Robert’s Grove
We had begun construction on our houses and Robert Frackman had visited the property. We knew each other. We had visited his property and gone diving with his very fledgling ‘dive operation’. I joked one evening at dinner that one day I would run his dive operation and build him a ‘Real’ Dive Operation.

In Septemebr of 2001, our houses had been badly damaged by Hurricane Iris as had the Frackman’s Resort and my wife and I were hired to manage and re-build the operation.

My project was to design and supervise the construction and then oversee the management of the resort’s dive operation. It seemed a good fit.

I set about drawing up floorplans for the building and overseeing the construction while gradually dismantling the existing dive room and transferring the gear as the new shop emerged.

It was destined to become the most professional of all the local shops. I installed redundant compressors, ordered 160 scuba tanks and enough gear to suit up 48 guests per day on three of our dive boats. I had a mechanics shop built with an engine hoist and an apartment for the mechanic could send the week on site and check the boats each morning prior to our trips.

I had the lagoon dredged for depth and a fringing marina / dock installed which could accommodate sixteen (16) 48 foot Moorings Catamarans and our six skiffs.

We relocated the fueling tanks and built an enclosed fueling compound which was designed to capture any leakage from fuel… a huge step as until then, the crew dragged fuel hoses across the sand and regularly left them spewing fuel into the lagoon… and the fuel tanks leaked continuously.

After eighteen months of very hard wok, I was proud to say I had created the best dive shop at that time in Belize. Divemasters from across the country wanted to work for me.

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