Belize...The Beginning

Paul and I got up very early and took Hugo (Paul’s dingy) over to Pam and Al’s 85 foot motor yacht, The Great Escape. Both Al and Pam are avid scuba divers and had been stuck up the river for months with no diving! They invited us to join them for a couple of days going to the Sapodilla Cayes, Belize. Pam had a cold so I had emailed her that we could postpone so that she would be well to be able to enjoy scuba diving…but she said we were going. Systems were checked and we left the Mar Marina dock. This would be the first time for Al to be the Captain of his own vessel although they have lived on board for 8 months or so. It was great fun to be on their boat and headed down the river. There seemed to be cayuco conventions all the way down the river...Of course I took lots of picturesAnd, did I mention...lots of pictures.... There were seven of us on board. Al and Pam, Paul and I, Al (we call him Al#2 – a good friend of Al and Pam’s), and two deckhands, Carlos and Ronaldo.How many birds in this picture???There were also five cats, this is of mouse on the recliner....two kittens one three weeks old, Hanna and one three days old, Maggie, and Radar, the dog. Over the Livingston bar we went and by late afternoon we had anchored at Thomas Caye in the Northeast Sapodilla’s. On the third anchor drop…the anchor was down and everyone was happy with the placement (winds were going to shift during the night). Al suited up with scuba, Pam suited up for snorkeling and into the water they went. Paul, Al#2, Carlos, Ronaldo, and I stayed aboard. I was getting a sore throat and knew that if I went to bed with a wet head I would not be able to scuba the next day and that is what I really wanted to be able to do!Once they were back and dry, Pam, Al, Al#2 and I played Mexican Train Dominos…Paul watched on and tried to give assistance with strategy a time or two…then the two Al’s had enough...Carlos and Ronaldo fishing...and Pam and I continued to play until late. The next morning when we awoke we found that the boat had swung as predicted and all was well. After breakfast Paul, Al and I suited up and loaded their dingy up for scuba diving. Pam drove us over to a caye, we dropped out one at a time, and down we went. Paul took off one way looking for lobsters and... Al went the other looking at reef. While I could still see both of them…I got Paul’s attention and motioned for him to follow me. I turned to the reef to follow Al and when I turned around again Paul was gone. Al and I looked around for awhile then Al motioned “where was Paul”…I shrugged…so we went in search of him. We finally found him and all three of us then wandered around for awhile. When we got up I DID give Paul the dickens for taking off…it was totally unacceptable diving behavior! The diving was not excellent (like the Belize guide book had stated) so we lifted anchor and went to Seal Caye. There we picked up a mooring ball rather than anchor because of the coral…but the mooring ball was horribly maintained! We decided to scuba dive there off of the wall and then head to another anchorage for the night. This time Pam came too and we were able to large stride in right off of the back of The Great Escape. We all moved to the bow of the boat…waited for Pam to get additional weights and then we all agreed and went down...Pillar coral....It was 15 feet at the bow........ and off of the stern was a small wall…maybe to 80 or 90 feet…I didn’t go down all the way…I stayed around 50 feet close to Paul. I had my camera and took pictures…of Pamthe diving was okay…not superb…not as good as Roatan...This was a first… but of course......... as always when I am under the water... I did have lots of fun! This was, however, only the beginning...of Belize.