Belize Aggressor III Captain's Logs

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report Feb 2 – 9, 2013

This week we welcome Scott, Connie, Hannah, Seamus, Brian, Francois, David, Phil, Eric, Jose, Tamyra, Jim, Lauren, John, Eric, Victoria, and Beth and Al (who are staying on for another charter next week). All our guests arrived on time, with all their luggage and ready to DIVE!!!

Avg Water Temp: 80F
Avg Vis: 80Ft (with a few days of 150-200ft vis)
Avg Wind: 5-10 knots
Sea Conditions: light chop to choppy seas

Sunday:
Dive sites: AM: Front Porch (2 dives); PM: Black Beauty (3 dives) – TURNEFFE ATOLL
First dive site of the week was Front Porch on southern Turneffe Atoll, where we did our check-out dive and the second morning dive…the afternoon dives were at Black Beauty. As soon as we dropped down to the top of the reef we saw white spotted toadfish hanging out on top of the reef and stayed there to pose for pictures. We’ve been seeing a lot of free-swimming morays at these sites on Turneffe, and today was no exception…a 6ft green moray was skimming about on top of the reef. We also saw a spotted moray, black groupers, schooling jacks, barracuda, Queen triggerfish, lots of angelfish, flamingo tongues, lettuce sea slugs and lots of other reef fish.

Monday:
Dive sites: AM: Tarpon Caves (2 dives); PM: South East Cut (3 dives) – LIGHTHOUSE REEF ATOLL
We jumped into the waters at Tarpon Caves and right below the boat were 3 southern stingrays feeding on the sandy bottom. As we headed to the wall we saw a peacock flounder and a shortfin pipefish. Not long after dropping down the wall a 7ft Caribbean reef shark came by to check us out, it circled around several times and cruised nearby for about 15 minutes. Later in the dive we saw another reef shark come over the wall and circled around in the shallows giving divers an opportunity to snap some awesome pictures.

We did the afternoon and night dives at South East Cut…visibility was awesome! Lots of Nassau groupers, huge barracuda, stingray, channel clinging crabs, a squadron of squid, white speckled nudibranch, and a baby Caribbean reef squid about a half inch long (we saw one of those last week as well).

Tuesday:
We started the day by motoring up to the Great Blue Hole where we had 200ft visibility…what an awesome dive! The water was really clear and as we swam amongst the massive stalactites you could see the ridges on the wall of the Blue Hole far down in the depths.

After that dive we went over to the Aquarium for 2 more dives and then to Cathedral to finish for the evening and night dive. Visibility was at least 120 ft, and the fish were everywhere. Lots of reef fish were swimming around on top of the reef…black durgeons, trumpetfish, angelfish, triggerfish, schools of sergeant majors and Creole wrasse, tarpon and an eagle Ray cruising on top of the wall…and below in the depths a juvenile blacktip reef shark about 3 ft long and a 6ft Caribbean reef shark cruising the edge of the drop off. We also saw a lot of macro critters…several decorator crabs, wire coral shrimp, skeleton shrimp, slender filefish, and lettuce sea slugs.

Wednesday:
We tied up to the mooring line at Silver Caves for the 2 morning dives. We had 2 Caribbean reef sharks hanging around the divers for both morning dives, giving our photographers plenty of opportunity to snap away with their cameras…meanwhile the other divers were just hanging out swimming with the sharks. We also saw a huge eagle ray swimming in the shallows.

In the afternoon we moved to the very beautiful Quebrada. As we dove along the wall we spotted several decorator crabs, and a hydroid full of skeleton shrimp. A huge school of Creole wrasse made several passes along the wall. The colors and life on this site is amazing, huge sponges and lush soft corals all over the place, as we swam amongst the thousands of fish swimming around the top of the reef.

Thursday
Thursday we did Half Moon Caye Wall in the morning. On the first dive we saw a Caribbean reef shark, octopus, and a very rare find…a crimson red frogfish that Hannah spotted. Some of our guests skipped the second morning dive to head onshore to Half Moon Caye Natural Monument to see the nesting grounds of the red-footed booby birds and the magnificent frigate birds. The other guests jumped in for the 2^nd morning dive. That afternoon we headed over to Long Caye Wall for the afternoon and night dives. This is always a great dive. Great color, great reef, great fish life, and great visibility. The tarpon were the highlight of the dive...about 20 schooled together in formations…almost soldier-like. We got some great opportunities for pictures.

Friday:
We woke up on the West side of Turneffe Atoll to finish off the week diving at Sandy Slope. Green and spotted morays, lionfish, southern stingrays, spotted toadfish, sargassum triggerfish were some of the highlights and to finish off an eagle ray cruised by at the safety stop. After the dives we headed back to Belize City and finished of the week with our weekly Wine & Cheese cocktail party.

THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report Feb 9 – 16, 2013

Avg Water Temp: 80F
Avg Vis: 80Ft
Avg Wind: 5-10 knots, with winds up to 25knots
Sea Conditions: light chop to choppy seas
Crew: Captain – Jay, Chef – Yanis, Stewardess – Vanessa, Engineer – Fermin, Instructors – Jody & Chris

This week we had a full boat with guests from all over the globe…Russia, Finland, Canada, Cayman Islands, and the United States. This week we welcomed Al & Beth (our Honorary Crew members who were on last week), John & Jan, Anu & Antti (our Honeymooners), Simon & Jillian, Michael & Iris, Bert & Marleen, Andrey & Marina, Dominic & Joanne, and Mike & Barb.

After all the guests boarded and got settled in, we had a wonderful dinner prepared by Chef Yanis…then we motored over to Lighthouse Reef and moored for the night to start our diving early Sunday morning.

