Belize Aggressor III Captain's Logs

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain's Report April 21 - 28, 2012

[FONT=&quot]Charter Date: April 21-28, 2012[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Weather: Calm[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Winds: Calm 0-15KT[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Water Temperature: 82 degrees[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Wetsuit: 3-5mm recommended[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Crew: Capt. Jay, Engineer Fermin, Instructor William, Instructor Chris, Chef Anna, Stewardess Jean[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Saturday we welcomed 15 guests from the USA. It was nice to see familiar faces from previous dive adventures with guests Bob, Sherra, Joel, and Lana. Upon boarding everyone setup dive gear, settled into their cabins and Chris checked C-Cards. The vessel safety briefing was given at 5:30PM and then dinner was served.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Sunday the northwest wind blew in around 15KT that allowed us to make our check out dives on Black Beauty. We continued the diving on Turneffe Islands Atoll further north on a dive site called The Notch. Both dive sites had lots to see. Spotted moray eels, large channel crabs, stingrays, hawks bill turtles and that endemic white spotted toadfish.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Monday Grand Bogue and 2 of a Kind were our dive sites. Spotted eagle rays, a black tip shark, Caribbean reef shark, loggerhead turtle, half dozen spotted drums and on the night dive Fermin and Joel found 5 octopus, an enormous porcupine puffer, large channel crabs, lobster and a few nudibranchs.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Tuesday we splashed in on Half Moon Caye Wall and Tarpon Caves. These sites are always nice. Silver sides, hog fish, large Nassau groupers, hawksbill turtles, tarpon, pipe fish, southern stingrays, conch, giant hermit crabs and several barracudas patrolled the waters around Light House Reef Atoll.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Wednesday the winds shifted back to the east so we motored to the Blue Hole. After our deep dive in the Hole we went shopping in the boat boutique for hats, the latest Aggressor shirts and souvenirs. Chain Wall and Long Caye Wall is how we finished off the day. Sharks, eagle rays, dog tooth snappers, 5-pound lobsters, sail fin blennies, pipefish and the yellow jawfish were all seen during the dives.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Thursday more perfect weather we dove Painted Wall and Dos Cocos. Great snorkeling on these sites as well. Nir and Bill went for more 1-mile swims around the reef. The encounters ranged from several turtles to free-swimming moray eels; thousands of Creole wrasse, sergeant majors, Bermuda chubs, squid and a nice size loggerhead turtle.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Friday Cathedral was our dawn dive. Joel and Lana got great photos and video of another big loggerhead. With the weather conditions in our favor we motored over the Elbow and made a drift dive to finish out the fantastic week of weather and diving. Upon our return to port, a few guests made an afternoon excursion to Altun Ha. At 6PM we had our cocktail party and everyone recounted the week of diving.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]This week congratulations go out to Nir and Steve for advancing their diving education by taking the SSI EANx 40 course from Instructor William. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Saturday concluded the week with the crew saying their goodbyes. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]As always, keep smiling and keep diving![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Eat, Sleep & Dive[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Captain Jay Roberts[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain's Report April 28 - May 5, 2012

