12/27/2001 - Thursday

Breakfast was the buffet at Caribbean Point. Nothing had changed from previous visits, and price per person is still $12.50. Made-to-order omelettes are much better than the extremely soupy scrambled eggs in the steam tray. Good bacon and sausage, sometimes pancakes, sometimes waffles, and sometimes both. A nice selection of fruit, cereals, meats and cheeses, baked goods, juices, etc. We find it easy to skip lunch on the days when we eat breakfast here.

Walked over to Toucan Diving around 8:30 am. Back in August, I had done my Open Water referral with Luciano, and then Mike and I both took the Advanced Open Water course with him. Our experience was excellent, so we arranged for the kids to have Luciano as their instructor for Advanced Open Water during this trip. They joined him in the classroom with the other AOW students, then Mike and I turned in our diving release forms and listened to the dive orientation briefing. Strictly speaking, we probably weren't required to do this, since we'd been to Bonaire twice before during 2001 and had our Marine Park tags. But it's always a good idea, in our opinion. We got weights, but learned that no dive lockers were available. Oh, well… good thing I've been working out at the gym! Mike and I did the check-out dive at 18 Palms with the other newcomers. I was happy to find out that all our gear was in good order, and that I hadn't forgotten everything I'd learned in August.

The water was about the same temperature as it had been in August: 81 - 82 degrees. I wore my skin under my shorty, and wasn't cold at all. The visibility at 18 Palms wasn't quite as good as in August; there was a lot of particulate in the water. Maybe 60 feet visibility, whereas it was around 100 feet back in August. During the check-out dive, we saw "Steve," the HUGE resident barracuda at 18 Palms. He's got to be the granddaddy of all barracudas! All in all, it was a nice dive - just great to be back underwater again!

After some time in the classroom, Laura and Matt did the "Peak Performance Buoyancy" dive. Afterward, they both said they were amazed at how much they learned just from that single dive. They were each able to drop a few pounds of weight and improved their buoyancy and control. They also said that they really liked having Luciano as their instructor, because he was very clear about what they were going to do, encouraging and patient when they had problems, and made the course lots of fun with his easygoing style and good sense of humor.

After their dive, the kids had lunch at the Coconut Crash beach bar. Mike, unfortunately, didn't warn them about the god-awful chicken nuggets. We later learned that there was a new cook at the Crash, and Dec. 27 was his first day. So, the chicken nuggets were probably worse than usual; Laura said they were practically raw. At least the fries were good (they usually are), and the kids learned to stick with the hot dogs.

Mike and I stayed on the beach to kill time before our 1:30 pm boat dive, then lugged our gear back to Toucan Diving. We were on the Green Flash. Our DM was Jeroen, and the captain was Carolis. (We're pretty sure his name is Carolis, but for some reason, he's always introduced as "Cornelius.") The dive site was "Hands Off" at Klein Bonaire. There were choppy waves at the surface, typical of sites near Klein's southwest corner. No problems once we descended. Visibility was excellent, around 100 feet. Mike photographed queen angels, a puffer, and yes… Jeroen found a couple of seahorses! And for the first time in Bonaire, I saw longsnout butterflyfish and butter hamlets.

After the boat dive, Mike and I returned to the beach. The kids were doing the Underwater Navigation dive at 18 Palms. Around 4:00 pm, Mike and I saw a pod of at least a dozen dolphins swimming from south to north off the Plaza's beach, about 100 feet out past the dive training buoy. Several jumped clear out of the water. A short while later, they swam by again, heading south.

The kids joined us at the beach after their dive. They were a little frustrated, saying that using a compass underwater wasn't as easy as they thought. I noticed each of them taking headings and using their compass several times while diving with us over the next several days, and by the end of the trip they seemed more confident with this practice.

There was a special "Caribbean Night" buffet dinner at the Tipsy Seagull that evening. Because we originally thought the kids would have a night dive, we didn't make reservations. Their night dive was postponed until the following night, so we went over to the Tipsy to see whether reservations really were required. Yep… it was packed - tables on the sand, with live music. Ben, the manager, remembered us from August and came over to say hello. We told him we hadn't made reservations, and we'd return another night for dinner. Ben convinced us to stay, and brought out another table with chairs. The special treatment was a little embarrassing, but Ben seems to treat everyone this way. He's extremely energetic and personable, and has really transformed the Tipsy Seagull. The menu is more ambitious, with more selections, and the service has improved greatly. The setting and ambience have always been the nicest of any of the Plaza's restaurants, so it's great that the rest of the operation has been cranked up a few notches. The "Caribbean Night" buffet featured a variety of dishes. Some were excellent, but there were a couple of "mystery dishes" that didn't go over well. What Mike and Laura thought were mushrooms in one case, and a type of pasta in another were…squid? conch? octopus? The price for the buffet was around $33.00 per person. A local dance troupe performed with the band, and they were very good. I thought there were too many little kids running around without supervision during the dances, though.