Dive Sites of the week:
Sunday: Long Caye Ridge & Cathedral
Monday: Julie’s Jungle & Long Caye Wall
Tuesday: Silver Caves & Quebrada
Wednesday: Blue Hole & Aquarium
Thurs: Half Moon Caye Wall, Tarpon Caves, & Dos Cocos
Friday: Front Porch

We did most of the diving over at Lighthouse Reef except for our Friday dive at Turneffe Atoll. We had a great week of diving with sightings of reef sharks, juvenile black tip sharks, eagle rays, loggerhead/hawksbill/green turtles, amberjacks, bottle-nose dolphins, free-swimming green and spotted morays, huge black and Nassau groupers, curious barracudas, schools of tarpon in formation, octopus running across the sand on the afternoon dive, along with tons of reef fish such as trumpet fish, several species of angel and triggerfish, schools of Creole wrasse, tons of parrotfish…midnight, rainbow, stoplight, etc…, rock beauties, basslets, hamlets, damselfish, to name a few. Also there were a lot of critters such as skeleton shrimp, wire coral shrimp, squat anemone shrimp, Pederson shrimp, pipefish, pipe horse, blue throat pike blennies, head shield slugs, several species of nudibranchs, squid (some juvenile), comb jellies, and several cleaning stations.

The Blue Hole had great visibility and our divers went down to check out the massive stalactites. We did an island excursion over on Half Moon Caye Natural Monument to see the red-footed booby colony of about 4000 birds nesting along with the magnificent frigate birds. We also saw several iguanas, hermit crabs, and 3 toed geckos.

We had a wonderful group of people and a great week of diving. Hope you see you guys again. Thank you.

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain Report Feb 23- Mar 2, 2013

Avg Water Temp: 79-80 F
Avg Visibility: 80 ft
Avg Winds 5-10 knots (and a couple days of flat calm seas)

Crew:
Captains Jay & Mike
Chef Ana
Steward Randy
Instructors Jody & Chris

This week we welcomed 17 guests: Doug & Donna, Leslie & Mike, Ken & Tiffany, Bob & Barb, Chris & Tracey, Jerry, Mike, Jason, William, and brothers Rob, John, & Ray.

After settling in and having a delicious dinner prepared by Chef Anna, we departed the dock on Saturday evening and headed out to Lighthouse Reef where we would start diving the following morning.

Sunday:
It was a beautiful morning as we hopped in at Julie’s Jungle for our first dives of the week. Our guests did their check out dive and sorted out weights, dive gear, and cameras. After doing buddy and buoyancy checks and getting acclimated, our divers dropped down the steep wall and cruised along checking out marine life and an assortment of colorful sponges and coral. After lunch we headed to Cathedral for the afternoon and night dives. There are lots of opportunities for both wide angle and macro photography, and just a beautiful dive for those just taking it in. Cathedral is a very colorful reef with swim thru’s, tons of fish, a steep wall, a sloping sandy shelf, coral heads busy with life, beautiful sponges and soft corals, and is always a good spot to look for sharks…which it provided. We saw a very healthy looking Caribbean reef shark cruising the depths and then again later that evening around the edge of the drop-off. Some other things we saw today: juvenile spotted drum, huge scorpionfish, turtles (both underwater and on the surface), green/spotted/and golden tail morays, a squadron of squid, several octopi, neck crabs, skeleton shrimp, flamingo tongues, southern stingray to name a few. What a great first day of diving! Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Monday:
Today we started off at the Aquarium for two beautiful dives. This site is called the Aquarium because of the variety and abundance of marine life…tons of fish here. As soon as you jump in you are surrounded by Bermuda chubs and sergeant majors. Black durgeons, trumpet fish, angelfish, triggerfish, rock beauties, wrasses, damsels, hamlets, jacks, and parrot fish are everywhere. Actually today there were two huge schools of over a couple hundred parrotfish running along the edge of the drop off. This is usually where we see the Creole wrasse in file formation. An eagle ray then cruised by, and we also saw a huge green moray and a pretty big nurse shark. The afternoon and night dives took place at Long Caye Ridge. As soon as we hopped in we saw a juvenile black tip reef shark. While looking at a couple of wire coral shrimp, a huge green moray swam by and headed down the wall…we actually saw several green morays out swimming. We also saw several well-decorated decorator crabs, a very tiny juvenile spotted drum, midnight parrotfish, a pipehorse, and lots of other reef fish. Long Caye Ridge is also home to some very big and healthy barrel and tube sponges. The night dive was awesome…nudibranchs, lots of grass squid and juvenile Caribbean reef squid, octopus, pipefish, tarpon, crabs, and lobsters.

Tuesday:
First dive of the day was at the Great Blue Hole. Awesome dive!!! We could actually see the thermocline at about 40 ft, but it wasn’t too bad, just a slight difference in temperature. While cruising through the massive stalactites, we looked up and saw eight small reef sharks swimming above in a line. Next we headed over to Tarpon Caves for our second morning and first afternoon dives. A few of our divers had a fun dive with a 7 ft Caribbean reef shark along the top of the reef, a huge eagle ray in the sandy shallows, Hawksbill turtle posing for pics, lots of southern stingrays, blue parrotfish, big groupers, lots of garden eels and razor fish in the sand. For the 2^nd afternoon and night dives we headed over to South East Cut, where there were several Nassau groupers swimming along with the divers. On the night dive we saw lots of nudibranch, grass and Caribbean reef squid, an octopus feeding, and several tarpon swimming under the boat.

