For my second tropical dive, I went out with Vivia Diving located right at the hotel I was staying at. I wanted to go back to ScubaMex but it was cruise ship day . There would be no guarantee that they would be taking divers out while there were people from the cruise ship to entertain. So I went with the sure thing because I had no idea when I would able to do another tropical dive.

My dive buddy for this day was Ed from Chicago. Ed was about the same level of expierence as me so we made a good team. The other 10 divers were all German tourists which made it even more ideal that I pair up with Ed. Our destination was "Barracuda Reef" about 3 miles south. Viva Diving had gone there for the morning dive and headed back at the request of one of the divers. Seems he had lost a $300 lens to his camera. We all agreed to keep an eye open for it during our visit.

We got to the dive sight in 5 minutes. After "giant-striding" off the back, I turned to grab my camera from a crew member, and headed down. I had no problems with my ears so I had a bit more time to sit on the bottom and take in the view. Once everybody touched-down in the sand, we headed out.

The dive plan was to swim around the base of the reef and head back up from where we started. The current was noticibly stronger here, probably because we were swimming into it and not just along with it as was the case in Paamul.

It wasn't long before the residents of the reef came out to great us. Parrot fish, squirrel fish, eels. Somebody in our group after the dive said they saw a baracuda but I myself did not see this. At one point during the dive, out leader stopped in a rather large hole to coax a big moray eel out. But the father in she went, the father in the eel would retreat. So I was happy to get the shot of the eel that I did see.

It wasn't too long before the needle on my SPG was getting into the red and I knew it was time to head up. Once again, I was blessed with not diving with any airhogs because we all had tanked out at about the same time. A standard saftey stop and we were on the surface waiting for the boat. It was at this point that Ed said "This is worst part of the dive. I always think a shark will be coming by". If there was one here, he certainly wasn't interested in us! So we scampered back onboard and headed back to the cantina at the hotel.

I would definately dive with Vivia Diving again. They are very knowledgeable and helpful, had a comfortable & not-too-crowded boat, and were right there at the hotel. All-in-all, a unforgetable two days of diving.

And, no, nobody saw the camera lens.

THE STATS:
             Air Temp:       85 F
             Weather:        Pt. Cloudy; light wind
             Sea Condition:  Calm
             Dive Time:      41 minutes
             Max. Depth:     46 feet
             Avg. Depth:     36 feet
             Water Temp:     82'F

Dive Profile Log Page


IMAGES:

Swimming along and notice this small spotted eel poking his head out of his home. A bit blurry because I have actually enlarged the print slightly.




A huge sea star. These animals are about the size of an average dinner plate. Saw them in Aruba, too.




Some bluestriped grunts swimming amoungst a group of sea rods. The bending of the sea rods gives a feeling of current.




Longspine squirrel fish patroling their part of the reef. Identified by the white tips on the dorsal fin spines.




Angelfish dining on the reef.




Blue Tang




View from the base of the reef. Looking back to the surface forty feet away.