Belize Barboat Sailing/ Scuba Trip Looking for some Advice

[Quaff King]

Greetings Mates,
Our group of five is heading for Belize on January 23rd. We have chartered a 46' catamaran out of Ambergris Caye. There are two divers aboard. We would like to design our itinerary to include some good diving. Obviously we can find plenty of good sites off AC but we will be doing some longer sails. Does anyone have any experience with an itinerary out of AC?
A couple of other questions if you don't mind indulging me:
1. On our other bare boat charters we did some dives right off the cat. Our charter company said that is discouraged in Belize? I've never heard of such a thing before?
They are telling us we should do Rendezvous diving with a local operator. We weren't looking to do anything extreme off the cat just some shallow diving where we tie up and maybe a night dive under the boat.
2. Can you recommend some can't miss spots for diving? Do we take the boat to Turniffe Islands, Caye Caulker or any other recommendations.
If anybody has done this gig before I'd appreciate any help and direction you can send my way.
Happy Holidays to all!
Quaff King (for the beer drinker in all of us)

 

[peterbj7]

I think you'll find your sailing will mostly be inside the barrier reef, though I'm no expert. Crossing the ocean to the atolls can be a considerable undertaking. As to diving, inside the barrier reef (or inside each atoll) you'll find the water too shallow for satisfactory diving, and in the open ocean between reef & atolls it's way too deep (thousands of feet). The best diving is on the outer edges of reefs, either those surrounding each atoll or the barrier reef itself.

Diving in Belize is generally controlled, and "just jumping in" is discouraged largely because of what I have said above. There's generally nothing to stop you physically, if you have all the equipment including tanks and some way of filling them. Getting tanks filled will not be straightforward - people I know have sometimes had tanks filled by big liveaboards.

 

[Underbluewaters]

I heading there on the 27th as well
and im looking up the same info. What charter fleet are you sailing with? We have two boats. both 46 leapord cats, one from Moorings and one from Sunsail. I am planning an intinary now and will keep you post on what i find regarding sailing and diving. See you there maybe

 

[Hank49]

Peter is right that those boats mostly stay inside the reef. Once you get down to Placencia area though, there is deeper water inside the reef. Around Moho and Laughingbird Cayes, the water of the Victoria Channel is near 100 feet deep. From Moho, if you cross heading east towards Gladden Spit, there is another caye named Rendezvous that has nice, clean water. The other Rendezvous Caye is pretty much due east of Gales Point or the Western Lagoon.

Or, you could get them to anchor near the cuts, Magatan, Southern Long, Tobacco Caye, Gran Channel and a few others. Maybe you could take the dinghy outside the reef there and dive. But be careful because with a dropping tide, the current picks up a bit. Especially at Magatan.
Just a couple weeks ago we picked up a father and son, from a charter boat like you're talking about, who had been dropped off by a local fisherman to snorkel. The current was ripping going out.....I could barely make headway with my long fins and I do this every week....and the father and little boy had made their way to the shallows off the side of the channel. The little boy was shivering. His father thought everything was fine. He didn't realize the danger they were in.

 

[peterbj7]

On the question of exposure, a few years ago some divers decided to abandon their (crewed but out of control) boat and swim to one of the islands in the south. They were in the sea all night. One woman died of exposure. Even when the sea is very warm it's still cooler than blood heat and you're cooling down all the time. A child will lose heat rapidly, and I've seen children suffering from exposure up here (Ambergris Caye) incurred during the length of a single dive. Good thermal protection is essential for children and all small people, and their companions in the water need to keep watching for signs of exposure. It may be expensive to keep buying well-fitting exposure suits for children, but I suppose it depends how much you value the children!