After catching up from the stressful week we had in preparation for "Dean", I decided it was time to take a day off and go diving.  AS I expected, the reefs look exactly as they did before our little tropical storm, so everyone should relax.

Our first dive today was at Columbia normal.  We planned to go a little further south, but visibility is still a little cloudy, so we were happy to drop down where we did.  The visibility still isn't 100% back to normal, but I think only the "whiners" would complain...it was easily 70 feet, although it's not gin clear and there is still some particulate floating around.

Just as we descended on Columbia, Pedro spotted a giant turtle, but I was too far away to get a decent shot.  As some already know, Falmaingo Tounges are not as prevalent as they were pre-Wilma, but we are starting to see alot of them again.

My favorite shot from today resulted from my playful encounter with an intermediate phase French Angel.  She was darting in and out of the coral playing hide and seek, until she finally decided to pose pretty for me.

Columbia was full of photo opportunities today, I honestly think this was the first time I've ever seen a Splendid Toadfish on Columbia...although I know they are there.  Pedro found a pair of them, but only one of them wanted to be photogenic for me.

As I was headed up to my safety stop I looked down for a moment to open the valve on my buoy before I deployed it...and there I saw the largest Scorpionfish I've ever seen.  He was easily 2 feet long and very fat.  Here's a close-up:

The second dive was Yucab and the current was kicking along pretty good.  I lost my headband on this dive, so I was fighting to keep my hair out of my face the entire dive.  I finally decided to end the dive at 45 minutes because I was tired of fighting to see..haha!  Before I lost my headband, I managed to get a shot of this little pipehorse, but he kept wanting to give me butt shots too.  Every time I thought I had a head on shot...he would turn.  He was like a little jumping bean...you know, like the seahorse that "jumped" onto that guys finger a couple of years ago..haha!

It was a great day of diving!  Thanks to our DM "Tortuga Ninja," and my dive buddies for today: Dave & Marcie, Lew & Enid.

My personal profiles today:

Columbia: 90ft/65min

Yucab: 60ft/45min

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FIRE DRILL!  I'm sure you all remember those from your school days!  Well, that's what Dean was, albeit an expensive one.  Our winds topped out at around 50mph between 4am and 6am and we had less rain than we have in a typical thunderstorm.  I knew the island was in good shape when I opened my door to see that my yard was still in fine shape with barely a leaf lost.  This is the most exposed area of my yard and was completely killed by Wilma.


The power was out but we still had a strong cool breeze from the remnants of  Dean, so we unboarded a few of the quick easy windows to let some air and light in, opened the doors and started cleaning.  It was too early and not yet necessary to start up the generator...and we were still under curfew. 

About 9:00am, we heard on the radio that curfew was lifted and donations of  food, water and clothing were being taken at SOL Stereo for the victims in a small pueblo Felipe Carillo Puerto, which was hit very hard and completely flooded.  So we gathered up our extra water and food and then Mago went through his closet and pulled a bag full of clothes he doesn't really wear.  I had already  bagged up some clothes weeks ago to donate to the next Chrysalis garage sale, so I grabbed two bags of clothes and we headed out.  I was so incredibly impressed with the response and even moreso how organized it was.  They had traffic wrapping around the block directing with a drop for food, water, and clothes.  When we dropped our donations off, they already had more than one full truck (10x12 moving truck size) ready to head out.  I wanted to take a picture...but I got the dreaded "Card Full" message. 

We got back to my house and decided to turn on the generator because the fridge was warming up a bit.  30 minutes after the generator was fired up, the electric company knocked on the door and said we could turn it off...we were connected!!!  At least we finally used the generator we bought AFTER Wilma!

We closed up all the windows and decided to go check the island out...new memory card in hand :)  As was evidenced from my vantage point at home, we could find no damage other than a few broken branches here and there and ONE  tree down on 30th.  I suspect it was one of the replanted ones after Wilma and hadn't yet established a good root system.

On the waterfront, people were already dumping their sand bags and unboarding thier shops by 11:00am






And the waterfront looks untouched.  Notice how dry the streets are!  These photos were taken at 11am on 8/21/07 - the morning after Dean.  The wind is still blowing, but enough to cause any concern...it was nice cool air.



The square looks great as well!



Driving down further along the waterfront, still no damage.  In fact, the piers were all in tact, and the water is as blue and beautiful than ever.  It was brown for a week after Wilma.



I didn't have a chance to make it around to the other side of the island, but there are numerous confirmed reports that the road at Chen Rio is washed out again.  No passage is allowed past Iberostar on the west side, and no passage is permitted on the cross island road at this time.  This tells me that the other side did have some serious wave action.  I obviously have no pictures though.

