Western Carribean Sampler: Cruise, dive, snorkel trip

We got back last week from a Carnival cruise trip to the western Caribbean,
leaving out of Tampa, with diving for my wife and I, and snorkeling for the
kids in mind.

Ports of call were Grand Cayman, Puerto Costa Maya, Cozumel, and Belize
City. The toss up was either take the kids to Stingray City, and dive in
Belize, or dive in Grand Cayman, and take the kids snorkeling to Shark/Ray
Alley in
Belize. We dove in Grand Cayman, and snorkeled at Shark/Ray Alley in
Belize. We planned on them snorkeling in Coz as well, but things did not
work out for them, and they ended up staying on the ship.

After a day at sea, the first stop was Grand Cayman. We are quite familiar
with GC, which helped, so it was like being back to the "summer cottage" for
us. After reading about the cattle boat operations running the scuba tours,
and checking a few dive operations, Neptune Divers was our choice. I had
seen them recommended in the NG, and their schedule fit our short stay in
GC; 7am to 3pm (6am to 2 pm their time). We got a taxi from the pier for
$16 US to the Public Beach, where they have their boat moored. Georgetown
had a few new additions since
last there in 1999. It looked like the Ten Sails restaurant was replaced by
a Hard Rock cafe, there were a lot more tourist shops, and the Ritz is
"still" under construction. As always, prices on everything from cab fare,
to Tortuga rum, to diving, is still listed in US dollars. You wouldn't know
these people have there own currency unless you venture into a restaurant;
then in CI, it becomes a bit more expensive.

Keith Kelley runs Neptune, although Casey Shirmer is who I had contact
with on the internet. FYI, Casey is a no nonsense woman who runs a
competent operation. Casey is a real class act, and saw here deal with a
couple of inexperienced divers without saying, "You idiot!!!!" once. I
guess that
includes me. After always harping on the kids (11 year old twins) how
forgetful they are, and how responsible they should be............guess who
forgets the C cards? Here's where that worn equipment comes in handy, and
taking my V out of the bag and setting it up probably didn't hurt either.
She graciously said that after signing the waivers, we would have to set up
our own equipment to satisfy her that we were certified divers. She also
asked about log books, but we haven't carried those in years.

The first dive was guided by Keith, for 100' over the wall at Eagles Nest.
We haven't had a guided wall dive in twelve years, but after what we saw on
the boat with the inexperienced divers, we just shut up and
followed........they had enough on
their hands, let alone people without their C cards. Visibility was the
usual Cayman standard at somewhere between 100 and 200'. Our kids followed
us the entire way, and could see us at 100' with no problem (how many places
can you do that?). They followed us on the shallow dive as well, the dive
reaching a maximum depth of 40'.

The shallow dive was guided, kind of, by Casey. She didn't mind my
chasing after a ray, or such, and was very helpful in pointing out things to
photograph, such as an anemone, and cuttle fish (see pictures). The twins
were over head the whole time, and she remarked how comfortable they were in
the water, as
many DM's have said in the past, and that we should get them certified.
Living in Florida, it has been easy to have them in the ocean snorkeling
since they were four (mostly Pennekamp),
and my daughter has been bugging me since last year that she is ready for
scuba. She probably is. My son has been a little more ambivalent until
recently; he's like me: Give him a camera and he will go anywhere. We
would like to train them together, and think they are now ready for
scuba, and guess what? This year they will be twelve..........the old limit
for scuba. I still tell the DM's they are still in the, "Oh, I forgot"
stage, not acceptable for me, or scuba. I'll limit my, "Oh, I forgot" to
the C cards, but not holding my breath and coming up ten feet.

Neptune Divers can be found at: http://www.neptunesdivers.com/

Next stop was Puerto Costa Maya. It was a day to goof off, so we just did
some shopping in the port. It was just as well. Even though the day was
clear, the seas were four to five. The ships snorkel excursion was
cancelled.

Next stop: Cozumel. We were set to dive with Dive Cozumel - Yellow Rose,
owned/operated by Roly Montaner - Fontaine. They have a great boat, and
appeared to
be well rounded in skills and experience. Besides, they were the only one
of five places contacted that actually responded by internet. Roly looks to
be an
instructor for basic through a number of technical levels . He was doing a
tri-mix check out the day we were there. The boat had lots of room, great
camera table,...it even had a head. All of this dive operation can be
checked out at: http://www.divecozumel.net/scubarecreati.html

It took about twenty minutes to get to Punta Sur from where the Yellow Rose
is docked in San Miguel. We passed by the cruise ship where we were able to
raise our kids on GMRS radio. They could see me waving to them as we passed
by the ship from our cabin. I was able to stay in contact for the full five
miles the
radios are rated for, on open water...of course, on land, you are lucky to
get a mile out of them.

