Michael's Cocos Island Diving Experience
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
21
22
Trip End
Jan 20, 2009
Puntarenas,
Province of Puntarenas,
Costa Rica
Monday, November 24, 2008
I warn you this a long one, and for the non divers amongst you, you may just want to look at the pics. Otherwise enjoy!
24/11/08 - The bus journey to the port was about one and a half hours with a stop for coffee at a souvenir store on the way, then a stop at a liquor store, far more important to stop here Billy and I thought as we bought our bourbon and vodka for our poker card game filled nights on the boat. Got to the port and the 'Undersea Hunter' and thought that's a bit small for a 36-40 hour Pacific Ocean crossing, but hey it must be safe right? Cocos Island was formed approximately 1.9 to 2.4 million years ago, it is the summit of a sea mount that rises approximately 1,000 meters above the crest of Cocos Ridge.
Discovered in 1526 by Captain Caberas and mapped for the first time in 1556 under the name 'Ile de Coques' (Nut-shell island in French) by Nicholas Desliens, it was then declared Costa Rican territory on September 15th 1869. Declared a National Park in 1978 and in mid 1992 a permanent Park Director and park wardens were stationed on the island. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1997 and declared a Ramsar site, a wetland of international importance in 1998. It is located 532/330 mls Southwest of Costa Rica and occupies an area of 2400 hectares or 10 square miles and it's wet, very wet, receiving 7000mm or 275 inches of rain per year! Eduardo from Columbia was our Dive guide and Team Leader on the boat who seemed very knowledgeable and with 4 years diving at Cocos we felt confident we were in safe hands.
Frog Fish, Manuelita
26/11/08 - After about 'only' 34 hours we reached Cocos Island in the dark at about 10.30. It was very exciting after all the open ocean with nothing but water to see, to be up on deck following the search light beams out into the gloom and see land and particularly the height of the island, the cliffs stretching skywards accompanied by the eerie calling of the seabirds and familiar clicking noises of crickets and insects. Even in the darkness I could understand why Spielberg had used Cocos as a film location for shooting Jurassic Park, I was ready for a Terra Dactyl to swoop at me any moment! I couldn't wait to jump in, I would've done a night dive there and then if offered.
The following morning we woke, well Billy woke us, at 5.30 and by 5.45 he had decided to get up. I on the other hand decided to just relax in my double bed bunk (Billy lost the coin toss this time and got the smaller top one, shame) and let the swooshing of the waves against the boat send me back to my slumber as breakfast wasn't til 7am. At 8am Eduardo began his briefing which seemed to go on and on forever with all the do's and don'ts, rules for the Undersea Hunter, rules of the National Park but most importantly and a very sobering instruction was to really take care of ourselves and each other whilst on the boat and whilst diving as if there were any problems we were 36-40 hours away from any medical assistance or Hyperbaric Chamber the nearest being back in Costa Rica or in Panama.
Blowing Bubbles!
A couple of trips ago he told us of a woman that slipped down the stairs on only day 2 of the trip, she dislocated her shoulder and rather than terminate everyone else's trip by having to pack up and go home they had to put it back in, ouch! After all this we got kitted up for the first of our four dives of the day and had a quick dive briefing. Excited, not much!! The sun was shining, the water looked so clear and inviting, flying fish skimmed over the water surface twice as we waited to go. Upon reaching the dive site we all back rolled into the water to first check our buoyancy and make sure everything and everybody was happy before making our descent.
The site was Coral Garden and it didn't disappoint, beautiful, loads of fish a turtle or three and of course White Tip Reef sharks everywhere you looked. No kidding there must have been a hundred or so of these little guys around us. The second dive was better and included two Hammerhead sharks at a cleaning station, one large Silky shark and one huge Galapagos shark - the dive sign for spotting a Galapagos shark is rather off putting as it is done by crossing yourself like a Catholic in church - how comforting I thought! By the third dive I'd already decided that I would put my name and whatever deposit required down to return to this incredible place. No wonder there is a 2 year waiting list to come here.
27/11/08 - Up at 7am for another hearty breakfast and the obligatory cup of Costa Rican Arabica, the food is delicious and copious in quantity, what with all the evening beer consumption so as to suppress Billy's digs about drinking like a girl I'm gonna put on a stone in weight over the remaining 7 days! The first dive was at 'Dirty Rock', this dive was adrenaline all the way, a very jagged rocky pinnacle about a mile off the main island's coast. We dropped down to about 30 meters, Billy and I were ahead of the pack which was rewarded by us meeting a large beautiful female Hawksbill turtle just dozing on the bottom - I then turned into DeMille mode and she was so obliging during her close up encounter until my com padres descended to take their places beside us - flash guns blazing and exhaust bubbles exploding all her were obviously too much for her as she took off into the blue - camera shy after all I guess. There were also plenty of white tips taking a snooze on the bottom some even on top of each other like a wood pile.
