If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Cozumel Anchor Ahoy
Today (Nov 15) is the second day the port is re-opened to cruise ship,
requiring all ships to be anchored or moored because all the cruise ship piers had been severely damaged by hurricane Wilma. Four cruise ships are in Cozumel today, and tomorrow -- the most this week, with only one ship scheduled to come in on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, according the Festival annoucement on Nov 11: http://www.cometocozumel.com/english/wilma/default.asp The Star Princess anchored at approximately 7:15 am (local), and passengers are being tendered to shore by boats I've not see in Cozumel before -- several identical blue-and-yellow ferry size boats, with capacity of 400-500 passengers (according to the Princess patter briefing) instead of the much smaller tenders of the cruise ship. These must be ferry boats brought from Cancun, for the tendering tasks this week. Even with those large special tenders, the transfer of 2,600 passengers to shore is expected to take 2-3 hours. The Star Princess is anchored at a distance of between 1/2 and 3/4 miles from shore -- a surprisingly long distance away, possibly as a special rule for the week that anchoring must be outside the boundry of the marine part, It's directly off the shore of the Puerta Maya Pier where the ship would have docked had the pier not been destroyed by Wilma. For those divers who are concerned with the anchoring cruise ships damaging the reefs of Cozumel dive sites, I can say positively and unequivocally (based on my well over 1,200 dives in Cozumel) that there is NO WAY in Hell (ooops, that's in the next stop at Grand Cayman) that the anchoring at that distance from shore in the channel that it could damage any coral (if there's any at that distance and depth) that is ever seen by any diver in Cozumel, nor could it possibly make any difference to the reefs south of the Puerta Maya pier. So, that's good news. Reefs and diving will not be adversely affected in any way by the presence of the cruise ships, provided the DIVE SHIOPS themselves have sufficiently recovered (or survived) from hurricane Wilma's physical and economical impact. This is the first time in 18 years that we are in Cozumel WITHOUT our dive gears, because it didn't appear that Cozumel could handle the cruise ship traffic by yesterday, when we left home 10 days ago. We had already written off Grand Cayman as a port to dive since we had already done all the sites that are worth diving there (within striking distance of the cruise ship) and we were already sick of diving Stingray City (having done it more than a dozen times, and sat out the last two). None of the other ports of call is worth the trouble of getting wet. :-) So, we are not in any hurry to get into the long line of passengers to scramble ashore, and plan to go as soon as the crowd clears, two to three hours from how, and still have all afternoon to re-visit the town, for the third time this year. -- Bob. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Cozumel Welcomes Cruisers with a Festival! | Ray Goldenberg | Cruises | 3 | November 15th, 2005 08:44 AM |
Carnival To Cozumel Details! | Ray Goldenberg | Cruises | 2 | November 10th, 2005 10:26 PM |
Cozumel news | George Leppla | Cruises | 17 | October 31st, 2005 06:52 PM |
Cozumel report on 8/4/05 Carnival Sensation cruise | Andy P. Jung | Cruises | 1 | August 18th, 2005 07:22 AM |
Cozumel status | Dillon Pyron | Cruises | 2 | July 22nd, 2005 11:45 AM |