THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2004:

I went outside around 7am to take photos. Water had indeed come up to the stone wall on our end of the beach. Ironically, the little sign on the tree at the tide line says "Please keep the beach clean!"



The water-entry steps by the Tipsy Seagull were damaged and some of the wood was missing. The chest-high wall at the end of the Tipsy’s pier was gone. I ran into Luciano from Toucan Diving who said there probably would not be any diving, as storm warnings were still officially posted. The water was calmer, but there were huge swells. The wind seemed normal and the sun was out in a brilliant blue sky.



The Plaza’s beach was covered with coral rubble, along with live critters – brittle stars, bristle worms, broken chunks of orange cup coral, crabs, bivalves and urchins. I spent some time putting creatures back into the water until Mike and Laura were ready for breakfast.



The breakfast buffet had fewer items; all cold foods except for scrambled eggs. The people working the breakfast buffet said that overall, Bonaire had been lucky. Damage reports were coming in, and structural damage seemed minimal.
After eating, we walked over to Toucan Diving. Much of the parking area was under water.



All the scuba tanks were still stored away, and without the usual sound of the compressor, it was eerily quiet. Luciano explained that Bonaire’s harbormaster must give permission to all the dive operations on Bonaire before any diving can resume. Besides the swells and surge not being safe, the water was sandy and all stirred up. Martijn said he believed there was only one fallen tree and one broken window at the Plaza Resort.

Mike and I went to the beach and put more live critters back into the sea. Birds were having a field day eating the bounty on the beach -especially the sea urchins.

Toucan Diving’s staff spent the morning cleaning up the beach and putting everything back in order. This was a huge job under the blazing sun, shoveling coral rubble into buckets, carrying it away, and smoothing out the sand. Whether this was their responsibility or not, they pitched in and worked like bees to make the resort look normal again. What an all-around first-rate group of people they are!

We noticed that lizards and iguanas were everywhere, even in places we hadn’t previously noticed them – out on the beach, by the pool. Maybe they were trying to figure out whether it was safe to resume their usual activities?



The electricity came back on at 9:50am. We walked into town and bought cookies, snacks, sodas and beer… all the necessities! Then we had treated ourselves with ice cream for lunch. There was lots of clean-up activity going on along the waterfront in Kralendijk.

We returned to the Plaza Resort; still no diving. The water was calm in the afternoon, with just a few gentle swells. So I decided to snorkel.

18 PALMS SNORKEL - I shot a roll of film, between the fish and the damage. There was more coral rubble everywhere, chunks of fire coral ridges had fallen over or broken, and some smaller brain corals were upside-down. Considerable sand in the water, which wasn't surprising since the storm ended only last night. (I imagine my photos won't be worth much due to the poor visibility.) I saw rainbow parrotfish, needlefish, red-lip blennies, several big chub, shutters, two-by-fours, beer bottles and a dinner plate.

The later afternoon was spent reading on the beach, followed by happy hour at the Coconut Crash. Laura and I decided to have the frozen drink of the day… aptly named “Ivan.” The concoction of tequila, vodka, strawberry and banana was a lot nicer than the hurricane.

We had dinner at Casablanca, which is a about a 10 minute walk from the Plaza. When we arrived around 6:30pm, one table was still available. After that, there was a line of people waiting all evening. Food and service here was excellent! Mike had the T-bone steak, while Laura and I each had the filet mignon with wine peppercorn sauce (which is very, very spicy...which we like, but others might find too hot.) Mike and I each had a glass of Argentinian merlot, and we all shared a cheesecake and a flan for dessert. Mike and I lucked out, having the wine. Because the next day was the referendum vote, restaurants were not supposed to serve alcohol. The Casablanca’s owner apologized that he couldn’t offer us more wine - apparently he’d received a phone call telling him to stop serving, but only after our glasses had been poured.


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2004:

Breakfast was cookies and sodas in the room (and I had my usual first-thing-in-the-morning Diet Coke at last!!!) Then, after two days of unintentional off-gassing, it was time to dive.

SMALL WALL - Visibility was impeded by sand in the stirred-up water. Some corals were damaged, and sand was piled up everywhere… on corals and clogging sponges. Many bar jacks were roaming the reef, chasing chromis and schools of creole wrasse. In general, the fish seemed a little confused, as if they realized things weren't quite "right." Max depth was 71 feet, dive time was 57 minutes.

DIVI TREE - Again! Visibility was better here on Klein Bonaire, although the water was rough with a slight surge. We saw many floating boards with nails that had blown off buildings on shore (Divemaster Jackson retrieved a couple.) Damage to the reef seemed less here on Klein, with some sand piles and a few toppled soft corals. Fish were out in great numbers, darting about. Max depth was 54 feet, dive time was an hour.

We had cheeseburgers and sodas again for lunch at the Banana Tree.

We figured flying home the next day on Air Jamaica as scheduled was unlikely, since Hurricane Ivan was headed for that island next. We went to the Plaza Resort’s “Internet Corner” to check the Air Jamaica website and to answer some “Are you all right?!?!” emails from friends and family in the U.S. who’d been tracking Ivan’s progress. Air Jamaica’s website said all their flights for Saturday were canceled.

We returned to our room and called the local Air Jamaica number, but there was no answer. So I called their 800-number and was told all Air Jamaica flights would be cancelled for both Saturday AND Sunday. We were told to call again early on Sunday to find out what we could do to reschedule.

Next, we went to the reception desk to ask about extending our stay. We changed our check-out date to September 13, and the Plaza gave us a deeply discounted rate for the extra nights. Then we went to the dive shop to see about more boat dives. There was no room on the Saturday morning boat dives, but we did get on an afternoon 1-tank dive.

“Ivan” was still the drink of the day at happy hour, so Laura and I indulged again, while Mike had Amstel Bright. We talked with Christian for a while about diving, fire twirling, diving, Bonaire, how he happened to be there (since he’s from Denmark), diving and more diving.

Friday’s dinner was at the Banana Tree (we'd become lazy about going “off-campus” ... blame the happy hours.) Mike had the Margherita pizza, which he said was very good. I had the tagliatelle pasta. I don’t eat pasta very often, and didn’t expect much, but this was excellent. So good that Laura, who had the club sandwich, kept eating off my plate.

Back in the room by 9:15pm, we watched television for Ivan updates. WGN out of Chicago said there had been no official reports from Jamaica since 4pm - only ham radio. Not a lot of details other than sustained 90-mph winds in Kingston.

Next is Part 6...