Wednesday:
Half Moon Caye Wall was the first site of the day for the morning dives. A rare Goliath grouper made an appearance…he had to be at least 500 lbs and about 6 ft long, almost as big as the Caribbean reef shark that was lazily cruising the wall. Also what was pretty cool was seeing an Atlantic long arm octopus try to occupy the holes belonging to the garden eels. Lots of critters…sailfin blennies, blue throat pike blenny, pipefish, head shield sea slugs, mantis shrimp…tons of razor fish, several southern stingrays, queen/fray/french angelfish, and of course huge barracuda. We also got face to face with a very friendly hawksbill turtle.
Next stop was the beautiful Quebrada. We had a HUGE eagle ray swim up behind us on the wall. Also on the wall was a pair of juvenile drums tucked away in a hole sharing a space with a red hind. There was a nice green moray swimming across the reef. Quebrada truly is a beautiful dive site, with large and colorful sponges, lots of healthy corals, tons of fish or various species and colors. Quebrada NEVER disappoints.

Thursday:
Thursday morning we started off at Silver Caves for the two morning dives. We saw a couple Caribbean reef sharks circling below at depth. The visibility was superb…150-200 ft…and the colors on the reef were spectacular. We also swam with a friendly hawksbill turtle, saw a beautiful eagle ray cruising along the top of the wall, and saw tons of fish swimming around. There was a huge dog snapper hanging out below the boat.

Next we did the 2 hours crossing in calm seas to Turneffe Atoll to start our afternoon and night dives at Black Beauty. This site got its name from the forest of black coral on the wall. Everyone was excited about looking for the white-spotted toadfish that is indigenous to Turneffe…finally we saw several on the night dive. We also saw six eagle rays swimming in formation, green/spotted/golden tail morays, huge school of baitfish, octopus, several lettuce sea slugs, lionfish, and a hawksbill turtle.

Friday:
Divers hopped in at 6 am for the first of two dives of the day. We had two great dives at Front Porch, where we found another white spotted toadfish; eels were out swimming and hunting; we saw several nudibranch; and to top off the morning, a huge loggerhead turtle surfaced at the end of the dive while divers were rinsing off under the hot showers on the back deck. What a great day to end the week. Thank you!

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Log March 2nd to March 9th, 2013

Sea Conditions: flat with a light chop
Average Water Temp: 79- 81F (recommended full body 3-5mm wetsuit with optional hood)
Average Visibility: 80-120 foot (occasional 120’+)
Average Wind: 5-10 knots
Crewed this week by Jay, Mike, Chris, Jody, Vanessa and Yanis.

Saturday:
All of our anxious guests boarded at 3pm and got settled in with their equipment. This week we welcomed Don & Elaine, David & Linda, Chris & Becky, Bruce S. & Leesa, Fred & Liz, Bill & Michelle, Walker & Kristine, Bruce F. & Emily and Corey and Sarah. After doing our Captain’s safety briefing and introductions, we sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by Chef Yanis. Afterwards, we departed from the Fort George Dock in Belize City and headed over to Turneffe Atoll for the evening.

Sunday:
Dive sites: AM: Front Porch (2 dives); PM: Black Beauty (2 dives) – – TURNEFFE ISLAND
Dolphins, Spotted Eagle Rays & Turtles!! We initiated our week moored to Front Porch off the south point of Turneffe Island where we did our check-out dive and second morning dive. The dives started off with sighting several giant free swimming green moray eels, hawksbill turtles, spotted eagle ray and ended with a friendly dolphin under the boat. Also found great barracuda, numerous parrotfish, lionfish, several groupers, filefish, cowfish, spotted drum, hogfish, colorful parrotfish, scorpion fish, garden eels, blenny, jaw fish, lettuce sea slugs, and hiding lobster. We then moved over to our second dive site of the day where we encountered another spotted eagle ray and elegant octopus. Also saw scorpion fish, a large spotted toadfish basking in the open, giant grouper, spadefish, filefish and more green moray eels. After a big sunset and dinner, we headed to Lighthouse Reef for the evening.

Monday:
Dive sites: AM: Tarpon Caves (2 dives); PM: South East Cut (3 dives) – – LIGHTHOUSE REEF ATOLL
Sharks & Turtles!! After a beautiful Caribbean sunrise we started our first dive with three Caribbean reef sharks patrolling the wall, hawksbill turtles on the reef and several southern stingrays over the sandy shallows. These locations are also known for their incredible wall dives cut by gorgeous sand canyons to explore. Huge barrel and tube sponges cover the underwater landscape and highlighted by all types of reef activity including, a dozen tarpon, great barracuda, large groupers cruising the area, spotted moray eel, trumpet fish, pipefish, queen triggerfish, parrotfish, neck crab, and decorator crab. For our night dive we were welcomed in by several tarpon hunting under the boat’s underwater flood lights, lots of squid in the soft coral, scorpion fish hiding in the coral, arrow crab, octopus, a spotted moray eel and passed numerous sleeping parrotfish.

Tuesday:
Dive sites: AM: Quebrada (2 dives); PM: Cathedral (2 dives) – – LIGHTHOUSE REEF ATOLL
Turtles!! After a gorgeous sunrise we started our first dive on a stunning wall highlighted by marvelous and vibrant colors where we found hawksbill turtle, great barracuda, lionfish, spotted drum, trunk fish and hiding lobsters. For our night dive we found over a dozen tarpon hunting under the boat, squid, bar jack, sharp tail eel, spotted drum, a big defensive crab, hiding lobsters and a spotted moray eel.

Wednesday:
Dive sites: AM: The Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye Island (1 dive & BBQ); PM: Half Moon Caye Wall (3 dives) – – LIGHTHOUSE REEF ATOLL
The Blue Hole, Caribbean Reef Sharks & Barracuda!! We started the day off with a dive at The Great Blue Hole. This site was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971, he brought his ship, the Calypso, to the hole to chart its depths. Today, our exploration was led past the deep and ancient stalagmites to relive its initial discovery and even saw flamingo tongues in the depths. After the Blue Hole we headed to Half Moon Caye Island. The island is the oldest site for wildlife protection in Belize and also the only breeding colony in the country for the thousands of Red-Footed Booby Birds that nest beside their pirating neighbors the Magnificent Frigate Birds. We spent some time walking around the palm tree lined beaches, combed paths, came across a few Hermit Crabs, an Iguana and enjoyed the scenery from the observation tower/platform nestled in the canopy. We ended our island visit with a private beach barbeque for lunch and a water taxi back to the mother ship.

