Tuesday - October 18...Best Dive/Last Dives

This was to be a busy day for the divers:  morning dives to Santa Rosa Wall and Villa Blanco; a twilight dive to Paso del Cedral and a night dive to Paradise Reef.  Al surprised me by saying that he would take the next day (Wednesday) "off" and spend it with me, snorkeling and exploring beaches. I was really looking forward to that.

I spent Tuesday  morning with Gail attending a timeshare presentation and we were given four passes to enjoy the  beach and pool  of the timeshare resort for the afternoon.  After lunch, Gail, Shirley, Meg and I took off.  When we arrived we were surprised at how empty the resort was.   We met several people from a cruise ship by the pool, and they mentioned that their ship had changed its itinerary to come to Cozumel early  to avoid the storm which was expected  later in the week.  Hmm - this storm talk seemed to be gaining momentum and I was starting to feel uneasy. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time swimming and enjoying the resort's beach.

Later that evening, as we sat outside and waited for the divers to return, we were surprised at how much rougher the seas seemed.  We watched the dive boat come back to shore, and it really seemed to be riding the waves!  I sure wouldn't have wanted to be out on it! Our divers didn't seem to notice, however.  They returned elated.    Some remarked that the twilight dive to Paso del Cedral  was the best dive they had ever experienced anywhere.  It had everything:  green and spotted morays, crabs, lobster, octopus, and shark. Although the divers didn't know it at the time, these were to be the last boat dives of the trip.

Paso del Cedral

Dinner that night was a marvelous shrimp dish.  There was talk about the storm, which someone mentioned was now a small hurricane.  We still thought it was headed away from us, but there was a possibility of some rain and wind on Thursday and Friday.  The dive shop decided to move the wreck dive from Thursday to Wednesday.  Al still said he would spend Wednesday with me.  We thought we might go back to Chankanaab.