As I mentioned in the eMail announcing this week's page, I'm going to try posting one long page instead of breaking it up into several smaller ones. It will take longer to load but there may be less total time spent than navigating from page to page. Feel free to comment.
As long as I'm soliciting comment. . . . . I'm wondering how many of you have changed your browser preferences from their default to: 'fit images to screen'? In doing so my panorama shots become difficult to see and are far less satisfying to view.
mailto:lucky@usfamily.net
On a bright sunny Saturday I misjudged the wind direction and had to give up a day's dive because of the rough seas. Also there was some concrete work still formed up in my favorite entry chute.
So, I decided to take up the Atlantida Porpoise trainers' invitation to visit their private location. I was met and questioned at the gate, then led down to the constantly circulating sea water pool where the animals and trainers were. Of all people, I was greeted by a friendly guy I met in '03 named Tony. He gave me a guided tour of the facility but asked that there be no pictures or video. We stopped and played with the animals while he explained their social hierarchy. The group here are all males with the females at a facility in Cancun. Their breeding patterns are much like humans. In handling them they behaved somewhat like cats, enjoying stroking and petting, reveling in the attention. Surprisingly they seemed to like having their teeth and lips rubbed. They are so gentle and eager for attention, it's easy to see why they are so trainable and popular in their shows. If they were released into the sea I wouldn't be surprised if most of them just hung around waiting for their trainers to come play with them and maybe catch a free meal (they do eat very well).
Earlier that day I saw some Vultures circling low over a vacant lot and then landing to work on something that didn't make it through the night. They are so lovely on the wing and so grotesque on the ground.
We started having a Sunday morning AA meeting on the beach this week at the lighthouse Calentita. I showed you the location earlier from the sea as I surfaced from a dive to check my navigation. This week we used the Pallapa in the center. Next week we will try the one on the right (the floor is better).
Here is that center Pallapa. Notice the reinforced cinder block wall sections that are wrapped around the corner post. Like some of us AA's, the concrete was too rigid, got carried away and snapped. Like others the corner post had just a little give. Isn't the survival of that roof amazing? Sometimes the old ways are best. 150+ Kt winds for over 48 hours, with gusts over 200 !
Here is a miracle shot of another Vulture, this time cruising the beach. I saw it coming in and snapped this just as it came sailing over the Pallapa roof. I nearly threw myself out of my chair doing it.
Monday was fine, gentle breezes and partly cloudy so I got in the water for a while. Last week I saw the tail of a spotted Eel as it was slithering under some rubble. Today I happened upon it in the open as it was hunting along a big block of concrete.
Then in an instant (within 1 full frame of video - 1/30th sec) that Eel dived down a sand hole after something and really thrashed and thrust to get at it. It must have gone down a foot deep. That's the first time I've seen an Eel hunt. Then it backed out and continued along it's way. Great footage. I never could have gotten these pictures with a still camera.
I'd never seen an eel like this before so I looked it up and voilà, a Snake Eel :
Many years ago I kept some Hermit crabs as pets. Not very personable. Today I spotted one grazing along and it seemed oblivious to the camera so I filmed for a while. That's a Conch shell it's moved into. Pretty good sized critter; strong too, that shell must weigh over a pound even under water.
This is a Spotfin Butterfly fish. Note the stripe going through the eye like a Drum. Interesting face-on shot. Since there are no mirrors in the sea, no one knows what they look like. How do they know what a potential girlfriend looks like? Maybe they find a school where it's taught. =)
When hurricane Wilma's storm seas crashed into the store fronts it dragged a lot of inventory into the sea on the backwash. Here is a Bikini top that got carried away.
When I went out this morning I discovered that my neighbor had put up this years carnival poster on her door. Colorful, yes.
I stopped by the beach diving site behind Jeanie's Waffles and despite the wind they were were working like hell today. They got one of the fiberglass artificial reefs installed and by the end of the day they were testing their tourist diving helmets. Here I model one earlier in the day.
Filtered compressed air is pumped out to a floating distribution device (far right, below) and smaller lines then go to the helmets. The guy on the dock is throwing one of the helmet's lines out to be connected to the distributor. Yes it's almost sunset.
The guy in the water hooking the air lines up told me of an inner reef down South that didn't get beat up too bad, so I biked down there to take a look. It's just under a two hour bike ride from Blanquita's and I may try diving it this week. On the way down I spotted this triciclo, blown onto it's side. There is a gadget that limits how far you can steer the outfit from side to side and this one was disabled. That really does weird things to the bike's center of gravity. Also it was windy as hell today
Next, not far on down the road, I spotted this homemade VW truck. That's 'City Hall' behind.
That inner reef I visited is called Dzul-Ha (Zoo-Ha) and can be found at the Southern end of this chart:
http://www.usfamily.net/web/lucky/20060107-CZchart.html
Here is a clip of that chart's Southern end.
On the way down to Dzul-Ha I looked in at the dive entry to Paradise Shallows, also known as Caleta Reef because it's right at the mouth of Caleta Lagoon or Marina. See color map above. The chart and map show a coast road between Caleta and the International cruise ship pier but the map is more accurate in that the road doesn't go all the way through any more. In the early 40's, during W.W.II, there were German submarines stationed in the Caribbean to prey on Allied shipping, tankers coming out of New Orleans and also other shipping traffic through the Panama Canal. To help keep an eye out for these Subs the U.S. came to Cozumel and built the airport and then a perimeter road to patrol the island from. That little stretch of abandoned coast road north of Caleta is the last remaining stretch of that original patrol road. It was a popular path for bicycling tours reciently but pretty tough for a car to get through because it was kind of broken up and very overgrown. Also it was built only just wide enough for a Jeep to get through in the first place. Hurricane Wilma finally wiped out or burried enough of that remaining trail that it's almost disappeared. Through some fuzzy logic that makes Wilma the most severe hurricane since 1943. Here is a picture of the North end of the remaining stretch. There has been a space needle built on it so I guess it's no longer on the books as a road.
