Cavezzzz, It Shall Be – Part Two – Getting Ready

8 12 2013

Sunday, December 8th, 2013 ~

We made our way down to the breakfast buffet, where we met up with Manu and Peter! We chatted for a bit, then met at the shop, to DIVE!

Once at the shop, it took us a little bit of time to get organized. Jorge tried to help us find our bin, and we eventually found it (right under our noses, of course). Steve also brought in the motor for one of our scooters, that he had rebuilt, and installed it. Steve, Peter, Manu, and I went to Fenom for our first day of Diving Goodness!

Oh, look! A note, for me!

Steve had busted his flippy floppie, but was able to “fix” it, with a trigger pin.

As good as new!

I had forgotten how bumpy the ride was, to get to Fenom, but we made it. We had brought along two stages each, but only ended up using one, since we were a little late moving, and didn’t want to be too late for the MCEP meeting, this evening.

Little video…

When we arrived, we notice a big, grey truck. Hmm… This truck looks mighty familiar. I wonder if it’s John’s truck?

We brought our gear down to the water, and checked out the scenery.

We geared up, got in, and started our swim out. We passed by another couple of divers, who had finished their dive. I looked to see if one of them was John, but I just didn’t recognize the face through the mask! It wasn’t until we were almost past him, that I noticed, “John,” on his stage bottle. Doh! Missed you! We made our way to the “bones hole,” where there is usually a halocline to go through, to see them. Since the recent rains and flooding, a lot of the cavez have changed, and the halocline had been pushed lower, allowing really clear visibility, down to the bones! Manu ran a reel down the hole, and Peter took some shots of us, as we took turns posing with them. I am looking forward to seeing them! Peter also took some shots of us on the way out, and a couple of group shots, in the basin of the cenote. Steve was holding a 100w LED light, to light up the way.

We had a most excellent first dive of the trip, and were lucky enough to have some pictures taken.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 48 mins.
Max. Depth: 56′
Water Temp.: 77F
Vis.: Gin Clear

We packed up quickly, and were on our way. We were running a little low on fuel (we didn’t fill it up, since we were supposed to give it back tonight, and were giving it back with the same amount of fuel that was originally in it – next to nothing). We made it to the gas station near the shop, put a few pesos in, brought gear back, and then went straight to the MCEP meeting, for the project, which was to start the following morning.

We arrived, just in time! We listened to talks from Chris, Fred, Dr. Ed, and the Shawns. It was a great meeting! I think I will need to go back to school, to understand a few of the scientific explanations, but it was really amazing information!

Steve and I had to leave during the social part of the night, so that we could call to arrange the car swap (the fellow that answered the phone had no clue what we were talking about, and did not speak English – thanks to the concierge, for speaking to him for us). Ok… We shall deal with it, mañana.

BBQ night at the buffet, and a few bevvies. We also got to see some of Peter’s pics, on his computer screen! w00t!

Our plan was to go to sleep a little early, but as we were going up, Stretch was coming down to dine, so we joined him for a bit. Then… sleeeeeep!


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ARRRiba! Cavezzzz, It Shall Be – Part One – Getting There

7 12 2013

Well, it had been a while since we had been to the cavez (“a while,” can be defined as any time between the time we get home, and the time we leave again – whether that be one week or one year), and we had been looking forward to this trip. Two weeks of CAVEZZZZ! I will break up the Bloggy Thing Entries into a handful of parts, so that you aren’t reading this one for the rest of the week.  🙂

Saturday, December 7th, 2013 ~

Steve’s Dad picked us up, and took us to the airport. Steve and I both happened to be randomly chosen to go through the full body check machine, and Steve’s zipper triggered the scanning device (since I don’t actually know what it is called, I shall call it the scanny thing). We knew that they would want to go through our carry on luggage, since we had plenty of dangerous-looking dive gear in it.

Once we got through, we went to Timmy’s, to have a bite to eat. Normally, I do not drink coffee, but today was a French Vanilla kind of day. The nice lady did not even charge us the “up-charge,” to have it, or for Steve’s donut to muffin upgrade. Thank you, Timmy Lady!

The nice Timmy Lady is pictured below, on the far right.

Since we had a bit of time before our flight boarded, we went through some DPV Cave gas planning, which made us a little thirsty, for some Booster Juice.

Thank you for sharing, Jose Bautista!

Of course, I had to be a bit of a dork…

On the plane, we watched a couple of movies. I watched something with James Gandolfini and “Elaine” (I still cannot call her Julia), then Turbo, and an episode of 2 Broke Girls.

