Today’s blog is
The story and adventure with a few mishaps thrown in (glass half full)
OR
The story of mayhem with a few good moments thrown in (glass half empty)

Personally I seem to naturally gravitate toward optimism myself, which also gives me the ability to think today was hilarious and a great adventure (at least it’s funny now since we came out of it unharmed- well parts of it were really funny at the time as well). I think these funny things that happen to us are really the spice of life and it’s why I  like to see different places and do different things and tend to hesitate at doing the same thing over and over. It’s also why I like scuba diving, since no 2 dives are just alike and the ocean has a million ways to amaze you.

So on to the story. The plan for the day was to take the ferry to Cozumel and do some diving there. We didn’t leave as early as we normally would because the boat we were meeting wasn’t available until 11. So we took our time and rode the ferry to Cozumel to meet the divemaster. The problem was that we had never seen him but we had emailed a picture of us to him so we were confident he would find us. By 11:15 we were beginning to have serious doubts that he actually would find us. We decided we needed to find another dive boat, which are very plentiful in Cozumel. We talked to several people and scheduled ourselves on a dive boat at noon. The friendly divemaster ,Martin, found us and led us and 4 other people to a small and somewhat dilapidated looking boat. We have been on boats like this before and it all seemed like it was working out perfectly. Our companions for the afternoon included one 60ish year old lady from New Jersey who was there alone since her friends didn’t dive. The other 3 (a young married couple and their friend) were from some middle eastern country and didn’t speak any English but spoke Spanish well. That left Martin to give all instruction and communication in both Spanish and English (which he did amazingly well). Our first dive would be a “wall dive”which is where you dive along a coral wall-like formation that can drop to great depths beneath you. Theses dives are really beautiful in Cozumel. The dive site was not too far away but we quickly noticed that our boat was going excruciatingly slow. You know the speed a boat goes in those zones where it says “no wake”? That was about our top speed. But the trip followed the coast line and passed the port of several cruise ships. It’s was a beautiful ride on a sunny day, so we didn’t mind that it took us 45 minutes to go a short distance. We finally arrived at the site and after Martin outlined the dive plan in both languages, we all suited up and rolled in one by one. The spot we dropped in was probably 70 feet or so and we could easily see the bottom, so the visibility looked like it would be good and we were excited. We all began to descend and it wasn’t long before we noticed we were getting into some stronger current. This would be a drift dive and we expected some current. But we didn’t expect what we encountered next.

Within the next few minutes we became enveloped in a current like I’ve never experienced. It was difficult to even remain horizontal while swimming. The current was not only moving me along quickly, it was tossing me around like I was in a washing machine. My computer said we were at about 60 feet and a quick look around confirmed that everyone else was experiencing the same thing as I was. The lady who spoke no English looked terrified and was holding tightly to Martin around his waist while her husband was videoing himself with his GoPro ”playing“ in the current, literally he was flipping end over end and making a victory sign to his GoPro. The lady from New Jersey and Christian were a little ahead of the main part of the group. I was just ahead of the divemaster so I turned to face him and let the current take me backward while I kicked in the opposite direction. There was no hope of swimming against the current, but that did seem to slow me down a little. Christian swam to the bottom and held onto a rock and waited for us to get closer before he let go. Martin was trying to calm the lady who was holding him and everyone else just kept looking at him and each other. After several minutes of this I looked around to take another inventory of the group and Denise (from New Jersey) was nowhere to be seen. I kept looking but when the current had become swift the visibility had become proportionately worse. We were swept along like this for a little while. Even the fish around us were swimming in crazy patterns because of the current. I was feeling like we were in the jet stream with the turtles from “Finding Nemo”. I assumed that Martin was trying wait out the current, but when it didn’t get any better and Denise had not reappeared, he motioned for everyone to ascend about 25 minutes into the dive. Christian and I were the first to 20 feet and hovered for our 3 minute safety stop while Martin tried to get the other 3 divers together. The current was swift here but considerably better than it was deeper. At the end of our safety stop, Christian and I surfaced alone. The first thing I  noticed was that our boat was not here. I thought perhaps he was waiting where we should typically surface. We could faintly hear a cry for help although we could see nothing. It was Denise. We tried to determine which direction the screams were coming from and I started waving my arms madly while Christian whistled and called to her. It was only a few minutes before I  caught a glimpse of her and she swam toward us. She was not hurt but seemed pretty scared. The rest of the group finally surfaced and Martin was relieved to see Denise back.

The next question was the boat. It should’ve found us by now. Martin had inflated his orange portable buoy long before we even surfaced. We could see the shoreline in the distance (which was my greatest comfort) but we saw no boat anywhere around us. This was the first time I thought of GoPro-Ing this, that showed me both that I  had been genuinely nervous (and not thinking about the GoPro) both in the current and before we found Denise. Now, however, the desire to video indicated that I felt safe within site of the shoreline on this sunny day and I was beginning to find the humor in our situation.

When we saw a boat (not ours), Martin waved his orange marker high in the air and called to them. It came toward us and turned out to be a parasail boat. Martin spoke with the captain and had him radio our boat. After about 5 minutes of this exchange, Martin swam back toward us as the boat left. He assured us that our boat was on its way and we should just try to stay together until it came.

Without discussing what we should do, we all linked arms or held onto some part of the person next to us so we were a 7 diver amoeba. It occurred to me that there was probably no other situation in which a large, bearded middle eastern man who did not speak English could hold tightly to my wrist without me minding. In fact, I was trying not to laugh out loud as I could see the apprehension on some of my companions faces. I figured we could always swim to the beach resort within site before dark, so I wasn’t worried. We floated aimlessly in the sapphire water barely speaking, only occasionally changing our hold on each other to find a more comfortable position.

According to my dive computer we had been floating about 30 minutes when Martin spotted our boat creeping toward us. It was a full 5 minutes before it finally made it to us and we boarded. Everyone seemed to relax once aboard the boat. We still had a second dive to do and Martin assured it we would still be doing it. The boat started up and headed toward the second location. It was then that the engine started sputtering. We looked around at each other in disbelief. But yes, our boat was broken down. Captain Harry and Martin quickly pulled the cover off the engine and began examining it. They tried a few things and still the boat didn’t start. So Martin told us he would call the shop and have the other boat come pick us up and continue the dive. He made a phone call and had a very spirited conversation in Spanish. He ended the call and told us the other boat was busy. Ok……

So Harry and Martin went to work on the engine once more and maybe 10 minutes later they had a solution. Harry would hold his hand inside the engine to hold the offending part WHILE Martin drove the boat! We eventually reached the second site but really the dive was no longer my focus at this point. Nevertheless, the next dive was nice and definitely more sedate. The dive was longer and we didn’t lose anyone. And when we surfaced the boat was running and came directly toward us.

By this time we had been out for close to 5 hours which is an extremely long time for 2 dives that are relatively close. We settled back in the boat and started toward the dock. Somehow none of us were surprised when the engine went dead. Harry was able to get it started in just a couple of minutes. But for the duration of the trip the engine died at least 10 times, I lost count after that. It took a couple of minutes each time to restart and our overall speed decreased from a creep to a crawl. What should’ve been a 20 minute trip back took almost an hour.

After that long afternoon we found the closest restaurant and hungrily ordered dinner while we decompressed. It was an unbelievable day, not exactly in the way we were hoping but we sat and laughed at the events of the day over dinner. We watched the sun set over the Caribbean and decided it was time to catch the ferry back to Playa.

Utter exhaustion sent us straight home. Although the day didn’t turn out like we thought it would, it was an unforgettable adventure and makes me even more anxious to get back out there and see what else Mexico has in store for us.