Belize Barrier Reef · Belize · Wreck
The Sayonara
A 1985 wreck reduced by a hurricane to its metal frames
Area photo: Axelspace Corporation · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Sayonara was the Turneffe Island Lodge's transport boat, sunk in 1985 on sand at 15 metres in the south-west of the atoll, where the reef runs out as a wide plain. The hurricane of 2003 took the wooden hull away, so what is left is the metal, along with the shape of the boat printed on the sea bed.
Also known as Wreck of the Sayonara.
Where it is and how deep
17.1900° N, 87.9000° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
This is a shallow dive on a sandy bottom in the south-west of Turneffe, where the dive sites are characterised by a wide reef plain. The Sayonara sits at 50 feet, 15 metres, and is not much of a ship any more: the wooden hull was swept away by the hurricane of 2003, leaving a few cables, pipes and metal frames and the skeletal imprint of the boat pressed into the sand around them.
What the remains have become is habitat, so the dive is worth doing slowly. Basket starfish cling to sponges and hard coral heads with their arms folded around the central body, and coral shrimps and file clams have taken up residence in the wreckage. Around it, stoplight parrotfish, French grunts and queen angelfish are among the commoner species, and barracuda hold over the site.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Sayonara
- Type
- Passenger boat, latterly the lodge transport boat
- Sunk
- 1985
- Cause
- Sunk in 1985; the wooden hull was later swept away by the hurricane of 2003
- Lies
- On sand at 15 m, reduced to cables, pipes and metal frames with the hull's imprint on the sea bed
A former passenger boat, the Sayonara served as the transport boat for the Turneffe Island Lodge before she was sunk in 1985 on sand at 50 feet, 15 metres, off the south-west of the atoll. She did not survive intact: her wooden hull was swept away by the hurricane of 2003, and all that remains now are a few cables, pipes and metal frames, together with the skeletal imprint the boat left on the sandy sea bed.
Marine life and season
- Barracuda
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Belize Barrier Reef: March to May is the dry season, when visibility at Turneffe can pass 30 m (100 ft); rain and northerly winds take the shine off the other months.
Sources
- Turneffe Atoll dive sites — Dive The World
More dive sites in Belize Barrier Reef
Reef
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Reef
One big coral bommie ringed by schooling bar jacks
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Wall
Eagle rays off a sponge-hung wall on Turneffe's east coast
Pelagic & blue water
Whale sharks feeding on snapper spawn between March and June
Ice-age stalactites hanging from 30 m inside a 124-metre shaft
Garden eels on the sand, then a wall that falls past 914 m (3,000 ft)
A 9-metre reef cut, with nurse sharks and stingrays next door
Similar dives elsewhere
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