Chet and Jean Wood Trip Report 2005
26 Feb-16 Mar
by Jean (and edited by Chet)
TRAVEL: We flew down on American/American Eagle through Puerto Rico (ORD-SJU-BON). We arrived safely (and only about an hour late), but 3 of our 4 suitcases did not arrive with us on Saturday.
When we arrived at Bonaire, we got one of our suitcases. Then the belt stopped and we were told that there was no more luggage. There were about 8-10 other couples waiting for their luggage. We told them we had frozen food in 2 of our suitcases, and we were assured that they would put them into a freezer for the night. We were all told we would get the rest of our baggage Sunday AM. We got it on Monday. We were left feeling we had been lied to and they just didn’t care. For more details see our post in the Getting to Bonaire section. On second thought don’t bother, just go on to the fun stuff!
Okay, The fun stuff: Overall the trip was very enjoyable, heck, we’re in Bonaire for heaven sakes! The weather was really good. A bit hot the first week. In the 90’s, sunny and very humid. A couple degrees cooler the second week. Upper 80’s to 90’s, sunny, hot, humid. Rained twice, once hard during the night and a light shower once in the daytime. Also, the water temperature was 3 or 4 degrees warmer than last year; 81/82 vs. 78/79.
ACCOMMODATIONS: As always we stayed at the Sand Dollar Condominium Resort. This was our 8th annual trip to Bonaire and the 5th year renting a great 2-bedroom condo from Alan and Joan Zale. I highly recommend renting with them, great people to work with. And their condo is kept in top condition. The walls are covered with Alan’s photos from Bari Reef (probably soon to be joined by photo’s by Joan). Alan is a professional photographer. Each year they update something and add some new things to the condo. The kitchen appliances are new within the last couple years. This year they put in neat new lighting over the bar area.
 New airco is going in this Spring; the kind where the equipment is outside and is piped in to a quiet fan unit in the room.
DIVING:
BARI REEF: We usually do most of our dives right at Bari Reef. This year we ended up doing all our dives there. I was recovering from a virus and my energy was limited, and it is so much easier to just jump off the pier at your own time and pace. Especially when Chet carries the tank to the bench for me, then carries it ready to go to the pier steps. I just strap it on and jump in! So we dove Bari and never tired of it.
FISH:
FISH SPECIES, REEF SURVEYS: We keep a spreadsheet of our fish ID’s each year. Our lifetime total is 170 species. We have 8 new species from this trip; we found Chain Moray, Shortnose Batfish and the Pearly Razorfish on our own. We did a dive with the Naturalist, Jerry Ligon, and 5 of the fish he pointed out were new to us. One of them, the Pearl Blenny lives right ON the underwater steps on the Pier at Bari Reef! The other 4: Maculated Flounder, Rosy Razorfish, Yellowbelly Hamlet, and Sailfin Blenny. Several of these were easy to find once he had pointed them out to us and we knew how to ‘see’ them and where to see them.
It really makes the dive more interesting when you can name what you’re looking at. We download and print the REEF Organization data from their website (www.reef.org). Bonaire is in Region TWA (Tropical Western Atlantic). You can get a list of all the species reported seen on Bonaire, which is compiled from all the REEF survey done by divers. You can print out reports on “all Bonaire” or each individual dive site. It can list out in alphabetical order or by sighting frequency (%). 100% means it is reported on every survey done at that location. Any diver can join REEF, get forms, and do REEF surveys.
Bari Reef has a total of 333 fish species reported ever seen there That is the highest number of ANY dive site anywhere in the TWA region, which includes all of the Caribbean, Florida, and the Bahamas. The island of Bonaire has a total of 457 fish species reported.
Our lifetime list: We have ID’ed all but 7 of the species that list at 10% or better for the Island of Bonaire, plus 44 species below 10% (down to the Manta Ray at 0.1%).
BONAIRE DIVE AND ADVENTURE: This is the dive shop adjacent to Sand Dollar Condo, on the south edge, owned & managed by Andre Nehr. We look forward to a chat with Andre every year. He shared the events of the recent electrical power outages (caused by the fire at the power plant). We only had one short power outage while there. The rest of the staff is courteous & helpful. Especially our old friend Valeria Bretta, back at the dive shop after a stay in her homeland of Italy and then living in Central America for a while.
We really like the set-up at the dive shop. For the equipment storage room, you’re assigned a number, which gives you a pair of sturdy pegs to hang BCD etc. on the wall and running down the center is a bar with sturdy hangers for wet suits. Outside there is a row of small lockers (about 18” by 18” by 30”) big enough for fins, mask, snorkel, etc. Also, since the storage room and tanks are locked up at night, the lockers provide storage for night-diving tanks and gear.