12/28/2001 - Friday

The phone wasn't working. A maintenance employee came by to see if he could fix it, and said he'd return later. We think he just replaced the phone itself; no big deal.

The kids had their Deep Dive with Luciano this morning. Mike and I had a boat dive, this time aboard "Dive Buddy." Our DM was Annette, and our captain was Eddy. We went to South Bay on Klein Bonaire. I photographed queen angels, a really white sand diver, banded butterflyfish. This is a really lush area with many dense soft corals. Annette found us a seahorse… I think the Toucan divemasters have a sixth sense for locating them! The whole group stayed fairly shallow, and it was an excellent dive. When we returned to the dock, we managed to get a dive locker because some folks had checked out. The kids already shared a locker; Luciano seems to make sure his students get them.

After the morning dive, Mike and I snorkeled at 18 Palms. While much of the staghorn coral was washed away by the wave surge from hurricane Lenny in 1999, there has been considerable regrowth. The snorkeling off the Plaza's beach, particularly heading south to the lagoon inlet from the main entry point at the center of the beach, is really great. If anything, there are even more fish than before Lenny's damage. I photographed a scrawled filefish, a couple of rainbow parrotfish, and a midnight parrotfish. I went to photograph the glassy sweepers that can always be found under the steps at the Tipsy Seagull, and was delighted to find it much easier this time, as the stairs are no longer there! They were always kind of rickety and slick, so hopefully they'll eventually be replaced.

Lunch was at the Banana Tree after Laura and Matt finished their dive. The Jamaican tropical chicken salad, hot ham and cheese sandwich, chicken pita and club sandwich were all good. This cost $53.00 for the four of us, including the tip. We were sorry to learn that lunch wasn't being served at the Tipsy Seagull, like it was in August. They had a different menu, including sandwiches, salads, burgers, and wraps, all very good. It was a little disconcerting that the occupancy at the Plaza Resort wasn't higher, given this was Christmas vacation time.

Mike and I were fortunate to be able to tag along with the AOW students for their wreck dive. When we'd done this back in August, there were fewer students, and we made it a shore dive. Not too easy, making our way across the coral rubble and into the water, followed by that long surface swim. With seven students in this class, Luciano wanted to make things easier. We'd told him we'd like to go along, if having two more paying customers might help him convince Steve to shake loose a boat. So, at 2:00 pm, boarded the Green Flash, with Ebby as captain. When we got to the dive site, Luciano briefed us. He would take the students down, and Mike and I could pretty much do what we wanted, since we were already familiar with the wreck. Luciano said they would descend on the mooring line. With all the students (and Luciano) on the line, it was easier for me and Mike to do a free descent. I took the camera, and photographed the AOW class on the wreck, yellowtail snappers that came really close, general pictures of the wreck, a huge tarpon, Mike, and also those cool "flying saucer" bubbles exhaled at greater depths. Luciano took the students into the cargo hold and also into the air pocket, but Mike and I didn't bother going inside this time. Mike and I did a slow, free ascent, hanging around at 15 feet for a safety stop. Luciano had the students to ascend along the mooring line, also with a safety stop at 15 feet. Back on the boat, the students had mixed opinions whether the Hilma Hooker had been a "totally awesome" dive or a "scary" dive… or a little of both.

Luciano told the students to meet him at the classroom at 6:30 pm to finish up, and then do their final AOW dive - the night dive. Since he wasn't able to get a boat, that would be another shore dive at 18 Palms.

For dinner, we just ate our Mini Market stash (read: junk food.) The kids didn't feel like getting cleaned up for a "real" dinner, rushing, and then diving again. Mike and I decided to do our own night dive at 18 Palms. I was hoping to really enjoy this dive, searching for lots of small critters, but I just could not relax. Shortly after descending, my primary light failed. The back-up light cast a smaller beam, and that made things worse for me. I'm not afraid of monsters from the deep, but I feel disoriented with limited distance vision. (I'm missing half the sight in my left eye, and while this doesn't seem to bother me when diving during the daytime, it exacerbates the closed-in feeling at night.) We saw sleeping parrotfish, spotted morays, a pink crab, a spotted drum, and a banded coral shrimp. What we later learned was a cruise ship passed by while we were diving, and the noise from its engines was deafening. That noise was the last straw for me, and I signaled that we should turn around. When we got back to the dive training buoy, where the diamond-shaped swim-through things are, Luciano was just bringing the class down. The group looked cool… like the assault of the Navy Seal team. After they passed, we made our way toward shore and exited the water. Mike said he was fine during the dive, and enjoyed it. I wish I could have said the same.

...Stay tuned for Part Three