The rest of the report:
Accommodations: House sat for the first week, then spent 3 nights at the beautiful Belmar! I love that place! One morning I went across the street to the Great Escape and had coffee and breakfast. They serve a nice breakfast by the pool (under a big shade palapa like at Bongo's). The property is very nice, and the folks there were very friendly. They have unlimited internet access for 5 bucks a day so I used that to check email, etc. They have 4 computers and I had coffee while checking mail, very nice.

Car Rental: I rented from Netty's this time and she is a DOLL! Her rates are cheap and she was such a sweetheart. She cares very much for her vehicles and doesn't have anyone else working for her. If you make an appointment to pick up or drop off the vehicle at a specific time, do her the courtesy of showing. I didn't realize that she was a one woman operation and thought I could just pick the truck up anytime, not so. I'll definitely rent from her again.

Dining: All were superb as usual. Casablanca, Lost Penguin, Croccatino's, La Flamboyant, Pasa Bon Pizza (twice ;-), Bongo's, Swiss Chalet, Gibi's. I think that covers it.

I used Wannadive this time so support the cams. Bart, Bob, Paul, Klemo, all great folks. They are super friendly and remember your name and make it a point to say hi, ask how your day is going, etc. Very relaxed environment and I just loved diving with them. Definitely enhances the dive experience!

I rented a cell phone from Michael Gaynor again. He is just the best. I had also forgotten to get a refill on my Insulin Resistance med, Glucophage and got a bit panicked when I realized I only had 5 days worth, and I would be on island for 11 days. I asked Michael if he knew of a doctor I could see to get a refill. He promptly called the local doc, got me an appointment immediately. I saw the doc, he gave me the script, took it to the pharmacy. $2.16 for 16 pills...boy, another reminder of how messed up our healthcare is in the US, and script prices! Thanks again Michael. He sure is a sweetheart

More pics of seahorses, Salt Pier, and Lac Cai!

You can see some of the coral bleaching around this Queen Angel. We saw one on just about every dive I think. They are hard little boogers to capture though, once they know you see them...they split!


Tom fish




This really isn't a very good picture of this. I think Ellen said they are Tiger worms. We saw a few on the night dive at Windsock. When I put my flashlight on it, the end shriveled up, but you couldn't see the other end, it was always under a rock. They weren't flat, but quite big and round. Really odd creature. Also, very long, 3 feet on up.


I asked Sue Porter about this behavior, and eels and other fish will hunt in packs. I thought this guy was trying to find a hiding spot, but they would go from rock to rock.


Sarge guarding his eggs on Willy

eel

Cynde, I love the seahorse pics and the eel is a nice capture too. Glad you had such a great time.

My pictures aren't as good as other folks, but I try!

We saw 7 SEVEN seahorses on one long dive, it was great!

I also didn't know that parrot fish mark their territory. I thought Susan P. was pointing out more coral bleaching, but upon closer inspection you could see the teeth marks on the coral. They will aggressively mark the coral head around their territory!




Lac Cai - This grouper was at least 3 feet


This really is not a good picture cause vis was so so, but there were a lot of large schools of fish at Lac Cai, and they were definitely bigger. I'm hoping Bas will post some of the tarpon and eagle ray pics


At the end of the dive there is the rubble wall so to speak with TONS of lobsters and anenomes


Roger and Marcia Burnham arranged to dive Salt Pier with Babs and I. I've always wanted to dive it, and there were a lot of groups from dives shops going at night. Roger got us cleared and we had a private tour! Roger is also doing guided dives at the Pier. The columns reminded me of kelp!



There was a scorpion fish hanging out in a tube sponge


give momma a kiss!




a worm and ???

fooling around with color (or not color) LOL!

Cactus Flower, that seahorse looks GREAT in black and white, so does the Salt Pier !!

Wowwwww you did good !!!!!

a couple more

Simply breathtaking you little sauce-pot, you.

Oh, I also saw a baby trunkfish for the first time...it was SO TINY...hard to get a picture of it too!

Hi Cynde,
Great shots!
The tiger one is a tiger tail sea cucumber. Part of the critter hides in a crevice and the 'tail' part (which is actually the mouth) comes out to search for food.

The 'worm' is another type of sea cucumber, a three-rowed sea cucumber (but most folks refer to it as a chocolate chip sea cucumber) and the wormy looking stuff is sea cucumber poop.

(I am allowed to type 'poop', yes?)

mare

Mare, thanks for the clarification on the tiger tail cucumber...they were weird looking indeed. I thought the mouth end would have been the end stuck under the rock...learn sumthin' new every day!

Wonder why the chocolate chip sea cucumber doesn't have chocolate chip poop...ick!

