres Pelicanos to arrange dropping off of my gear for diving the next day. Since I stay at Villa Torre Blanca which is on Avenida 55 Sur Bis, I either have to rent a car or take a taxi everywhere. It’s 40 pesos to town unless they think you are a Cozumeleño then it’s 35 pesos. I got my gear to Pony and then the excitement set in.

Day 2 Thursday. I got to the dive shop around 7:30 carrying spares and my dry bag. Off to the marina and onto the Loan Shark. It was a Thursday and the boat had about 8 divers. The other divers had been together for a couple of days so I was the “new guy”. They gave me the choice of sites and I picked Columbia Deep for the first dive. I love this site. Not so much today.

It was my first dive of this trip and as such things weren’t as smooth as they could be. When we splashed, I was making a good descent. I had nasal surgery in November 2017 and wasn’t sure how my ears would clear. It was great. I could equalize by just breathing out through my nose into my mask. As I was passing about 50 feet I saw a weight fall out of someone’s BCD and watched it fall all the way to the bottom. I knew we would be around 80 – 90 feet for the dive, and I estimated the bottom where the weight was to be about 80 feet, so I descended to the weight which was 73 feet and picked it up. I was already about 2 lbs. heavy and the weight that I retrieved was a 3 pounder so now I was 5 lbs. heavy.

Things started to get interesting. The currents were swirling. First it took me in one direction, and then I hit a cross current. This repeated itself several times. It was a good 15 minutes into the dive until I was “under control”. I had gone to the DM, Edgar, and conveyed to him that I had excess weight and he took the 3 pounder so buoyancy became a little easier. About 18 minutes into the dive I was above the group and they went down into swim-through. I would have to fight the swirling current to get down to them, so I decided to follow their air and stay above the coral head. I watched the bubbles for a while and then the bubbles just disappeared. I wasn’t having any fun. I monitored my situation: gas, depth, current, etc. and watched for any sign of the group for a couple of minutes. Nothing. I went up to about 40 feet, made another sweep looking for bubbles, and, seeing none, sent up my DSMB. After my safety stop, I surfaced normally.

I didn’t see our boat, but another boat came by and I gave them the boat name, the marine radio channel, and the captain’s name as I had been briefed by Edgar. Before long Compeche got me back aboard, and I started debriefing myself on what went wrong and why. The 3P’s boat, DM, and Captain were great, I sucked. Note to self: Refresh your skills before “first” dive. Next note to self: Good job on having and knowing how to deploy a DSMB.

When everyone was on board we all agreed don't ask Michael which site to dive, and we all had a good laugh. After a long SI (at least for me) we headed north to Paso del Cedral. The current was typically swift and it was a great flying dive. It was good enough to make me “almost” forget the first dive. Back to the marina and then the shop, and I remember thinking, “I’m back”. So, back to Torre Blanca for lunch, a cerveza or two or three, relaxing in and by the pool waiting for dinner. I am on a somewhat special diet and the cook was amazing at providing meal diversity and still keeping me on my diet plan. While it may sound boring, this would continue for the next 13 days of tranquility and relaxation with a few afternoons/evenings in town meeting up with some of the guys on the boat.

(to be continued)
 
Day 3 and 4 Friday & Saturday. With a morning dive and then a twi-night dive on Friday and a morning dive on Saturday I was grinning from ear-to-ear. Four dives with Jorge on Friday and two with Edgar on Saturday I was feeling great. Since I broke my back in January, I had a degree of concern about being able to dive without pain and handle carrying/wearing my gear. My fears were dispelled and I was having a blast. We did Santa Rosa Wall, Yucab, Punta Tunich (twilight), Paradise (night), and Palancar Gardens. The currents were normal, the visibility was a little cloudy, but still very good, and the diving was fantastic!

Day 5 Sunday. My friend who said they were coming on the 14th had arrived on Saturday, and we had agreed to dive with Papa Hogs while they were there, so I went by the shop, picked up my gear and went out to Papa Hogs near Villa Blanca. There were only 3 divers along with the DM, Eddie. We were on the Scuba Shack driven by Joaquin, which is a 6-pack and pretty fast. We went to Santa Rosa which is always great as is our second site, Paso del Cedral. Eddie and Joaquin provided just the right amount of assistance without over doing it. Eddie and I reminisced about diving together back in 1986 when he worked for one of the original AIs, which is now defunct. By the time we were headed back the wind had picked up and the surface had gone from smooth to quite choppy. The ride back was very rough and my back wasn’t up for the ride. :( I decided to go back to Tres Pelicanos for the remainder of my trip because of the heavier boats, which provided speed and a much smoother ride. The 6-pack may be good for many, but with my back condition, it wasn’t my cup of tea.