It was a little squishy in the middle seat, but I did meet a fellow named, Kevin, who was celebrating his 50th Birthday, and had never been to Mexico. His wife and kids surprised him with the trip, and were also joined by his sister and brother in law. The Captain had been tipped off, and announced his Birthday on the radio. The entire planed joined in to sing Happy Birthday, to Kevin. 🙂

We arrived in Cancun about 30 minutes early, and the gate that we were supposed to use was being occupied. We had to wait…and wait…and wait… Not a huge deal, but when one has to use the facilities, and has to wait… It’s a long time…

We finally got to another gate, got our luggage, and proceeded through to the luggage lottery button. For those that have not been to the Cancun airport, you get your luggage, and on your way out, you have to press the “magic button!” If you get a green light, you are free to go. If you get a red light, you must proceed directly to jail… Ok, not jail, but they go through all of your luggage. I usually get to press this magic button, and usually get a green light. Not this time… RED! Doh!

We dragged our luggage over to the inspection table, and they started with Steve. Steve had his RB80 in his luggage, which they immediately asked its value, what it was, and had to decide whether or not we had to pay a tax on it. The fellow went to his manager, came back, and told us that it was ok. *Phew!* Another lady came to the table, and started to go through my items. She went through one of the bags, and told us that we were ok to go through. Thank you, nice lady! 🙂

Once we went through, there was a fellow that came to us, that told us he was taking us over to the spot where the “Easy Way” (car rental) people would be. We were trying to keep up with him, and ask him if he was with Easy Way, but he was on a mission. A scamming mission. He told us that he only works for tips, so I gave him a Toonie (dumb-ass), and we realized that this was the complete wrong spot (yes, we have done this many times, but this guy got us). Steve went to find the “real” guy, while I watched the luggage. *Sigh* At least we were only scammed for a toonie.

We were joined up with another couple, George and Donna, who were also in the van, going to the car place. Very nice couple.

When we arrived at the car rental place, we just happened to run into Chris, Tracy, and her folks. They were very sad to be leaving this wonderful place, but congratulations on your cave course, Chris!

I switched from my sneakers to my flippie floppies! Ahhhhhhh… Much better!

Of course, we had confirmed that we needed a hatchback, and we watched as the last Golf (the car that we had requested) went out of the rental place. They wanted to give us a sedan, which does not work for diving with scooters. They gave us a neat little Nissan sport van (7-seater, but not nearly the size of our mini-vans), but they were going to come and meet us at our resort the next day, to replace the car with a smaller one. At least we were on our way!

Arrived at the resort, had some champagne in the check-in line, dumped our luggage, and noted that our toilet was broken. Doh! At least they came to fix it, pretty quickly. We headed for the buffet, where we had to christen the day with a couple of Daiquiri De Fraisas!

…and a Daiquiri De Mango!

We then met up with Stretch and Forest (and some other fellow, who shall remain nameless)… 😛

We eventually moved over to the lounge chairs, where we sat on the beach, and just enjoyed.

Back in the room, we noted the little sign, by the fridge… I think it’s wrong – I was a little tired…

I also couldn’t even imagine throwing our beverages…

That was enough excitement for one day! Tomorrow, there shall be CAVEZZZZZZZZZZZZ! 😀


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A Different Route

20 11 2013

Saturday, November 9th, 2013 ~ 

For today’s dive, we were getting in at St. Lawrence Park, then drifting and scootering to Centeen Park.

Entry…

Gear at the entry…

We decided to go upstream a little bit, to the little wreck that we came across, a few years ago. Steve had rebuilt the motor in my Little Red Rocket, so we were testing it out, along with another one that he had rebuilt, that he was using. We had an extra one, for back up.

Very short video of the little wreck, from a previous dive *WARNING* VERY POOR QUALITY* 🙂

https://vimeo.com/32125823

We had a quick look, and then made our way south (thanks to Mike, for turning off my back-up light). We dropped into the channel, and back up to the other side, where we started to drift. There were a couple of spots where there wasn’t much current, so we hit the triggers for a bit.

We found a few new spots that we had not been to before, and there were some really neat rock formations. We have seen horse harnesses in the river, but not as many as I saw, today (they were to the right of me, so the others didn’t see the first few). There were three harnesses, all within about 50′ to 100′ from each other. Sadly, I’m sure that it did not end well for those horses (from the “olden days”). We also saw an air stack that appeared to be from a very large ship (freighter, perhaps). We also noticed that they may have tried to recover it.

There were a lot of really cool places along this route! A definite redo is in order!

It seemed that both of our rebuilt motor scooters were in most awesome form, and as we hit our turn time, we made our way a bit more shallow, until we reached the “Unknown Hull,” where we had a little look. It has been a while since we have been to this little one, too! Then, onward to the Gaskin! Mike had found a little leprechaun Halloween figurine, and after having some fun with it for a while (sticking it in Steve’s scooter strap), Steve passed it to me. As we got to the Gaskin, I placed it outside the wreck, for good keeping. He shall guard the wreck, now. At least, I hope he does. That poor wreck is falling apart.

