The Coral Spawning …
The past three or four years we’ve deliberately booked our Bonaire trip to coincide with the September coral spawning. (Yes, the timing of the September full moon is a major factor in our vacation planning which must seem rather strange to the uninitiated …) We weren’t the only ones who appear to have the same idea though, as there seems to be an unofficial ‘Habitat Coral Spawning Club’ in the making – we met up with many other divers who were there in 2001 and/or 2002 – and again thanks to Ditte Prekker for her informative presentation, and to Ruud and Denise for their superb video footage.
 
Building on the past experiences of both ourselves and other divers, this year we decided to do a few late-night dives (09:00pm – 12:00 midnight), and were rewarded by being able observe far more of the coral spawning than we’ve ever seen before. On the most active nights we observed lots of boulder star coral spawning, feather duster worms and brittle stars releasing sperm and eggs, and also blushing star coral smoking. It really was an amazing and unique experience.
 
Over the past three years we’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon that may be related to the coral spawning – the presence of a manta ray. We’ve yet to encounter a manta ray on Bonaire ourselves, but, in September 2001 divers on one of the Habitat boats saw one at Karpata, and last year the same thing happened at Bloodlet (we were on the WRONG boat on both occasions unfortunately). This year, fellow Brits Julie and Kevin saw a manta gliding along the house reef at Habitat whilst doing a late afternoon dive – and this time we missed it by just a few minutes! Seriously though, as mantas are filter feeders it may be that they are attracted to the calm side of Bonaire by the coral spawning, even though the currents they normally seek are absent.
 
Eating and Drinking …
Other than diving, one of Brian’s favourite things about Bonaire is the plentiful supply of Amstel Brights – and Habitat’s Deco Stop Bar was our main port of call. I always keep meaning to try the cocktail of the day, but have to say I also find it difficult to resist the crisp golden call of the odd Bright or two. We also visited Karel’s bar on a couple of occasions – and had a lot of fun on our last day which was also Brian’s birthday.
We ate mainly at Rum Runners at Habitat – excellent pizza and fish, and you really can’t beat those sunset views over the ocean and Klein Bonaire, or watching the night divers’ lights as they make their way along the reef. We did go to a Tuesday night BT dinner at Gibi’s, and it was great to put names to faces – particularly Freddie Hughes, her husband George and friends Kenny, Babsi and Dan, and also Bas and Gregg Brewer, who seemed to really appreciate the beer that Freddie had brought in specially for him from the US! The Dorado fillets we had a Gibi’s were superb – served with Jake’s home-made extra hot chilli sauce and crispy French fries.
It was our 26th wedding anniversary during our first week in Bonaire, but as the actual date fell on the main coral spawning evening, we postponed our celebratory meal until the following week when we went to Cappricio’s – it was all delicious but the tender smoked wahoo, creamy lobster pasta and velvety chocolate mousse served with rich chocolate ice cream were extraordinarily good.
We also had lunch at the Lost Penguin – their open tuna sandwich is excellent and I’m glad to say that they seemed to be very busy.
Washington Slagbaai National Park …
On our last day we took a trip to the National Park which was great. There are lots of flamingoes throughout and the ‘Blow Hole’ is wild – if you stand in the right place you can see a rainbow as the water and spray whooshes through the hole. The huge cacti and varied geological features are very dramatic – and a huge contrast to the undersea world we’d spent the majority of our holiday exploring. The park warden does say the roads are ‘a little bumpy’, and this is definitely a bit of an understatement – we had a couple of dodgy moments in our truck and I should think you’d definitely need a 4X4 if it was even slightly wet. The park is well worth exploring though – this was our first visit and we’ll definitely repeat the experience.
 
Conclusion …
What can we say? It was fantastic. All of it. We met some brilliant people - and had two weeks of great fun and superb diving. It was a pleasure to meet Michael Gaynor, his Chat’n’Browse internet facility is a major find – very reasonable rates, excellent facilities and relaxed atmosphere. If you’re at Habitat on a Tuesday at around 5:30pm, try to catch Captain Don’s session – it’s far more than just a slide show – we enjoyed a very entertaining evening and, as the Captain says, it’s all at least 85% true!
We’ll sign off with major thanks to everybody at Habitat and our fellow guests for making it such a memorable holiday.
The journey home is always a long one, and PBD has definitely kicked in - but we are extremely fortunate in that we are due to return to Bonaire in a few weeks time for Christmas and New Year. The count down has begun…
 
Sue & Brian
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By Brian (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #392) on Sunday, November 2, 2003 - 6:57 am: 
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