C-53 Felipe Xicoténantl Wreck Dive 2007, Cozumel Mexico

15 May 2007

I have been researching this wreck for a couple years now and I finally got the chance to dive it. It was a heck of a lot bigger than I had imagined.

C-53 Felipe Xicoténantl is a WWII era minesweeper built in 1944 which was eventually sold to the Mexican government in 1962. After many years of service in drug interdiction it was sunk off the coast of Cozumel (a fairly decent swim out from Chankanaab bay) in 70 feet of water in 1999. C-53 is about 207 feet long, 40 feet high and has numerous openings to ingress and egress. Make sure you bring a flashlight as many areas are dark. I didn't have mine because we didn't actually plan for this particular dive.

Getting to C-53 is a piece of cake as the boat moors to a buoy and you descend on a rope to the bow deck. I would suggest a dive suit of some sort (I normally dive in Mexico in shorts and a t-shirt) as there are many sharp edges and lots of rust. I took a small scrape to the back of the leg in a particularly dark area trying to get through a tight turn.

We dove with the great guys from Blue Bubble Dive Shop, info below.

Click on a picture for a larger, higher resolution view.

Descending the buoy line	Matthew	Karen on deck
Bow looking to stern	Going down and around the wreck	Towards the back
Props	The stern	67 feet on the bottom
Heading to ingress point	Karen getting ready to go in	Room with a view
Battery banks?	Engine room	Engine room
Karen	One egress point	Another room with a view
Another room	Getting ready to egress	Mooring lines
On deck	Towards bow	Crows nest looking back
Bridge	Looking towards stern	Bridge
Further astern	Karen near bridge	Karen
Near bridge	Looking at bow	Matthew
Bow	Yours truly	Yours truly
Yours truly	Front of bridge	Top of bridge
Ascent looking down	Ascent looking down	Ascent looking down
Ascent looking down	Ascent looking down