Belize Aggressor IV Captain’s Log Jan 5-12, 2019
Conditions: Sea State: calm to light chop Avg. Air Temp: 86F Avg. Water Temp: 80F Avg. Visibility: 100ft Avg Wind Speed: 8-12knots
Crew: Capt. Chris 1st Mate - John Chef Jerry Asst. Chef - Carlos Steward – Jean Engineer – Simon Instructor – Ken
Sun Jan 6, 2019 Dive Sites: Zipline & Julie’s Jungle We started the week with a check out dive at Zipline on Turneffe Atoll. Then headed over to Lighthouse Reef Atoll and jumped in at Julie’s Jungle for the afternoon and night dives. We saw several stingrays today, a whiptail, a Southern stingray, and a pair of yellow stingrays. There were several spotted morays, and a green moray hanging out in the reef. In the sandy areas, we saw jawfish, garden eels, sailfin blennies, and peacock flounder. Along the reef we swam with a school of Creole wrasse, and amongst blue chromis and sergeant majors. There were also several lobsters in little hiding spots on the reef.
Mon Jan 7, 2019 Dive sites: Lighthouse Wall & Long Caye Wall Today was SHARK DAY! It started with a rare sighting of a Great Hammerhead at Lighthouse wall and ended with a massive Caribbean reef shark on the night dive at Long Caye Wall. Throughout the day we also saw several Caribbean Reef sharks and a nurse shark. In addition to the sharks, we saw Southern stingrays, green morays, and an octopus out on a rock during the day…we usually see them at night, which we did again, as well as squid, crabs, eels, lobsters, and nudibranch.
Tues Jan 8, 2019 Dive Sites: Blue Hole & Quebrada We started off the day with an island excursion to Half Moon Caye Natural Monument to check out the nesting grounds for the red-footed booby birds. Along the trail we saw some iguanas and hermit crabs. Overhead hundreds of booby birds and magnificent frigate birds hovered. Next, we set off for the first dive of the day at the Great Blue Hole…once a cave, this dive site is now home to massive stalactite formations. For the afternoon and night dives, we hopped in at Quebrada. This site is just beautiful! There are hundreds of fish of many different species, as well as healthy hard and soft corals, massive sponges, and an amazing wall drop-off. We saw sharks, eels, schools of tarpon, schools of permit, schools of Bermuda chubs, schools of horse-eye jacks and bar jacks, and schools of Creole wrasse. We had an amazing night dive. Within the first couple minutes of the dive, we found an octopus hunting along the reef, and we watched it for about 15 minutes. We also saw schools of squid, baby squid, spotted morays, peacock flounder, a hairy clinging crab hanging on a sea fan, tarpon out hunting, and found several species of nudibranch.
Wed Jan 9, 2019 Dive Sites: Angelfish Wall & Cathedral Today we had more shark action, with visits from Caribbean Reef sharks throughout the dives. We also played with some friendly Nassau grouper, watched a green moray out on the reef, and looked at Southern stingrays feeding in the sand. On the later dives, we saw more Caribbean reef sharks, a friendly hawksbill turtle that was basically our tour guide, a huge nurse shark sleeping under a ledge and a baby nurse shark laying in the sand, and a green moray hanging out with a lobster.
Thurs Jan 10, 2019 Dives Sites: Johnny’s Wrench & Grand Bogue We woke up on the East side of Turneffe Atoll, and spent the day diving at Johnny’s Wrench and Grand Bogue. On today’s dives, we saw several free-swimming morays, and some spotted morays as well. On the reef, we found scorpionfish, spiny head blennies, and lettuce sea slugs, while over the sandy area we watched jawfish, sand tilefish, peacock flounder, garden eels, and a yellow stingray. On the night dive, we saw octopus, squid, crabs, schools of fish, nudibranch, and a white spotted toadfish.
Fri Jan 11, 2019 Dive Site: Black Beauty We got up early and hopped in at Black Beauty for our final dives of the week. While waking up, we saw some green morays, spotted toadfish, lobsters, midnight & rainbow parrotfish, Atlantic spadefish, and a Southern Stingray, and a pair of Eagle rays to top it off. We finished a great week of diving with two great dives before heading back to port.
Congrats to our Iron Divers: Harlan, Dottie, Kristy, Phil, and Chris Congrats to our newest Nitrox divers Phil and Philip
Thank you all for a GREAT week!
EAT, SLEEP, & DIVE!
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