Wow Cyn, hasn't the Rock Beauty got lovely lips, Great photo.
Good experimentation with the B&W pics, quite surprising how easy the seahorses show up

Thanks Roy! Rock beauty's are another one hard to photgraph because they are gone as soon as they see you look at them! The seahorses were black and orange, the B&W did come out kind of cool!

the other, more common sea cucumber, is the donkey dung sea cucumber. but after seeing it and donkey dung, i have to say they don't resemble each other at all.

great pics of the seahorses.

Hey LooHoo!! The color salt pier pics look like lovely watercolors.... nice job!
The seahorse are way cool

Awesome Cynde!

Whaaaaaaaaaa! I wanna go too!!

Pat...have to google donkey dung cucumber now...LOL!

Thanks for the nice comments everyone...I'm asking for a new camera for Xmas...one with a bigger LCD screen so I can actually SEE what I'm taking the picture of!

Wow! Did I say wow? Thanks for taking me back. BPD is getting real bad for me as we figured out we will probably not be able to return until 2007. More pictures please...they help!

Cynde great report; doesn't a camera change your view of a dive. The fish following the Sharp tailed eel are looking out for tasty morsels (fish etc.) that the eel disturbs. The behaviour I find amazing is when a trumpet fish hides by swimming above another hunting fish and acting as a Dorsal fin. More pictures please.

Hi Brian, Jeannie thanks. Brian, Yes it does. And i really saw some different things by focusing on the corals and sponges this time

I love to learn about fish "behaviour." Bought the Deloach behavoir book to help After one dive, Susan P. made a comment about how much 'love' was happening on the reef that day...LOL! Cracked me up. And yes, the trumpet fish think they are smart, but Tom and I think they are silly...we would look at them and say "I see you...you really aren't part of that parrot" LOL! I'll dig through the rest today and see if I can come up with a couple more.

If you want to dive Salt Pier during the day, give Roger Burnham a call. I think he limits his group to 4 divers. Babs and I got a special tour and Marcia has this retractable pointer she uses to point out fish, etc. It was a great idea because have you ever been pointing to something and your buddy just can't see what you are pointing to? Her pointer is right on!

I wonder if there is such a thing as an underwater laser pointer? That would be a great idea unless the laser would somehow disturb the fishies.

The pointer is a fabulous idea !!!

I have noticed that flailing my arms fail to attract my buddy's attention. lol.

i think there is an underwater laser pointer. i seem to remember seeing one either in a shop or advertised in a magazine. could be useful. i was pointing out a scorpionfish to my wife who didn't understand what i was looking at...she got her hand to within about 6 inches of it before she saw it...kinda freaked her out.

i used to use tank bangers to get someones attention then last winter i bought a "rattler" which works as least as well and should last longer...it was more expensive but then tank bangers add up over time too.

cyn, one of our neighbors on bonaire used to talk about "sex on the reef" every afternoon at margate bay...you wouldn't believe the activity going on, right there in front of God and everybody...wow. i'm pretty sure she was talking about the fish activity but i could be wrong.

also, in the behavior book, read the section on frog fish and how fast they eat....amazing.

Pat, what kind of "rattler" did you buy? At your LDS? Bas had something and I meant to ask what it was. It was like little tiny bells underwater...not as loud as tank bangers can be sometimes ;-)

I like the pointer thing, someone should make and market it...Poor Mary, 6 inches is a little close to a scorpion fish when you don't see it. That was the beauty of Marcia's pointer, it extended out to about 2 feet :-) (That is underwater, and if it's 25% bigger, a foot and half?) LOL!

Sex on the reef...that's what was going on for sure...right in front of God and everybody! I haven't gotten to the frogfish section yet, gonna have to check it out

I have no idea if this is any good, but found it by Google search http://www.scuba.com/shop/product.asp?category=31&fromsearch=1&hashvalue=026625

Pat and Denise,

We have a laser pointer but we hardly use it. I am concerned that, if pointed at a critter's eyes, one could possibly blind the thing....
We use hand signals or make circles with our flashlights.

(Ask Jeanine about our hand signals! At Gibi's, from across the table, Jeanine would call out a fish and I would make a hand signal! It was fun.)

Keep on learning,
mare

Mare, Tom uses tongue signals...ask him about it...oh, and we tried using flashlight signals but it turned into an underwater light saber battle...

I would worry about the laser damaging the critter's eyes too

i bought the rattler at phototours in town. it cost about $27US. looks like a small aluminum or stainless steel tube with small ball bearings in it. just shake it underwater to get someone's attention. it is more expensive than the tank bangers but i plan on getting a few years out of it and i was going through at least two tank bangers a year.
the scorpionfish thing was kinda funny (to me)...she kept looking closer and closer and thought i was pointing out a rock that was just about the fish and she couldn't understand what i thought was so fascinating about the rock. just as she saw the fish it swam away and about scared her to death. those things are really pretty when they swim tho...

