A Sure Thing Belize • Aggressor Fleet: Belize Aggressor III

Ever been planning your dive vacation, looking wistfully at that late-summer or early-autumn window when the water is oh-so-soothingly warm and the pelagics are so active, and all of a sudden Jimmy Buffett's song "Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season" starts playing in the back of your head? With Aggressor Fleet's Belize Aggressor III (as with all Aggressor live-aboards), you can book with confidence.

With Aggressor's StormCheck policy, if you lose a day or more of diving as a result of a named meteorological disturbance and you don't have trip insurance, Aggressor will give you a voucher for the amount paid to revisit that destination within one year of the interrupted trip. That, plus Aggressor's industry-famous (but rarely needed) storm procedures, means that even trips late in the storm season are sure things.

Built in 1996 and refit in 2007, the Belize Aggressor III is ideally suited for cruising the walls of Turneffe Islands and Lighthouse Reef atolls, as well as the world-famous Blue Hole, a collapsed seafloor sinkhole made famous when it was first explored by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. And because all dives are made from Belize Aggressor III's swim platform, there are no scheduled tender departures — meaning guests are welcome to dive anytime the vessel is moored, and as often as they like.

Trips run from Saturday afternoon (first dives are Sunday morning) through Friday morning, with optional shore excursions offered Friday afternoon. But because the jungles and Mayan ruins of mainland Belize offer so much on their own, many Aggressor travelers tag on a few days at accommodations ashore.

Magnificent walls and some of the Caribbean's most-beautiful sponge life and pelagics — ranging from eagle rays to hammerhead sharks — are all part of what has made the Belize atolls so famous among traveling divers. And Belize Aggressor III lets you enjoy the full range, regardless of the time of year.

Quick Guide Belize Aggressor III is a 110-foot monohull luxury yacht with a 22-foot beam, carrying up to 18 passengers in nine staterooms, served by a crew of six. Nitrox is available and virtually all diving is done from the main ship's swim deck, although a dinghy is available. The vessel carries four diver propulsion vehicles available free of charge for guests' use. For more information: sportdiver.com/aggressor