Waiting to head home.

On our last day, we had to check out of the hotel, but our plane did not leave until later in the afternoon. We took a taxi into San Miguel and used El Puertal as a home base. Gabe and myself held down the fort while the others checked out the town. In the first shot Tara has come by to check in. Not sure where the damned sombrero came from. Next is Magic. In the next shot, Terri came by to check in and thank the waiter for taking care of Gabe and myself. In the last shot is yours truly and Gabe and that damned hat. I had more than my share of Cuba Libres (rum, coke, and lime) over the weekend and was truly feeling no pain. Overall, it was a really great trip, just way too short.

Meeting new people.

Dennis and Charla Warren, Butch Neely and date Debbie (don't know her last name), Wendall (Gabe) and Barbara (Magic) Gabier also made the trip down. In addition to them, we met a couple at the hotel, Tara and her husband. Can't remember his first name or their last name at this time. Magic dubbed him Bart Simpson and that's what we called him. In this picture, you see see Tara, Magic, and Terri on board the dive boat Danielle II. If you look closely you can see the owner and our Divemaster Jose between Tara and Magic. If I remember correctly, we were headed out to Santa Rosa Reef. Again if memory serves, it was a really great dive.

Funjet to Cozumel.

Sometime around May of 1993 I got a call from a family friend (Charla Warren) who was working as a travel agent at the time. She said that she had a really good deal on a trip to Cozumel. The price was good but just so-so, then she informed me that it was buy one, get one free. I immediately gave her my credit card number. We headed down in June for a 3 night 4 day whirlwind trip. We did get in some diving but mainly just had a really good time. The above shot is of Terri on a beach dive at Chancanab National Park.

The trip home.

Soon it was time to pull anchor and head back to Texas. We sailed North up the coast of the Yucatan and put in at Isla Mujeres for a few days. There we tied up to the fuel dock and had a really nice time. While there, Terri decided to do our laundry. You can see Breakaway tied up at the fuel dock and all the laundry hung out to dry in this shot. After a few days we headed North again and spent the next six days getting home.

After the dive party.

After the dive, we headed back toward our anchorage. But first we made a stop. John nosed the boat up close to shore and we dropped anchor. We then swam to shore and had a few drinks at a beach bar. Really a good end to a very good day. The last shot shows us headed back out to the boat.

Our first open water dive.

As I said earlier, this was our first open water dive. We had only done check out dives in a small lake prior to this trip. John Bankston from the Beaumont/Port Arthur area happened to also be in Cozumel on his large MV and took us diving. He personally knew a Divemaster who always dove with them. Charo (the Divemaster) took very good care of Terri as you can see. The other shot is of myself and Gabe Gabier at around 90 feet on Palancar. I was hooked.

Our first trip to Cozumel.

Our first trip to Cozumel was a flight down with Joanne Moser to meet up with her husband Jack. This trip took place sometime around the first part of July 1990. Jack and Bill Worsham had sailed down several weeks earlier from Port Arthur, Texas. Bill was flying home and Terri and I were going to help Jack and Joanne sail Breakaway home. Wendall (Gabe) and Cherie Gabier had also come down to Cozumel on their boat, Canvasback. They were planning to go on further South when we left to head North.

Here's a shot of Breakaway riding at anchor in Cozumel. This shot was taken from the deck of Canvasback



Terri and I learned how to scuba dive before we made the trip and have loved the sport ever since. We were very novice divers and had never been in "open water". Only did our check out dives in a lake. This was our first experience with clear, salt, water diving but we both knew immediately it wouldn't be our last.