Hurricane season started this week with the arrival of hurricane Adrian off the west coast of México, disrupting diving. How very inconvenient of it. Thankfully, it passed without causing any land damage, but created some dangerous surf and rip currents. Hurricane season is upon us until the end of November, and we need to keep an eye on them when it comes to diving.
I learned a really useless piece of information while looking into hurricane Adrian, Hurricanes are named alphabetically and alternate between male and female names. I love useless facts like this. Anyway, to stay safe, check the weather forecast before organizing your diving or snorkelling outing.
Along with the 1st hurricane, we encountered our 1st rains of the year. Mother Nature never rains but she pours! This sometimes has an adverse effect on the water conditions, but not all the time! Often, when we have had a night of heavy rain, the water is murky along the coastline due to the rain washing silt, and everything else from the mountains and streets into the ocean. I did say not all the time though. I have been diving after heavy rainfall. After informing the divers that the visibility will be poor, we jump in only to find 100 foot visibility. Mother Nature makes the rules and they are not always logical.
So, after having a few days on being a land lubber, I took our boat to Chimo. Logically, I was thinking I may have 10 foot of clear water in front of my mask. Wrong. Crystal clear blue waters welcomed me with open arms as I dropped into the hot water, and boy is the water getting warm.
Now we need it refreshing, it´s not. So, as sods law would have it, I had a short wetsuit on, we dropped down to 60 foot to find some nice cool water and to remember what it is like to shiver. We had only been down for 5 minutes when directly above our heads, a manta ray appeared. I think I let out a schoolgirl squeal as I had never seen one while diving before. It´s wings spanned one and a half metres across, so a baby compared to some, but majestic nonetheless.
It stayed within sight for less than a minute before gracefully flicking a tip of its wings and flying off. I was going as fast as I could and it was barely moving its wings. There was nothing else to do after we surfaced but exchange high fives, big grins all around.
If this crazy weather is going to deliver these quality days though, bring it on. This has to be a good omen, and I am hoping that I will finally see my 1st whale shark soon.
I learned a really useless piece of information while looking into hurricane Adrian, Hurricanes are named alphabetically and alternate between male and female names. I love useless facts like this. Anyway, to stay safe, check the weather forecast before organizing your diving or snorkelling outing.
Along with the 1st hurricane, we encountered our 1st rains of the year. Mother Nature never rains but she pours! This sometimes has an adverse effect on the water conditions, but not all the time! Often, when we have had a night of heavy rain, the water is murky along the coastline due to the rain washing silt, and everything else from the mountains and streets into the ocean. I did say not all the time though. I have been diving after heavy rainfall. After informing the divers that the visibility will be poor, we jump in only to find 100 foot visibility. Mother Nature makes the rules and they are not always logical.
So, after having a few days on being a land lubber, I took our boat to Chimo. Logically, I was thinking I may have 10 foot of clear water in front of my mask. Wrong. Crystal clear blue waters welcomed me with open arms as I dropped into the hot water, and boy is the water getting warm.
Now we need it refreshing, it´s not. So, as sods law would have it, I had a short wetsuit on, we dropped down to 60 foot to find some nice cool water and to remember what it is like to shiver. We had only been down for 5 minutes when directly above our heads, a manta ray appeared. I think I let out a schoolgirl squeal as I had never seen one while diving before. It´s wings spanned one and a half metres across, so a baby compared to some, but majestic nonetheless.
It stayed within sight for less than a minute before gracefully flicking a tip of its wings and flying off. I was going as fast as I could and it was barely moving its wings. There was nothing else to do after we surfaced but exchange high fives, big grins all around.
If this crazy weather is going to deliver these quality days though, bring it on. This has to be a good omen, and I am hoping that I will finally see my 1st whale shark soon.
One of our divers here at Pro Dive PV, Kim, saw a mantra today off the beach at Mismaloya - she's very happy about it - great article.
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