Dive #143 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

We got some nice views of turtles in Cozumel.
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Cozumel 2003

Dive Journal: We’re diving with Julio again this overcast morning and begin at Santa Rosa Wall. A nice big turtle approaches us early on. Unfortunately, the other divers around try to play with him too much, and he swims off in a hurry.

Santa Rosa is an excellent site chockful of great swim throughs and huge coral formations. These are some of the best swim throughs yet. There are too many divers here this morning, and they keep butting in and out of our tour with Julio, seemingly indifferent to our party. They’re also quite unforgiving to the reef, bashing it frequently. Oh well – at the Cozumel-pace of diver traffic, you’re bound to see the whole spectrum…

Johnny feels bad mid-way through this dive, more stomach pains. Linda hangs onto him closely for a while until he gets his bearing back. At our safety stop, there is a great school of jacks beneath us to watch. As we ascend back up to the boat, we also notice a thick layer of very cool-looking bluish tube jellyfish, maybe in a depth between 20’ and 10’. Above them in a surface layer are variable clouds of juvenile thimble jellyfish. Neat. We’re a little bit careful to try to find a part between them for our ascent, but there is really no avoiding them and no one seems to get stung.

I’ve sucked air on this dive, ending with only 300 psi, and I don’t really know why! Maybe need to adjust my regulator.