Aldora Divers

In Cozumel but Can’t Dive?  ….Oh--Yes you Can!
 

As you may know, even here in Paradise we have weather events that keep us from diving our normally placid and beautiful reefs. The most common are our near famous “Nortes” which can occur anytime but are most prevalent in the wintertime. Varying in severity they are actually just a continuation of the strong and cold, dry north winds that make Houston freeze, appearing in Cozumel 1-2 days later. Of course other storms can happen all year long and like almost any dive location, weather related port closures are common.

When bad weather does arrive the result can range from discomfort for divers, both temperature and rough seas, to complete closure of the port to all boats. In between there may be restrictions on smaller boats. When the port is closed that can be a great inconvenience to divers especially when events unfold like happened in early November 2006, where the port was completely closed for 5 straight days. Indeed, many disappointed divers never even got wet on their vacation!

Aldora Divers highly values their loyal dive customers and has worked very hard to develop ways to prevent that from ever happening to them. So, how can Aldora guaranty that their customers will get to dive? Let’s count the ways!

40 Foot Boat Rule

In moderate sea conditions the Part Captain frequently allows larger boats to go to sea. But there are not enough larger boats in Cozumel to meet the demand. The good news in this is that usually when the north part of the island has large waves, the south is more in the lee of the wind and thus usually calmer. All the large boat has to do is get south to the dive sites and it is not too rough.

In the past Aldora did a good job of securing large rental boats to provide dives to its customers, but those were seldom up to the standards of Aldora. After an agonizingly long construction period , Aldora now has a new 40 foot boat named the Falice. The Falice is big and rated for 16 divers, but it is just as fast as the smaller Aldora Fleet and more comfortable in rough weather.

Normally the Falice will have groups no larger than 6 divers but during port closures that may increase to 8 so as to give more divers a chance to get wet. In addition, to accommodate all of our customers, a truncated dive schedule may be used—but everyone is assured of diving if they want to.

Windward Diving

Aldora has been taking divers out on the Windward east side of Cozumel for some time, and indeed has the only boats stationed and running regular trips for those who are interested in the “Other Cozumel”. Spanish Galleons, forests of elk horn coral, and many other things, make this diving quite different than the Westside. What we have opened up truly makes it One Island—Two Dive Destinations!

But when “Nortes” blow and the Westside is closed to diving it makes it very easy to dive the eastside. It is on those days that it would really pay to be diving with Aldora.

Indeed, in November of 2006 the Westside was closed to all boats for 5 straight days. Many vacationers never got to dive at all, and most of those that did had to settle for pretty boring beach dives on the eastside which were hastily set up by their dive shops. The two photographs below, taken on the same day, from the same place--graphically show the two alternatives for diving on the East Side.

Aldora Customers Ready to Go

How Others Dive the Eastside

Cenote Trips

Another service we offer our dive customers all the time, but is especially important during a port closure, is a guided, all-inclusive trip to dive the world famous cenotes and underwater caves on the mainland. Given that your Aldora Dive Guides are all PADI Master Scuba Diving Instructors, and most of them are also Certified Cave Diving Instructors, the same competent people who show you such great diving in Cozumel can safely take you through some amazing underwater caverns. Everything is taken care of for you, even your dive gear is transported without having you touch a thing. All transportation is provided and you will be escorted every step of the way, over and back, with lunch included.

Summary

So, you see, Aldora continues to raise the bar of service in Cozumel and do everything we can to guaranty that their customers get what they came for…DIVE. When bad weather hits, which is pretty common in the winter, our divers get to dive anyway and have many good choices.