One of the DM's took four of us on a tour of The Devil's Throat, and
Cathedrals, while Roly took his tri-mix students on their check out dive.
We liked it so much, after an hour and a half interval, we did the same dive
again. Coming out on the wall (I was reading 120) from Devil's Throat was
quite a sight, and the rest of the swim throughs through Cathedrals was real
pretty, too. Since the rest of the boat was going for a third dive, Roly
dropped us at The Sand Dollar, where we caught a cab back to the pier.

Last stop: Belize City. The ship excursion boats picked up at least one
hundred snorkelers from our ship on three cattle boats, except these cattle
boats could do 35 mph. It took an hour to reach Shark/Ray from Belize City.
We arrived to a two foot chop, with four to five on the outside (of the
barrier reef) . We didn't see any sharks (nurse sharks), but plenty of
rays, blue tangs, and horse eyed jacks. It was a pleasant change from Sting
Ray City, where the rays where so aggressive the last time there (1997?) I
had to push them off of my shoulder . They would literally come in and set
down on your head, from behind. Shark/ Ray was a nice snorkel trip, except
for the crowd; I pity the Elk Horn coral they showed us (see picture). I
was quite surprised the crowd we were with had not reduced it to rubble
before we left the area.

Pictures from the aforementioned dives/ snorkel trip can be found at:


http://www.geocities.com/gfprice3/Di...?1056819833850

On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 05:28:25 GMT, "George Price" <gprice3@cfl.rr.com>
wrote:

>We got back last week from a Carnival cruise trip to the western Caribbean,
>leaving out of Tampa, with diving for my wife and I, and snorkeling for the
>kids in mind.
>

Good report and pictures.

-HW "Skip" Weldon
Columbia, SC

"George Price" <gprice3@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message
news:ZNuLa.159363$cm4.3784407@twister.tampabay.rr. com...

(snip)> Last stop: Belize City. The ship excursion boats picked up at
least one
> hundred snorkelers from our ship on three cattle boats, except these
cattle
> boats could do 35 mph. It took an hour to reach Shark/Ray from Belize
City.
> We arrived to a two foot chop, with four to five on the outside (of the
> barrier reef) . We didn't see any sharks (nurse sharks), but plenty of
> rays, blue tangs, and horse eyed jacks. It was a pleasant change from
Sting
> Ray City, where the rays where so aggressive the last time there (1997?) I
> had to push them off of my shoulder . They would literally come in and
set
> down on your head, from behind. Shark/ Ray was a nice snorkel trip,
except
> for the crowd; I pity the Elk Horn coral they showed us (see picture). I
> was quite surprised the crowd we were with had not reduced it to rubble
> before we left the area.
>

As I understand it the nurse sharks have all but fled the area, since the
arrival of the cruisers. It's a terrible shame really.

"chilly" <slarson@shaw.canada> wrote in message
news:GyQLa.347926$Vi5.8879827@news1.calgary.shaw.c a...
>
> "George Price" <gprice3@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:ZNuLa.159363$cm4.3784407@twister.tampabay.rr. com...
>
> (snip)> Last stop: Belize City. The ship excursion boats picked up at
> least one
> > hundred snorkelers from our ship on three cattle boats, except these
> cattle
> > boats could do 35 mph. It took an hour to reach Shark/Ray from Belize
> City.
> > We arrived to a two foot chop, with four to five on the outside (of the
> > barrier reef) . We didn't see any sharks (nurse sharks), but plenty of
> > rays, blue tangs, and horse eyed jacks. It was a pleasant change from
> Sting
> > Ray City, where the rays where so aggressive the last time there (1997?)
I
> > had to push them off of my shoulder . They would literally come in and
> set
> > down on your head, from behind. Shark/ Ray was a nice snorkel trip,
> except
> > for the crowd; I pity the Elk Horn coral they showed us (see picture).
I
> > was quite surprised the crowd we were with had not reduced it to rubble
> > before we left the area.
> >
>
> As I understand it the nurse sharks have all but fled the area, since the
> arrival of the cruisers. It's a terrible shame really.
>
>
> I can imagine, shy creatures that they are. Rays are shy as well, but
they
seem to overcome it, as the nurse sharks did when being fed by the local
fisherman that drew them there in the first place. Stingray City started
the same way. But, showing up with three boats with a total of one hundred
plus people, it's no wonder they weren't there. It wasn't a pretty sight;
multiply that by the number of ships per week...ouch! That is why for our
dives, we booked independently to avoid the cattle boats. I certainly
wouldn't do Shark/Ray from a cruise ship again.

