Charlie's Diving Blog: Cocos Island, First Day of Diving, June 30, 2016

I've just returned to San Jose, Costa Rica, after a wonderful 12 day diving trip on the Sea Hunter (http://www.underseahunter.com/). We boarded Sea Hunter on the afternoon of June 28 and arrived at Cocos Island, 300 miles offshore, early on the morning of June 30th. Our trip was twelve days long with eight days of diving, returning to Puntarenas early on July 9th.

The 36 hour crossing was a bit rough at time though I found the ride very relaxing, it never was rough enough to stop me from reading, for instance. Tom Campbell, the professional underwater videographer that organized the trip, said it was the roughest of the nine trips he's taken to Cocos over the years.

June 28

Delightful bus ride from San Jose to Puntarenas. Rudy was a great driver with lots to tell us about the trees, crops, fruits, animals of Costa Rica. 96% literacy rate. Great success against the drug cartels. No wonder Costa Rica is such a popular country to retire to. 100,000 ex-patriot Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. Quite a number of Nicaraguans too. Unemployment of about 4%. I really love the look and feel of Costa Rica with the wide range of climate zones. You can have cool and dry to warm and wet rainforest and not that far apart.

The boat is delightful. Great dinner with steaks, great wine courtesy of Joe and Kelly. Beautiful islands we cruised past as sunset approached (too many clouds to see sunset). Small swell so boat ride is not too rocky (for most of us). Scattered clouds.

June 29, 2016

Rainy, squally now and then throughout the day. Visited briefly by dolphins and a red footed boobie. Great breakfast, best pineapple ever. Rougher in the evening. Great dinner with sea bass.

June 30, 2016

Arrived about 4:15 am, 36 hour crossing. Took mooring near Manuelita Island.

First dive at Chatham Bay at a protected site to get everyone into the swing of diving at Cocos. Maximum depth 53 ft. 81 degrees F. Saw a couple scalloped hammerheads. Several small white tipped reef sharks.

Chatham Bay and nearby Manuelita Coral Garden have very pretty coral reefs but the corals are not as diverse and robust as is found in most of the tropical Pacific. These reefs reminded me more of formerly healthy Caribbean reefs (increasingly rare).

Beth Davidow, Tom's partner and co-planner of our Cocos trip, with a white tip reef shark, one of the first of hundreds we would see in the next 8 days of diving.

Beth used my camera to get my picture with the white tip, the only underwater picture I'll have with me in it unless I get some from others on the trip.

Beth found this moray, one of several I saw on the trip but the only one I took time to photo on this trip. I was focused on sharks on the other dives...

The first Scalloped Hammerhead of the trip, hundreds were seen in the days to come.

Second dive at Manualita Coral Garden, lots of scalloped hammerheads, big 14 ft Tiger Shark, two Giant Manta Rays (or same one twice..), Marbled ray, lots of white tipped reef sharks.

A couple of the scalloped hammerheads we saw on this dive with Jerry, Peter, and Ryder (left to right).

Sitting still waiting for sharks also gives you the opportunity to be calmly visited by other fish in the neighborhood. I was very pleased with these three shots of a trumpet fish hunting cooperatively with a grouper. I've seen that many times but never got such good pictures of the behavior.

Third dive was Manuelita outside. Lots of big jacks, lots of white tipped reef sharks, big Dog snapper. Couple scalloped hammerheads but no close photos.

A curious Black Jack. We saw innumerable Black Jacks, Blue Fin Trevally, and Big Eye Trevally on our dives.

A Black Jack and a White Tipped Reef Shark hunting cooperatively. These fish are very aggressive partners on night hunts.

We finished our dive at Manuelita Island Outside with a drift for boat pickup. Here Manuel, our Blue Dive Team's dive guide, has deployed a buou while we do our safety stop.