October 27, 2024 - Cozumel, Mexico - Sunday

October 27, 2024 – Sunday       Day 32 of this journey 

Cozumel, Mexico 

We picked up the Pilot this morning, just before reaching the dock. It is a warm and cloudy morning. Things look pretty quiet. We are scheduled for a mid-morning “included” excursion of a ride on the Atlantis XII Submarine. 

Their pickup point is just the next dock over from our ship, so it is a short walk. The commentary provided with the synopsis of the excursion indicated the submarine would hold 26 passengers. This information is somewhat outdated as the submarine will hold 46 passengers and there are 44 in our group. We putter out to the dive spot just a couple minutes before the sub surfaces from its previous dive.

Our ride for this morning. Portholes are below the surface of the water.

We tie up to the sub, and wait as the passengers currently on board the sub are escorted off and onto our transport boat. Then it is our turn to board the sub. It is extremely well choreographed. In short order, we are all aboard, and although it is not exactly roomy, everyone has a decent view out the portholes.

Good size viewing windows

Curious little guys

Little fish are curious about this big fish and hover near the windows. We head down to the Chankanaab reef. This is the second largest coral reef in the world (second only to The Great Barrier Reef) and an extremely popular scuba diving site. It is fascinating to see the coral in all its forms and shapes. Lots of fish, in some cases, huge schools of fish. The depth we were at was between 50 and 100 feet.

 

A very large school of fish

All sorts of sizes and shapes

More fish

The nothingness at the top of the photo is where it drops off

A 2 second video

Then it appeared that the sand and coral just stopped. We were at the edge of a cliff. Just past where we were, the water dropped off by a couple thousand feet. The photos didn’t show it, but we could clearly see it. We then moved on to observe a sunken ship. This is an old mine sweeper that was intentionally sunk in this area to provide a man-made reef that would encourage the growth of the coral. It appears to be working as there is quite a bit growing on it. We even saw a barracuda.

That is a barracuda in the middle of the frame

When we surfaced, the transport boat was waiting for us, and we followed the same process as earlier. Again, very well-choreographed. The ride back to the dock seemed a bit quicker than the ride to the dive spot. As we walked back to the ship, we noticed that only one or two shops were open. With only our little ship at this dock, it isn’t worth it on a Sunday for the shop and restaurant owners to open.

Beautiful waters of the Caribbean

This was confirmed later in the day when we chatted with other passengers who had spent some time wandering around. They indicated there wasn’t much open. 

A pleasant day spent in Mexico. We both felt a little bit like we were home. 

The next couple of days are sea days, so there won’t be too much to report.