Go on,
SPOIL
yourself!
You can get five good dives a day from the Belize Aggressor if you play your cards right, but Mark Webster was seduced by the hot towels, in-situ air-fills and wide-screen TV!
It was the Jacques Cousteau films of the late '60s that first made me interested in the undersea world, but the spur to learn to dive came later, when I saw the electrifying Blue Water, White Death by Stan Waterman. It also inspired me to become an underwater photographer.
Life has an odd way of reviving memories, as occurred for me with the combination of a location made famous by Cousteau (the Belize Barrier Reef) and a luxury liveaboard trip hosted by gentleman-diver and raconteur Stan Waterman!
My most recent memory of the area was of the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in late 1998. Its centre was at the southern end of the reef, with tragic consequences in Honduras, but I had heard varying reports of underwater damage further north.
Other hurricanes have struck there since but it seems that most of the reefs escaped any noticeable damage, though locals say that inshore reefs around Ambergris Cay did suffer. However, our trip took us offshore, to the outer atolls of Turneffe Island and Lighthouse Cay, which are surrounded by sheer drop-offs and very deep water.
Belize, bordered by Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the west and south, is a big-name diving location. Such places, particularly with a large US customer base, tend to trade in luxury.
The Belize Aggressor is spacious, comfortable and dedicated to maximising your diving. On the huge dive deck, everyone has a big locker under a bench seat, with his or her cylinder charged in situ with air or nitrox via a hard-plumbed system.
Photographers have access to a three-tier camera table and dedicated E6 lab. There are no formal check-out dives and you don't have to dive with a divemaster. In the case of photographers it's accepted that we often prefer solo diving, so the idea is to select whatever level of service and attention you desire.
Our first night aboard took us to the reefs around Turneffe. The atoll is teardrop-shaped and runs north-south, sheltering it on the western side from the predominantly easterly trade winds.
All the sites have a permanent mooring, generally in 10-15m close to the beginning of the drop-off. Even when the current is 'running', it is mild by UK standards, so the diving is easy, though you can choose to dive deep on the walls.
At Silver Caves the reef started 8m below the boat, the top of the wall appearing at 9m, then dropping sheer. We explored large gullies and swim-throughs, with one in particular, almost a cave, occupied by a dense shoal of silversides. On the wall were a classic profusion of tube, barrel and rope sponges with many branching gorgonians, the Caribbean's trade mark. The reef was in excellent condition, with large and healthy coral formations.
There was some pelagic activity off the wall, with tarpon, barracuda and large shoals of horse-eye jacks, bar jacks and Bermuda chub, which collected under the boat soon after we moored. The end of the dive can be spent in shallow coral gardens in 6-7m, with fine large branching gorgonians and many purple specimens with resident flamingo tongues. On the reef we saw nervous trunkfish, snappers and the odd barracuda.
On a night dive we were met by several dozen massive tarpon, with remoras patrolling below the boat under the floodlights. These showed no fear as they barged past us.
The night life was stunning, with colourful basket and brittlestars climbing out to feed, bright red lobsters, red pistol shrimps and arrow crabs picking their way over the sponges, several species of nudibranchs and all the colour of the tubastrea and brain coral polyps feeding.
I didn't honestly expect to find any eagle rays at Eagle Ray Wall, which fell sheer from 9m to a ledge at 35-40m. Black coral trees reached out from a wall decorated with bright blue tunicates and seemed to attract large black grouper which used them as camouflage. As I made my way up to the shallows, what should appear but two eagle rays just 10m away!
The night dive here produced more dive-bombing by huge tarpon, feeding on a bait-ball of silversides attracted by our floodlights. A massive lone Nassau grouper didn't seem to have the courage to leave the bottom and join the fray. These big fish move incredibly quickly but seem to know you're there, missing you by inches with each pass they make through the lights!
The second half of our week was spent diving the reefs around the atoll of Lighthouse Reef and Half Moon Cay. This atoll is the farthest offshore and offers perhaps the best diving. At its centre is a collapsed cave system, the famous Blue Hole first documented by Cousteau.
