Ga mee op reis!

At Buddy Dive’s we filled in the necessary paperwork and met some of the dive masters and instructors. Most of the people either are or speak Dutch and otherwise you can make your self heard in English as well. You can see on the map that the island is small compared to others in the Caribbean. Most of the dive sites are on the southwest side of the island. They are all very easy to find because there are yellow markers at the side of the road.

Bonaire’s pristine reefs and diverse marine life are unique to the Caribbean. Because the waters around Bonaire are designated as an official marine park, diving Bonaire is like diving the Caribbean the way it used to be – untouched and unspoiled. The island’s location in the south Caribbean gives it an arid climate with little rainfall; consequently, the waters are exceptionally clear of silt, calm, and dive-able year round. It is an ideal destination for underwater photographers. Water temperatures average a warm 78-84?F (25.6-28.9?C), with visibility often averaging over 100 feet(30m), and frequently, up to 150 feet (55m).

There are several websites on the net where you find all the necessary information and I don’t want to bore you with it here.

We are going diving! We packed our stuff in the Suzuki and drove of to get our first 2 bottles in the Drive-thru! On the picture you can see a little of how easy this is. You actually drive thru and get out your empty bottles and replace them, after you checked them!, with filled bottles. It is even possible to take more than 2 at a time if you want to go down to the lighthouse and do a double dive or if you want to visit one of the sites up in the park.

From the shore you can sea Klein Bonaire it lies just off the western coast of the island, a smaller sister to Bonaire. It is surrounded by a multitude of outstanding dive sites as you can see on the map. Klein Bonaire can be reached only by boat (or a long swim),and visitors should remember that they must bring with them all they need.

On the map at the right are the many dive sites of Bonaire. Most of them are pretty easy to reach by car and sometimes they are also visited by boats of the dive operators.

Some of the sites a well known around the world, others are less known and what nobody knows is that you can invent your own. We discovered that 90% of the divers entered the waters exactly at the spot that the yellow marker stones indicate. We decided a couple of times to ignore the stones and dive between them. They are sometimes close to each other but in some spots there is quite a lot of distance between them. So we named one of our favorite places Racquel’s Reef and another Pile-of-shit, this had nothing to with the diving but more with the stomach-aches I had after to much garlic at Captain Don’s restaurant (Rum Runners)the evening before.
Some of the locations at the map point to one of my dives and you will be directed to the dive, be careful because the spots are close together. On some sites we dove twice so you’ll just have to scroll your way down. Perhaps I’ve got some of the locations confused with the names but anyway I’m pretty close to the original name or location. If you go diving on Bonaire you can get maps with these sites at any decent dive-operator.

After they solve their problems with the boats and the weights at Buddy’s we are ready to jump in and experience diving Bonaire. The pain I feel after they drop a bottle on my foot is quickly gone when I see the beauty of the reef. Lots of colorful sponges, corals and fish. The first part of the dive is used to get our buoyancy right and to find out if we are still comfortable as we always are. The stairs you see on the picture are not the ones You use getting in and out of the water. I don’t know how Buddy was “hurt” by the last hurricane they had but imagine that everything at their dockside has been repaired.

Depth: 22.2 meters
Divetime: 42 minutes

We decide to make the second dive of the day at this divesite. Before we left I have asked through different newsgroups to mail us peoples favorite dive-sites of Bonaire. Alice in Wonderland came out as one of the top-10 sites so why settle for anything less. It is a short drive to the site and because of the yellow marker stones at the side of the road you can’t miss it. Driving is all the way up to the shore so you just gear up and walk in. Humm this walking thing is easier if the surf is non-existent as you can see in the picture. When there is a small surf I suggest taking very good care because there a a couple of nasty rocks just under the surface and Racquel manages to stumble over one of them leaving a nasty cut on her leg. The bleeding is only superficial but it left a scar on her legs even now. The blood however doesn’t attract any sharks (;-) but the dive is good. There is double reef with a sandy bottom in between. The current was reasonable but at the outer side of the second reef quite strong. I loose my sunglasses this dive….and that’s why I bought a new BC. Read about the equipment in the equipment section.