[FONT=&quot]Charter Date: April 28-May 5, 2012[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Weather: Calm[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Winds: Calm 0-15KT[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Water Temperature: 82 degrees[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Wetsuit: 3-5mm recommended[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Crew: Capt. Jay, Engineer Fermin, Instructor William, Instructor Chris, Chef Yanis, Steward Francisco[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Saturday we welcomed 18 guests from the USA, Canada, and Japan. After everyone unpacked and setup their dive gear we had our safety briefing. Dinner was served up by Yanis and Francisco.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Sunday we began a great week of diving on Sandy Slope and Front Porch located on Turneffe Islands Atoll. One of the three atolls in Belizean waters. Many of the divers were on the hunt for the white spotted toadfish, especially Marilyn. This fish is endemic to Turneffe Islands.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Monday we slipped into the water on Cathedral and Long Caye Ridge. Plenty to see like a giant loggerhead turtle, nurse shark, scorpion fish, squid and octopus. Guest Joe began his Advanced Open Water with a deep dive.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Tuesday we motored north to the Great Blue Hole. Fantastic visibility for viewing the extremely old and massive stalactite formations. After the dive Yanis and Francisco opened up the boat boutique for a little shopping as we motored to Half Moon Caye. For our afternoon we dove Tarpon Caves. Awesome swim thrus with silver sides, tarpon, pipefish, hogfish, blue parrotfish, large Caribbean reef shark and a couple spotted eagle rays.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Wednesday we slipped in on Half Moon Caye Wall and Dos Cocos. Beautiful weather and dolphins were seen cruising near the BAIII. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Thursday Painted Wall and Long Caye Wall were the dive sites we saw eagle rays, hawks bill turtles, French angels, golden tail morays, green morays and hundreds of sergeant majors beneath the boat. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Friday we made a pre breakfast dive on Cathedral and then motored over to Black Beauty. A couple of great dives to finish a great week in Belize. After reaching port most guests relaxed around the hot tub while a few went cave tubing. Our cocktail party featured some fabulous food and good conversation.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]This week congratulations go out to Joe for advancing his diving education by taking the SSI EANx 40 course and SSI Advanced Open Water. Also, Susan celebrated 100 dives, Leslie 200 dives, and Dirce 500!!! [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Saturday concluded the week with the crew saying their goodbyes. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]As always, keep smiling and keep diving![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Eat, Sleep & Dive[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Captain Jay Roberts[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[electrix]

We had an "unBelizeable" time with you, great diving, great food ( and I do mean great food ) and a great crew !!!! We were sitting at the airport and neither of us could think of anything you could have done to make it better. Thanks so much for a wonderful week. TR

 

[jakubson]

This is Joel from the April 21-28 trip. After all these years, it is still a treat to have two special dives like my 5 octopuses (yes, I checked, this is the correct plural) night dive with Fermin and the loggerhead turtle dive the final morning (it made it worth it to get in the water at 5:35 AM for the dawn dive). The night dive was a special treat since it was a "private" night dive with everyone else deciding to give it a pass.

Thanks to Jay and the entire crew for a great week. It was great to see you and Chris again for the first time since 2004, and to see Anna and Fermin again from last year.

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain's Report May 5 - 12, 2012

Charter Date: May 5-12, 2012
Weather: Calm
Winds: Calm 0-15KT
Water Temperature: 82 degrees
Wetsuit: 3-5mm recommended
Crew: Capt. Jay, Engineer Fermin, Instructor William, Deck Hand Francisco, Chef Yanis, and Steward Randy

Saturday we welcomed 17 guests from the USA, Russia, and France. The guests checked in, had refreshments and relaxed until dinner.

Sunday was pretty exciting. We splashed in on Sandy Slope for two great check out dives and nice marine life encounters. i.e...green morays, spotted morays, hawks bill turtle, yellow headed jawfish, lionfish, southern stingrays, and a couple spotted eagle rays. During our transit to Front Porch we noticed a pod of dolphins swimming near the bow, then lunch was served. Lunch didn’t last very long, because a juvenile female WHALE SHARK!!!! was spotted 100 yards away. We motored near and drifted. Simply amazing the shark swam right to our swim platform and it didn’t take long for the guests to jump in. The guests were very good about not touching the shark and spent 45 minutes with the juvenile. We finally had to leave or we wouldn’t make our 5 dives in a day. I have been diving Belize off and on for 10 years and this does not happen very often, but in a word AWESOME encounter for everyone!

Monday and Tuesday we had more great dives on Long Caye Ridge, Cathedral, The Blue Hole and Dos Cocos. Caribbean reef sharks, eagle rays, schooling horse eye jacks, thousands of Creole wrasse and tarpon were just some of the critters seen.

Wednesday and Thursday we dove Half Moon Caye Wall, Painted Wall, Tarpon Caves, Long Caye Wall. Nice scorpion fish, big blue parrotfish, goatfish, hogfish, an enormous grouper (close in size to a goliath), octopus, squid, and some curious barracudas.

Friday we concluded our diving on Silver Caves and Amber-head. After reaching port some guests went on a land excursion to Altun Ha (Mayan ruin) while others relaxed or went shopping around town. Our cocktail party was at 6PM. We watched the slide show of the week and then off to dinner.

This week congratulations go out to Joy for advancing her diving education by taking the SSI Advanced Open Water course and making her 100th dive this week!

Saturday concluded the week with the crew saying their goodbyes.

