| A group of 18 HUC members, led by President David Cawthon and Vice-President Teresa Roberts, ventured off to the wonderful diving world of Belize over this past July 4th. We were headed for the Belize Aggressor III for a week of fantastic diving on the world’s second largest barrier reef. |
| We had a quick, 2½ hr direct Continental flight from Houston right into Belize City and arrived around dinner time. Upon arrival, the Aggressor crew was at the airport ready to whisk us away to the boat and get our vacation started. 0 After loading up the gear and jumping into the two vans, we had a short 20 minute drive to the dock where our boat was moored. There she was — our beautiful boat, or rather, our home for the next week! |
| We left the dock early Sunday morning and headed east to the offshore atolls. We pulled up to our first dive site on Turneffee around 7:30 am. The typical schedule for the week was to dive each site twice before moving to the next site. Since there was no current to contend with on the walls, you would dive in one direction on your first dive and set out in the opposite direction for your second dive. After two morning dives, the boat would move to a new dive site and we’d follow the same routine for the afternoon. |
| The night dives were conducted on the same afternoon site and upon conclusion of the night dive the boat would then move again and be at a new site before bedtime. This meant no loud engines running while you’re trying to get catch some zzzz’s. It was peaceful at night — just our boat, the gentle rocking motion of the waves and the awesome stars. Nothing or no one else in sight. |
| The boat continued southeast to Lighthouse Reef for a majority of our diving. This reef is typically only visited by live-aboards due to its distance from the mainland. The reef was teeming with life — corals, sponges, fish, crustaceans. Conditions were perfect — visibility was excellent, water temps were in the 80’s and there was sunshine everyday. Overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of fish and the diversity of species on our first dives, we all knew it was going to be a great week! |
| By mid-week we had traveled as far as the famous Blue Hole. This was a first time dive for a number of the group and we had great conditions. We made a slow decent and encountered stalactites around 110 ft. It was a short dive at depth but the shallow sandy area surrounding the hole kept us occupied at 25 ft for quite a while. This is where we encountered the seldom seen Bluethroat Pikeblenny. |
| Needing to take a longer surface interval after our dive in the Blue Hole, we opted to visit the booby sanctuary on the uninhabited Half Moon Caye. While being shuttled over to the island, we passed rays and nurse sharks grazing in the shallows. Chris, our Aggressor dive master and videographer, led a walking tour around the island. He was very knowledgeable of the vegetation and wildlife living on the island. To catch the best view of the blue footed boobies and the frigates, we each hoisted ourselves up the steep medal stairs which opened onto a viewing platform at tree top level. It was a little nerve racking for those of us afraid of heights but worth the adventure. Enough of the birds, back to the diving! |
| As the week was winding down, our dives were getting better and better. We were averaging 70 to 80 minutes bottom times and the conditions were continuing to be perfect. We had seen a lot of the big stuff — various types of eels, turtles, rays, and groupers. The 5-6 ft tarpon were cool during the day but a little unnerving at night! The highlight of the week was on the last morning. A pod of seven bottlenose dolphin passed by us. They were absorbed in their morning routine and didn’t pay a bit of attention to us. What we didn’t know is that they had come to see the boat off and leave us with a lasting memory of the wonderful underwater world of Belize. |
