Dive Review of Peter Hughes /Sun Dancer II in
Belize

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Peter Hughes /Sun Dancer II, Jun, 2009, by Chuck & Nancy Anson, California, USA ( Reviewer 3 reports). Report 5080.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Sun Dancer Belize June 09 Chuck and Nancy Anson Oceanside, CA Experience 501-1000 dives VIS 40 to 100 feet Water 80-83 F, choppy. Our 16th live-aboard trip and 2nd with Peter Hughes. This trip had all the components necessary to satisfy our diving tastes: ease of travel to dive destination, healthy seas, moderate to good weather, beautiful boat with excellent crew and 5 good dives every day. Used to be that getting to your destination was part of the fun of traveling but we all know that ended some time ago so when we are deciding where to go for our twice a year dive vacations, we choose destinations that are easy to get to. i.e. Does more than one airline service the destination so there is competition in pricing and flight options? Can you get there in a day? Can you complete all your travel on the same airline? Are there multiple flights to get you where you are going in case you miss a connection? Will you arrive at your destination in plenty of time to get to the boat before it departs from the dock? If we can answer yes to all of these questions, this is our ideal dive destination. Belize fit the bill for us and probably would for most Americans. Once we got there, the dive staff met us at the airport and took us directly to the boat even though it was mid-day, no waiting around at some restaurant or marina until late at night to get onboard. Generous snacks were served throughout the early evening hours eliminating the need to feed yourself ashore on your day of arrival. The dive deck was roomy, we never felt cramped even with everyone suiting up at the same time. They accommodated my request for a 60cf tank and reserved a spot for me near the ladder for ease of entry and exit. For the camera crowd, there are two camera tables and two rinse buckets for cameras only, one on each side of the dive deck. On deck showers and dunk tanks for wet suits were available so you can rinse often and not offend your dive deck neighbors. There was plenty of shade on the sundeck for those who need to watch their sun exposure between dives. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style but dinner was served to your table every night from the most beautiful kitchen I have ever seen on a dive boat and included a delicious dessert. Alcoholic beverages were included in the price of the cruise but drink and dive restrictions were strictly observed. We had a room with a king bed and there was still enough space for two end tables on either side of the bed for books and personal items. Each room has a large picture window that let in plenty of light. There was ample in-room storage in full-length closets, drawers and overhead built in cabinets. The weather was windy with some chop so we spent most of our time on the leeward side of the atolls. We dove mostly around Long Caye and made it over to Half Moon Caye when the winds died down. We liked the diving around Half Moon Caye the best. The walls had excellent shallows to tool around in if you don’t like going deep and there was plenty of life at any level to make the diving worthwhile. We saw lots of eagle rays and turtles, horse eye jacks and tarpon, free-swimming green morays and queen trigger, grouper and gray angelfish. For colorful sponges – yellow, orange, purple, blue, green, pink etc., Belize is your destination. We were surprised to see a large variety of hard corals including stag horn, which is an excellent indicator of the health of the reef. For those of you who like macro photography, Belize has plenty of unusual subjects. We saw decorator crabs and slender file fish, red snapping shrimp, peppermint shrimp, juvenile drum fish, sailfin blenny, pikeblenny, roughhead triplefin blenny, arrow blenny, bluebell tunicates and the pea sized juvenile smooth trunkfish. We did the obligatory blue hole dive but didn’t see any sharks. No big deal. What was a big deal is that Peter Hughes includes dinner on board Friday night so you don’t have to fend for yourself in Belize City, which can be rough and make for a difficult trip home the next day. I forgot to mention, we did all of this during one of Peter Hughes buddy weeks where your buddy goes for half price. You really can’t beat that for a diving deal.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Caribbean, Sea of Cortez, Australia
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Standard, 130' max depth, no deco diving, 500psi back on boat, min 3 minute safety stop at 15' to 20'
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Two large tables, air, camera towels, two seperate large tanks, even a small tank by the tables to leak test prior to dives, crew handling professional.

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Dive Review of Peter Hughes /Sun Dancer II in Belize

Peter Hughes /Sun Dancer II, Jun, 2009,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Peter Hughes /Sun Dancer II in
Belize