On our afternoon dives we sighted several Caribbean reef sharks patrolling the wall, numerous southern stingrays over the sand and free swimming green moray eels along the reef. On the mooring block, we discovered numerous mini trunkfish, baby angelfish, sailfin blennies, shrimp, a baby lionfish, pipefish in the grass and numerous garden eels on the sandy bottom. This location is also known for their incredible wall dives cut by gorgeous sand canyons to explore. Huge barrel and tube sponges cover the underwater landscape and highlighted by all types of reef activity including, hawksbill turtle, large groupers cruising the area, spotted moray eel, trumpet fish, pipefish, barracuda dive buddies, triggerfish, parrotfish, neck crab, and decorator crab.

Thursday:
Dive sites: AM: Aquarium (2 dives); PM: Long Caye Wall (2 dives) – – LIGHTHOUSE REEF ATOLL / TURNEFFE
Caribbean Reef Shark & Turtles!! The day was filled with seeing Caribbean reef sharks coming up from the depths, hawksbill turtles hanging out on the reef, several huge grouper cruising the wall, free swimming big green moray eels, lionfish, lobster and octopus on the move. We navigated through beautiful caves/sand canyons and where we spotted numerous nudibranchs, great barracuda, trunkfish, orange filefish, cowfish, lionfish, hungry snapper, banded coral shrimp, spotted drum, decorator crab and a shy puffer fish trying to evade the divers. After a ‘green flash’ sunset and during the night dive we again encountered numerous hunting tarpon and Bermuda chub under the boat’s lights. Also found a gigantic puffer, basket stars, bristol star, large lobsters, spider crab, various other types of hiding crabs and a large Caribbean reef shark cruising the reef ridge; Chris’s surprise

Friday:
Dive sites: AM: Julie’s Jungle (1 dives); The Elbow (1 dive) – – LIGHTHOUSE REEF ATOLL / TURNEFFE
Spotted Eagle Rays!! For the dawn dive we watched the underwater reef transition from night to day and saw green moray eels, spotted moray eels, awaking parrotfish, tiny octopus, various nudibranchs, neck crab and hiding lobsters. On the morning dive we stumbled upon a few spotted eagle rays, big lobsters, a crusty crab puffer fish and a baby trigger fish. In the afternoon and once back in Belize City, guests had the opportunity of participating in land tours to Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, The Belize Zoo, cave tubing or zip lining before the evening cocktail party.

Congratulations to the following divers:
Honorary Ambassador & Protector of the Reef: Chris and Walker
Advanced Open Water Certification: Leesa
Advanced Adventurer: Bruce
100^th Recreational Dive: Sarah
200^th Recreational Dive: Linda
Treasure Hunter Award: Fred and Bill
Shark Bait Award: Chris


THANKS AGAIN TO ALL OUR AWESOME GUESTS!!
Captain Mike and Crew

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report March 9 – 16, 2013

Crew:
Captain/Instructor – Jay
Second Captain/Instructor – Michael
Engineer – Fermin
Video/Instructor – Chris
Stewardess – Vanessa
Chef – Yanis

Average Water Temp: 80F
Average Visibility: 80ft to 100ft
Average Wind: 5-10 knots, with winds up to 20knots
Sea Conditions: light chop to choppy seas

All of our anxious guests boarded at 3pm and got settled in with their equipment. This week we welcomed John & Val, David, Ed, Jim & Lynette, Maureen, Andrew, Thor & Lisa, Joe & Jean, Mike & Nancy, Sheila & Lou, Jerry and Doug. After doing our Captain’s safety briefing and introductions we sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by Chef Yanis. Afterwards, we departed from the Fort George Dock in Belize City and headed over to Lighthouse Atoll for the evening to start our diving early Sunday morning.

Dive Sites of the week:
Sunday: Long Caye Ridge, Julie’s Jungle
Monday: Quebrada, Aquarium
Tuesday: Two of a Kind, Half Moon Caye Wall
Wednesday: Inspiration, Shark Point
Thurs: Grand Bogue, Front Porch
Friday: Front Porch, Black Beauty

We did most of the diving over at Lighthouse Reef except for the Thursday and Friday dives on Turneffe Atoll. We had a great week of diving with sightings of reef sharks, juvenile black tip sharks, spotted eagle rays, loggerhead/hawksbill/green turtles, amberjacks, bottlenose dolphins, free-swimming green and spotted morays, huge black and Nassau groupers, curious barracudas, schools of tarpon in formation, octopus running across the sand on the afternoon dive, along with tons of reef fish such as trumpetfish, several species of angelfish and triggerfish, schools of Creole wrasse, tons of parrotfish…midnight, rainbow, stoplight, etc…, rock beauties, basslets, hamlets, damselfish, to name a few. Also there were a lot of critters such as skeleton shrimp, wire coral shrimp, squat anemone shrimp, Pederson shrimp, pipefish, pipehorse, blue throat pike blennies, head shield slugs, several species of nudibranchs, squid (some juvenile), comb jellies, and several cleaning stations. On Friday, and once back in Belize City, guests had the opportunity of participating in land tours to Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, the Belize Zoo, cave tubing or zip lining before the evening cocktail party.