Depth: 26.4 meters
Divetime: 39 minutes

Situated in front of the Radio Netherlands towers, 1000 Steps is a shore or boat dive (actually, for the shore divers, 64 steps down to the site from the road and it seems like 1000 steps coming back up with scuba gear!). It was Racquels choice this morning so after we bought her a new BCD (again, visit the equipment section if you want to read more about this) we headed of to visit 1000 steps. I thought that is has a nice mystical name and wanted to see this part of the island. At the parking place we gear up and walk down fully packed. Entering the water is done very slowly because of our Alice-in-Wonderland experiences. When we are finally in I realize that I didn’s open the bottle so we start the dive with a small argument about the advantages of a buddy check.
The dive is good, one of the best we have done on Bonaire. Lots of coral, fish, sponges and even a moray eel. The trip up the 64 steps is easily done with the equipment on your back. The way back to Kralendijk is through a one-way road and part of the road takes you through “Jurassic Park”. The steep road winds through cactus-forest with lovely birds and lizards. Some of them are big but they will always run of once you get close to them.

Depth: 22.9 meters
Divetime: 52 minutes

This is a very nice start of a dive. A little to the right side of the stairs there is a very small platform from where you jump about 6 ft down into the water. If there is not to much of a swell you can get out very easy using the metal stairs. The dive itself is a little boring. There is not much about this dive in the logbook. Some of the internet readers had it high on their favorite list but I can’t seem to enjoy it. Unfortunately my mask does not survive it when I enter the water after the dive and Racquel throws it towards me. One of the glasses pops out and when I put it on it gives a strange sensation. So after the leg-accident, the lost sunglasses now my mask is a goner…Bonaire I love it!

Depth: 18.6 meters
Divetime: 42 minutes

Today we join other divers and some of the crew of Buddy’s on the boat for a short trip to Klein-Bonaire. According to the books and the “charts” the dive sites at KB are a lot better than on the main island. There are 15 divers on the boat with 1 Divemaster but all seem to be experienced divers. While diving and enjoying the marineworld I notice that I’m not diving quite honest. I’m comparing Bonaire with the Maldives and the Maldives seem to win all the time. I convince myself that Bonaire deserves a second chance at that the island has other qualities that we didn’ see in the Maldives. One should be dropped somewhere in the ocean without knowing where this is and then enjoy the beauty of this place.

Depth: 26.2 meters
Divetime: 50 minutes

Second trip with the boat takes us to the Rock Pile. This dive the newly bought mask starts to leak so tonight the mustache has to leave my face. There is nothing more annoying than a leaking mask. We don’t see anything special this dive but some in our group are excitet about the eel. We yawn a little and try to find the seahorse that supposed to be here. No luck this time

Depth: 16.6 meters
Divetime: 51 minutes

The wreck of the Hilma Hooker is well known in the carribbean. It is a former drugs smuggling boat and it rests on its starboard in about 30 meters of water. Visibility was not as good as on other dives which gives this a a spooky character. The wrecks suddely dooms up in front of you in the water out of a thermocline. The current is strong again and the wreck itself not very interesting. We see tarpons and squid and at the end of the dive a couple of barracuda.

Depth: 24.1 meters
Divetime: 33 minutes

One of the best dives so far. Visibility is very good, coralformations and colors are excellent. There is however not much written down in my logbook so you’ll just have to find our yourselves.

Depth: 19.9 meters
Divetime: 48 minutes

To try out Racquels new BC we enjoy the dive in front of Buddy’s. We swim towards the little wreck in front of Capt. Dons’ and return knowing that we have finally found the perfect BC for Racquel. There is a small barracuda and a large grouper and they seem to agree with this.

Depth: 18.1 meters
Divetime: 57 minutes

Jerry’ reef has been renamed by Bart in Jerry’s graveyard. The best thing about this dive was the laughs we had when one of the divers didn’t look where he was walking on the pier and stumbeled in to the sea. A lot of current at the end of the dive and everything here seemed either dead or dying. They should make this a dive without paying for.

Depth: 16.4 meters
Divetime: 47 minutes

The first nightdive and even after the very good explanation of the house rules by Robert we have forgotten to set aside to bottles. So we take bottles that have been returned by others and they are about half filled. This is not a big problem because since it is our first nightdive here we will stay in the shallower part and will not make this a very long dive. We jump in with a couple from the States and make good use of their strobe. There is more animal-live on the ref than during daytime so we see a lot of moray eels and a couple of squid. I don’t rember seeing Charly the Tarpon this dive. Some of the plankton feels like flies and the clarity of the water makes this sensation even greather. R hates flies and now she hates plankton too!

