Cozumel Day 7: Palancar Caves

Now February 17th, 2009 and the Blue XT Sea Diving boat Shamu arrived with Pedro at the dock to pick me up and motor off to Palancar Caves. The weather was hot, with clear skies except for some scattered cumulus, an east wind and the wave height less than 6 inches.

I was 40 feet or so down when I noticed my computer was in Gauge mode – I’m not sure why but the sequence of button pushes is pretty simple so I could have hit it accidentally. Against the recommendations of just about every thing you might read about diving, I continued on, resolving to keep my depth above the rest of the divers and make an extra long 7 minute safety stop. My maximum depth was 95 feet on this 45 minute dive although most of the dive was much shallower.

I’d been to Palancar Caves with Arturo a few days earlier but Pedro promised me a different experience and he delivered, taking us through passageways that I hadn’t seen before. One reason I know this, aside from the difference in the coral formations, is that we passed a different underwater memorial, this one to Maureen Matous (the others I passed were for Manolo Salsas and Martin, the latter who operated “Dive with Martin”).

As for sea life, we saw a bit. Crabs, including an Arrow Crab, and the usual varieties of fish. The quantity of fish inside the swim throughs is much lower than on the outside of the reef, and the darkness makes photography more difficult (especially with my cheapo camera).