Thanks to the wonderful group of people and a great week of diving.
Hope you see you guys again!!
The Crew

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report March 16 – 23, 2013

Sea Conditions: flat with a light chop
Average Water Temp: 79- 81F (recommended full body 3-5mm wetsuit with optional hood)
Average Visibility: 80-120 foot (occasional 120’+)
Average Wind: 5-10 knots

Crewed this week by Jay, Mike, Fermin, Jody, Randy and Anna

Saturday:
All of our anxious guests boarded at 3pm and got settled in with their equipment. This week we welcomed Craig, Dub, Burleigh, Peter & Elisabeth, Susan, Cathy, Dave & Elena, Mark, Gloria & Michael, Darlene, Neal & Jane, Monica, Dave and Brian. After doing our Captain’s safety briefing and introductions, we sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by Chef Anna. Afterwards, we departed from the Fort George Dock in Belize City and headed over to Turneffe Atoll for the evening.

Sunday:
Dive sites: AM: Long Caye Ridge (2 dives); PM: / Quebrada (2 dives) – – Lighthouse Reef Atoll
Spotted Eagle Rays!!
We initiated our week moored to Long Caye Ridge where we did our check-out dive and second morning dive. The dives started off with sighting spotted eagle rays, Caribbean reef shark, a giant free swimming green moray eel and hawksbill turtles. Also found great barracuda, numerous parrotfish, lionfish, several groupers, filefish, cowfish, juvenile spotted drum, hogfish, colorful parrotfish, scorpion fish, garden eels, blenny, jawfish, lettuce sea slugs, and hiding lobster. We then moved over to our second dive site of the day where we encountered spotted eagle ray and elegant octopus. We also saw scorpion fish, a large spotted toadfish basking in the open, giant grouper, spadefish, filefish and more green moray eels. After a big sunset and dinner, we prepared for our night dive. We entered the evening water and observed tons of jacks, tarpon, chubs, stingray, two active and on the move octopus, inquisitive squid, shy spotted moray eel, puffer fish and a few hiding lobsters.

Monday:
Dive sites: AM: Aquarium (2 dives); PM: Hat Caye (3 dives) – – Lighthouse Reef Atoll
Sharks & Spotted Eagle Rays!!
After a beautiful Caribbean sunrise we started our first dive with Caribbean reef sharks patrolling the wall, spotted eagle rays along the ridge and free swimming green moray eels along the reef. These locations are also known for their incredible wall dives cut by gorgeous sand canyons to explore. Huge barrel and tube sponges cover the underwater landscape and highlighted by all types of reef activity including, hawksbill turtle, large groupers cruising the area, spotted moray eel, trumpet fish, pipefish, barracuda dive buddies, triggerfish, parrotfish, neck crab, and decorator crab. For our night dive we found a school of squid, stingray, flounder, scorpion fish, arrow crab, octopus, a spotted moray eel, passed sleeping parrotfish, scores of nudibranchs and even a spotted toadfish.

Tuesday:
Dive sites: AM: The Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye Island (2 dives); PM: Half Moon Caye Wall (2 dives) – – Lighthouse Reef Atoll
Blue Hole!
We started the day off with a dive at The Great Blue Hole. This site was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971, he brought his ship, the Calypso, to the hole to chart its depths. Today, our exploration was led past the deep and ancient stalagmites to relive its initial discovery and even saw flamingo tongues in the depths. After the Blue Hole we headed to Half Moon Caye Island. The island is the oldest site for wildlife protection in Belize and also the only breeding colony in the country for the thousands of red-footed booby birds that nest beside their pirating neighbors the magnificent frigate birds. We spent some time walking around the palm tree lined beaches, combed paths, came across a few hermit crabs, an Iguana and enjoyed the scenery from the observation tower/platform nestled in the canopy. We ended our island visit with a private beach barbeque for lunch and a water taxi back to the mother ship. Our next dive site is known for its beautiful wall highlighted by marvelous vibrant colors where we found a few Caribbean reef shark (including Jody’s spotted tiger shark), great barracuda, lionfish, spotted drum, trunk fish and hiding lobsters. On the mooring block we discovered numerous mini trunkfish, baby angelfish, sailfin blennies, shrimp, a baby lionfish, pipefish in the grass and numerous garden eels on the sandy bottom. For our night dive we found over a dozen tarpon hunting under the boat, squid, bar jack, sharp tail eel, spotted drum, a big defensive crab, hiding lobsters and a spotted moray eel.

Wednesday:
Dive sites: AM: Tarpon Cave (2 dives); PM: Long Caye (3 dives) – – Lighthouse Reef Atoll
More Sharks & Spotted Eagle Rays!!
At the first dive site we observed three Caribbean reef sharks and a spotted eagle ray coming up the wall. We also sighted octopus, a resting nurse shark, a very curious great barracuda and big grouper dive buddies. Our second dive site was equally exciting and full of action with several Caribbean reef sharks, two spotted eagle rays, free swimming big green moray eels, octopus, schooling tarpon, hiding lobsters, spotted drum, baby barracuda and hawksbill turtles traversing the reef. After sunset, we had a very active night dive with over 20 hunting tarpon under with boat along with schools of Bermuda chub, horse eye jack and pompano jacks. We spent time with a friendly octopus, a passing nurse shark and Caribbean reef sharks lurking in the shadows.

Thursday:
Dive sites: AM: Silver Caves (2 dives); PM: Dos Cocos (2 dives) – – Lighthouse Reef Atoll / Turneffe island
Circling Caribbean Reef Shark & Spotted Eagle Ray!!
The day was filled with seeing Caribbean reef sharks coming up from the depths, circling spotted eagle rays, several huge grouper cruising the reef, free swimming big green moray eels, lionfish, lobster and octopus on the move. We navigated through beautiful caves/sand canyons and where we spotted numerous nudibranchs, great barracuda, trunkfish, orange filefish, cowfish, lionfish, hungry snapper, banded coral shrimp, spotted drum, decorator crab and a shy puffer fish trying to evade the divers. After a “green flash” sunset and during the night dive we again encountered numerous hunting tarpon and Bermuda chub under the boat’s lights. Also found a gigantic puffer, basket stars, Bristol star, large lobsters, spider crab and various other types of hiding crabs.

