Diving cocos

 
A group of 14 divers enjoyed an incredible week of diving at Cocos Island (“Isla del Cocos”) in November, 2008. The twelve of us associated with Divers Two were joined by two new friends from Belgium. See the rogues gallery here.


Before reading further, click here and view Blair Jr.’s excellent movie.


Carl made the trip arrangements. After waiting nearly two years (!) for our number to come up, we finally took off on
October 26. We returned home on November 8.


Cocos is a remote, unique, unspoiled place visited by “pelagic travelers” such as sharks, rays, and schools of large fish. It is famous for the stunning clouds of hammerhead sharks that nearly blot out the light from the sky.
Other magnificent creatures found at Cocos include whitetip, silvertip, blacktip, Galapagos, tiger, and silky sharks, whale sharks, marbled rays, eagle rays, and bigeye trevallies.


Cocos Island is 12 miles long. It lies in the Pacific Ocean 340 miles southwest of Costa Rica. A photo in the album titled “Charts” depicts its location, and another provides a map.


To get to Cocos, we gathered in Costa Rica’s capital, San José, travelled by bus to the port town of Puntarenas, boarded the Undersea Hunter liveaboard ship, and travelled across stormy seas for 33 hours. The Undersea Hunter supported us in luxury style and provided outstanding scuba diving from two skiffs that were transported by the mother ship.
The crew consisted of a dive master and driver for each skiff, a chef and steward, and captain and engineer. They were beyond first rate. Crucially important, given Cocos’ remote location, was the emphasis on diving safety. In case of emergency, each diver was issued a personal position locating device, and a light, whistle, and signaling “sausage.”


Four of our divers used rebreathers. The other ten used conventional, open circuit scuba with nitrox (air with 32% oxygen) as the breathing gas. [Greg and Steve created a rebreather spoof based on the movie “Men of Honor.” Hear it here.]


We dove at the 11 dive sites identified on the map in the “Charts” photo album. The sites were at islets, rocks, and seamounts or in bays. Dive depths ranged from 50 to 110 feet. We made free descents and ascents for all the dives except for those at two sites where there were moorings for the skiffs.


The photo albums you’ll find here give a small sampling of what we saw and experienced. I selected and processed the photos from 2500 pooled by Carl, Stef, Blair, Greg, Joann, and myself. My thanks to all for collaborating in this photo documentary. Unfortunately, due to the “shuffled deck” nature of the picture files, it’s difficult to give credits for most of the pictures. Higher resolution files are available on request.


--Sterling