Blackwater diving requires a great deal of coordination, a tolerance for ambiguity, and luck. The boat departs from the port south of San Miguel after the sun sets when there are enough divers and the conditions are right. Rob Stansfield of Blackwater Cozumel (You can find his amazing work on his Instagram page) finishes an amazing briefing as the sun sets, and the boat heads past the protective reef, into the void. For about 90 minutes, we float in space, slowly creeping back to the surface and the lights on land when we exhaust our air supplies.

The highlight of the trip was the pyrosomes and the juvenile flying fish. I was lucky to get anything in focus with the 105mm lens. Out of about 500 shots, these were the ones that seemed worth sharing.

This was the last dive before the Norte storms brought the cold weather and rain to the last few days of 2022, and it left me hoping for many more safe trips to the black water in 2023.