Friday:
Dive sites: AM: Sandy Slope (2 dives) – – Turneffe island
Turtle!!
For the dawn dive we watched the underwater reef transition from night to day and saw green moray eels, spotted moray eels, awaking parrotfish, jaw fish, garden eels, tiny octopus, various nudibranchs, neck crab and hiding lobsters. On the morning dive we stumbled upon a few southern stingrays, big lobsters, a crusty crab puffer fish and a baby trigger fish. In the afternoon and once back in Belize City, guests had the opportunity of participating in land tours to Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, The Belize Zoo, cave tubing or zip lining before the evening cocktail party.

Congratulations to the following divers:
Gorilla Divers (completed all of this week’s dives): Mike, Dave, Brian, and not forgetting Mark
Honorary Ambassador & Protector of the Reef: Brian “the Hunter”
Nitrox Certification: Darlene
1,600^th Recreational Dive (No, it’s not a typo… 1,600 dives): Peter

Thanks again to all our awesome guests!!
Captain Mike

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report March 23-30, 2013

Avg Water Temp: 79-81F
Avg Visibility: 70 ft
Avg Winds: 15 knots

CREW:
Capt. Mike
Chef Anna
Steward – Randy
Engineer – Fermin
Instructors – Jody & Chris

This week we welcomed 17 guests, including a family with 3 generations of divers, and a couple father and son buddy teams. Our guests this week were Lukas, Milan, Debbie, David, Ann, Rick, Gail, Jim, Andrew, Bill, Jeremy, Herbert, Sandy, Michael, Lara, Harrison, and our Jr. diver Nolan.

Everyone arrived on time on Saturday and they were all eager to dive. After the introductions and safety briefing we had a wonderful dinner prepared by Chef Anna, then made the 4 1/2 hour journey straight across to Lighthouse Reef where we started our first dives on Sunday.

This week’s diving schedule:
Sunday – Long Caye Ridge & Aquarium
Monday – South East Cut, 2 Of A Kind, & Eel Town
Tuesday – Inspiration
Wednesday – Half Moon Caye Wall, Tarpon Cave, & Eel Town
Thursday – Quebrada & Long Caye Wall
Friday – Front Porch

This week we saw lots and lots of turtles…several turtles on the surface and turtles underwater swimming with the guests. Also, on several of the dives we had Eagle Rays… one swam over our heads and some swam right up to our guests. The guests had close Caribbean reef shark encounters over on Half Moon Caye Wall and Tarpon Caves, great photo opportunities. We also saw reef sharks on Aquarium and Quebrada, and a huge sleeping nurse shark at 2 Of A Kind.

The moray eels were active this week as well…we spotted them out swimming at Long Caye Ridge, Aquarium, Long Caye Wall, and Front Porch…and saw a HUGE one at a cleaning station on Quebrada. Guests also spotted the elusive white spotted Toadfish over at Front Porch. The white spotted Toadfish is indigenous to Turneffe Atoll and has not been reported being anywhere else in the world.

The week was also filled with sightings of juvenile spotted drums, several lobsters…one that was at about 2 feet long, tons of decorator crabs, lots of different types of shrimp…including a mantis shrimp outside of its hole, squid, octopus, gold spotted eel, tons of tarpon, schools of jacks and Creole wrasses, and tons of the regular reef fish including angelfish, triggerfish, trumpetfish, damselfish, wrasses, basslets, parrotfish, barracudas, groupers, and hogfish, to name a few.

We started our diving at Long Caye Ridge over at Lighthouse Reef Atoll for our first dives on Sunday morning, and then went to Aquarium for the afternoon and night dives. As the week went on we visited South East Cut, 2 Of A Kind, Eel Town, Inspiration, Half Moon Caye Wall, Tarpon Cave, Quebrada, and Long Caye Wall…then we headed to Turneffe Atoll on Thursday night for the early morning dives at Front Porch.

We had a great week with our guests. Our junior diver Nolan was able to get some diving experience by doing over 20 dives this week. Congrats to Jim and Andrew on their advanced certifications. Thank you to all our guests for coming to dive with us…hope to see you guys again soon!

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report March 30 – April 6, 2013

This week we welcomed aboard 19 guests, including 3 diving families: Keith, Beth, & their daughter Hannah; Tim, Teri, and their daughters Jess, & Laura; Shannon & Diana were here a year ago and came back with their son Brad, and Uncle Steve; also diving with us were Jennifer, Mark, Clark & Cari, Sabine & Han, Rich and Jerry. All our guests arrived on time, with all their luggage and ready to DIVE!!!

Avg Water Temp: 79-81F
Avg Vis: 80Ft – 120ft
Avg Wind: 5-20 knots
Sea Conditions: light chop to choppy seas

CREW: Capt. Mike, Chef Yanis, Vanessa, Fermin, Jody, & Chris

Sunday:
Dive sites: AM: Sandy Slope; PM: Front Porch
We started an exciting week of diving over at Sandy Slope on Turneffe Atoll where we did our check-out dive and the second morning dive…the afternoon and night dives were at Front Porch. The day started out with spotted Eagle Rays on our first dives, several Nassau groupers, lobsters, yellow-headed jawfish, moray eels, and sargassum triggerfish. Over at Front Porch, there were several green morays out swimming along the top of the reef. On the night there were at least 3 separate sightings of the white-spotted toadfish, as well as squid, several species of nudibranchs, and someone even saw a half of a horse-eye jack fall to the bottom. After investigating the pictures and video, we came to the conclusion that a shark bit it in half.

