Day 4 – JAN 6 - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Day 4 – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Friday 2012-01-06)

Today we are arriving at 12noon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, this will be a 5 hour shore stop, and the Ship will use tenders to get us to shore, as we there is no pier to accommodate cruise ships. The Disney Ship Wonder is also in port as well.

I went Scuba Diving in Cabo and Karen went on a land/sea tour of the area.

Karen's Tour:

The tour started out on a small catamaran which took us around Land's End, the southernmost point of Cabo. The golden sand and rock formations with an prominent arch was the main point of interest. We then boarded three motor coaches which took us along the scenic coast and up the cliffs to Misiones del Cabo Hotel. At the Sunrise on Mona Lisa Restaurant, we spread out across the manicured sand and rocks on comfortable lounge chairs to watch the fish and seals in the bay. The perfect blue skies and warm sun made for a pleasant afternoon.

Ken's Scuba Adventure

There were only 2 others plus on crew member who went scuba diving in Cabo, with Cabo Adventures. I brought my own equipment, except for the BCD, which was a mistake. The BCD was missing the rear pull for the rear valve which would prove to be an almost fatal mistake. The water visibility was very poor, one could only see about 10ft due to all the sand turbulence and so many boats going back and forth along the shore.

I dove down to about 79ft and there was a fantastic underwater wall with sand falling over it like a water fall. The group started back up to 39ft after about 17 minutes of being underwater. I ran in to my problem at that point when I started to raise and was unable to release air from my BCD, even after pulling on all release valves, but remember there was not “pull” on the rear valve, it was missing. This BCD was almost the same as mine so I was very familiar with this equipment. I ended up on the surface in one minute, without my safety stop at 15ft for 3minutes. I did bubble out the on the fast ride to the surface, and my dive computer want into “emergency”, but there was not much I could do to stop the rapid assent. I was about 300ft from the dive boat and my concern was DCS and my own safety of being run over by all the boats and watercraft that have no regard to swimmers and divers. I made it back to the dive boat.

I am very lucky not to have had a serious medical issue and so far no signs of DCS, it would have effected me right away and within a 12 hour period.

I would never recommend this dive organization or this location, and note to file NEVER use rental shop equipment in Mexico. My local dive shop warned me ablaut this before we took this cruise.

I rested up in the evening, and can report that I am back to my normal self, having escaped a near death experience on my 63^rd dive, I think everyone has had one of these in their dive experiences.