While most of the group went on the Stingray City trip, I decided to go diving since I participate in the same excursion the previous year. A few folks were nervous about the event since the day earlier word got out that Steve Irwin, the Croc guy, was killed by a stingray. Nevermind that the species are completely different and then so few people are ever injured by them compared to the tens of thousands of stingray exposures each year, folks were somewhat scared. Sigh, where is logic and education when you need it? I, along with RUNS, PIERCE, and WAYYY, took a taxi to the dive boat that we were going to use for the wall dives. We had to wait for a couple of other divers before shoving off. I set it up so we had nitrox available for the first dive and showed everyone had to use the tables, figure MOD (max operating depth for the gas) and give a brief intro to the advantages of the blend.
Since the water was extremely warm (being September in the Caribbean Sea and all) we elected to do the dives sans bathing suits after making sure it was ok with the other two divers on board. The wall was quite expansive and it was astounding to see it drop away in near nothingness. We were blessed with good visibility and had a max depth of around 110 feet while most of the bottom time was spent around 50 or so. The second dive was also equally impressive in terms of the wall and I couldn't help but make a quick bounce to 200 to see if there was any indication of bottom. I could easily see the surface water and the wall continuing down to what must be several hundred feet. After ascending a bit, I was able to find a bunch of swim-throughs to lead the group and then played around the anchor line for a while as my team ascended and as I waited for the other two divers to finish their dive. I never see a reason to hurry up to the surface to wait and even enjoy hanging out near the line so I can surface as soon as the last diver is on board so no one has to wait for me. The captain took us back downtown and met with some of the other group at the bar across from the tender terminal so we could board once the line had dwindled down. One of the hashers had a tough day that was a bit upsetting. While coming into shore, another passenger collapsed on the tender from an apparent hear attack. The hasher was a trained nurse and performed CPR for a long time, but the guy eventually died and never woke up. Other than that unfortunate incident, the group had a great time.C-Day +3 Cozumel
We woke up to find that the ship wasn't quite into port on time and that instead of being able to use the pier, we had to be tendered to shore. At least we were dropped off directly downtown, so it was easy to find a taxi to the resort where the hashers were spending the day. CAPTAIN JERK arranged for a good many of us to go diving and had the boat pick us up directly from the resort, however no one mentioned that there was no dock available. We had to wade out with our dive gear on our craniums in order to board the boat. Add to that the fact that it really started raining as we were loading and we could tell that we were in for quite an adventure. Before leaving the boat prop got entangled with the anchor line and we then had to run to a nearby dock to pick up some tanks for a last minute addition. Finally, we headed out for the divers. Since we filled the boat, we were pretty much given free reign to do as we liked (which meant about 80% of the divers were sans suits) and separated into two groups. The first dives were great and AP and I set about going through ever swim-through we could find and had a blast navigating the maze of coral tunnels. I did a quick drop to 150 to putz around before rejoining the group. The surface interval had is parking near shore to eat the lunch we brought (mmmm, Calzones from the pizza bar) and do a bit of skinny dipping in the warm waters. For the second dive, we decided to go as one large group. The current had picked up considerably and I think the most fun was just buzzing around everyone and flying across the bottom. I even got bored for a while and took off my dive gear and let it float beside me at 50 feet. We found a few turtles as well as the other normal fish typically seen along a reef as well as some new species of moonfish.
We were out so late that by the time we returned to the resort, we had to catch a cab downtown to make it to the last of the tenders. I got back early enough and spent 15 minutes or so walking downtown and check out the various shops, but carrying my wet heavy dive gear certainly wasn't fun. I picked up a few bottles of Mexican Coke to use as run mixers, snapped a few pictures, and headed to the tender dock. Even though the ride back was less then 10 minutes, I completely zonked out and had to be awakened by one of the crew. I took a nap for a while before heading down to see a disappointing quiz show and then on to dinner. After dancing for a while I headed upstairs to grab a snack and ran into some of the Austin hashers on the Lido deck. 
We hung around for a while talking, telling some strange jokes, and eventually playing a game of bean bag toss at 2AM. After a couple of rounds I decided to call it a night and headed off to bed.
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