Using a local boatman, even a large boat like the Aggressor can reach it through the shallow waters and patch reefs. Thanks to Cousteau blasting part of the reef at the entrance to the hole to allow the Calypso to enter, we were able to sail in and use a mooring that dangled us over the 170m depths.
To appreciate the size of this circular hole you need to view it from the air, but steaming across it is still impressive. Entering the water is disappointing, however, as the water has a green cast and the viz is poor. But as you descend the sides of the reef you hit a thermocline at 15-20m and it clears dramatically.
The wall continues sheer to 30m and the first undercut and stalactites appear. As I reached 42m and weaved between them, my fisheye lens was stopped down to f2.8. I was shooting at 1/15th of a second yet still there was barely enough light!
Once you've seen the first few stalactites you've seen all that the Blue Hole has to offer Ð there is no life down here.
Ascending gently back up the wall to the shallow reef at the top brings you back into the reef patches, which are heavily silted. There is some coral and fish life, but nothing like the spectacular reefs on the edge of the atoll, because of the very limited water movements in the shallow lagoons surrounding the hole. It's a must-do dive, but once should be enough.
At Half Moon Cay the boat moored over a sandy plain with an extensive eel-grass bed gently sloping to a reef with deep cuts and swim-throughs leading to the top of the wall in 16m. The wall is striking and colourful and the reef on its edge lush, with large, approachable schools of blue-lined snappers.
At the end of the dive you can make your way back to the eel-grass, where bumphead parrotfish and hogfish with attendant bar jacks feed in the sand. These groups are followed by goatfish, triggerfish and the occasional grouper picking up scraps.
At the edge of the eel-grass on the sandy plain, several southern sting rays were feeding in the sand, oblivious to a close approach. A pair of spadefish and grey angelfish circled above the rays, waiting to pick up left-overs.
As we moored at Lighthouse Reef at sunrise, two young Atlantic dolphins began circling. We leapt in to snorkel with them, keeping up using a scooter (the boat carries several).
The Quebrade dive site starts in 6-8m around the mooring, with scattered coral heads leading to a sheer drop-off at 9m. At the top of the wall are several cleaning stations and the customers appeared to be mostly barracuda, patiently queuing and apparently assuming I was another client. Trying to photograph them, I was constantly distracted by a hawksbill turtle making close passes and demanding attention!
In the shallows the dolphins were back, and had me scrambling into the boat for more film!
One of the most refreshing features of our trip was the solitude. We didn't share a dive site once. The Peter Hughes boat Wave Dancer and the huge, strange-looking Nekton Pilot are the only other liveaboards that seem to operate regularly here.
It all contributes to that feeling of being spoilt. Climb the wide ladders back aboard the Aggressor after your dive and indulge in a hot freshwater shower. Your camera is conveyed to the rinse tank as you dab yourself with warm, scented towels!
The comfortable saloon and dining room boasts wide-screen TV/video, CD and tape systems, even a computer to let you keep up with your e-mails. The spacious cabins have en suite bathroom, climate control and TV/video. Wine comes with dinner and the charter prices include all drinks (though with five dives a day, carousing is limited).
And the prices, of course, are the crunch. What does it cost to dive in such luxury? Be prepared to part with at least £1830 for the week, and to wait up to a year to get the dates you want.
FACTFILE
GETTING THERE: Fly from the UK to one of the US gateway airports to connect with Belize City. Divequest (01254 826322, divers@divequest.co.uk) will arrange flights with Continental Airlines to Belize City with an overnight stop at Houston and transfer to the boat terminal from £625.
DIVING: £1205 for a week on the Belize Aggressor. Contact Aggressor Fleet on 001 504 385 2628, www.aggressor.com; or book through UK tour operators Divequest or Scubaway (01273 746261, info@scubaway.com)
WHEN TO GO: Diving all year round, though winter months most popular. Air temperatures 26-35°C. Water temperature 25-29°C and many divers use only a skin or shortie. Hurricane season August-October, average incidence once every six years. Rainy season June-December but this is variable. Warmest months April-August.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Belize Tourist Board 011 5012 31910, www.travelbelize.org
Appeared in DIVER - May 2000