Day 6 – Day 9 Monday through Thursday. @manta_man had arrived on Saturday and was on board for the next 7 days of diving. His presence added to the experience and we went to some sites that aren’t on the typical boat trip in Cozumel including Punta Sur Cathedral and Chun-Chacaab. After diving with @manta_man I now have some new “favorite” spots. @CajunDiva and @Cajuncru Diver showed up on Day 7 and the fun times during the SI began. She provided the music via smartphone and Bluetooth speaker, and we off-gassed by singing and relaxing and even a little dancing. She actually took (music) requests and was able to meet most of them. :wink: One of the group mentioned that he was rarely one of the youngest divers on a boat at age 57, so you can tell that a lot of the music was from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. We really had fun. (see this post)

Day 10 – Day 11 Friday and Saturday. Attempted to hunt Lion Fish for the first time in Cozumel. Got one the first time out. @manta_man found it and showed it to me. It was tiny, but had I not been there, it may have grown into a menacing large one. :) I have to say I have been bitten by the hunting bug. Over the next day or so, I just wanted to find Lion Fish for the purpose of their elimination. :):)

(to be continued)
 
Last edited:
Day 12 Sunday. This was the day!!! :yeahbaby:I was fortunate enough to be invited on the afternoon Hunting Trip. There were 6 hunters and the DM Julio who is deadly when it comes to Lion Fish. I had an absolutely wonderful day! These were recreational dives, but I was close to deco. I stayed within MOD and NDL limits, so at the end of the two dives, which had 5 minute safety stops because I was deeper than 100’, I was a very happy camper. :) :thumb2: I didn’t personally harvest a lot of fish but my skills improved as the day went on. When later asked how my day was I couldn’t think of a word better than FANTASTIC (maybe Fanwondertasticful).

Day 13. This was my last day and I was feeling really good so I did the morning and afternoon dives with a lunch break between the two at the Money Bar. The boat dropped me off on their pier on the way to the marina and picked me up on the way out. I wasn’t overly impressed with the Money Bar but it was an interesting experience. So on my last day I did four great sites: San Francisco Wall, Punta Tunich, Palancar Gardens and off-gassed on Columbia Shallow.

In summary, I dived 12 straight days and did 28 dives on Nitrox. Twenty-six of them were with Tres Pelicanos. From the time I dropped my gear off at Tres Pelicanos (except when I took it with me to dive with Papa Hogs with my friend) Pony, Pedro, Edgar, Jorge, Compeche, and Chan Fran took EXCELLENT care of it AND me. :thumb2: Due to scheduling I was onboard Loan Shark for all of my dives and Jorge was the DM for 18 of my 26 dives with 3P’s. Jorge, Edgar, and Julio are 3 of the best DM’s I have dived with in Cozumel. Their briefs are thorough and safety is always emphasized. I get a kick out of diving with Jorge because besides the friendly banter between us, I am amazed by his observance of the divers on each dive. I have jokingly accused him of sleeping on the dives, but more than once I have “stopped” to observe something on a dive, and Jorge has asked me after the dive what I was looking at. Both Jorge and Edgar (Julio, too) keep really good track of their divers. We even talked about my “surface early” dive on Day 1. They let me do my own thing, but have an ever watchful eye on the group.

On this trip Jeanie was operating remotely while visiting the U.S. so she missed all of the fun. Besides being a lot of fun on the SI’s, Steve found my first Lion Fish kill on Day 9. The entire organization at 3P's is first rate and I don’t have a problem endorsing and recommending Tres Pelicanos to any diver going to Cozumel who’s looking for a dive op to give them concierge service and excellent value for money. :thumb2::cheers:

It was hard to go to the Airport to leave. Once there, I cleared security without a problem, got an exit row seat assignment, and then the other shoe dropped. I was one of the lucky ones selected at random to go through the extra security scrutiny. The officer doing the check must have been new because he got an alarm on the sniffer machine. You should have seen all of the other officers come awake. They rechecked everything and discovered I was okay. Whew! Off to the plane and then back to Houston. What happened in Houston on arrival is the subject for another time. :(

Cheers -
 
It's roughly 4 trips ago but I had a very similar first dive to what you described for yours (at Colombia Deep also). After descending I got to setting up my camera & strobes and I also got pulled away in a swirling current. I grabbed onto a rock & held on tight wondering if I was that out of shape I needed some less challenging dive sites while searching in every direction for a diver or at least bubbles. Just as I was getting ready to surface someone came into sight so I joined up with them & eventually the full group. We had all been pulled in different directions on that particular dive. The rest of the trip went fine but it sure had me wondering about my skill set at the time.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom