a video by Marty O'Farrell.....

Sunk In 1946, found again in 1999. The Myron L is a 120 foot cargo freighter sitting upright fully intact in 145 feet of water. This is a short 10 minute documentary to introduce the world to the first real shipwreck dive in Belize. Watch and then come dive it in person. It is an absolutely beautiful wreck.

Absolutely Gorgeous........that almost makes me want to start diving again.

All I can say is wow.

Frigin Awesome I wana go :-)

Is this the wreck off Belize City that I have heard about (but never dived) over the years?

Yes, in the channel.

When you say "in" the channel, do you mean outside the reef in line with the channel, or is the channel exceptionally deep?

Peter
We put an X on the bottom of the boat to mark the site when we find a good dive location. As long a we use the same boat the sites aren't hard to find.
lets go Fri.
41.6 miles as the crow flys but crows don't have GPS.. uah i mean X's on the bottom of the boat.

Peter look at the video again, remember Marty is a superior videographer and this is a very low vis. dive. Two tanks 32 Nitrox, No penetration and no artifact collection. Hea but you know that your a pro.

I have to tell everyone that this wreck isn't easy to find. Not from our experiences today. But I always love a 140ft mud dive - reminds me of England!

The very first picture of a wreck (24 seconds in) looks very like the wreck off of Fantasy Island, Roatan. Or is it the one out at the Atolls?

Peter could you imagine being there with tourist divers, not a sight for the faint of heart.
SeaShell, the video is a little deceptive, Its a great video but the site is an ancient river bed under the bay and the mud, vis. and current are scary.
Were going to try again on a better day.
Peters right 140' down in a muddy bottom isn't a good time.

Peter,
Emiliano went back again, This time with Marty and the correct GPS coordinates and I'm rethinking this...They replaced the buoy.
This Wreck dive,if done with a lot of controls could be an advanced site.Divers like Wrecks so lets offer/develop a trip for the advanced Nitrox diver.
I would like to take you back this time and do this the same Wreck first, light lunch/surface interval and then Spanish wall as a second dive.
Lets work together in getting the correct Wreck diving attitude to the public. No artifact collecting.

Peter/Elbert
140' wreck dive in the mud reminds me of learning to dive in the English Channel and Stoney Cove/Gilldeburgh many many years ago!!. First and last experience of dry suit diving in 2' vis Over 500 dives later I still have no desire to put on a dry suit ever again


So how were the vis and currents at the wreck?

I've had many conversations over the years with Rene and a number of the other guys at Amigos about doing the wreck.
They had said that we could arrange a special trip to the wreck but you have to go at exactly the right time otherwise the vis and currents make it a very advanced dive.

Colin
Colin

Make that "an impossible dive"!

There is a parallel with UK diving in that (unusually for Belize) this site appears to be heavily tidal. We need to establish at what point of the tide it becomes diveable and how long the window is open. This can probably only be determined by experience. So if for some reason we're on the way but know we'll get there too late then we should have an alternative deep dive somewhere in the area. I'm sure the walls nearby can offer that, but we need the expertise of a local who dives around there. Then either way we could do our afternoon dive at Spanish wall again.

Colin,
The guys at Amigos are right!
I'm trying to get my mind around being there with a tourist diver and Its difficult to imagine right now. Right now!
the low vis and deep mean you are traveling with out knowing how fast the current is moving you and with out a line attached you its like free falling through soup (no visual references and moving)
Lots of accent lines on the wreck create a problem its in the channel that cruse ships use, they pass right over. Probably why the line/buoy was gone.
I'm going again this week. interested in going?

Elbert
I'm not back in San Pedro until June 30th and then only for a week. We are back again in September for acoupe of weeks so maybe if the buoy is back and its perfect diving conditions then maybe I'll join you

I've got some video Jr. shot but haven't had any success with utube yet. I have never posted on utube may be today if its slow at the dive shop.

Elbert, I was talking about the picture of a rusted wreck, partially above the water line.

Be that as it may, as a "tourist" diver, I've been diving a number of different wrecks here and there, many were reasonably advanced dives, currents, deep, dark and mucky, etc. All that said, I actually don't like wreck diving, even in ideal conditions, as opposed to many of my guy diving buddies. My preference is to see coral and other natural formations, creatures of the sea, big and small.

There's actually a tremendous amount of life on a wreck such as this.

Yes, Peter. I don't doubt that and have seen some completely encrusted wrecks, that have spectacular life on them here and there. Be that as it may . . . man first littered.

You may recall that I've talked about the muck diving at Mabul. I could be entertained for the whole dive without having to move off of a piece of concrete with a metal rope to the surface. Such an amazing and fascinating conglomeration of life forms . . . regardless . . . man first littered.

Guys, Marty O'farrell, Jr Tillett and myself have dove it several times and we have never had current like you had the other day. Visibility on the other hand can get very poor. Last Saturday was the worst i have seen in a dozen dives.
This is a dive for intermediate dives, that is why we have asked the other dive centers to all work together on this dive.
Max 4 diver 1 divemaster, no more than 1 group down on the Marlon L at 1 time.
This is a great dive for Belize so we all have to work together. Our guests who have dove it loved it, for several reasons.
We are going again with a select group of people from San Pedro this Thursday and hopefully everyone will give their 2 cents
Steve

Hi guys,
I don't want to be to negative about this wreck. San Pedro needs a wreck and this could be it. There's nothing like the thrill of a wreck for the first time. This is a tuff one being deep and in low vis water with the added attraction of huge ships passing over head during the dive. I'm sure the Blue Hole trip had similar criticisms and as you all know we(san pedro dive community) send every Tom ,Dick and Harry that can produce a card to the 130'Blue Hole and thats been safe and tremendously successful.

Not my intention to be critical, I was only saying that *I'm* not crazy about diving wrecks . . now get me talking about the Blue Hole and you'll hear a different story.

The majority of my male dive buddies love to dive wrecks and further, most of them enjoy a more challenging dive. The question is whether or not, you can make the dive appealing enough for them to forgo other destinations to come and dive your wreck.

The idea is to take one day out to dive the wreck AND a fine wall nearby, and to do your regular diving the rest of the time. I've finally dived it today (courtesy of Ecologic Divers) and although the water was a bit murky and surprisingly dark at the wreck, nonetheless they were superb dives that I intend to repeat. I just wish they were a bit closer to San Pedro, but you can't have it all!

When I was (wreck) diving around Britain I knew plenty girls who loved that sort of diving as well. It really isn't just a male preserve.

Photos Peter?

Yes, Peter, I do know a few women that love that sort of diving as well. To clarify, it is not *my* own preference to dive wrecks. I know a few women that love technical diving and wrecks and lots of other challenges that are not *my* own preference. These women are friends and/or acquaintances to me but not *my* dive buddies. *My* *female* dive buddies generally have similar tastes in their diving to *my* own. I have a number of male dive buddies, some with similar tastes in their diving to *my* own, but the majority of *my* *male* dive buddies "love to dive wrecks and further, most of them enjoy a more challenging dive". Be that as it may, and fortunately for me, they also enjoy doing the dives that are my preference.

Again, it is not my intention to be critical in any way. I've merely made the mistake of entering into this conversation/thread.

Mea culpa

I decided not to take my camera on the first dive because I wanted to look at the wreck, and I didn't take it on the second because vis wasn't good enough. A view shared by Tony Rath, though Marty says he shot some video and I look forward to seeing it.

We dove the "Myron L" again the other day as a test for our upcoming trips. Peter jones, myself, Jr Tillett, Marty O'Farrell,Tony Rath and Chip from Caye caulker went. WE first went into Belize city to pick up Tony and then headed out to the Wreck. We tool out newly refurbished boat "Wreck Diver" and went right to the bouy. After securing the line we went down in 2 groups of 3.
This is the way we think running trips should be on this dive. Upon our decent, Peter, Chip and myself noticed it was unusually dark. When we reached about 100' we could see her and made our initial look around bow to stern with a longer look at the wheel house. The vis was low 25' tops. After 25min. Peter and i signaled to go up and signaled for Chip who was diving with a rebreather to stag at the mooring line until the other group came down. Once we boarder the boat the 3 others went down for there dive.
After 1:30 shore interval/ lunch we went down for a second dive to inspect more closely.
It was a great day of diving and everything went as per planned
Thanks, Peter and Chip it was two good dives.
Lets go again

Steve Lee

Elbert: I find your choice of words interesting - "you all know we(san pedro dive community) send every Tom ,Dick and Harry that can produce a card to the 130'Blue Hole and thats been safe and tremendously successful."

Given the deaths and decompression sickness that have occured on this dive I find "safe and tremendously successful" to be an incongruous choice of words.

Byron - I was going to reply that there haven't been any such incidents at the BH for several years, but then I realised that with the culture of secrecy we have here we wouldn't know if there had been, because we wouldn't have been told about them. When will Belize and its tourism operators start observing international conventions and record all incidents that occur?

I've certainly been on dive boats there (the BH) with divers who didn't have a c-card to their name. But that admittedly is some time ago.

Bywarren,
Get in your car and drive to the 7/11. Your more likely to get robbed or involved in a car crash that getting hurt doing the Blue Hole.
Peter I doubt if its possible to hide/cover up any accident at the Blue Hole, to small of a community to keep secrets.
'culture of secrecy' ??? Sounds like a conspiracy theory Peter.

Elbert - you and I both know of incidents that have occurred that have not been reported. Not just diving - look at the Macal River muggings that only surfaced after a victim wrote to her local paper after she got home to the States. Turned out they had been going on for months, and news had been suppressed by action of Police and BTB.

I don't know of any unreported Diving Incidents in the Blue Hole and I doubt the community could cover it up even if they tried.

The people that died or were injured diving the Blue Hole probably wish they had gone to the 7/11 instead.

The Blue Hole dive can be dangerous, as can any dive. The divers and dive masters can make it a safe dive.

To suggest it is a safe dive for a diver of any experience is irresponsible.

When I die I hope its not over a Slurpy! :-)

what ever happened with that body they found at the bottom just a couple months ago? someone brought up his video tape and id'ed him
i always thought it odd that he seemed to have not been reported missing,, or did i miss 1/2 of the story?
and if so,, whats the rest of the story?

Wow barn way rumor modified. He was/is Ruben Delgado, went diving in the Hole July 30 2001.
Peter may have more detail in the recent view of his remains seen on a Tech dive this year.
I dont think there is any photography of him or take by him, these stories get a life of their own.
Oh and peter the incident report form for the rescue search is Risk management file # 01-048

2002? wow,, i just read about it recently,,,

Just recently a tec diving team did a dive and discovered his remains.
He was just noticed missing during the dive it wasn't ever determined what happened.

OK,, thanks.

there must have been a good reason it took 6+years to think to look at the bottom? i assume.
i'm no diver, is it difficult to reach the bottom? i know you can't stay long.

http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=2261

http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/SGLC/MS-AL/Water%20Log/24.1scuba.htm

OK,, thanks for that.
from what i was reading it sounded like no one ever looked for the guy.
i assume they called off the search after so many days and figured he was 'gone'. until they stumbled on him years later.
i'm clear now,,,

'there must have been a good reason it took 6+years to think to look at the bottom?'
Thats what I like about you Barn You got a good sense of humor!

I was in the water with the two divers who found Dr.Delgado's body, but I didn't see it myself. I do however know exactly where it is and offered to mount an expedition to recover it. Not for the inflated prices that some were quoting, but at cost. My offer was made to the SP police as I have no way of contacting the family - those people with that information seem to be keeping it very close to their chests for potential commercial reasons. To date no decision has been made on the recovery so Dr.Delgado remains there. Even at cost this will still be several thousand US$.

The body is a few metres from the edge of the Hole and is on the bottom at 107 metres. To anyone who doesn't know, diving to that sort of depth is a very serious matter, only to be undertaken by people with appropriate qualifications, experience and equipment.

There was indeed at least one attempted recovery operation shortly after Dr.Delgado disappeared, but it was ill-conceived, guaranteed to fail, and a complete waste of money. To the extent that I wonder about the motives of the people involved. They knew that the body would be on the bottom and they knew that they could not dive to more than about half that depth.

I hadn't realised that the widow attempted to sue the operator. Makes me far less sympathetic to her. In any case, I understand that she has been approached since the body was discovered and has expressed no interest in it being brought to the surface.

