Belize trip report

[schultz]

Four years ago, a group of us climbed aboard the Nekton Pilot to do some diving on the world’s second largest reef system. The diving was so incredible that many of us swore we’d return someday. That day was January 6th, 2006.

Belize is located on the Caribbean coast of Central America and is a friendly English speaking country rich in history ranging from its huge rainforests, navigable cenotes, ancient Mayan ruins, to its beautiful coral reefs. We spent one week in this paradise, albeit aboard a boat called the Nekton Pilot. Nekton's liveaboards utilize a unique Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) design technology to provide the smoothest ride unlike any other liveaboards. Mind you, this is not your typical And, onboard dining is, of course, provided in a combination of buffet and sit-down. You will not go hungry, but I did feel for the vegetarians in our group as their choices were often limited to a mac and cheese dinner.

We dove as many as 6 dives per day, with each one lasting somewhere around the 60 minutes mark, giving some of us over 27hours underwater. The one thing I enjoy about this particular boat is that your equipment is already set up on the dive deck, just slip it on, and step right into the clear water below.

My wife and I were the only one in our group using Nitrox and it was good to see that the Nekton have improved their filling system to allow higher concentrations than their advertised 29%. For the most part my wife and I were running between 33 and 34 percent and didn’t regret not exceeding 100 feet on any of our dives since there was simply too much to see and photograph on the reefs.

Diversity on the reefs was for the mostpart excellent. Plenty of eagle rays, moray eels, large groupers, and the occasional dolphin. Visability on most dives was between 60 and 100+ feet  depending on location. Water temperatures ranged between 74 and 79 degrees depending on location, depth, and currents.

My only disappointment is that of those in our group that had been there before, we did notice a substantial decrease in the quality of life. Sure there we areas that were still pristine, but many of the areas we returned to had much less fish life, more algae covering the corals and as a result, much more bleaching of corals. Water temperatures were also much higher than last time, with average site temps 5-6 degrees above normal for that time of year. Those water temps not only correlate with the increased number of hurricanse this past year, but also hinder the development of corals as a whole.

Sorry for the short report, but I’m a busy guy. In the mean time, here’s some photos from the trip…