WOW is one of many adjectives that I could use to describe the diving in the Turneffe islands off of Belize. This area certainly has some of the better diving that I've seen. And on top of that the area abounds with lots of wonderful dive buddies.
We arrived here a week or so ago. Time has just flown by and you easily lose track of days. We pulled into the SW anchorage and dropped hook in a nice sandy location. The offshore forecasts showed the winds out of the E/NE quadrant for the next 48-72 hours, so we should have had great protection from the winds and seas and an approaching cold front. Well, what we didn't know what that the coastline of Belize somehow or another creates a large westerly flow which clocks the winds about 90 degrees to the west. Thus when you're supposed to have NE winds, you end up with NW winds...which left us exposed to some pretty seas. But it wasn't too bad and we felt very secure where we were anchored. We could have pulled into the lagoon, but we heard lots of stories about poor holding, and with a cold front approaching and having the prospect of dragging into the reef if were in the lagoon, we opted to put up with rocking and rolling.
When we got to Turneffe there were about 5 other boats there, many of whom we had met before. We had bought the sewing machine from Queen Mary and we had been in contact with them while planning where to go at Turneffe's, so it was very nice to see them when we pulled in. Gene and Brenda are a great couple. They're in their mid-50s, are very friendly, and love to dive. We also got to know several other boats much better. Everyone monitored VHF 17 and would regularly chat back and forth about all kinds of things. It's amazing what a wealth of knowledge, tools and supplies are available in a small community of boaters!
Every morning the Cay Bokel Dive Club, which is composed of the boats anchored there, would get on the VHF and discuss who wanted to dive and where to dive. Most days we did 1-2 dives and typically there were 2-4 boats diving. A lot of people dove with spear guns and regularly shot lots of fish. I had my trusty camera and shot lots of fish...on film. The exception to that is when we went lobstering.
On two days we went out lobstering on some shallows between Cay Bokel and Blue Creek. The first time I tried using a gaffe hook as a tickle stick, and was able to get 3 of the 5 lobsters. Gene got 6-7 lobsters. The next time we went we only saw 3 lobsters and I converted on 2 of them using a spear gun. Gene came back with 10 (10!) lobsters, a fish and some conch!!! Clearly Gene knows a LOT more than I do about being a hunter/gatherer, but the great thing is that he's very willing to teach. Speaking of teaching, we (or should I make that the Royal WE) have been getting lessons in fileting fish, cleaning conch and de-veining lobsters. I also got lessons in spear fishing and the use of Gene's spear gun one day.
The diving just outside of the cut to Big Cay Bokel is outstanding. There are several dive balls just along the edge of the wall, and all of them were great. The wall starts at about 60' and drops down hundreds of feet. Maybe a thousand feet in some spots, but regardless, way farther than you'd ever survive. Looking on the wall is really quite a trip. The best diving was at about 75'. The abundance of fish, including very large fish is amazing. You'll see HUGE Groupers, Hogfish, and lots of other varieties all of the time. On most dives I'd see half a dozen large spotted Eagle Rays cruising through the water.
When we weren't diving there were the constant boat projects to work on. One major project that I worked on was the engine driven refrigeration. Due to the malfunctioning Fischer Panda generator, I had to utilize the engine drive system. However, I noted that it didn't seem to be cooling properly. The pressures seemed OK, but I'd see the compressor cycling on and off when it should have just been on. I traced that down to a vacuum switch that was tripping and I e-mailed the company who installed it. They didn't provide much help. After discussing this with some other cruisers, I borrowed a cylinder of R-12 from Gene and topped off the refrigeration. That didn't do much, and after lots of reading and some more discussions, we decided that perhaps there was moisture in the system which was forming ice and clogging up the expansion valves. Gene had a spare, but smaller dehydrator (I had spares, but for the 120V system), so I changed out the dehydrator and that solved the problem. Yeah! And I now actually understand refrigeration gauges and things like Superheat adjustments. Scary!
For entertainment people were constantly having one another over for drinks, dinner or just to chat. Time just flew by. Oh, and talk about eating! We had lobster feasts and Grouper feasts. Man, we cruisers sure eat badly...
>From here it's on to Moho Cay near Belize City where we'll leave the boat for Christmas. That's about a 5 hour trip and I'll report on that later.
-- Geoff & Sue
BlueJacket
Log ID: 320
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