I did stop by Paradise beach and they lost no beach, although the sand was pushed up some, but it will flatten itself out in a fairly short amount of time.  I haven't downloaded the card with the beach photos yet, so I'll post as soon as I get them downloaded.

So Cozumel dodged a big one!  No damage to speak of, and the island will be back to normal in a day or two.  At this point, everyone is just undoing the preparations that were made.  Dive ops with their boats at Meridiano dry dock may have delays getting their boats back in the water, but I suspect everyone will be operational again by the weekend.

Finally, for those of you who know Emma, you can see here that she took the storm very seriously!



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If you were impressed at how quickly the island recovered after Wilma in 2005, then you will be equally impressed at how organized and ready the island is for this storm, even though we are no longer expecting a direct hit.  It seems everyone learned alot from Wilma, and no one is willing to take any unnecessary chances for future hurricanes...even to the point of removing the thatching from palapa roofs.  I saw several palapas beiing dismantled.



At 10am this morning, virtually every home and business I drove by was boarded up or almost finished.  The streets are clean and people are calm.  Of course it's a beautiful day, you know what they say about the calm before the storm.



The ferries are gone and the last flights out will be today at noon I hear.  So if you're not already on a plane...you'res stuck here until this is all over.



My house was boarded up yesterday, but Mago made me a special peep strip so I can peek out and get a little air and light as well.



About  6:00pm, the wind started to pick up a little more than normal and we got our first rain band, it was uneventful.

About 8:00 it started getting a little windier and we had a very impressive lightning show.  I was able to capture some of it on video with my little camera, but I have to get my web master to load it onto the site.

I slept from midnight to 4:00 when Mago's sister called.  About five minutes into the call, as I was looking at the satellite online to give her an idea of what they were experiencing and how much longer it would last, the power went out!  I was able to get to the wired phone to call them back.  I got back to sleep about 5:00 and then woke up to my mom's call at 7:00 to check on us.  I never went back to sleep after that!
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The track this morning actually looks a little better, but still too early to do the happy dance!  We've seen this thing go from north to south and back again more than half a dozen times over the past few days, so there's nothing to say it can't change again.  Regardless, we are very calm and focused on the task at hand...preparing for the worst.






The office is boarded up and "priceless" items such as important files and all of the beautiful photos that have been gifted to me over the past couple of years have been removed from the office.  Preparing for a hurricane is like moving!

Stay tuned for more updates!

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How are we doing…I know that’s the lingering question.  We’re rather calm considering what we could be up against…AGAIN.  But we learned a lot from Wilma, so this time we know exactly what has to be done and we are prepared.

I just came in from the parking lot next door to the office, which is now the temporary home for Shamu and Bandida.  One huge relief is that the boats are out of the water surrounded by high walls.  Now we just have to secure them the best we can and hope nothing lands on top of them.

The house is boarded up except for the front living room window, and my bedroom window.  I don’t want to live in a cave until totally necessary.  We’ll board those up on Monday or tomorrow evening.

We started the generator to make sure it works...it's loud as hell, but it will give us refrigeration, water pumped to the tank when available, ceiling fans, and light where needed after the storm (still no AC). 

I've got 50 gallons of drinking water and a month worth of nutrisystems food (haha)...plus fruits and veggies, so we aren't going to go hungry.

I've put cell credit on all the crews’ phones, and paid all the bills I can for now.

The gas tank at home is full, so I can cook for myself and the crew after the storm.

I've withdrawn enough cash to get us through while the banks are closed and ATM machines are down.

I'm gathering up all of the important files right now and putting them in plastic portable file cases to take home with me, so that I can keep them dry in case the office floods.  Some may remember that most of my files were destroyed after Wilma.  Obviously the computer and electronics from the office are going home with me too. 

The truck, car and moped are full with gas...and we have an extra 100 liters to run the generator.

I've got all of the batteries and flashlights pulled out and ready to go.

I have 2 bottles of Vodka and a bottle of Rum to calm the nerves...I may need it this time around...even though I'm really not a big drinker...haha!

Our plan is to get the office boarded up and remove everything from the roof (AC units, internet antenna, and radio antenna) tomorrow...so we don't have to worry about it anymore and we can focus on our homes for the next two days.

At home, we still have to take down the satellite dish from the roof and turn off the gas from the roof…and cover the air conditioners…but that will be done Monday just before curfew sets in.

Here is the current track...it doesn't look good!  How can a direct hit from a Category 5 ever be good?

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