Family Dive, page 4
Long before I had ever thought of strapping a tank to my own back and swimming around down there, I had heard of the diving on Cozumel. The legend was that it was crystal clear water teaming with life. The place one visualizes as they set up a saltwater aquarium in their living room. So, we had the manager of our condo set up a beginner dive for us. Unfortunately, I didn’t really read the receipt he gave us until the evening before our trip. Our reservation was for two dives (tanks) with four adults. While some people may not see that this as a potential issue, I feared it might be. At the dude ranch, I know that if a child showed up for a horseback ride that was to be all adults, this would change our plan for the ride, and delay things as we changed saddles and horses around. At that point, our only way to find out was to go ask.
The dive master, a man named Serge, was rather worried about Marlie. She is 10 years old but could pass for 8. This was a much larger operation, with several instructors, groups coming and going, what seemed efficient chaos. We ended up spending a fair amount of time waiting, as he decided it would be best for us to take a beach dive from the dock for our first tank to see how Marlie would do. We would join a group coming in for their first dive after classroom and pool time.
The dive shop came recommended, and they seemed to have a good handle on things. The equipment did not look new, as it did at AHA in Puerto Morelos. The sheer numbers they worked with had to make the operation completely different. A rather big downside of this happened to Hannah as she took her giant stride into the water from the dock. Breathing in, she took a big gulp of sea water as she hit the surface. After coughing it out and trying a second time, she had me try. The regulator was clearly broken, and I took my mouthful of saline. I flagged over one of the instructors in the water, and his expression made it pretty clear he got the same when he tried. He gave her the backup regulator, or octopus, and put the primary in her pocket. We were only going down 15 -20 feet, she could surface if there was an emergency.
Once in the water, Marlie was far more self sufficient than many of the people in the other group. Before we left the dock area, Serge signaled Marlie to kneel, take out, and recover her regulator. Seeing that she did it comfortably, with no hesitation, she was good to go. He did let her hold the rope of the buoy line he pulled around so she could keep up. There was part of an old airplane at the bottom, with fish who have made the wreck their home. I understand that before Wilma, the whole craft was still there. The hurricane left only the tail behind. Marlie caught a bit of jellyfish with her knee, and although it hurt quite a lot, stayed calm down at the bottom.