We then made our way over to the huge boulder formations as Eduardo had told us to find a spot to 'cling on' and wait as this was often a Hammerhead cleaning station.
Jack Fish Shoal
Cling on, well he wasn't joking the current was ripping. Billy lost his grip at one point to be carried past me for about 10 feet before being able to get another hand hold. We were treated during our 15 minutes of hanging on to a couple of Hammerheads gliding by and also to an impressive Galapagos shark. Also to our delight and great surprise two bottle nosed dolphins joined in on the parade of pelagic specimens, truly memorable, the rest of the dive was no less spectacular with all the huge boulders to swim over and a tight swim through a small canyon to negotiate accompanied by numerous white tips and so many brightly coloured reef species as well as even a few Pacific lobsters.28/11/08 - Another amazing day, actually amazing doesn't really cover it! The first dive was a welcome return to Dirty Rock the outside edge of it was where we dropped in and met up at about 15 meters to get comfortable on our respective boulders and find our grab holds. There were just so many thousands of fish, the schooling Jacks were so immense that they blocked out the little sunlight there was as they glided overhead. We must have spent 15 or maybe 20 minutes just drifting between the shoals hypnotized and staring out into the blue and whilst doing so we spotted our first two Hammerheads coming towards us, big ones! A couple of minutes later a massive, probably 3-4 meter long Galapagos shark passed by flanked by two remora fish.
3, maybe 4 more Hammerheads passed by before we decided to drift off into the current and the blue but still keeping the pinnacle in sight as with this much current being swept away from the group and navigable landmarks is a reality - that's why your equipment is fitted with a GPS signaling and tracking unit as well - just in case! After a few minutes I thought I heard a sort of clicking noise and then there they were - 3 dolphins headed towards us. These curious and graceful creatures with their seemingly smiley faces must have spent 3 or 4 minutes with us zapping in and out of our group making for some great film footage and photos - there's nothing like diving with dolphins to put a grin on your face! Could this dive get any better I asked myself?
Next dive was to 'Manuelita' on the outside edge. This was not the planned site but after 15 minutes of being battered in the skiff by the large swells Eduardo decided to abort and about turn to a safer option and more sensible option considering the conditions.
Going deep!
Let me just say that the words Safer and Sensible do not really apply to Cocos, the waters really are varying degrees of dangerous and when you're clinging on for dear life to the rocks in the ridiculously strong currents at 30 meters you wouldn't insert the word sensible to any sentence to describe your situation. Still no sign of the 'Mega School' of Hammerheads or Silkies overhead yet but there was still 5 more days to it has to happen sometime doesn't it? Billy was beginning to feel a little unwell after this dive so thought he would sit the next one out - big mistake! After lunch and our dive briefing was to the 5 of us as the 3 others had also decided to take the afternoon off.So I and my 4 Mexican muchachoes namely, Jorge, Alejandro, Fernando and Alberto with Eduardo the Columbian guiding us once again. We were told that 'Lobster Ridge' was to be our dive site, well as soon as I heard the word lobster mentioned I thought that sounds like a really crap site to go to and the others seemed to agree so it was agreed with little resistance from Eduardo that we return to Manuelita outside again instead. The dive, a couple of nice Hammerheads, a Galapagos and 5 yes 5 turtles.
29/11/08 - Up early as routine now. Sadly not feeling too expressive about the first two dives of the day, the first was more like rock climbing than diving due to the currents at 'Dos Amigos'. This site is pretty much stand alone out in mid ocean like many of the others at Cocos but this one seems particularly exposed to cross currents and harsh swells so the boat ride was like many others before it - 'exciting''. In fact I enjoy watching Billy's expression change now each time the skiff crashes into the waves he sort of tuts and gives me a look as if to say ''bloody hell a bit rough, should we be out here?" Anyway, usual mission operandi, down to 15 meters and hang on for dear life to the rocks whilst doing the 'superman impression'.
