The Blue Hole

The Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 100 km from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, over 300 m across and 125 m deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last glacial period when sea levels were much lower. As the ocean began to rise again, the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed. Believed to be the world’s largest feature of its kind, the Great Blue Hole is part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a World Heritage site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Blue Hole is visable from space, click on the link below to see the satalite view and also a map/

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/109772

Friday Plans

From an email with the National Park in Belize

Subject: Re: BACALAR CHICO NATIONAL PARK

Hey Charlie;

Well I should be back at the reserve on thursday and will probably try to give you a visit on friday so that we can plan to take out a day to go and take some pictures of bleaching and other stuff. Also to see if we can take some GPS points and then you can give us some more points where we can put in more marker buoys.

We want to properly demarkate all the different zones (conservation, preservation, and general use zones) and also would like to put a buoy in the back are of the reserve (back side where our station is located).

After we are finish with that I would like to see if we can do some water work and photograph and identify all the corals, fishes and marine creatures we find at Bacalarchico.

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I'll consider this my charity work for Belize! Hopefully, I'll be in some areas diving that are protected and not open to anyone. Could be some pristine areas.

Scuba!

Ok, after being on the island for way to long, I finally had an opportunity to go diving the last couple of days.

Those that really know me, know it s true passion of mine. I have been diving since 1976... yea, I'm giving hints about my age, but I was really young when I started.

With life always changing, and the lack of opportunity to do much diving around Kansas, it has been way to long since I have been active in the scuba world.

That has changed. I have only been out of the water a few hours now, and already wondering if I will have an opportunity to dive here in 2009. We can always hope that its works out.

Please send your Charlie Diving fund to....

Over the last 2 days I have made 4 different dives. Two each day both days from the Tranquility Bay dive boat.

They range from a depth of 40 - 120 feet, with a maximum bottom time of 43 minutes.

One could never explain the experience in full detail, especially to a non diver. The colors, the current, the fish, the sea life, its all over powering.

My first dive of the trip was to some of the coral canons, not really coral heads, as these are more like coral ridges and bluffs.

You will have a big stretch of coral, inter mixed with what appear to be sand paved roads in between these ridges and bluffs.

If these bluffs were out of water and you stood on the edge of them and dropped down the bottom of the crevices would be 30-40 feet. And this is in water that is 80 plus feet already.

These crevasses are like super hiways for the marine life., all with little ledges, pockets, etc along both sides.

Because these are "open" i.e. no coral in them, the current flows more intensely between them. I dropped over a ledge and looked below me, only to see a seven foot shark, "sleeping."

I don't believe that they can really sleep, but it is my understanding that they like these places, as they can let the water free flow over the gills and get oxygen while not moving.

The dives have all been really amazing, not a lot of big fish, but lots of coral. I few big grey angels and one queen angel, one of my favorite fish.

We also dropped right about 3 huge lobster. I believe that one of the others on the dive got a picture, I'll try to get a copy and post here.

Saw a couple of big manta rays, one I was right above, and he took off behind me, before I could get turned around, he was outta sight... talk about fast!

I have more dives scheduled for Thanksgiving day, so look for another report.

The Reef!

(updated)

Yesterday, I headed out to the barrier reef in a small kayak.

It's a short (long if it is blowing like yesterday) trip from the pier here.

The conditions were not to favorable, but I really wanted to dive. I loaded up all of my gear, and off I went.

Two strokes forward and the waves and wind, pushing me back about a stroke. No way to really measure it, but it is sure it's true, or at least what it felt like.

Not sure how long it took me to get to the reef, as time kinda stands still on this journey. Once I arrived at the inside edge reef, I was just a few feet away from outside of the reef.

Today the waves were wild, here again difficult to measure when you are in a small kayak, but guessing 6-10 feet. Let's just say, I knew I was one wave away from capsizing.

I kinda planned for that, as I had all of my gear lashed and tied in. Still was really hoping it didn't happen.

Where I was I could look out of my tiny little kayak and see the purple sea fans waving in under the waves, as if saying:

come one in....

The waters fine....

Then I did it. to be continued.

If you want me to continue, leave a comment, I'd like to hear from everyone that is reading the blog... otherwise, I'll return to Paradise, and enjoy my days here...

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Ok, a few readers out there,,, good! Now back to the kayak. I was at the end of the reef, looking for a place to dive, I could look overboard and see under the water, fish, corals sea fans, etc. All very inviting.

All would be there for me another day. I opted out of this dive because the conditions were not favorable. I started my long journey back, disappointed that I didn't dive, but safe.

Back at the palapa, grabbed a Belikin and watched the waves crashing in at the reef, just about 500 yards away.

The sea tempted me, but I escaped unscathed.