As always, keep smiling and keep diving!

Eat, Sleep & Dive

Captain Jay Roberts

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain's Report May 12 - 19, 2012

Charter Date: May 12-19, 2012
Weather: Calm
Winds: Calm 0-15KT
Water Temperature: 82 degrees
Wetsuit: 3-5mm recommended
Crew: Capt. Jay, Instructor William, Instructor Jody, Deck Hand Francisco, Chef Yanis, and Steward Randy

Saturday we welcomed 17 guests from the USA, Germany, & Russia. Everyone arrived with an enthusiastic smile and ready to go diving attitude! After check-in the guests lounged a bit before our safety briefing at 5:30. A wonderful dinner was served up by Yanis and Randy. We departed for Lighthouse Reef Atoll shortly after.

Sunday we made our checkout dive on Cathedral - WOW some checkout dive! Two large spotted eagle rays, three healthy Caribbean reef sharks, an enormous loggerhead turtle and yes, everyone’s weights were just about right. For the afternoon and night dive we splashed in on Long Caye Ridge. Really cool swim thru’s carved in the reef. A nurse shark, a couple of Caribbean reef sharks, hawksbill turtles, giant green moray and plenty of soft corals to round out the day. The night dive produced octopus, squid, a sleeping turtle, decorator crabs, tarpon & permit right under the BAIII, and a few white-speckled nudibranchs.

Monday we slipped in at Silver Caves. More Caribbean reef sharks, turtles, eagle rays and overall good fun. Hat Caye Wall was just as exciting. Another giant loggerhead turtle with two 3-foot long remoras hitching a ride. Plenty of lionfish were seen checking out the cleaning stations. The night dive was fun as well with lots of lobsters, crabs, nudi-branch, and even an eagle ray passed by.

Tuesday we had beautiful weather, so away we went to the Blue Hole. We had better than normal visibility - 100+ making the swim around the stalactites very easy. After the dive we motored to Half Moon Caye for a walk around the island and along the sandy shoreline. The afternoon and night dives were made on Long Caye Wall. A few divers dropped down to 76 feet to checkout the yellow jawfish (not to be confused with the yellow headed jawfish). These guys like the deep water and have a tiny black spot on their dorsal fins.

Wednesday we made dives on Tarpon Caves and Dos Cocos. Great animal encounters took place with hogfish, gray angelfish, blue parrotfish, southern stingrays, scorpion fish, queen triggerfish, and some very nice size groupers.

Thursday we began the day on Half Moon Caye Wall. Couple spotted eagles rays, pipefish, pipe horse, a blue sea horse and lots of sail-fin blennies. For the after noon we dove Aquarium. Upon arrival to the dive site eight dolphins swam near the BAIII, so a few guests went for a snorkel. James and Anastasia were right in the middle of the action. Later we donned dive gear and headed to the wall, the dolphins passed by again as if to say enjoy the dive and farewell for the week. After finishing a training scenario, we motored to Front Porch on Turneffe Islands Atoll. Great night dive with squid, octopus, a white spotted toadfish, giant cleaning crabs, and a few spotted morays.

Friday we finished our week on Black Beauty and the Elbow. Great visibility and great dives too! Once all divers were accounted for, we raised the ladders and made way for Belize City. Upon arrival a few guests went on tours, while others lounged and napped until our cocktail party.

This week congratulations go out to Steve for advancing his diving education by taking the PADI Rescue Diver Course. He did an incredible job!!! We had a few milestone dives that were made, as well as Charles completing every dive for the week.

Saturday arrived quickly, so at 8AM the crew said their goodbyes and began preparing for the next exciting week of diving.

As always, keep smiling and keep diving!

Eat, Sleep & Dive

Captain Jay Roberts

 

[MX727]

Thanks to Jay, Yanis, Randy, William, Jody and Francesco. Can't believe how awesome the week was and how quickly it flew by!

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain's Report June 9 - 16, 2012

Belize Aggressor III Captain's Report June 9 - 16, 2012

Saturday: We welcomed 18 guests from the USA. This group came ready to dive and ready to relax. The safety briefing was given and a fabulous dinner was served.