'There was indeed at least one attempted recovery operation shortly after Dr.Delgado disappeared, but it was ill-conceived, guaranteed to fail, and a complete waste of money.'
Aw how unfair, There was no money paid for anything, They called for help and we took a quick trip to the Hole from San Pedro, 6 guys searching, hoping the body might be found on a ledge or snagged at a recoverable depth. We knew we would be limited to 240' and just hoped he didn't drift to the bottom where with out technical diving equipment and special training we couldn't go. We did all we could at our own expense and risk just to help out a bad situation.

Never let any good deed go unpunished!!

Sorry Elbert, didn't mean to offend. There seems to have been so much money grasping around this tragedy that I didn't realise the attempt had been self funded. I suppose there was a remote possibility he had been caught on the shelf, or something. But given the slightly conical shape of the Hole that wasn't very likely - from talking to the DM of the time I gleaned that Dr.Delgado had left the bottom part of the dive with the others, and only later disappeared. That would mean that he was well away from the side with nothing between him and the bottom. It was a valiant attempt, even if more likely than not to fail.

There is a second Death in the Blue Hole I know about , its probably about 25 years back,similar event.A marble slab was placed in the rim of coral at the Hole as memorial with his name engraved in it. I only heard about it and saw the marble slab.I don't remember his name. So that's two in 25 years that I'm aware of. Anyone know of another?

I've been told by both the police and "old timers" that there are six bodies down there somewhere. I don't know any details. Perhaps we'll have to drain it some time and have a really good look

None of the Police have been around long enough to know.
I've been working in this dive community for 23 years and It seems like I might qualify as an 'Old Timer' :-)
I'm saying two.and two only
the rest are just wild rumors and exaggerated tales like urban myths.
give me a name or a date.
Prove me wrong!

"I've been told by both the police and "old timers" that there are six bodies down there somewhere."

They're just guessing on that's where I hid the bodies.

The Blue Hole for those who DON'T want to get in touch with nature.

If that's 33 feet, and it looks like it, then I know at least one other that's deeper. 12 metres (40 feet) at a film studio west of London.

33 meters deep (108'). It's in Belgium.

I'm glad for the family's sake that the Dr.'s body has been identified after all this time. It is not for us to presume why they don't appear to want a recovery. There could be some very good reasons, none of which have anything to do with money.

As to my recollection of events as told directly to me from DM involved, is a bit different not that it matters.

My recollection of the story of events regarding recovery afterwards, is different though . . .for some reason I've thought that the family had hired a company to look with some kind of sub . . but that operation had failed in early stage due to some malfunction.

OK, that's deep What's it used for?

Seashell - what was your recollection of how the accident happened?

My problem is that I'm not at all convinced the family have even been told what the true situation is. An absurd amount was quoted by one operator (which isn't in a position to mount a recovery anyway) and I fear that may have frightened them off.

now might be an appropriate time for you guys to take your private discussion to PM. Let this fellow RIP.

Amanda if his relatives want him to rest in peace they shouldn't have the case in District Court. If your tired of it Take Jessys suggestion and don't read it.

This thread started about wreck diving in Belize and I think we should get back to that. Many divers around the world live and breathe to dive wrecks and Belize isn't on their itinerary. Maybe we can now in a small way change that.

The other issue that the topic has strayed onto is perfectly valid, but IMO warrants a separate thread. Not that much can be gained in airing it publicly.

Elbert - have you been back to the wreck since our abortive attempt together? As you know, I did dive it with Steve/Marty et al, but just the one visit so far in very dark & murky conditions. They were intending going back I think yesterday but the weather wasn't inviting and I don't know whether they did.

Yea that will probably prevent on of thoes 'Lock Downs'.
Jr. Went back to the wreck and did a video of his own, but nothing to compare with Marty.
He marked the correct GPS concordances.( the X on the bottom of the boat just isn't working)
Its the beginning of rainy season and I suspect that place is even worse vis. with run off. lets go again and plan with an incoming tide to see if that helps.
I've got a VIP that want to write about it and is an excelent diver.

Hi guys,

always interested in diving wrecks, espicially here in Belize because we don't have many.
Also interested in working together with your dive shops to dive the wreck.
We run a small dive shop on Long Caye in the Lighthousereef and are looking to offer wreck diving to our divers.

Greetz,

Karel

www.huracandiving.com

How long does it take to get from your island to Belize City? Because that's about the trip you'll have.