Blue Hole Dive Planning

[Damselfish]

I'm guessing you would have a problem finding an op wiling to supply any sort of Nitrox for this dive, even though it would allow more NDL margin and be perfectly safe for the diver that didn't exceed their MOD - because[/I] it would be so easy for people to do just that and some likely would. They already have enough to worry about when they take people on this dive (that probably often shouldn't be there.) The dive may be stated at 130 because that's the commonly accepted rec limit, or maybe a bit more, but as said the actual bottom is way below so for practical purposes there isn't one. What's at 130ish is the start of the overhang and the top of the stalactites. It may depend some on your exact location in the hole. I suspect in reality a lot of divers and entire groups dip to more like 140 (as ours did), because this is where you can get a better view of the stalactites and actually swim around some of the shallower ones.

 

[Darnold9999]

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone on this dive that stayed above 130. I was at 137 and some in the group were deeper by 10 feet or so.

At 1.4 MOD for 32% is 110 as I recall - yes you can go to 1.6 but I think I will pass, that is just too close to the edge of my comfort zone.

 

[hypersonic]

My wife and I will be on a Belize live aboard next month and diving the Blue Hole is one of my biggest question marks.

Though we have often been to 100 ft in the last year with no problems, our experience level is less than 100 dives and our ages are 65+. Both of us are comfortable in the water and have good buoyancy control. But 130 ft is in excess of the safety margin we have set for ourselves which is at the 100 ft level.

I'm thinking we could do a couple of things, 1) limit the dive to 100 ft or 2) just dive around the rim which looks to be about 20-30 ft deep.

In either case, my wife could still wear a T-shirt that says, "I dove the Blue Hole and survived".

Obviously we will go with the recommendations of the DM on the live aboard but would like to hear the views of some of you who have BTDT.

 

[Damselfish]

I personally wouldn't bother doing it if I was going to stop at 100ft. I suppose if you limit the dive to 100 you could say you dove it and get a little of the experience, but unless you luck out with sharks* there won't be much of anything to see. It seems to me like a pointless bounce. I also don't know if your crew will go for that, it may seem safer to you but they tend to want to keep the group together. It's also possible they won't let you dive the rim. The first time we were there a number of us wanted to do this instead, just a dive by the rim and the shallows near the boat. They wouldn't allow it, I don't know why not and didn't bother pressing for a reason but I thought it was dumb.

The third time we were there on a liveaboard we just skipped the dive and enjoyed taking the morning off to relax. A number of people went snorkeling which they said was pretty good and in hindsight I would have done that. (The second trip was a special itinerary and while we spent some time at Lighthouse Reef we didn't bother with the BH.)

We were on the Sun Dancer all 3 of our trips to Belize. I don't know what the Aggressor does, and some probably depends on the current crew. So, you'll have to discuss your options when the time comes. Heck, it's possible (though unlikely) you'll take a vote and decide to skip the whole thing.


*I may be completely off base here, but I think the dayboats usually dive a different area than the liveaboards. And I get the impression from accounts I've read that the dayboats see sharks more often.

 

[charlesml3]

In both of my dives at the Blue Hole I saw no appreciable current. Given the geography of the hole it would make sense to me that the current wouldn't really flow much there.

If you really don't feel comfortable diving the Blue Hole then certainly skip that dive, but don't skip the trip. The 2nd dive at Aquarium is worth the trip alone.

-Charles

 

[peterbj7]

What's at 130ish is the start of the overhang and the top of the stalactites

No - that's closer to 80ft.

I've taken kids down to just below the overhang, never breaching 100ft, and I was surprised that although we couldn't see the shelf we still got largely the same experience and the kids absolutely loved it. And of course being much shallower we were able to stay much longer.

 

[Damselfish]

I guess I stand corrected, but that's not really what I remember. Does it vary much depending on where on the circumference you are?

 

[peterbj7]

A bit, but the overhang (which is the last vestige of the original roof of the cavern that became the BH) is at pretty well the same depth all round. I'm not actually sure about the 80ft, but it's of that order and certainly less than 100ft. The roof of the cavern was around 30ft thick and its upper surface is at around 50ft - that's the bottom of the sandy slope that you will remember.

 

[cyberdyver]

Man u r over excited. It is good to be concerned but dont get over ur head. No professional operator will take u 2 d Blue Hole on your 1st dive. Most likely you will do check out dives first or u will at least have to show your logbook. Blue Hole dives are lead by Dive Masters just like every other dive in Belize is officially done. The DMs also plan your dive. I used to lead dives in the Blue Hole at least once a week for a year and regularly before and after that. Came across a lot of divers in the same situation and some were quite comfortable sitting it out. Of all the divers I took down no one ran out of air though some do get in the caution zone. I always plan it as a no stop dive doing a slow ascent to ur safety stop after the 8 min. bottom time. It's a deep dive but a unique one you'd want to do at least once. It is in a overhead environment and I can almost guarantee sharks will be under the boat so that freaks out some divers. As long as you are in control of yourself you'll be fine.

 

[therealtreehugger]

I did a blue hole dive in the Bahamas, they said the bottom was 190'. We had the option of EANx32 or air. my buddy and I were going to use air and go to the bottom, but for other reasons, he decided not to, and I then didn't have a buddy to go that deep with me, and so we stuck to the nitrox and didn't go beyond 110'. I am kicking myself, because I will probably never get back there. so to Hypersonic - go to your comfort depth of 100'. You will see a lot more than at the rim. It was still cool, but I regret not going to the bottom. Live and learn. You only live once. Be safe, but not in a shell.