Monday:
Dive sites: AM: Black Beauty; PM: Quebrada
We stayed at Turneffe Atoll to do the morning dive at Black Beauty. Eels were out swimming around the reef at this site. We also saw schools of jacks, rainbow parrotfish and tons of other parrotfish, lots of groupers, several barracuda, eagle ray, and a loggerhead turtle. For the afternoon dive we did our crossing over to Lighthouse Reef tied up to Quebrada for the afternoon and night dives. Quebrada never disappoints…it is such a beautiful site that even if there were no fish you would still be fascinated with all the colors on the reef and down the wall. There were beautiful sponges, and hard and soft corals all over this site. The fish life here is mesmerizing. As we headed down the wall there was a waterfall of fish…a school of thousands of Creole wrasse poured down the wall in formation and surrounded the divers. As we cruised a huge loggerhead (about 5ft long) swam passed us like it was late for work, then double back to take a look before continuing along the wall. On the top of the reef, we saw about 20 tarpon in formation, tons of trumpetfish, hamlets, triggers, angels, damsels, basslets, gobies, blennies…this site is teeming with fish.

Tuesday:
Dive Sites: AM Silver Caves; PM Julie’s Jungle
Tuesday’s diving at Silver Caves could best be described by 2 words - sharks and rays. We saw 5 different reef sharks…divers had several opportunities for photos as the sharks swam by both on top of the reef as well as down the wall. Also down on the wall, we came across 4 Eagle Rays in formation floating in the current. We also saw a couple hawksbill turtles, lots of reef fish, and some macro subjects...neck crabs, wire coral shrimp, nudibranch, and blennies to name a few. For the afternoon and night dives we went to Julie’s Jungle. Here we saw lots of tarpon, jacks, barracuda, hawksbill turtle, a couple scorpionfish, and eels.

Wednesday:
Dive Sites: AM Dos Cocos; PM Long Caye Wall
Today we had another exciting day of diving…there was a lot of fish activity at Dos Cocos where we started our day’s diving. It seemed like there were fish everywhere…Creole wrasse running along the wall, lots of black durgeons swimming in the water column, trumpetfish hunting, burrfish, lots of sergeant majors and damselfish, and down the wall we saw a Caribbean reef shark, and a little while later, a Bull Shark cruising at about 70ft before disappearing into the depths. We found several decorator crabs, a tassled nudibranch, and several wire coral shrimp.
After lunch we went to Long Caye Wall. The dives here were nothing short of awesome! Eagle rays, hawksbill turtle, and a pod of about 15 bottlenose dolphins were some of the things spotted on this dive. Also what was pretty cool was being swarmed by hundreds of bar jacks swimming around us. And at the end of the dive one of the guests saw a blue marlin swimming off the wall.

Thursday
Dive Sites: AM Half Moon Caye Wall; PM Tarpon Caves & Aquarium
Thursday we did Half Moon Caye Wall in the morning, then moved to Tarpon Caves and then to Long Caye Ridge for the afternoon and night dives. What a great day of diving! There was stuff for the macro lovers and for those looking for the big stuff. Several reef sharks, eagle rays circling in front of the divers, green turtles, and huge barracuda were all seen…camera strobes were flashing all over the place as the divers were able to get in close range for photos. In the shallows we saw neck crabs, at least 4 pipehorses and 6 pipefish, headshield slugs, a seahorse, mantis shrimp, a baby octopus in an empty conch shell, a lesser electric ray, several southern stingrays, sailfin blennies, and a very rare find…a short nose batfish that was about 1/4 of an inch big. Later that day we went to the Long Caye Ridge for the evening and night dives…lots of nudibranch, decorator crabs, tons of eels including 4 sharp tail eels that were doing a mating ritual.

Friday: AM Front Porch
We woke up on the southernside of Turneffe Atoll to finish off the week diving at Front Porch. Green and spotted morays, lionfish, lettuce sea slugs, and lots of fish waking up. After the dives we headed back to Belize City and finished of the week with our weekly Wine & Cheese cocktail party.

THANK YOU!!!!! And congrats to Jennifer (600^th dive), Hans (300^th) dive, Diana (200^th dive), Brad (100^th) dive, and Teri (100^th dive).

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Report April 6 – 13, 2013

This week we welcomed 17 from the US, Canada, Italy, and Spain…Jeremia, Eric, Al, David M, Dario, Andrey, Kelly, Elisabeth, Ainhoa, Ray, Christine, Brian, Lacey, David J, Pat, Jayne, and Little Tommy (our youngest diver at 10 years old and also probably our youngest repeat guest on the Belize Aggressor III).

Sunday: Long Caye Ridge & Long Caye
Monday: Half Moon Caye Wall & Quebrada
Tuesday: Blue Hole, Dos Cocos, & Julie’s Jungle
Wednesday: Aquarium & Hat Caye
Thursday: Painted Wall & Silver Caves
Friday: Sandy Slope

What a beautiful morning to start our week’s diving at Long Caye Ridge on Lighthouse Reef Atoll, and what a fantastic first day of diving! Even before the dive we saw a pretty big hawksbill turtle on the surface. This week we saw a lot of turtles underwater and on the surface. The first dive was the check-out dive…divers got their gear and weights sorted out and then dropped down below the surface. Fish everywhere…a huge school of a couple hundred horse-eye jacks, a school of about 50 permit, a school of Creole wrasse, several tarpon, groupers, snappers, angels, triggers, and lots of other reef fish…we even saw a black grouper and a green moray swimming together along the reef. We also found several neck crabs, wire coral shrimp, a lettuce sea slug, and a scorpion fish. As we cruised off the wall and into the shallows, we came across a very curious hawksbill turtle that let us swim alongside and he turned to check us out.

