Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:56 am
We had been lucky enough to make several trips during the 1980's on small locally owned live-aboard charter boats, where they allowed us the freedom to dive the Blue Hole and many other spectacular places without the usual tourist diver restrictions of today. It is truly a spectacular dive if you get to the right area where the wall is deeply undercut, and the stalagtites are huge and numerous. I don't recall the exact compass direction within the circle, but I'll check my log books and see if I referenced that. We made deco dives on air, and did the deco on the shallow corals around the rim.
To get the best effect you need to be 150 to 160'+, looking out at the silhouetted formations from the cavernous area. We even found the stub of the one that had been cut off by Cousteau many years ago, and hoisted up to the Calypso in the name of "Science".
Some people seem to have forgotten that, and also that they dynamited the reef to get the Calypso into the Blue Hole for that famous photo of it floating in the middle of the hole. The Belizeans haven't forgotten, and some seem to hold a grudge about the destruction of their natural resources.
I wish that I could tell you someone that would still take you on these types of dives! Those were good days for us!!! We made camp-on-the-deck "live-aboard" trips on the 36' Lucretia, owned by Victor Barothy for some the best and wildest diving available in Belize. Also good trips on 52' Irwin sailboats out of Sail Belize. Another early live-aboard we used was the La Strega, made popular mainly by the gregarious and popular Hugh Parkey, in spite of its perpetual shortage of fresh water and other minor (by 80's standards) shortcomings.
Belize has much more to offer in great reef diving and good inland stuff at the Mayan Ruins, river caves and beautiful cool mountain areas. Good place for a week of diving plus good inland tours. I think a good live-aboard will give you the best diving to remote areas and more dives per day. Unfortunately these days you will probably get a no-deco dive to 130' max in the Blue Hole.
The older I get the better I was.