Winter Flights, Shop News, The Josie J Wreck

As we're now well into the swing of winter, the seasons for flights to Roatan have changed once again, so here is a brief update on your options for direct flights to the island:

From Houston with United/Continental on Saturdays (2 flights) and Sundays (1 flight).  In the Christmas season they have also added a Friday flight.

From Atlanta with Delta on Saturdays (1 flight)

From Miami with American Airlines on Saturdays (1 flight)

From Toronto/Montreal with Sunwing Airlines on Mondays, and CANJet on Thursdays (the departure airport varies throughout the seasons.

From a variety of Central American mainland airports with TACA.

A variety of different websites can help you with multi-city and stopover itineraries; my personal favourite is Skyscanner, as it also indexes "low cost airlines", and has many different search options.

This past Sunday we had a visit from Michael Barnette, founder of the Association of Underwater Explorers and prolific cave and wreck diver and writer to check out the Josie J.  Marco, who was Tec certified by Monty earlier in the year, served as his guide and dive buddy on their 190ft profile.  Here are a few highlights from the trip - taken and generously provided by Michael.

Marco and the bus under the Josie J

For Michael's article on Roatan Wrecks (he will be checking out El Aguila on Saturday), we have managed to secure the original footage of when the Josie J sank, courtesy of Mickey Charteris, author and photographer of the brand-new Caribbean Reef Life fish/creature ID book (more details on that as they come).  We hope to be able to extract some viable stills from that footage for the article!

In other shop news, Marco (instructor) and Marco (DMT) had a slow day in the shop, so they decided to do an underwater cleanup of Half Moon Bay.  On their expedition, they had a Spotted Sea Hare En.  Great job, guys!

Before Clean Up

After Clean up

Spotted Sea Hare

It is almost Christmas after all, so we dug out the Christmas decorations from their hiding place in the back room, including our very own Rusty Fish Christmas tree.  Our....other "Christmas Tree" hasn't been brought back yet...photos to come closer to the day!

Rusty Fish Christmas Tree

Recent Sightings

If you are interested in seeing more of our photos from dives and courses, check out our Photo Gallery on our website, or the Photo Albums on our Facebook page.  If you find yourself in any of our photos, like our page and tag yourself.

Half Moon Bay Weather Report

Sunny, calm and clear.

Photo Contest

Don't forget: the Sunglasses Photo Contest is still on...submit your entry before the deadline!

Safety First and DMT Resuce

As many of you know, the Coconut Tree Divers motto has always been "Safety First".  We always have oxygen and first aid kits on the boat and in the shop, we check in between dives with our VHF radio and we make up a dive roster sheet for each outgoing boat.  In addition to this, Captains Carl and Fred (who stay on the boat to watch bubbles whilst the divers are down) are EFR certified.

We have made some new additions to our safety equipment, mostly thanks to generous donations from EMT Rich Young from Saskatchewan.  We now have two back boards (longspine boards), complete with full straps and neck supports, as well as neck braces.  Only one of two working AEDs (Automatic External Defibrilators) in West End is now at Coconut Tree (Tree is working on the display cabinet - thanks to Rich's suggestion).  We also restocked on Epi Pens, for use in case of severe allergic reactions; one for each first aid kit and a stock in the dive shop.  A trauma kit with miscellaneous items is also on its way by cargo.

Check out a few photos in our gallery from our latest training session with Rich where we covered backboard use and transportation with an initial trauma assessment.  Included are also extracts from today's PADI Divemaster Trainee Rescue Assessment Exercises with Chef Marco, ScubaMax and Canadian Cole.

Trauma Assessment.  Saskatchewan Rich is the one with the coffee cup

log roll and head support

In-water rescue breaths

Surfacing the unresponsive diver

Half Moon Bay Weather Report

Overcast, enough rain to clog up the softball field yet again.  4 Dives out today.

Last but not Least

Don't forget about our CTD Shades photo contest

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