Turneffe Flats
Registered
A FEW PHOTOS FROM OUR GUESTS COLLECTION
13 – 18 April, 2014
Air Temperatures – Low 80’s
Water Temperature – 82F
Winds started out on Sunday coming from east at about 15 knots, and carried on through Monday. Tuesday morning gave us a light breeze from the east which switched to about a 10 knot breeze from the northwest by midday, and diminished to about 5 knots through Wednesday. One or two passing showers occurred after this front passed through, and the winds picked up from the east again at about 10 to 15 knots from the east until Friday.
Divemaster John, and Boat Capt Carlton (aka Capt), as well as Dive Instructor Anne-Marie, were covering diving and dive instruction this week. We had a young lady whom had just been certified as an Open Water Diver at home in Texas, and we got her to step up to the plate for an Advanced Open Water Diver course.
On Sunday, our first day of diving for the week, we went to the west and dived at Creekozene and Amberhead, and the visibility was outstanding and easily at 100 feet. Here we found all our resident Groupers – Nassaus, Blacks, and Yellow Fins. Caribbean Spiny Lobster were observed with eggs, and this reminds one why our Lobster season is closed during this time and we are not allowed to fish or eat lobster until late June. While we didn’t see any turtles, we did see turtle “poop”. We see this quite frequently on dives, so this gives one an idea of the amount of turtle activity in the area.
On Monday, we went up to the northwest and completed dives at the Terrace, Chasbow’s Corner, and Elkin’s Bay. This was another great day for fantastic visibility allowing the relief of these busy walls to really be appreciated. The Terrace with its multiple branches of Black Coral looking like ferns growing out of the wall, Chasbow’s Corner with its prolific population of Deep Water Gorgonian Sea Fans, and Elkin’s Bay with its bright white sand channels and patches between colourful corals and sponges. Large Spotted Eagle Rays were seen both close up and from a distance, and a multitude of blue Creole Wrasse filled the water column off the wall, their blue colouring looking so bright in this great visibility.
Continued easterly winds kept us on the west side again, so we headed further south on the west and dived at Tarpon Bay and Sponge Shop for our first 2 dives. At Tarpon Bay, we spotted quite a few healthy sized Black Groupers hanging on top of the wall. These impressive fish have some interesting colour morphs, one where they are light gray, another when they are completely black, and yet another where they show off the most interesting and beautiful pattern of black spots and bloches merged together on a gray background. A Spotted Moray Eel showed the full length of its body swimming between coral heads. Eagle rays were on the menu again for sightings at Sponge Shop, together with some of the largest specimen of Barrel Sponges one has ever seen. The wind started blowing from the north after the second dive, so we used our surface interval to travel back to the east side and dive in front of the resort at Wishbone. John decided on a Lionfish hunt, and we had a few Nassau Groupers who followed us and fought each other staking out Lionfish kill territory.
On Wednesday, we woke up to a beautifully calm morning with a very light breeze from the north, so we set out for Blue Hole and Lighthouse Reef. Divers counted 13 Caribbean Reef Sharks in the hole as the visibility was outstanding here as well at 100 feet at depth after passing through the thermo cline layer. Our Half Moon Caye Wall area site was Chimney, which has a long swim through. The visibility was 70 feet here after being inundated with large easterly swells for days preceding this. Divers enjoyed the many swim throughs along the wall, and found a few Green Moray Eels curled up under coral heads. When John led them out over the sand bed, they spotted a number of Southern Stingrays, an abundance of Hog Fish, and two Green Turtles. After the Half Moon Caye picnic lunch, tour of the island, and visit to the Red Footed Boobie Bird Sanctuary, divers chose Painted Wall on the western side of Long Caye as their third dive site. Visibility here was also 70 feet, and divers enjoyed looking at the minute and colourful Painted Tunicates that this wall is so famous for. A Great Barracuda followed them for most of the dive in the hopes to get a Lionfish meal, but John was not hunting today. A Hawksbill Turtle cruised by them as they swam at the edge of this colourful and shallow wall.
Winds picked up from the east again on Thursday morning, so divers had to head back to the west for diving. Creekozene Cut and Pine Ridge both had 100 feet of visibility with lots of great sightings including a school of Permit off the wall, a school of Horse Eye Jack, two large Amber Jacks not often seen, and an Octopus hiding in the coral showing only its eye through a crevice.
On Friday, easterly winds prevailed, so divers headed back to the northwest for sites they missed on their previous visit earlier in the week, and visited Mandy’s Dandy and Tunnels & Barrels. Anxious to see if the Seahorse was still living on the Deep Water Gorgonian Sea Fan at the Terrace, they decided to make that dive again. Our divers were not disappointed as they found their Seahorse right where they expected. Just as they came up the side of the wall, a Hawksbill Turtle came swimming between the divers and giving everyone an up close look of their beautiful eyes. The week ended with slowing easterly winds, and calming conditions all around making the prospects for dive sites in the new week open for all sides of the atoll.