Notice the layers of construction.
Here is the South end.
This little road warrior died at his post.
When the storm seas of Wilma came bursting ashore they brought lots of junk and the trees managed to hang on to most of it. Great beach combing.
OK, back to the visit to Dzul-Ha.
From Dzul-Ha beach, the reef looked promising. There were dive boats visiting and fairly close in to shore. I talked to some snorkels who said it was just fine. Riding that Triciclo 7 miles down and 7 miles back with all my dive gear isn't very attractive. We'll see.
On the way back I stopped and took a picture of a Triciclo trailer behind a motor bike. That would certainly be a solution for these more remote dive sites. Maybe next year. . . . . .
When diving, my exhalation bubbles rush up over my ears and I'm really getting tired of the racket. The noise also makes stalking some skittish fish more difficult. I've talked to the guys out at Jeviar's about devising some sort of muffler to make the bubbles smaller but you don't want to add any back pressure. I rode out there this morning to find out more about the old double hose regulators that exhaust behind the divers head. The feature that made the single hose regulator so popular was it's being so much easier to breath through. Nothing's free.
On the way out to Jevair's I usually ride past the fire station. A pal of mine back home is a volunteer fireman and I think of him each trip so I stopped this time a took a couple pictures.
All the gas stations in Mexico are state run and named Pemex. As I passed one on the way out I noticed a Unimog truck I'd seen around town so I stopped for a closer look.
The outrageous ground clearance is achieved with reduction gears mounted at the end of each axle.
If you are still curious how Wilma could crush an ocean front building and drag the pieces back into the sea, consider the power of these breakers that are only being driven by 30 Kt winds.
Across the street from Blanquita's there is a vacant lot a full city block square. About a month ago a crew of surveyors spent almost a week staking the property out. Now a couple days ago some guys showed up and erected ~30' of scaffolding and guyed it off for stability. Here is a picture taken from the roof of my building.
This morning I found the path they used to haul the scaffolding sections out there and ended up climbing the darned thing to take this picture of Blanquita's and check out the ocean view. . . . .And the ocean view isn't so great.
Next morning the crew were back, taking that scaffolding tower down. (these guys are so shy)
One of the many advantages to traveling by bike is you get to see and smell a lot more as you roll along. I've been stopping to pick up sheet rock screws along the street down here, and there are many. Every screw and nail I've see has been laying down on it's side; how do they end up in a tire? Finally, yesterday, I spotted this self tapping machine screw standing on it's head:
For those of you who dive out of Blue Angel, here is the new deck:
Scroll Right To View >>--> >>-->
And again:
This is another moto trailer I like because of the way it's attached to the bike frame, solid. Also note the blue muffler. Looks like she runs hot and might like a little bigger main jet.
I started attending school while we were stationed at Rosevelt Rhodes Navy base on Puerto Rico ('47). We lived in base housing on a hill top overlooking the base. There were Hibiscus bushes lining the sidedwalk up to the house and they have always been my favorite flower. They represent the tropics for me and also the credo of 'One Day at a Time' because that's how long a blossom lasts. I arrived in the Yucatan 6 days after Wilma offically ended and there wasn't a blade or leaf of green to be seen. All the plants and trees were stripped bare. Because I had just left late Fall in Minnesota the barren vegitation wasn't as dramatic for me as the locals here. I've gotten to see the green come back and for me one of the turning point events in the area's recovery is finding a Hybiscus bush in full bloom.
For me one of the most attractive visual effects on a car is the side spear on the '55 Buick. The '50 Mercury is a slab sided car and especially when chopped, but put a Buick side spear on it and it becomes sleek and elegent.
There is a sailing, snorkling, diving outfit here named 'Manta Sports' who use a catamaran who's stern is contoured like that old Buick side spear. That stern shape is called a 'sugar scoop' stern. This big Cat has a design stripe as part of the side graphics that inhance that look.
Just lovely.
I had a friend from the Minnesota Apple Computer Users Group and his family visit a few weeks ago and they mentioned that they had gone on a cruise a few years back on the 'Carnival Conquest' pictured in the background.
I try to get each weeks pages posted on Saturday so it was a treat to get in the water this friday afternoon and begin with this full grown Arrow Crab. Not afraid but cautious, it used it's nearest foreleg as a feeler if I got too close.
This Brown Chromis found it's reflection in the lens and began a hell of a game of bluff, lunging at it time and again. I finally felt sorry for it's determination and moved on.
I found this Conch shell laying face down and figured there was another giant Hermit Crab living in it, but Nooooo. It was a fully grown Conch. It retracted as soon as I disturbed it and then started to extend it's eye and then it's foot. It cautiously extended the foot until it dug into the sand deep enough to get a grip and flipped itself back over, face down.
Here is a pretty good sized French Angelfish but it was taking a break under a concrete column and not well lit.
Finally here are a couple Wrasse of some sort ready to duke it out. They cautiously approach each other, mouths agape, then like gunslingers one takes a nip at the other who parries and nips back. After a couple exchanges I saw one spit something out and they parted.
I managed to get to the AA clubhouse early enough last Sunday night to get these sunset pix. Note that you can see the sun through two layers of heavily tinted window glass just as it begins it's decent behind a neighborhood villa. I've been wanting to do this for weeks but there are usually clouds on the horizon at dusk.
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