hol chan

Hol Chan, dive 43

November 25, 2010

Dive: 43
Belize Dive: 1
Date: 11/25/10
Site: Hol Chan
Avg/Max Depth: 17/26
Temp: 81
TBT/CBT: 0:48/34:04
Buddies: Ted (Nick, Curtis, Kristen, Cindy, Ellie)

Today we did our first dive here in Belize. Rudy, one of our favorite Divemasters from 2007, took us to Hol Chan. It was Cindy and Ellie’s first salt water dive, too! We saw lots of fish and some different rays. It was an easy, shallow dive, but the current was kind of crazy toward the end. Curtis was srs bzns with his underwater camera and an HD video camera.

After our dive, we went to Shark Ray Alley for a bit of snorkeling. When I jumped in the water, the first thing I did was take a deep breath thinking my reg was in. Woops. Fortunately the water only went into my mouth and not my lungs! Rudy and Martín, the captain, were feeding the fish. They got a kick out of throwing the food toward us so the fish would pummel us trying to get to it. Very awesome. True to its name, there were plenty of rays and nurse sharks. And the nurse sharks were huuuuuge! I don’t remember seeing so many that big last time.

Advanced Course Dives, Hol Chan

December 10, 2007

Dives 10 and 11

Nick and I did another two dives toward our Advanced Diver certification today. The boat ride today was much better. The ocean was more rough today than yesterday so Sylvan took us to Hol Chan, back inside the calm reef. Jason (the guy from yesterday) came along with us to finish up his final open water diving coarse.

First we did our navigation dive. We snorkeled a straight line above the surface before getting our dive gear on and doing the same under the water. Then we navigated a giant square. Nick did great. I did well until the last turn when I started to veer in the wrong direction. I was really confused and disoriented, and my mask kept filling with water which didn’t help the situation at all. My eyes were burning from the salt water and I could feel tears dripping into shallow pools at the bottom of my mask. Sylvin had me do a smaller version of the square and that time I aced it.

We stopped for a short surface interval on the boat before doing our second dive, fish identification. This dive was fun and easy. Nick had a fish guide book that he carried along to look up fish with. If we didn’t know what fish were we would point to them and Sylvin would write their names down on his slate. Likewise, if he found a fish or other marine life of interest he would point at it and write it down for us. We ID’d many types of fish; parrot, damsel, flounder (which are neat because they swim on their side and their eyes are on the same side of their head), snapper, grunts, tangs, etc. We also saw a 7′ long barracuda. It was so big the gentleman who manned the boat could see it from above water. There was a giant green eel, big and fat. We also passed a group of spotted eagle rays. They swam with us for a little while. The other rays, the flat headed kind, I don’t remember what they are called, would park themselves on the ocean floor, then wiggle their wings (fins) around and partially bury themselves. On our way back to the boat we saw another nurse shark. Jason had done his final skills on the dive, and I am kind of jealous that this was his experience for his checkout dives. All we got were a tiny sunken boat, mossy trees, poor visibility and ice cold water.

Our last dive will be a multilevel dive. We’ll be starting out at 100′ and from there ascending to 70′. I assume it will be a lot like our deep dive, which was basically the same set up. We have already planned the dive and worked out what our pressure groups will be, so I don’t think there will be any skills on the actual dive, just a good ol’ time diving with Sylvin as our guide!! It’s tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning, so hopefully the wind will die down so it’s not so miserable in the boat.

Hol Chan & Shark Ray Alley

December 8, 2007

Dive 7

Hol Chan was my first dive in Belize as well as my first salt water dive. Curtis, Kristen, Nick and I boarded the boat at 9am. Our dive master, Felipe, was our boat driver and guide for the morning. After a short 8 minute boat ride we arrived at Hol Chan, a local reef. Felipe gave us a quick briefing of the area, as well as hand signs for different aquatic life we may see such as nurse sharks, turtles, rays and barracudas. I was getting ready to enter the water when Felipe told me he was having trouble with my regulator hose leaking. He told me it would be fine as long as I kept an eye on my gauge and asked me if I was comfortable with it. I told him I was alright with it, but when he opened the air tank there was a super loud constant whooooshing noise. The expression on my face must have changed drastically because he immediately said we were swapping regs. After a quick swap I was in the water. I should have checked my BC first because it wasn’t inflating and I was kicking like crazy not to sink like a rock. And through my struggles I hear Curtis muttering “jilly… look… boat… shark.” I tried looking for it, but I was concentrating too hard not to sink the whole 6′ to the bottom. I swam closer to the boat and Felipe made a few quicky adjustments (apparently his reg doesn’t hook well to most BCs) and after that we were on our way.

We saw lots of schools of fish swimming about and hovering in the coral. There were tons of horse eyed jacks, silver fish with giant horse like eyes. Felipe was a great guide, searching for things of interest for us to look at like hidden eels, sand dwelling creatures, marine life hiding in shells and crab skeletons. He pointed out a tiny baby black and white fish that was less than an inch long. It looked similar to an angel fish. The water was so clear it didn’t even look like we were 30′ down. There were snorkelers on the surface and it was neat to see them from a different perspective.

It was also the first time I got to try out my new MiniReef digital diving camera. It worked out really well, much better than a disposable. The pictures turned out real well while I was holding still, but with the current it was hard to hold the same spot. Especially since most of my subjects were moving and I didn’t have time to get my buoyancy under control. And I think I might have been slightly overweighted as well.

I didn’t even notice we were ascending until we were back in the grassy 6′ water. Then there it was. The nurse shark was back. He was just a little guy, maybe 3 feet long, and I don’t think my picture turned out well because he was too far away. Then we spotted a ray floating around at a distance, as well as a turtle. Soon we were back on the boat and on our way to Shark Ray Alley for a bit of snorkeling.

At Shark Ray Alley Kristen and I were the first in the water and there was a huge shark right below us. The water was only about 8 feet deep, so he was pretty close. He didn’t seem to like our presence much because he swam off right away, but not before I got a great pic. One of the boats there had food for the fish. Of course there were more horse eyed jacks. There were a few rays and one of them was huge. There were a few nurse sharks too. Curtis and Nick touched the shark and said it felt like sandpaper. I petted a ray, it was squishy and slimy feeling. We snorkeled there for a while and I was having just a heck of a time getting my mask to seal on my face. It kept flooding, then my eyes would get all stingy, then my mask became permafogged. But even with the mask issues it was well worth it to be swimming with sharks :bigsmile:

**CHECK BACK SOON FOR PHOTOS**