Scuba diving in Belize.

I finally got to do a scuba dive. Sadly it ended up being just one. It was a good dive though and I am okay with things. Technically I did dive a second time and made it to the bottom but had to return to the surface due to a malfunctioning regulator. My spare had a leak. Sometimes the water pressure will close it once you in the water and go down. The divemaster Rodney was willing to switch the regulator in the water for me but I made the decision to not dive. When I was learning in Jamaica I was given the advice if it isn’t right then don’t dive. The first thing that happened before my second dive was the tank hadn’t been switched or if it had it leaked out so when doing as I was told to get the buoyancy control device on and check the tank, it was empty. I had to get out of my BCD, they switched tanks and when it was opened the spare regulator was leaking. They said go down and it will close, I went down, it did not close. As I was going down and about to the bottom I realized that I never put the strap on my GoPro and it wasn’t in my pocket. Luckily the divemaster had seen it after I entered the water and brought it to me and checked the regulator. He couldn’t get it to stop so we went back up. He offered that I continue the dive with the leak and just have to surface earlier than my normal 35 minutes and I said that I was not going, he offered to switch it and I had already made the decision to stay topside. Too much going against the dive to continue comfortably.

Blue Wave Diving did give me options and most often if you opt out of a dive you lose out on your money. Blue Wave is refunding all my money for the dive I didn’t get to do and the one I did. They were apologetic on the boat and after. The crew called the owner when we got back before I had left to see what was to be done. I would have been okay paying for the first dive as it was good and I understand that they did make an effort to get me on some of the second dive. Equipment can be temperamental and is part of the game. There was an issue and it wasn’t life threatening but it was still the right thing to do before it did become a problem.

So… spending 50 minutes on a dive boat in very rough water is not something that I will recommend, a good time it is not. The captain sits and watches for any sign of a dive buoy from the group and moves the boat along the expected course. He did three moves. When not going forward the boat rocks with the waves. The watermelon and limeade I had during our 30 minute surface interval was given up to the Caribbean.

Now for the fun stuff. The dive was very good, water temperature was around 81 degrees so I opted out of a wetsuit, clarity was in the 50-60 feet range. We had a max depth of 24 meters which is 78 feet. There may have been some that hit 80 feet. I have to say that when you are down the difference between 20 feet is not very noticeable. Especially when you can make out shadows on the surface of the boat or looking down at other divers from less depth. I didn’t get any pictures of the lobster or of a little shrimp that I spotted but I did get a bunch with sharks! The dive had four certified divers, a gal from the Netherlands, one from Israel and a guy from Wisconsin. The couple doing their open water certification was from Germany. The gals were add ons this morning. Yesterday it was just the guy from Wisconsin and I along with the students.