Charter Date: June 9-16, 2012
Weather: Moderate w/ scattered showers
Winds: Moderate 5-25KT
Water Temperature: 83 degrees
Wetsuit: 1.5 - 3mm recommended
Crew: Capt. Jay, Engineer Fermin, Instructor Jody, Instructor Chris, Chef Anna, Steward Randy

Sunday: Sandy Slope is were we conducted the check out dive. At 70FT beneath the vessel one could find the sargassum trigger fish, a very shy somewhat allusive light blue fish. Plenty of yellow headed jawfish in the sandy areas, southern stingrays, extremely large green moray, and a few lobster hiding under the corals. For our afternoon and night dive, we dove Cathedral.

Monday: We checked out Dos Cocos and Long Caye Ridge for the day. Lots to see on these dives. Schools of horse eye jacks, tarpon, several barracudas, a couple reef sharks, a lazily swimming loggerhead turtle, nice stag-horn coral, beautiful gorgonians, and those cool tobacco fish in the sand shoots.

Tuesday: We spent the morning at Hat Caye Wall. Awesome dives with free swimming moray eels, a friendly hawks bill turtle, decorator crabs, an extremely large spotted drum, and lots of cleaning stations. Our afternoon concluded at Long Caye Wall with two more dives before dinner, then a fantastic night dive.

Wednesday: At Half Moon Caye Wall, several divers saw a big scalloped hammer head, a couple pipe fish, a pipe horse, sail-fin blennies, two pike blennies, and a whole lot of southern stingrays. Aquarium was our afternoon and night dive. As the name implies, lots of fish. Sergeant majors, bermuda chubs, horse eye jacks, tarpon, cero, spotted eagle rays, spotted morays, and a few puffer fish to round out the day.

Thursday: We began our day at Tarpon Caves for two dives. Awesome was the general consensus! We saw sharks, eagle rays, sting rays, hawks bill turtles, loggerhead turtles, and several sneaky barracudas. After lunch we dove Aquarium’s next door neighbor Painted Wall. Sergeant majors, bermuda chubs, lots of cleaning stations for the doctor fish, black durgon, groupers, and barracudas. Only three lion fish were seen during the dives.

Friday: We made one dive at Amberhead back at Turneffe Islands Atoll. We then motored into Belize City for some lunch and relaxing until the cocktail hour at 6PM. Everyone was having so much fun, they decided to order in Pizza for dinner and continue the party.

Congratulations to Kenny and Pat for completing their Advanced Open Water. Katy, Greg, Mike, and Lisa for completing their EANx 40. It’s always great fun and the perfect opportunity for continuing dive education on board an Aggressor yacht!

Saturday concluded the week with the crew saying their goodbyes.

As always, keep smiling and keep diving!

Eat, Sleep & Dive

Captain Jay Roberts

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Charter Date: June 16-23, 2012
Weather: Moderate w/ scattered showers
Winds: Moderate 5-15KT
Water Temperature: 83 degrees
Wetsuit: 1.5 - 3mm recommended
Crew: Capt. Jay, 2nd Capt. Steve, Instructor William, Instructor Chris, Chef Anna, Steward Randy

This week’s divers were: Marnie, Dean, Franck, Morgane, Andy, Michelle, Carl, Jason, Kyle, Jeff, Marianne, John, Bill, Carol, Endre, and Cary.

Most of our guests were veterans of the Aggressor Fleet and added Belize to their growing list of destinations they visited on the Aggressor Fleet. We motored out to Lighthouse Reef Atoll to start our week of diving, then finished off on Thursday afternoon and Friday over at Turneffe Atoll.

The dive sites visited this week were:
Sunday – Long Caye Ridge & Cathedral
Monday – Hat Caye Wall & Dos Cocos
Tuesday – The Great Blue Hole, East Cut, & Painted Wall
Wednesday – Half Moon Caye Wall & Eagle Ray Pass
Thursday – Tarpon Caves & Black Beauty
Friday – Sandy Slope

All guests boarded on Saturday, and after getting dive gear set up and settling into their rooms for the week, old friends got re-acquainted and new friends mingled before sitting down for the Captain’s ‘Welcome Aboard’ briefing, and then Chef Ana’s wonderful dinner.

