Belize in April

We are taking our first trip to Belize in the end of April and staying
at Ramon's on Ambergris Caye. Since this is our first trip, I'd love
to hear from anyone that has stayed at Ramon's and can give us their
opinion of the resort and what to do/dive (Blue Hole already
planned). Thanks in advance for any help!

muffinnman wrote:

> We are taking our first trip to Belize in the end of April and staying
> at Ramon's on Ambergris Caye. Since this is our first trip, I'd love
> to hear from anyone that has stayed at Ramon's and can give us their
> opinion of the resort and what to do/dive (Blue Hole already
> planned). Thanks in advance for any help!


While the Blue Hole is unique in itself I didn't feel the extra travel
time was worth the trip. Just being out on the water in January (escape
from the cold) was worth the trip

On Feb 19, 7:01*am, muffinnman <muffinn...@aol.com> wrote:
> We are taking our first trip to Belize in the end of April and staying
> at Ramon's on Ambergris Caye. *Since this is our first trip, I'd love
> to hear from anyone that has stayed at Ramon's and can give us their
> opinion of the resort and what to do/dive (Blue Hole already
> planned). *Thanks in advance for any help!

Wait a week or so for chilly to get back from her latest dive trip
then ask again. She's the local infosource on diving in Belize.

JF

On Feb 19, 5:54 am, Joe English <t...@temp.com> wrote:
> muffinnman wrote:
> > We are taking our first trip to Belize in the end of April and staying
> > at Ramon's on Ambergris Caye. Since this is our first trip, I'd love
> > to hear from anyone that has stayed at Ramon's and can give us their
> > opinion of the resort and what to do/dive (Blue Hole already
> > planned). Thanks in advance for any help!
>
> While the Blue Hole is unique in itself I didn't feel the extra travel
> time was worth the trip. Just being out on the water in January (escape
> from the cold) was worth the trip

I, too, found the Blue Hole highly overrated. 130 ft for 10 minutes
on a single Al80 was stupid; next time I would at least take bands so
I can make a set of independent doubles, or sling an extra 80 as a
stage. The second dive was actually much nicer - a spot outside the
reef where there were a particularly large number of turtles that
day.

*

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:42:24 -0800 (PST), Star <lclee1@gmail.com> wrote:

>I, too, found the Blue Hole highly overrated. 130 ft for 10 minutes
>on a single Al80 was stupid; next time I would at least take bands so
>I can make a set of independent doubles, or sling an extra 80 as a
>stage. The second dive was actually much nicer - a spot outside the
>reef where there were a particularly large number of turtles that
>day.

Will the dive ops (eg. Peter Hughes) let you do that (ie. make a pair of
doubles)? I guess for a fee, they may, if it's not a liabilty risk to them.




____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

On Feb 22, 6:32 am, mag3 <zmpmag3-plon...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:42:24 -0800 (PST), Star <lcl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >I, too, found the Blue Hole highly overrated. 130 ft for 10 minutes
> >on a single Al80 was stupid; next time I would at least take bands so
> >I can make a set of independent doubles, or sling an extra 80 as a
> >stage. The second dive was actually much nicer - a spot outside the
> >reef where there were a particularly large number of turtles that
> >day.
>
> Will the dive ops (eg. Peter Hughes) let you do that (ie. make a pair of
> doubles)? I guess for a fee, they may, if it's not a liabilty risk to them.
>
> ____________________________________________
> Regards,
>
> Arnold

The issue is getting the op to fill the tanks after you have drained
and banded them Honestly, I'd just not bother diving the Blue
Hole again. The big deal is in saying you've dove it.

*

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:32:24 +0000, mag3 wrote:

> Will the dive ops (eg. Peter Hughes) let you do that (ie. make a pair of
> doubles)? I guess for a fee, they may, if it's not a liabilty risk to
> them.

Technically, you're not making "doubles", but rather a set of
independents... You might still band them, but no manifold on them... Most
of the time when I have 2 tanks on my back, I dive that way... Especially
if I'm somewhere that I have to use AL80 rental tanks... It's probably
easier to just sling an AL80 as a stage tank if you normally only dive
with a single tank of back gas... The problem with a lot of these dives
though is that they expect you to be back on the boat at a particular
time, not necessarily when your tank is near empty... Personally, I figure
that if I surface with more than 500 psi in my tank or without having to
do at least a few minutes of deco on the way up, I didn't get my money's
worth out of the dive...

--
See NNTP header field "X-Real-Email-Address" to reply by email.

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:59:55 -0600, Grumman-581 <grumman581-usenet-2008@spambob.net> wrote:

>On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:32:24 +0000, mag3 wrote:
>
>> Will the dive ops (eg. Peter Hughes) let you do that (ie. make a pair of
>> doubles)? I guess for a fee, they may, if it's not a liabilty risk to
>> them.
>
>Technically, you're not making "doubles", but rather a set of
>independents... You might still band them, but no manifold on them... Most
>of the time when I have 2 tanks on my back, I dive that way... Especially
>if I'm somewhere that I have to use AL80 rental tanks... It's probably
>easier to just sling an AL80 as a stage tank if you normally only dive
>with a single tank of back gas... The problem with a lot of these dives
>though is that they expect you to be back on the boat at a particular
>time, not necessarily when your tank is near empty...

My concern would not be time so much as gas consumption at that depth.
With a single AL80, I'd have enough to get down there and back up to say
50fsw to do the wall and the sharks, but would I have enough to finish the
dive? I would with my trusty Steel 120 at full HP (3442), but I haven't done
an AL80 in a long time. One option would be to carry my pony as I do for
my GB boat dives. The difficulty there is transporting it to Beilze and back.

We'll see.

____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:11:08 -0800 (PST), Star <lclee1@gmail.com> wrote:


>> Will the dive ops (eg. Peter Hughes) let you do that (ie. make a pair of
>> doubles)? I guess for a fee, they may, if it's not a liabilty risk to them.
>>
>> ____________________________________________
>> Regards,
>>
>> Arnold
>
>The issue is getting the op to fill the tanks after you have drained
>and banded them

Hopefuly not a big issue for me as:

1) I already have my Nitrox Blender ticket;
2) In another month, I'll have my PSI VIP Inspector/Eddy Current Tickets.

If they won't let me do it myself, at least I'm in a better position to negotiate with DM.
And as Grummy says below, I'd most likely not manifold them but just band them as
independents.

>Honestly, I'd just not bother diving the Blue
>Hole again. The big deal is in saying you've dove it.
>

I guess I'd have to give it 2-3 shots at least .

____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

Dan Bracuk <bra...@pathcom.com> wrote:
> Star <lcl...@gmail.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting in:
>
> :I, too, found the Blue Hole highly overrated. *130 ft for 10 minutes
> :on a single Al80 was stupid; next time I would at least take bands so
> :I can make a set of independent doubles, or sling an extra 80 as a
> :stage.
>
> To accomplish what?

Probably to spend a bit more time actually seeing the formations,
rather than simply punching the "I did the Blue Hole" ticket.

Given what one can expect to find off of a generic diveboat/
liveaboard, I think that Independent doubles would be the way to go,
with a loooong explanation in advance to the DM that you're interested
in being first in / last out, and want to get in some extra
photography @ depth and on the way back up...main goal is to assuage
his fears, which would be that the real reason you're asking is
because you instead intent to dive-bomb down to 200fsw, or something
else grossly out of line with their customer hand-holding of a deep
'special' dive.


-hh