We hit the triggers for home, did our deco stops, and as we were heading in, I noticed a very small gar pike. It may have been the same one that I saw a few weeks ago. He gave us a little show with his mouth. They are such neat looking fish!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Max. Depth: 113′
Water Temp.: 50F
Vis.: Decent, but dark. No sunlight to light up our day!

Thanks to Chris, who gave us the Santi Panties Dance, in his undies that he won at the Invasion!

Yes… I did show him a few of the moves, but he had some good ones of his own, too!

Well, I couldn’t get a pic of the exit, but you may have seen some Centeen Park pics, in previous Bloggy Thing entries. By the time we retrieved the vehicles (we had one at Centeen), loaded them, and got changed, it was a bit dark.

With that, I leave you with a selfie, at the entry!


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Smells Like Centeen Spirit

14 10 2013

Sunday, October 13th, 2013 ~

We packed up, and made our way down to Brockville, for some scootering and drifting Goodness! We brought the gear to the water, geared up, and away we went, upstream.

Frankie, Eric V., Christian St-P., and Dave were heading out to the truck, too.

As we made our way up, the “Little Red Rocket” scooter seemed to be struggling, a little. At 15 minutes, it just didn’t seem to be running right. At 18 minutes, it really felt tired. So… I passed it to Cas, and Steve towed me into the channel. Since we were on a drift dive anyway, it wasn’t a big deal.

We drifted for about 40 minutes, and saw a bunch of different things. I found a cooking pot lid. It didn’t make a great frisbee, so I tried it on as a hat. Since it wasn’t great for either purpose, I placed it back down onto the periwinkle shells. We found a couple of pieces of broken china, some bottles, barrels attached to wooden planks (they looked like they had been there for a while), and we even saw a Gar Pike. I haven’t seen one of those in quite a while, so it was neat to see it. He even opened his mouth, and we saw his razor-sharp teeth!

As it was time for us to start making our way in, I tried my scooter again. It was trying, and I was at least able to make it back up, for most of the way. Then, it was just sleepy, so I passed it off to Cas again, and Steve towed me back up into the shallows. We hung out at 20′ for a few minutes, met up with Frankie and Eric, and went up and in.

Quite a fun dive! I tried out my new Santi 9mm hood today, and it was really warm! It felt like I had a heater on my head!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Max. Depth: 105′
Water Temp.: 62F

Cas, bringing up some gear!

Sofie, with the dolly, guarding the sthcooterthz!

Duo selfie…

Some of the group! Eric V., Dave, Frankie, Steve, Christian St-P…

I hope my Little Red Rocket is ok! Until the next dive!


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Ahh… Jodrey Goodness!

13 10 2013

Saturday, October 12th, 2013 ~

We gathered a few of the troops, and headed down to Caiger’s. Our charter was in the afternoon, so we brought some gear down to the docks, to wait for the morning folks to return. Once River Diver came in, we gave the other divers some time to unload, then we climbed aboard!

We did our usual stop at Boldt Castle, for customs clearance, then made our way over to the mooring tree. The usual branch had been broken, so we settled on another one. We couldn’t figure out why Frankie wasn’t grabbing it, until we noticed that it was just hanging there. 😛

We went through the usual routine… gear checks, pre-dive briefing, etc… then, off we went. Eric V. and Frankie teamed up, and Sofie and Cas joined Steve and I!

Our plan was to stay on the bow, so we got down the wall, and did a bit of a tour. We decided not to go in anywhere, since 4 people would have been a little much for a lot of the spaces. Steve brought the Go Pro, and got a little bit of footage, too.

We had a little bit of bumper car action, on deco. It was nice and relaxing, but since there were four of us, we did catch a little bit of the current, which just made us have to use a fin, here and there. I seem to recall that someone’s bottom timer bungee may have come into contact with my spring strap. My spring strap won. 😛

We also noticed the vacuum cleaner, that we had not seen in a really long time. It used to be near the stool (at 20′), but is now sitting a little bit downstream.

Once most of our deco was up, we scootered around to the bowl – where the boat was anchored, finished up, then made our slow ascent to the surface, where we did our 1 ATA deco stop – Or, chilled at the surface. There were a few smiles. 😀

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 16 mins.
Max. Depth: 187′
Water Temp.: 62F

I think Cas is fitting right in, as he has learned the “Moose Ears” signal!

The one and only… Frankie Boy!

Eric V. …

Rick had a bunch of Deco Cookies for us, too! No, I didn’t eat all of those cookies!

Group shot 1…

Group shot 2…

Once we returned to Caiger’s, we had to stay on the boat, until we cleared customs. We had visions of the sun going down, and us shivering in the dark, but… that didn’t happen. We were cleared in no time, and the unloading began! We were at a pretty far dock, thanks to the very low water levels. Once we had all of our stuff put away, it was Swiss Chalet for dinner, where we met up with even more friends.

Ahhhh… It doesn’t get much better than this… :o)


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