The report I read on Shark/Ray was from March, and they were swimming up to
the boat then.....a small boat with six or seven people. It was part of a
travel report to Caulker Cay in general. You can read it at:

http://query.nytimes.com/search/arti...1F3CF932A25756
C0A9659C8B63

One might think as environmentally conscious as they seem to be in Belize
(can't use defog), they wouldn't glut a sight like that as they seem to do.

Just in case you are interested, you can find swimming nurse sharks at
Samantha's Reef (about 25 feet deep) off of Vaca Key (Marathon) in the
Florida Keys. We dove there a few years ago, and I didn't take much notice
when Capt. Banny said we might see some nurse sharks........you know, as we
might see them tucked up under a ledge as usual. I jump in, and a four
footer is swimming by beneath me, and saw an seven footer later on. It was
not a comforting feeling seeing a shark that big coming towards me from the
edge of visibility...not being able to tell anything more than it was a big
shark. Until that time, I had never seen nurse sharks swimming around;
plenty under ledges, but not swimming around. Banny says people like doing
it as a night dive...............not in a million years.

>

> > travel report to Caulker Cay in general. You can read it at:
> >
> >
>
http://query.nytimes.com/search/arti...1F3CF932A25756
> > C0A9659C8B63
>
> Opps. Some thing happened transferring the link: try
>
>
http://query.nytimes.com/search/arti...1F3CF932A25756
> C0A9659C8B63
>
Apparently, the last part is getting cut out of the link. If you care to
add the C0A9659C8B63 to complete the address field, it should open up.

"George Price" <gprice3@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message
news:YBrMa.227505$4y6.3821598@twister.tampabay.rr. com...

> Apparently, the last part is getting cut out of the link. If you care to
> add the C0A9659C8B63 to complete the address field, it should open up.

Doubtful, unless one cares to register for the site. Why don't you simply
cut and paste the article. NY Times won't mind.

As for "getting cut out of the link", it's called word wrap.

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 23:11:53 -0700, "Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com>
wrote:

>"George Price" <gprice3@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message
>news:YBrMa.227505$4y6.3821598@twister.tampabay.rr .com...
>
>> Apparently, the last part is getting cut out of the link. If you care to
>> add the C0A9659C8B63 to complete the address field, it should open up.
>
>Doubtful, unless one cares to register for the site. Why don't you simply
>cut and paste the article. NY Times won't mind.
>
>As for "getting cut out of the link", it's called word wrap.
-----------------
Here is a link that will get you to the referenced page:

http://tinyurl.com/fvpz

TinyUrl comes in handy for posting urls that wrap.
Lee Haas, Raleigh, NC
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Email may be sent to me by using:
http://www.switchboard.com/bin/cgime...00051130&MEM=1

"Lee C. Haas" <Null@Address.org> wrote in message
news:j0k6gvkoaqtl4o1gatv8lmm2v76vkt73pg@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 23:11:53 -0700, "Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com>
> wrote:
>
> >"George Price" <gprice3@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message
> >news:YBrMa.227505$4y6.3821598@twister.tampabay.rr .com...
> >
> >> Apparently, the last part is getting cut out of the link. If you care
to
> >> add the C0A9659C8B63 to complete the address field, it should open up.
> >
> >Doubtful, unless one cares to register for the site. Why don't you
simply
> >cut and paste the article. NY Times won't mind.
> >
> >As for "getting cut out of the link", it's called word wrap.
> -----------------
> Here is a link that will get you to the referenced page:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/fvpz
>
> TinyUrl comes in handy for posting urls that wrap.
> Lee Haas, Raleigh, NC


Thanks, Lee. Interesting site.

George
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Email may be sent to me by using:
>
http://www.switchboard.com/bin/cgime...00051130&MEM=1
>
>