Depth: 10.4 meters
Divetime: 35 minutes

Again there is not much in my logbook about this dive other then;
– nice dive
– the usual fish
– a little hard to get in to the water

Depth: 20.3 meters
Divetime: 47 minutes

This is one of the names we made up. You’ll have to place this location very near to Alice in Wonderland. Tomorrow we want to go diving in the park.

Depth: 19.0 meters
Divetime: 47 minutes

After a lot of driving around trying to get into the park we end up at this place. The park was closed after heavy rainfall and the same rainfall has great influence on this dive. The clouds are so black that it becamoes a little dark underwater and this takes away the colors even more. We are disappointed about the park and perhaps we will try it another day. I want to see the huge lizards and visit dive-sites that are kind of remote with better chance of bigger fish.

Depth: 15.7 meters
Divetime: 47 minutes

Another self-made location very close to Atlantis (#54 on the map). At the start of the dive in shallow water we meet a spotted eagle ray. The coralgarden in this place is very nice. A lot of colors and plenty of things to see. The distance to the reef is about a 150 meters but this has no effect on the dive because of the garden. It is always easy diving like this because you just start with the reef at the right or the left shoulder and after half the bottle (with no current!) you just turn around. To make it even easier I decide to fabricate a small underwaterbouy that we place at the edge of the reef so we know exactly where we have enterred the water. A broken yellow tankbanger with a small cord and 1lbs weight will do fine I think.

Depth: 16.1 meters
Divetime: 45 minutes

Nice dive from the boat called the Bonita. In the beginning a little bit of a current. The ususal barracuda and snappers and Racquel discovers a scorpionfish. At the end of the dive a little seahorse who tries to hide im some gras. The little critters are not very common but I find them extremely boring. Everybody was excited about it and the Divemaster grew inches of pride cause he “found” it.
In the morning we went snorkeling with one of the volunteers from the Turtle preservation club. The had a very nice slide-show the evening before that was visited by about 6 guests but very interesting. Minco took us to the eastside but the sea was to rough to go in to my taste so we snorkeled on the west side. At the east side I’m reminded of an article I read in Skin Diver magazine (I have tried at least 5 times to get a subscription in Holland but the seem to ignore me). The conclusion of the article was; better red than dead. So better be ashamed you don’t dare doing something than ending up a dead hero.

Depth: 21.5 meters
Divetime: 47 minutes

Everybody was talking about this townpier nightdive so we begged the guys at Buddy’s toarrange another one. Ok so this is a must do (only once) dive. The water is shallow and when there are cruisers is is a nice opportunity to swim around and watch the huge propellors. The orange cup coral on the picture is what you will see a lot of. Be sure to bring a light and check if the batteries are still OK. I had a light from Buddy’s but without any juice in it so I had to do it with a little Ikelite backup lamp. We made it a short dive because after 26 pillars with occ on them it gets a little boring. We didn’t see that much other live.

Depth: 5.8 meters
Divetime: 26 minutes

A little by coincedence we end up at the same spot where we met a spoted eagle ray the last time. This time it’s out getting some cigarettes I think or perhaps a bottle of booz, who knows. The little bouy I made works perfect along this side of the reef but the length of the rope is not good. The yellow marker doesn’t stick out of the corals and grasses. This is one of the topspots for us. All kinds of corals, beautiful colors from yellow to purple cover this part of the reef. It seems a bit logical that the reef develops better on places where there is no marker. But since it is not forbidden to dive between them you might give it a try. If this dive had a turtle for us it would have been our best dive.

Depth: 25.9 meters
Divetime: 57 minutes

The second time at Oil Slick and all because of the leap. It is around 17:30 that we enter the water and it starts the get a little darker already. Racquel uses her minilight to investigate everything under the huge boulders you can find here underwater. We stumble across a giant green moray eel (gymnothorox funebris), the biggest we’ve seen in Bonaire. Later on we see a other kind of eel that is being mistaken by Racquel to be a snake a she carefully shines it under a roch with her light. A sigh of relief and a smile in my direction! When we return we spot Alan and Karen swimming into the other direction.

Depth: 18.9 meters
Divetime: 46 minutes

I don’t think this is an offical dive site on the island. It was close to a abandonned? shack and perhaps the people who live there made up the name. We didn’t see any other divers go in there but we did see two turtles here! We found out about this divesite on the whiteboard at Buddy’s everybody can write down special things they’ve seen or if they think they’ve seen it. Ulrike (from Germany I guess) wrote down she saw a turtle a Rap-Rap Reef so when we saw the marker we thought lets give it a try. At the end of the dive I finally see her. She is on her way the get some air and quickly swims down into the grass again. When we come a little closer we are enjoyed to see a second turtle. We observe the two from a distance so they wont feel to much disturbed by our presence. They finally swim in the direction we do not want to go.

