September Newsletter

September's newsletter is finished and has been sent to all members. For anyone else who wants it go to the club members area on the website by clicking here.

Club Presentation on 10 January - Making Blue Movies

We have arranged another presentation evening for diving clubs in the area - it is going to be called "Making Blue Movies". Now that has got your attention hasn't it! The evening is going to be given by Michael Pitts, award winning underwater cameraman and photographer. Michael will be covering a variety of films and series that he's worked on, talking for about an hour. He will be covering his part in the making of many progrmmes including The Blue Planet, Walking with Beasts, War Wrecks of the Coral Seas, Midway and Island Apart. He will even tell you how he did the Scissor Sisters Videos and that Bulmers advert where the bottles go back up the river when they fall off the ship. As last time when we had one of these functions, all the proceeds of the event wil go to charity and the entry fee will be £5 for club members and £10 for non club members to cover the food.

I worked with Michael on the BBC filming and some of his work is stunning as well as ingenious in the making. It will be a really interesting presentation and a fun evening.
More details out soon, but if you want to book a place you can let us know early if you wish.

New Open Water Students

Many congratulations to all 6 students who successfully finished their Open Water Course this weekend. We look forward to seeing you in the club and on further courses in the future.

Sponsor Links

To sponsor the team running in the Great South Run you can click on the link below.

Belize Trip Report

I have finished the trip report from Belize and this has been published in the holiday section of the website. I hope you enjoy it.

Christmas Ball - 8 December 2007

The Christmas Ball is now FULL. As we once again have a waiting list can you please let us have your payment for the ball by the end of September. We will then send out the menu choices. Due to a slight increase by the Hotel, the price for the function will be £35 a head for guests and £15 for club members. Still, not bad for a disco, late bar, live band, 3 course meal and half a bottle of wine each. And as you can see from the picture from the summer ball this year they are a cracking good night.

Next Club Night - 4 October

A quick reminder that the next club night is in on 4 October at 7.00 pm in the Coast Bar. As usual please let us know if you are coming so we can order the right amount of food.

Missed Blogs and Course Successes

A couple of missed blogs while I have been away I note. Two weekends ago we ran a nice little Rescue Diver programme. Mike Gear still didn't quite manage to complete it due to having to miss the scenarios - third time lucky Mike! And 7 students successfully completed the Open Water course and 3 completed the Advanced last weekend. Well done all of you.

A bit of an update

We have really struggled a bit with the internet out here especially loading images. So here is a bit of an update. The day at Turneffe South was amazing .... flat calm seas and 3 superb dives. We were treated to Eagle Rays so many times it kind of got a bit boring! Turtles were also out in force. The day after we took a break from diving and headed inland. A water taxi and nice air con van saw us standing on top of Xunantanich Mayan ruins. Miguel our guide gave us a great history of the Mayans and from there we went to Chaa Creek, a resort I last visited 21 years ago. It has changed a great deal and far from being the no electricity resort I remember it is now very luxurious. And I managed to get the rooms for $50 a night ... its who you know, but then what would you expect from the premier dive club in the South! We paddled up the river to see Toucans and Iguanas in the tree before sitting down for dinner ... which was even included in the price.
After a relaxing evening the following day we went cave tubing. An experience. You sit on a rubber innner tube and follow the river through the cave system. Great fun. Steve T fell out at the first set of rapids and managed to lose his glasses.
Then it was back to Caye Caulker for more diving. Turneffe north brought the same number of Eagle Rays and turtles.
On Wednesday we took a bigger boat to the Great Blue hole. 120m to the bottom the dive took everyone to 40m as they swam through stalactites and stalagmites millions of years old. At the exit we were met by inquisitive Bull Sharks and huge grouper who just came to have a look. Dives on 1/2 Moon Caye and Long Caye were spectacular with coral growth better than I have ever seen.
The last day of diving was a local dive with even more sharks, rays and turtles.
So here we are, our last night in Belize. There were a few sore heads this morning after Neil's birthday bash last night and no doubt we will have a few tonight before heading back home via Houston. It has been 10 years since I was last here and it remains one of the best dive locations in the world and a great place for a trip. Another fantastic club trip. I will be writing a bit more info for the newsletter when I get back and wil try and sort out a full trip report for the website.
So cheerio from Belize, see you in a couple of days and looking forward to 38 of you joining me in Egypt in November.

Belize Trip: Dive Days 2 and 3

Two dives at Spanish lookout were pretty good. The weather was getting calmer and the viz was improving (not that 20m is shabby anyway). We then ventured north to Ambergris Caye and dived in the area of the Hol Chan marine reserve. Shark alley was just that, loads of coral alleys full of swimming nurse sharks. A real treat. The second dive in Cyprus tunnels was also great fun, huge groupers and some long swim-throughs. Lunch on San Pedro gave us the chance to walk on something other than sand for the first time in days. Next stop is a 6.00 am departure to the Elbow at the south of Turneffe Atol.

Becs gets hungry!

Becs! Lobster tails are nice but is this really necessary?

Hurricane Felix Heads South

It was a near thing and we had contingency plans in place but the hurricane headed South and we are now all sat in Caye Caulker. As we all packed our things to go to Belize my eyes were on the web sites that had hurricane Felix heading straight for the small island that was going to be our home. We had additional accommodation booked and ready in San Ignacio if we needed it, organized by my good friend John from Sea Sports Belize, but as it turned out we didn't need it.

The plane was delayed for 2 hours before take off because they couldn't start the engine and had to do it "manually" - anyone got jump leads! The end result was that we missed our connection and had to spend the night in a swish hotel in Houston. The cayes off Belize had all been evacuated so we would not have got there anyway so nothing lost. In the morning it was an early flight to Belize, clear blue skies and not even a hint of a storm!

So here we are! Went for the first dive yesterday and heading off to Spanish Caye today for a couple. We all splashed out on Lobster last night - well it was only $10 so a bit rude not to!

I will give you more updates as and when they happen.