Sat sept 11th my g/f and I, along with one of my good friends and his g/f set sail with Royal Caribbean towards Key West, Cozumel, and Cococay. the cruise was typical, drinking, partying etc. But the part I mostly wanted to share was about the diving in both Cozumel and Cococay. Being that my g/f is fairly new to snorkeling/diving and my friends g/f was a first-timer, we just went easy and went out with tour group snorkel trips that stayed inside 30'. First off water clarity in both places was phenomenal, although I was surprised how cold the water in Cozumel was (I was cold in 30' with a rashguard on). Cozumel had a lot of reef structure even in shallow water, I think I went through 4 or 5 different caves in the 3 hour trip. In Cococay we never ventured deeper than 10' (stupid rules for beach diving and really there was no need). Overall a great cruise with some outstanding snorkeling.
Fish highlights were: an ~80lb grouper in 20' of water as soon as I got off the dive boat in Cozumel, really got my blood flowing and got me excited. saw another large grouper of about 20lbs as I swam through a cave, and saw a white snapper (thats what the tour guide told me it was) that was around 24". Cococay had literally dozens of 16+" mutton snapper everywhere!! the first one I found (in 5' of water) was probably 26" and I followed it to a deeper area (maybe 10') and found a school of 14-18" muttons hanging out around a sunken beach chair - also found a lobster under the beach chair. then later we say mutton that was probably pushing 30"!!!!!! Biggest one I've ever seen and none of them were skittish at all - clearly nobody spearfishes over there. I just couldn't believe that such large fish were in such shallow water and had absolutely no fear of people!
Fish lowlights: We saw a lot of lionfish in both Cozumel and Cococay, I am happy to report that any lionfish we found on the dive trip in Cozumel was killed. The tour guides there bring small kabob skewers with rubber bands to spear the lionfish and placed them in a 5 gallon bucket. In Cococay I didn't see as many but also had no way to kill the ones that we found. Lots of jellyfish in all dive locations, found out the hard way my g/f is allergic to jellyfish stings which kept her out of the water in Cococay.