Full tank are sitting on the pier and up by the parking area. And my (Jean’s) favorite part is the benches with a slot for the tank and backs to lean back on. Two of these benches were washed away with the 1999 Lenny ‘wave event’ then recovered and are still in use. They show the signs of many tanks and gear usage, a historic memento that I am fond of, as we used them pre-Lenny. There are also 4 new benches.
Jerry Ligon, a biologist and a top naturalist and fish experts, is the dive master on some of the boat dives at Bonaire Dive and Adventure (BD&A). He also does Fish ID classes, bike tours and bird watching tours.
DIVE WITH JERRY LIGON: We did our first fish course with Jerry in 2000 and got so much out of it we did it again in 2001; and decided to do one again this year. Jerry really got us going with fish ID. His enthusiasm is contagious.
He does a 2-hour classroom time followed by a one-hour dive on Bari. In the classroom he uses the ReefNet program and a computer to show us specific fish. And then gets into fish behavior, life cycle and mating habits. Very interesting! He also explains about REEF survey and the REEF website. And how to use the ReefNet program to help ID fish, etc.
During the dive he continuously points our fish, and uses a large magnetic slate to give us fish names etc. Five of the fish were new fish ID’s for us.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO: One of the reasons we started doing UW photography was to help with fish ID. Who can remember all the details of one fish an hour later, and which details are important? With a photo you have proof! We saw a lot of eels this year and Chet has some good photos.
I use the video camcorder Sony PC120 with “Light and Motion” Mako housing.
I was moving slower this year because I was recovering from a virus. Moving slower helped with video, the fish ignored me I was going so slowly. Not as many shots of a fish darting away from me.
A lot of lousy video too, especially when I forget to turn it off between shots and it’s just trailing alongside of my hand. Oh, you can get seasick just watching those shots! We haven’t done any ‘still’ captures yet from the video, but will post some more when we do. For now, a few selected shots from the “Sea&Sea”:
 
 
THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD HAWKSBILL TURTLE: On several dives we saw a medium sized hawksbill turtle. He (she) may be an old friend.
He has a dent on his back toward his tail. We have video from March 2002 of Chet diving next to a turtle on Bari Reef that looked just like him.
THE BATFISH: Jerry Ligon told us the area where the Batfish was last seen. Sand flats south of Bari, at 10-20 ft. depth. And he pointed out the mooring it was near when last seen. It seems that they eat in one area, then move to the next area as the local food source (small fish) either get eaten or too smart. Thus, moving slowly up or down the coast. We looked for him last year when he was right south of the Bari Pier, but didn’t find him. Chet found him this year while snorkeling without a camera. He pointed it out to 2 divers, who proceeded to harass him with their cameras. We weren’t able to find him again.
BT’ers:
It was great to see old friends and new. Josie, Darlene and Tom, Jake and Linda and kids, Kate and her husband and sister, Corney Ann and John, Diver Debbie and Adam, Bob and Charlotte just to name a few. It was nice to finally meet Josie’s husband Alan. We thought he was a myth since he was never on island when we were.
SUNSET CRUISE ON THE WOODWIND: The Woodwind, a trimaran sailboat, is a joy to ride on. Very stable smooth sail. Add good friends (about 15 BT’ers), beverages, snacks and a Bonaire sunset. Wonderful! Captain Ulf and first mate Susan gave us a good cruise.
DINNERS AT GIBI’S: Tuesday nights at Gibi’s house provides a homey atmosphere to eat dinner with our BT friends and talk. We eat on Gibi’s patio, which I find more pleasant than the restaurant. The menu is very much the same and very reasonably priced. (Chet addition: Thanks again to Pat Murphy for bringing down and distributing the couple dozen 2005 BT’er buttons I sent him; he got there a couple weeks before we did. Also, for taking the remainder that I brought down for later distribution.)
DVD PLAYER:
We got a portable DVD player right before the trip. They are down to a reasonable price. We got it mainly to help me get through the long flight days. Which starts with getting up at 5:30 am CST and ends with arrival at Sand Dollar between 9 and 10 PM Bonaire time. It’s longer on the way home with a 4-hour layover in San Juan. (I know some of you travel even longer.) I watched movies and the Blue Collar Tour with comedians like Jeff Foxworthy, etc. Since I was watching this with headphones on, people on the airplane who couldn’t see the screen, probably thought I was just laughing hysterically because I was insane (Chet addition: Including me) . But it was worth it to laugh away part of a long flight.
It also came in handy on Bonaire to watch the Video portion of the new ReefNet DVD 3rd Edition. It helped with fish ID. You can call up fish by species or family, with or without commentary and Fish names in subtitles. The Video gives you more info than a picture. Very handy, since we’re addicted to fish ID. Gives us something restful to do between dives, besides eating and sleeping.
Trip home
No surprises, just a long, tiring day. Only 332 days ‘til Bonaire 2006!
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By Chet Wood (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #555) on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - 8:53 pm: 