After lunch we hopped in at Long Caye Wall and immediately saw an eagle ray at about 80 feet, then another…and this one was huge…and then a 3^rd eagle ray swam by. As we continued along the wall we passed by several neck crabs hanging out on sea plumes trying to blend in. Speaking of blending in, we saw another scorpion fish on the top of the reef, and right behind in a hole was a lionfish keeping it company.

We had an awesome 2^nd day of diving at 2 great dive sites…Half Moon Caye Wall for our 2 morning dives and Quebrada for the 2 afternoon and night dives. It was a day filled with animals from both ends of the spectrum, from big sharks to tiny nudibranch; we saw all kinds of stuff. At Half Moon Caye Wall we saw 2 pretty big Caribbean reef sharks, eagle rays, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles, southern stingrays, blue & midnight parrotfish, groupers, and barracuda, as well as some not so obvious critters such as flounder, decorator crabs, pipefish, pipehorses, and headshield slugs.

At Quebrada we saw lots of decorator crabs, skeleton shrimp, schools of Creole wrasse, jacks, and tarpon, and lots and lots of reef fish swimming around the reef, and a huge green moray out swimming along the wall. Around the end of the dive 2 eagle rays showed up. As soon as we jumped in on the night dive there were 2 huge African pompanos below the boat mixing in with the tarpon swimming below the boat. We saw tassled, tufted, and white-speckled nudibranchs, Caribbean reef squid…even 2 that were about half inch long, lobsters, spotted morays, and some beautiful comb jellies.

The rest of the week was filled with sightings of eagle rays on almost every dive…we saw them at Aquarium, several at Painted Wall, and again at Silver Caves. We also saw a big Caribbean reef shark swimming on the top of the reef and down the wall at Silver Caves. Another thing we saw a lot of this week were scorpion fish, decorator crabs, skeleton shrimp, wire coral shrimp, and flounder…all using their terrific camouflage to hide in plain sight. And of course, more turtles…loggerhead at Quebrada, Dos Cocos, and Silver Caves, and hawksbills everyday…either on the surface or underwater. It was like turtles were popping up all over the place.

It was a really fun week with lots to see and great new friends of several nationalities and all ages (10 being the youngest diver).

Thank you guys for a great week of diving and we hope to see you back again very soon!

CREW:
Captain – Jay
Chef – Yanis
Stewardess – Vanessa
Engineer – Fermin
Instructors – Jody & Chris

 

[Aggressor Adventures]

Belize Aggressor III Captain’s Log April 13 - 20, 2013

Crew: Captain/Instructor Jay, Second Captain/Instructor Michael, Engineer Fermin, Video/Instructor Chris, Stewardess Randy, Chef Yanis

Average Water Temp: 80 F, 3mm recommended
Average Visibility: 80ft to 100ft
Average Wind: 5-10 knots, with winds up to 15 knots
Sea Conditions: light chop to choppy seas

All of our anxious guests boarded at 3pm and got settled in with their equipment. This week we welcomed our comrades from Russia with love; Andrey K, Alex G, Alex T & Liybov, Andrey V & Alena, Alex P & Konstantin, Boris & Tatiana F, Pavel & Irina, Vasily & Yulia and Tatiana V. After doing our Captain’s safety briefing and introductions, we sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by Chef Yanis. Afterwards, we departed from the Fort George Dock in Belize City and headed over to Lighthouse Atoll for the evening to start our diving early Sunday morning.

Dive Sites of the week:
Sunday: Long Caye Ridge & Long Caye Wall
Monday: Aquarium & Quebrada
Tuesday: The Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye Beach BBQ & Dos Cocos
Wednesday: Julie’s Jungle, Hat Caye & Cathedral
Thursday: Half Moon Caye Wall & Silver Caves
Friday: Triple Anchor & Amberhead

We did most of the diving over at Lighthouse Reef except for the Thursday and Friday dives on Turneffe Atoll. We had a great week of diving with sightings of reef sharks, juvenile black tips, spotted eagle rays, loggerhead/hawksbill/green turtles, amberjacks, bottle-nose dolphins, free-swimming green and spotted morays, huge black and Nassau groupers, curious barracudas, schools of tarpon in formation, octopus running across the sand on the afternoon dive, along with tons of reef fish such as trumpetfish, several species of angel and triggerfish, schools of Creole wrasse, tons of parrotfish…midnight, rainbow, stoplight, etc…, rock beauties, basslets, hamlets, damselfish, to name a few. Also there were a lot of critters such as skeleton shrimp, wire coral shrimp, squat anemone shrimp, Pederson shrimp, pipefish, pipehorse, blue throat pike blennies, head shield slugs, several species of nudibranchs, squid (some juvenile), comb jellies, and several cleaning stations.

Tuesday morning we traveled up to the Great Blue Hole. This site was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971, he brought his ship, the Calypso, to the hole to chart its depths. Our exploration was led past the deep and ancient stalagmites to relive its initial discovery and even saw flamingo tongues in the depths. After the Blue Hole we headed to Half Moon Caye Island. The island is the oldest site for wildlife protection in Belize and also the only breeding colony in the country for the thousands of red-footed booby birds that nest beside their pirating neighbors the magnificent frigate birds. We spent some time walking around the palm tree lined beaches, combed paths, came across a few hermit crabs, an Iguana and enjoyed the scenery from the observation tower/platform nestled in the canopy. We ended our island visit with a private beach barbeque for lunch and a water taxi back to the mother ship.

On Friday and once back in Belize City, guests had the opportunity of participating in land tours to Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, The Belize Zoo, cave tubing or zip lining before the evening cocktail party.

Thanks to the wonderful group of people and a great week of diving.

Hope you see you guys again!!
The Crew