Scuba Club Cozumel News & Events

Hurricane Wilma Update - November 28, 2005

A little more than a month has gone by since the storm and things are almost back to normal at Scuba Club Cozumel. Our first guests after the storm left Cozumel the 19th of November after a good week of diving. The comment most heard was on the amount of marine life found on all the dives. All were happy with the diving and all vowed to return and visit us in the near future.

The 19th of November was also a special day for us as we had a very nice turn out for Thanksgiving week arriving. A lot of our friends from way back were here to help us celebrate the week with our traditional turkey dinner. It truly was a great week as it was like one big happy family at the resort. We were as happy to see all our friends back at the resort as they were to be back. Seven good days of diving and our first night dive and wreck dives topped off the week.

As far as the resort goes we are rolling right along. We finished and opened the downstairs restaurant bar in time for Thanksgiving day. The beach is almost done as we smooth and distribute the sand. Our palapas are ready to be thatched and we only have a few rooms to go before we are back to 100%.

This will be the last update on Wilma as it is time to put the storm behind us and move on as we concentrate on providing the best Room, Meal and Diving packages available in Cozumel. We hope to see you all in the near future.

Hurricane Wilma Update - Nov. 12, 2005

Exactly 21 days after Wilma, Scuba Club Cozumel welcomed our first guests back to the resort. For this special occasion we hired a Mariachi band to welcome them to the resort. One of the comments we received was "either the storm didn’t harm you very much or you have been working very hard." We are proud to say that all of the employees worked non-stop to ready the resort for the 12th of November. We still have a lot of work to do but it has all been going well and every one has been cooperating .

Sunday November 13th, Scuba Cozumel took its first group of 13 people out diving. The group came back happy after diving Palancar Gardens and Tormentos reefs. It was nice to get back to what we do best—that is catering to divers. There were smiles on both the employees and guests faces at the end of the day.

We are pleased to report the following progress: Our court yard is green with new plants and the garden is looking great. Our pool is full and clean. The downstairs restaurant bar is completed and will be opening this week. We have sand on our beach and all of the walk ways are finished. Our famous hammock palapa is framed and should be thatched soon.

Once again we want to tell you we appreciate all the support from our clients and friends and are hoping to see you all soon.

Hurricane Wilma Update - Nov. 7, 2005

Two weeks have gone by since Wilma and Cozumel is really looking good. The local, state and Federal Government have really done a great job of getting Cozumel on its feet. Electricity, phone and water service are back on in most of Cozumel. The streets are cleared and people are hard at work getting their lives and businesses back to running order. Restaurants are now open, shops are opening, stores and taxi service are almost back to normal. The downtown area and water front avenue are looking good. In a lot of cases you won’t even realize that Wilma ever passed by.

One of the most common questions asked on our web mail is what you can do to help. I think in general Cozumel does not need charity as federal aid has been helping those most in need. Cozumel needs that you the tourist return so they can make an honest living doing what they do best, and that is catering to our tourism. Scuba Club Cozumel and Scuba Cozumel employees have been working non stop at the resort to make things ready for our Nov 15th opening. Yes we still have a lot to do, but things are taking shape.

As stated previously, we advised you that we would give you an update on the condition of the reefs. Last week we took the Reef Cat with several of our staff (William, Jesus and Manuel), out for site inspections. They spent the day checking out some of the reefs. The water visibility was still a little cloudy but not too bad. Their general consensus was the following. On the deeper reefs the damage was limited to soft coral and sponges. The storm did uncover parts of the reefs that have been under the sand for many, many years and there you see what is not damage, but the clearing of the roots of the reef itself. Many passages or tunnels that were once open are either closed or smaller and in turn many of the closed passages have opened up. On the shallower reefs, sand build up is the norm as it is after any storm. Please remember that Wilma was a natural event, an event that over the years has played out again and again. The beautiful coral formations of Cozumel are still intact and nature has its own way renewing and rebuilding itself. A lot of marine life was present during the dives they made.

Comments from the staff
William……… "I remember after Gilbert that Santa Rosa was changed. It sealed the caves I knew and opened new tunnels. After looking at Santa Rosa now I can see that some of the old caves have opened up again and some of the tunnels I knew by heart are closed."

Jesus…………"There was a lot of marine life on all the dives we made. The deeper reefs are generally in good shape. On the shallower reefs the contours of sand and coral have changed. The reefs have not been totally destroyed or gone like some have been saying."

Manuel (alias Free Willie) our resident critter expert says………."I saw a lot of marine activity during our dives. The southern reefs are still good. The people have to understand that we have had 2 storms in less than 3 months. The reefs aren't perfect but even a less than perfect dive on our reefs I think is still a good dive"

Maybe you will just need to come down and judge for yourself

Hurricane Wilma Update - Nov. 1, 2005

It's been a little over a week since the storm died down and we started to clean, scrape, paint and rebuild the damage done by Wilma. Over all we have made great progress at the resort. Every day it looks better and better. All the staff is working hard to make the resort ready to receive guests as soon as possible.

Our last guests were finally able to fly out of Cozumel the 27th of October and this allowed us to get into the rooms and start a thorough clean up. We have replaced the glass in over half the rooms and the old section of the hotel is ready. It has been slow in other areas as supplies are limited. Saturday the ferry that brings trucks and cars to Cozumel resumed service and this is helping tremendously as the stores were running out of merchandise. This also allowed the trucks and equipment necessary to get the city power up and running to arrive in Cozumel.. I'm happy to report that SCC has city power since Oct 31st in the afternoon.

I know the big question that every one wants to know about are the conditions of the reefs. We plan on checking this out this in the next day or two and will post our findings on this news page when available. We have been very busy and are working hard to be able to open on a limited basis by Nov. 15th. We will give you another update as soon as possible.

Hurricane Wilma Update

Scuba Club Cozumel would like to thank all our friends for their concern about the staff. We appreciate all the calls and emails. Wilma turned out to be a very big storm that as you know lasted three days.

We are glad to report that we had no casualties and all our guests and staff are fine and accounted for. At this time we still have 80 guests in the resort and are one of the only hotels offering any type of service. Since there haven't been any flights out of Cozumel we have given room and meals to all the guests that we had at the resort since the storm hit.

We started clean up Sunday morning with the staff. Everyone is chipping in and we have made a lot of progress. At this time we have started to replace windows and make repairs. There is no other type of construction that can withstand a storm like Wilma like the construction of our resort. As any of you who have stayed with us know, our rooms are practically waterproof. Since we have no rugs, no dry wall and very little furniture that can be damaged, this has allowed us to clean, dry and get rooms ready in the last few days.

Cosmetically we need paint and our beautiful courtyard is not green at this time, but will be soon. The greatest damage was on the beach. At this time we have no sand or palapas and your favorite hammock area is gone. Fortunately all these are things that can be replaced in a very short time.

The dining room and kitchen were virtually untouched and are in use today servicing three meals a day. We had no damage in the dive shop area at all. Compressor, tanks and classroom are in great shape. Out of our fleet of seven boats, six are fine. The Divecat suffered damage.

We are planning to reopen the resort on the 15th of November. At that time we calculate that we will have almost all the rooms done and will be able to provide our famous Room, Meals and Diving packages.