Pat...don't tell Mary I'm giggling...I was envisioning it happening in my mind (as I've done the same thing only never found what my buddy wanted me to see). they are pretty when the swim...

Speaking of in front of God and all...Alice in Wonderland (it was an "early dive" for me, around 7:15)...I don't know if I wasn't awake yet (Smack did have the leash pretty loose) or if I was just really feeling euphoric that early in the morning..

Great pictures. Any recommendations as to the best places for snorkelers to try to find seahorses? Thanks.

Steven, ask Renee and take one of her snorkel tours.

mare

Oh my Cynde! So many cool pics and I know that these are only some of them! Keep on posting gal!

And yes, Steve, Renee can find lots of critters snorkeling!

Steve you will probably need a guide to find them. We saw at least 5 at Witches Hut last month they were around a depth of 20 feet.

Very interesting, beautiful pics. Love the seahorses. Great job and thanks for sharing.

Kelly,
I have an uw laser but don't use it much because the "dot" is so small it's almost impossible to find amongst the reef colors! Unless you're the one doing the pointing. Not once has anyone I've been with actually seen what the heck I was trying to point to! But maybe it's just me...

I did make myself and wife and friends some rattlers for mere pennies a pop. Good rainy day project.

First, get some stuff: 1) Bag-o-small marbles from the dollar store (maybe from Tung Fong even), 2) a small length of PVC pipe with inside abit bigger than the marbles, 3) PVC end caps--two for each rattler, 4) some PVC glue, and (if you wanna go over the top) 5) some 1/8" cord and zip-ties.

Next, cut the pipe into sections about 4" long or so. Glue one cap on, insert 1 marble, glue next cap on. Yea!! Attatch a lanyard/wristloop, if so desired, with the cord and zip-ties. Make 20 and give them out as presents. Very good topside too for little kids to annoy their parents. Works well.

Okay, we are all worried about the poor fish's vision.. BUT WHAT IF they have BAD eyesight and the laser actually corrects their vision?? The marine version of LASIK??

Just being goofy on a Friday.. lol...

Kelly i'm glad you said that and not me.LOL ;-)

Oh geez, just whack your buddy on the butt to get their attention. If you can't reach their butt then you are TOO FAR AWAY.
Yes, I do dislike things that make unnatural noises underwater.

Oh jeepers Jamie! I now know what my present toppers are going to be this year for my little niece and nephew. Their parents should just love me! Kelly and Patrick - shame on you. Lasik for fishes! LOL! Seb you would love diving with RJ. He swims right on top of you! Literally sometimes. I do prefer hand signals, but sometimes I just can't figure out how to say something, so the slate works. We also use the "stop dead in your tracks and use your entire body, with your arm fully extended, as your pointer." Eventually your buddy realizes they left you and returns to see why you are floating there like a trumpet fish. LOL!

(Message edited by jeanineclark on October 29, 2005)

Jamie, use the laser to make circles around the critter. Very Dali-esque. I had a postcard of Dali making art with a time-lapse camera and a glowing ember. Imagine yourself as Dali as you circle the critter with your laser (as if being underwater isn't cool enough!).
Jeanine, we use the rigid point too! Sometimes what you are seeing is on the move (little pipe fish come to mind) and it is impossible to both signal your buddy and take your eyes off the critter. We make the european ambulance tones in our regulators, point to the object, and hope like heck that our dive buddy isn't doing the same thing with an equally exciting critter.

mare

Seb, sometimes you can scare your buddy if you smack them (or even GENTLY poke them in the ribs)...right Smack? (I will never get that image of your face out of my mind)...

Mare, just what does a European ambulance tone make? And I agree, if I take my eye off of it if it's small, I lose it and have to find it again..LOL!

Um, two different tones, high then low, repeat.
It works.

mare

You're right, Cyn, I recently found out that I scare the heck out of Mare every time I grab her heinie underwater. Which would be a lot of scaring.
Jeanine, I think he swims right on top of YOU. RJ is your SO, yes?

Ha! Nope! RJ is the nephew. Wes is the SO. We took a trial dive to tune-up RJ at Pearl Lake (not very pearly, more like mud lake) and RJ was right on top of my legs/back the entire time. He was terrified he would lose sight of me. If I even kicked my legs a little more than slightly, I hit him. Then in Bonaire, visibility 100 feet, he still was right on top of me, but this time just over my fins instead of being over my legs/back.

Here is a link to a tinny sounding European ambulance.

http://www.audiosparx.com/sa/play/play.cfm/sound_iid.38976

and click on the preview play button.

mare

ps. I'm sure that in a James Bond film someone remembers hearing the blaring of a foreign ambulance....