Visibility this week was not its best, but the 60-70ft average visibility was enough to see the wide variety of marine life on some of the most beautiful reefs in the Caribbean. Almost every dive eagle rays were spotted cruising the wall; we even got a chance to see one feeding in the sands on Half Moon Caye Wall. We also saw several critters in the sand and turtle grass over at Moon Caye Wall, including a pipehorse, several pipefish, some extremely small shrimp and sea slugs, skeleton shrimp, as well as flounder, garden eels, and razor fish.

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Several turtles were spotted this week. A friendly hawksbill even swam along with guests while waiting for its picture to be taken…not to mention a nice 6ft Caribbean Reef Shark that allowed our ship’s videographer to get some great footage of her swimming with Capt. Jay and after getting bored with him, alongside a pair of eagle rays that were cruising the wall. Sharks were seen almost every day, started on the first night dive of the week at Cathedral, where a very stocky shark cruised by lazily. The debate is still on about whether it was a bull shark or a very healthy Caribbean Reef Shark.

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Octopi and squid were also present nightly. On both Painted Wall and Eagle Ray Pass schools of little baby squid were swarming around. Also on the night dives, we saw white speckled nudibranch, flamingo tongues, lettuce sea slugs, slipper lobster, spotted morays, tons of sleeping parrot fish, feeding tarpon, huge groupers and dog snappers, Caribbean reef and arrow squid, decorator crabs, basket stars, channel clinging crabs, and numerous other reef fish.

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Our dive week ended over at Turneffe Atoll, where we dove Black Beauty on Thursday afternoon and then Friday morning we finished our diving at Sandy Slope, where we saw several lobster, an eagle ray, a couple of Southern stingrays in the sand, decorator crabs, skeleton shrimp, spotted moray, juvenile spotted drums, and several schools of fish along the top of the wall.
This week CONGRATS!!!! to Jeff for his 400^th dive!
Saturday concluded the week with the crew saying their goodbyes.

Eat, Sleep & Dive

by Chris Taylor

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

[FONT=&amp]Charter Date: June 23-30, 2012[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Weather: Moderate w/ scattered showers[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Winds: Moderate 5-25KT[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Water Temperature: 83 degrees[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Wetsuit: 1.5 - 3mm recommended[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Crew: Capt. Jay, 2nd Capt. Steve, Engineer Fermin, Instructor William, Chef Yanis, and Stewardess Jean[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Photos By: Kim and Matt, SSI U/W Digital Photography Students[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Dive Sites visited this week:[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Sunday - Sandy Slope and Front Porch[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Monday - Long Caye Ridge and Aquarium[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Tuesday - Eagle Ray Pass and Half Moon Caye Wall[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Wednesday - Island Tour, Blue Hole, Cathedral[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Thursday - Tarpon Caves and Long Caye Wall[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Friday - Dos Cocos[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]On Saturday we welcomed 18 guests from the USA and Germany. Once all the C-cards were verified the safety briefing was given. Yanis and Jean prepared a wonderful dinner and shortly after, we motored out to Turneffe Islands Atoll.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]The weather this week started with light showers, cleared quickly and made for a very pleasant week of diving. We were able to make dives on both sides of Turneffe Islands Atoll. We found the sargassum triggerfish at 70FT. The spotted toadfish was out during the late afternoon and night dive. Giant channel clinging crabs, black groupers, spotted eagle rays, and several spotted moray eels where also spotted.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&amp]The rest of the week we spent on Lighthouse Reef Atoll. Lots of critters and fish were seen during the dives. A pair of feeding hawks bill turtles, green moray eels, southern stingrays, Caribbean reef sharks, a sleeping nurse shark, and even a scalloped hammerhead cruising the wall at Tarpon Caves. The guests also visited Half Moon Caye for a walk around the island. The Blue Hole was the most anticipated dive for the week. The guests liked it so much, we made two dives![/FONT]
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[FONT=&amp]Congratulations go out to Matt & Kim for completing the SSI Digital Underwater Photography course. Also, Simona completed her SSI EANx40 course. Adriana completed her Open Water checkout dives! Nice job guys!!! [/FONT]
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[FONT=&amp]On Friday after arriving port, most guests went ashore and visited the Mayan ruin of Al Tun Ha. Others just relaxed until our cocktail party.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Saturday concluded the week with the crew saying their goodbyes. [/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]As always, keep smiling and keep diving![/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Eat, Sleep & Dive[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Captain Jay Roberts[/FONT]