Off to Cave Dive Camp again!

Hello, all! It's been a while since I've posted a blog but that's not because I'm not doing interesting things. In the past six months I've been diving in Belize, diving in Florida with Kathleen (dove Spiegel Grove on her birthday!!), survived Pennsic, and learned to Rock Climb. Climbing is my new "thing" and although I was sure I would enjoy it before I started, I know it is a sport that I will get more and more involved with as time goes by. The fitness is good. The thrill of completing a challenging climb is exhilirating.

But this isn't my climbing blog, it's about diving and more specifically Cave Diving. Well, we are back in Cozumel once again and I've been here now for about four weeks and roughly 24 open-water dives. Connie LoRe's week-long cave tour starts tomorrow and I have to say -- I'm stoked and ready! I've spent the past year going over what was successful and what I learned on the last trip and have made quite a few changes.

Bought a brand new Nitrox tester

Bought one more set of Atomic Aquatics regulators, then changed two of them over to DIN (the 3rd set remains Yoke for open water)

Got my Dive Rite H10 light serviced and overhauled

Tested the endurance of ALL my batteries: dive light, camcorder battery and camcorder housing lights

Repaired an annoying hole in my BCD's bladder

Bought new safety spools, spring clips, a brand new primary reel, stabilizer plates... basic cave diver knick-knacks

Made my own solution of Ear Drops which I will use at the end of each dive day

Bought a new bottle of "Oto-Eni" (just in case the Drops aren't enough)

Replaced my CPSC recalled regulator swivel with an official Atomic Aquatics swivel

Had Light and Motion clean the optics of the camcorder housing (even though I'd done a pretty good job last year, I decided to have them do it right)

Mind you, none of these changes will make me a better diver. But I felt it important to do things entirely "by the book" especially when safety is concerned. So, tomorrow at 11 AM, I will leave this tiny island of Cozumel to join five other cave divers I have never met and start cave diving some of the most beautiful underwater caves in the whole world.

I'm ready!

How much does Cave Diving cost?

Here's a footnote on how much this trip will cost. This is the trip cost only, does not include any of the uber-expensive gear you have to own to go cave diving. Nor did it include my costs for getting there which were round-trip on the Cozumel ferry and a week long car rental. I got a stupendously good rate on the car rental.

For one week staying at Villas de Rosa, six days of guided dives by Connie into seven cave sites, being ferried to each cave site by chauffeur Roberto in a seven-passenger stretch van, three meals a day at Villas de Rosa, tips for the chauffeur and maid service, and applicable landowner/cave entry fees:

Approximately $1500.

The two extras I have tacked on are a $175 single-room supplement (sorry, I just cannot share a room with an unknown person, not knowing if they will snore and keep me up all week) and a $120 nitrox fee. Diving this regularly for such long dives, nitrox is recommended.


If you work it out to a per dive cost, that's about $120 per dive, or roughly $1.50 per minute of diving. (Each dive averages 80 minutes, probably longer)

Compare that to open-water diving in Cozumel. If I factor in room and board and assume 3 dive days per week (6 dives), that's $88 per dive, or $1.50 per minute of diving. (Each dive averages 60 minutes)