Depth: 25.4 meters
Divetime: 51 minutes

Nice dive from the boat with only four of us divers and Alex the Divemaster. The usual stuff and therefore not much written down.

Depth: 24.4 meters
Divetime: 54 minutes

When ScuBart meets Charly!
This is an excellent dive. In the beginning we see two snooks and then when you least expect it Charly the Tarpon comes up from behind and scares the shit out of you. Charly is accompanied by Charlene this evening and the both enjoy hunting little fish using our lights. The come so close that you can touch them if you would like touching a tarpon. I figure them to be at least 6ft. After this first adventure we find a octopus, my favorite! Along with the lobsters and the moray eels I think Richard and Tonia from the status have a very nice first night dive. It can get a lot worse but you’ll find out what can happen during a night dive if you keep on reading.

Depth: 10.7 meters
Divetime: 47 minutes

Beacause of the crowd at Nukove we decide to give this spot a chance. We hab better not. This is not much fun, Racquel is heaving problems with her ear because stuborn as she is she keeps driving the car with her window rolled down while she knows she is subductive to this. Nukove turns out to be a great dive, guess that’s why it’s so crowded down there.

Depth: 14.4 meters
Divetime: 44 minutes

Beacause it is not a bad place, it is very easy to dive here and because we can eat a nice cheeseburger with fries in the restaurant we decide to stay at Buddy. Racquel’s ears are back to normal again and of course the problem with the ear had nothing to do with the open window. Strangely the problems only occur on the ear at the windows side…..
Charly is swimming around again and for the third time this vacation I loose something out of my BC pocket. I swear that I will never ever by a BC with pockects without a zipper.

Depth: 30.3 meters
Divetime: 50 minutes

Again trouble with the rental lights this time because Eric has forgotten to put the batteries in the loader. Fortunately Richard has two lights and this is because Tonia is asleep. The dive is full again of creatures you can read about in “A guide to Marine life” as we do all the time. A very nice book with very nice pictures and a lott to read about things you meet.
The dive ends in total darkness. As we reach the surface and I’m sure we are at the wrong spot ’cause we didn’t see the lights at the Buddy Pier it turns out the electricity is gone. The stars in the sky are very bright and the give us enough light to swim back to finish the dive. We drink a Amstel Beer and go to bed early.

Depth: 12.3 meters
Divetime: 56 minutes

The last boatdive of these two weeks at a place called forest. There are only four of us divers and the Divemaster. In the beginning he shits his wetsuit because a giant green moray eel swims directly towards him. You can sea his eyes getting twice the normal size. Racquel is showing of again and “telling” me she is the best and she is the one to spot everything. She even laughs at me when I think I see a turtle but is is only a grouper. She doesn’t laugh when I find the little octopus.

Depth: 28.1 meters
Divetime: 67 minutes !

After a delicious BBQ at Capt Don’s we are going for our last dive at Bonaire. It is going to be a nightdive with Tonia and Richard. Of course Charly is there, the moray eel, the spanish lobster and a lot of fish. There is also something present that we are not aware of and that will have a dramatical effect on the end of the dive. The lights on the dock at Buddy’s attract a large amount of Sea Wasps. They swim near the surface and while I’m watching these nasty creatures Racquel and Tonia are being stung while going out of the water. Even though Tonia wears a full suit she’s stung in the neck and on her hands. I’m still underwater and do not know what is going on on the stairs. Racquel reacts aggetated when I pop my head above the water and shouts to me that I have to get out of the water imeediately. Only after I’ve done so I notice that there is something going on. Both the girls are in a lot of pain and we try to treat is as good as possible. Our German friends who’ll alos leave in the morning bring a bottle of vinegar to pour over the wounds. Racquel says she can feel the poison going up through her leg and that the pain is still very strong. I clean the equipment and we decide to go to our appartment. One of the girls also gives us some anti histamine lotion and some pills people sometimes take when they overreact on insectbites. Racquel uses the lotion and takes one of the pills and I have a restless sleep. Everytime I wake I feel her pulse and forehead to see if she has any allergic reactions. Fortunately everything is going well and we don’t end up in the hospital.

Depth: 15.6 meters
Divetime: 55 minutes