Lone Hammerhead, Alcyone
A good dive nonetheless particularly with all the mating marble rays to be seen that are like flying dinner plates with tails only they are 1 to 1.5 metros in diameter. After lunch Billy decided once again not to make the third dive - even though it was to 'Silverado'. Silverado is the cleaning station found at the foot of a waterfall on Cocos that runs off into the ocean where Silver tip sharks gather to get a 'wash and brush up' from the resident Barber fish that pick off unwanted parasites. The plan was to get down to about 12 meters and firmly plant ourselves on the bottom and wait for up to 40 minutes. Fortunately we didn't have to wait that long as after about 20 minutes or so a monster of a Silver tip shark turned up - he must have been 3 to 3.5 meters in length so had a fairly intimidating presence as he swirled overhead, fortunately as he wasn't too shy photographic evidence was obtained of this monster size shark!
30/11/08 - This morning was a welcome return to our favorite Dirty Rock followed by 'Alcyone' which is a deep dive whereby the boat moors up out to a surface buoy about half a mile out to sea and then you descend a line so as to avoid the strong currents to a depth of about 35 meters or so. There is a great cleaning station vantage point on this one and sure enough the barbers were in abundance and their patrons the Hammerheads, although few in number, were also in attendance. A great dive despite my head banging through a sinus squeeze but I'll keep popping the pills as can't contemplate missing any of this action. After lunch another 'Dirty' dive with a couple of sharks worth mentioning a Galapagos and a large Black Tip, more entertaining though were the mating turtles, 5 of them! I did feel a bit sorry though for one pair as our bubbles and our camera's flash guns seemed to put the female off much to her suiters frustration who took off in hot pursuit of her.
1/12/08 - Bloody Hell it's December - not long now and this year of adventure will all be over, but what a great time it has been, so many wonderful memories to keep.
Hawksbill Turtle
As for today at Cocos it would make the whole years wait to get here worthwhile. We first returned to 'Álcyone' which would be dive site number two as well. Why you may ask? Well for anyone who has seen the BBC's Blue Planet series and remembers the shots of the vast schooling Hammerhead sharks, yes we had now seen the same for ourselves. We must have seen 200-300 sharks or more swirling overhead and it was magical. Maybe you wouldn't think so, maybe you are thinking hundreds of sharks above your head in the open ocean is not for you, but I can't think of many other things I've seen in the natural world that are as impressive as this. You can keep your Serengeti herds! Our group was dancing a jig in mid water we were so happy, we must have looked ridiculous punching the air like we'd scored in a cup final!Tonight would be the last chance to night dive and I didn't dare miss it - Manuelita coral garden I was told would be a dive I wouldn't ever forget and I can now tell you it was AWESOME. We were given a briefing that informed us that we would see White Tips in hunting mode tonight and that we were to make sure we remained 2-3 meters above the action at all times as otherwise you could get bitten in the frenzy - hmm I thought pitch darkness, sharks hunting, feeding frenzy sounds like a recipe for, no not disaster, an amazing dive and we were not disappointed. Even to the point whereby a 3.5 meter Galapagos shark decided to join us as well for 20 minutes of our 40 minutes underwater - just ask Alberto how big it was as he literally came face to face with it, I happened to be looking in his direction at this point and recall watching him jump in surprise as anyone would!
2/12/08 - I woke this morning feeling excited in anticipation of a final day of great diving, the overnight rain had stopped, the sun was shining brightly. First dive was at 'Alcyone'. As we descended to depth you could see the rippling thermoclines and I shuddered a little passing through the colder water but glad that I had now taken to wearing my vest with hood under my wetsuit for insulation. On the upside I knew that cooler water could mean more sharks and after a few minutes of waiting once again a squadron of schooling Hammerheads passed overhead. A few Hammers peeled off at lightening speed after some schooling reef fish which was awesome to see, closely followed by a couple of huge yellow fin tuna about 2-2.5 meters in length no doubt excited by all the activity of the sharks and looking to share in the spoils.
Finally we began to ascend the buoy line after about an hour to complete our safety stop to off gas the absorbed Nitrogen in our blood streams. In fact I was the last one out this time and lucky for me as to my right side I saw a swirling mass coming toward me. It was a huge gathering of White Tips about 4 or 5 deep and 100 or so in all circling around each other in mid water, what a fantastic end to another great dive and an amzing trip of a lifetime.
After lunch I sat out on the upper deck in the sunshine to reflect on my trip and my time at Cocos - I'll certainly remember it for many years to come!
Much love to all and see you very soon!
Michael
xx.
Hammerheads at Alcyone
