Blue Hole or Turneffe Excursion?

[KeithG]

one thing to consider is the amount of down time spent travelling. some boats take over 1 1/2 hours to make the one way trip to the blue hole. are you up for 3 hours travel time? it makes for a very long day for a 28 minute dive.

 

[chillyinCanada]

giffenk, please tell me who you dive with that only takes 1 1/2 hour to Blue Hole? Out of San Pedro, it is 2 1/2 hours, but the boat I take is very comfortable and it's one heckuva way to spend a great day.

 

[KeithG]

giffenk, please tell me who you dive with that only takes 1 1/2 hour to Blue Hole? Out of San Pedro, it is 2 1/2 hours, but the boat I take is very comfortable and it's one heckuva way to spend a great day.

i was going on hearsay, so i was being conservative. i think there are closer locations that do it in less time. 5 hours of travel time? hope for calm winds and sunshine.

we use the belize dancer, so travel time is not an issue. we are heading down next week. hope they have their xmas tree up.

 

[Stoo]

Or stay at Huracan and the BH is 15 minutes away, AND there are no other boats there while you dive. It's really the best options. I'm heading back there in March for the third time. The past two trips we dove the BH with either 3 or 5 people... in the entire Hole!

Regarding the boat trip from AC, the only time I did this was about 20 years ago. It was an adventure to be sure, but suffice it to say that we are almost ship-wrecked TWICE in one trip. It's a long story, but that trip was enough to cause me to start packing a hand-held VHF and GPS on dive trips! This isn't "normal" I don't think! We got back to our hotel at 11 PM, in a small panga, driven by a local fishing dude!

As I mentioned up above, if the trip to the BH was limited to that one dive, I'd say save your money, but assuming it also includes a couple of dives at Halfmoon, then it's a great day. Assuming you don't hit a reef and total a prop and bend a prop shaft. And then drive through a fish trap and lose a brand new outboard.

Ralph, you might recall we chatted when you were in Toronto a while ago. I have yet to make it to Glovers, but it's definitely on the TDL!

 

[Ralph Capeling]

Yes Stoo, I recall our chat and we are waiting for your arrival!
Regards
Ralph

Or stay at Huracan and the BH is 15 minutes away, AND there are no other boats there while you dive. It's really the best options. I'm heading back there in March for the third time. The past two trips we dove the BH with either 3 or 5 people... in the entire Hole!

Regarding the boat trip from AC, the only time I did this was about 20 years ago. It was an adventure to be sure, but suffice it to say that we are almost ship-wrecked TWICE in one trip. It's a long story, but that trip was enough to cause me to start packing a hand-held VHF and GPS on dive trips! This isn't "normal" I don't think! We got back to our hotel at 11 PM, in a small panga, driven by a local fishing dude!

As I mentioned up above, if the trip to the BH was limited to that one dive, I'd say save your money, but assuming it also includes a couple of dives at Halfmoon, then it's a great day. Assuming you don't hit a reef and total a prop and bend a prop shaft. And then drive through a fish trap and lose a brand new outboard.

Ralph, you might recall we chatted when you were in Toronto a while ago. I have yet to make it to Glovers, but it's definitely on the TDL!

 

[Thook]

Diving the Blue Hole itself is rather mundane. If you like a deep water dive with little scenery then it's for you. What makes it cool though
is the history with the location and this unto itself is the attraction. Personally, to me, what makes the whole dive worth it is working the Lighthous Atoll. I don't know if Ramons does that but that is fabulous diving!

 

[KeithG]

Diving the Blue Hole itself is rather mundane. If you like a deep water dive with little scenery then it's for you. What makes it cool though
is the history with the location and this unto itself is the attraction. Personally, to me, what makes the whole dive worth it is working the Lighthous Atoll. I don't know if Ramons does that but that is fabulous diving!

Yep! We saw a Ramons boat there last week. And a herd of others as well. The Dancer liveaboard seemed to stay away from Half Moon Caye and hid around the corner on the west side of Long caye when too many day boats showed up.

The surface looked like a yard sale with divers scattered all over the place and boats randomly cruising around looking for lost souls. Seems like the average day diver had no clue on how to find their way back to their own boat. And NO, these where not drift dives...

 

[cmneus]

Not all shops go to the Elbow, it's a much farther ride to the south side of the atoll. We went to Mini Elbow on the north side which was a great dive (followed by another great dive), a pod of 15 dolphins joined us for quite a long time at Mini Elbow. Amazing. The Blue Hole is cool if you can go to 40 meters and usually two other dives are included in the trip. Hopefully Half Moon Caye Wall is one of them...spectacular dive!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO BOTH! As for the long boat ride, we thought it was great fun if you like being out on the water. A few of the trips got pretty bumpy but it was great fun crashing through the waves, quite a wild ride! Make sure to take Dramamine if you get seasick. We had a nice big boat (Belize Diving Services) but I cannot recall if Ramone's boat was the same size or smaller. From what I saw the diving was way better out at Turneffe and Lighthouse than it was in San Pedro and Caye Caulker......def worth it.