Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

Treasure Canyons, Dive 77

Dive: 77
Belize Dive: 11
Date: 12/6/12
Site: Treasure Canyons
Avg/Max Depth: 60/93
Temp: 79
TBT/CBT: 0:49/63:30
Buddies: Nick, Curtis, Kristen

It was a pretty quiet dive. Nothing too crazy happened. We did see a school of ocean triggerfish, which was kind of neat.

My mask was giving me issues, and because Nick put soap in it instead of Sea Drops, I had burny eyes. My camera was also giving me issues. The red filter fell out of place and was causing a lens error every time I turned it on. I missed a photo of a baby lionfish sitting on Loidy’s hand. It started working correctly eventually, but I was tired of it, so I hooked it to my BCD with a carabiner and tucking it into my cummerbund.

View all of my photos from Treasure Canyons below.

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Billy Bob’s, Dive 76

Dive: 76
Belize Dive: 10
Date: 12/5/12
Site: Billy Bob’s
Avg/Max Depth: 49/69
Temp: 81
TBT/CBT: 0:49/62:41
Buddies: Nick, Curtis

Somehow I ended up over the wall with Nick and Rudy on this dive. They were hunting lionfish and feeding the eels. Creepy little bastards. I don’t think anything in the water makes me as nervous as these guys. The spotted eel in the beginning of the video below is twisting around to break a lionfish in half, then it chokes it down like a snake. The green eels are swimming about, which seems kind of rare to see, as they’re usually in their hidey holes with their heads poking out.

There were also barracudas, which give me the heebie-jeebies. This one was little and close, so it wasn’t too bad. I feel like if I’m close enough, it can see I’m not food and won’t charge me.

Not everything on the dive was creepy though. This sea turtle swam nice and close to me. I got photos and video!

Me and Nick.

Oh, my inflate button unstuck itself before this dive, so I got to use it like normal. At least I know what to do if it acts up again.

View all of my Billy Bob’s photos below.

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Turneffe Wall, Dive 75

Dive: 75
Belize Dive: 9
Date: 12/5/12
Site: Turneffe Wall
Avg/Max Depth: 45/66
Temp: 79
TBT/CBT: 0:48/61:52
Buddies: Nick, Curtis

This dive started out with a bit of a glitch. My inflate button got stuck and I went rocketing to the surface. Okay, maybe not rocketing. I managed to keep a reasonable pace. It’d been so long since basic dive training that I really wasn’t sure what was happening or what to do about it (unhook it). It’s a good thing it happened right at the beginning of the dive in 40 feet of water as opposed to later on at greater depths.

Martin was waiting on the boat when I popped out of the water. He jumped in to turn off my air, then replaced my tanks since I lost a lot of air to the free flow. I had to manually inflate for the rest of the dive. It took a few times to remember which button to push while exhaling, and a mouthful of water, but I got it figured out. I’m happy to say that my buoyancy was just as stellar as always.

The wall was one of the best I’ve seen. It reminded me of diving in Cayman. Here’s a picture over the edge.

Nick speared another lionfish on this dive as well.

Loidy also pointed out this little gem. This was right in the beginning, before the mishap.

View all of my photos from Turneffe Wall below.

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The Elbow, Dive 74

Dive: 74
Belize Dive: 8
Date: 12/5/12
Site: The Elbow
Avg/Max Depth: 54/78
Temp: 79
TBT/CBT: 0:46/61:04
Buddies: Nick, Curtis

Our first dive in Turneffe was fantastic. The coral structures were very neat.

Apparently the marine life was scarce because the current was strong. That didn’t stop us from seeing this giant pufferfish. It took a while for me to see it when Nick first pointed it out. It took Curtis even longer, camouflaged as it was. The picture does a poor job at showing its size.

Here’s some video I took of a bunch of random little stuff.

View all of my photos from The Elbow below.

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Belize – Wednesday 12/5

I got up at 4:30AM on Wednesday. Someone had to make coffee.

Martin picked us up on the dock at 5:30 and brought us to the dive shop. Rudy had breakfast waiting. Shortly after we were on the big boat and on our way to Turneffe for a full day of diving.

There were the three of us, Rudy, Martin, Loidy, and 9 other divers. The way there was rainy, so that sucked as we all huddled in the front of the boat to stay mostly dry.

After the first two dives the weather cleared up. It turned out to be a beautiful day.

We did three dives, and our surface intervals were all spent on the boat. Rudy fed us snacks and lunch consisting of stewed chicken, rice and beans, and potato salad. After we completed our dives we got beer and rum punch! I forgot to try the lionfish ceviche Martin made fresh that day. Damn.

My camera battery was dying, but I was able to snap a couple photos of the rainbows, Nick’s shirt a day, and this one of the boys.

Before dinner I started fading fast. I took a quick nap. When I woke up I felt like a zombie. Also, because we were on a boat or in the water for almost 9 hours, I felt like I was still on one. The whole world was moving around me whenever I sat still, to the point where I got dizzy.

After wanting to eat at Wild Mango’s for forever, Kristen finally got her wish. I’m pretty sure this is the place Matt and Dan raved about on our Lamanai Jungle River Adventure back in 2007. It was pretty good. I had a shrimp pasta dish (spicy!), black bean soup, and a virgin banana daiquiri.

I felt pretty woozy by the time we got back. I was just going to lie down for a minute, just to see how the pillows felt, but I ended up passing out the minute I was horizontal.

View all of today’s photos below.

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