Great Blue Hole Belize what was your experience?

[AdivingBel]

Dived it on the BA IV in 2018. The surface was interesting. My wife skipped the dive, took her watercolors up on the top deck and did a landscape. It turned out nice. The dive reminded me of a quarry dive. Long, mostly dark descent. Saw a couple of sharks on the way down. Some interesting stalactite formations, had to be careful not to bump your head (it was dark). Went to 142 ft. on 26% with a total dive time of 29 min.. The crew approached the dive with an overabundance of caution which was fine. Did it once and it was fine. I wouldn't do it again if I had a choice as it took too much time away from diving the rest of Lighthouse Reef Atoll which IMHO is some of the very best diving in the Caribbean. All IMHO, YMMV.

 

[Janie88]

Hi Lizzie, my husband and I dove the Blue Hole while on Aggressor Belize IV in October 2016. They had a dive master leading and a dive master at the back of the group. Some of the divers were doing a "back to back" trip and this was their second week, and voted not to do it. They had the option to do a shallower dive in that area. That's what I'd do if we went again. It was an interesting dive, and I'm glad we did it, but would not be heartbroken if I never did it again. There are other dive sites I'd rather not miss, and this isn't one of them. We are in our mid-50's so I understand wanting to be more careful.

Personally, it's nice to say I did that dive, but that's about it!

 

[Steelyeyes]

My wife and I did the Blue Hole once. The first attempt was with Belize Diving Service on Caye Caulker. Had a minor problem cutting through the Turneffe Atoll in that we went aground. Replaced a screw but the other rudder and shaft were toast so we limped back on one screw. It was an adventure. We got two dives in from their other boats up near San Pedro in the afternoon and then they set us up for another try with Frenchies the next day. They even drove our two Nitrox tanks over to the dock at Frenchies. Frenchies only uses air. which is what we used on the Blue Hole dive.

Yes it's a long boat ride. Some of my better dives involved longer boat rides like 92 miles from Key West to the Dry Tortugas or the hump from Kauai to Lehua Crater near Ni'ihau. The Blue Hole is a geology dive. It's not loaded with pretty fish, nor is it an awesome wrecked ship covered with sharks. I found it peaceful and quiet with the exceptions of some knot heads in the front of the group squeaking through their regulators. We went down to 136 feet and headed up. At 120 or so the tail DM offered us a chance to do a swim through behind a column. I think he did that because we looked like we knew what we were doing and we brought lights. I saw a cool reef shark on the safety stop. It came back while people were boarding the boat. I was the last in the water and enjoyed the shark.

I'd skip the bird sanctuary. I raised chickens and it smelled the same as a chicken coop only hotter.

The two dives on Light House Caye were some of the best dives I've had outside of the Indo Pacific...maybe even equal because we saw more sharks. Never saw a shark in Indonesia.

 

[Ayisha]

...Had a minor problem cutting through the Turneffe Atoll in that we went aground. Replaced a screw but the other rudder and shaft were toast so we limped back on one screw. It was an adventure...

That's interesting. I went to the Blue Hole with Aqua Dives from Ambergris Caye in 2006. It was an extremely rough crossing and we learned that the boat wasn't that seaworthy. We got actual bumps and bruises from all the crashing up and down and tried to cushion the smacks by sitting on lifejackets. They were hammering things back on as boards and things went flying off. We thought that was really bad.

The following week, the boat broke in half after it crashed into a reef. All passengers and crew were rescued.

My next time to the Blue Hole on the Belize Aggressor III was pretty smooth sailing.

 

[Downing]

Probably around 10 years or so ago my wife and I were staying at Turneffe Island Resort and making our third trip with them to the BH. TIR's big dive boat was in the shop so they had rented another boat out of Belize City for the day. I forget the name of it, but I think it was something like The Great White Shark, although it was painted red.

As we were cutting through the cayes in the morning, the boat got a little too close to shore and we smacked something pretty hard. Whatever it was, it bent one of the propellers and the rest of the day was a bit of a rough ride. The TIR crew told me later that they kept telling the Boat Captain, who came with the boat, that he was getting too close to shore but he wouldn't listen to them. They didn't think much of his piloting skills.

Years later I went to Placencia to dive with Splash. Unfortunately, their big dive boat was also in the shop and there was The Great White Shark, rented out of Belize City again. It had been so long that I didn't recognize the Captain, but I mentioned the TIR incident to him on one of our dives and he said he remembered it too because he was the one piloting the boat.

I didn't tell him what the TIR crew said.

 

[Dan]

I was there last week. It's a good 3-tank boat dive trip. Here is my trip video.

 

[Dado]

The two dives on Light House Caye were some of the best dives I've had outside of the Indo Pacific...maybe even equal because we saw more sharks. Never saw a shark in Indonesia.

I would agree! We just spent 3 weeks at Turneffe Island Resort, we dived it the first and third week and enjoyed it. The second week my wife and I were the only ones at Turneffe and we had them just take us to Half-moon were we did all 3 dives.

 

[Dado]

Nice video Dan!

 

[Dan]

Nice video Dan!

Thanks.

I'm surprise how good the Half Moon Caye diving was. The Reef Sharks, Nassau Groupers, Tarpon were just hanging around us.

 

[Dado]