Well, we finally got home a couple of hours ago. Our AJ flight that was supposed to go from Montego Bay to Miami was changed to Bonaire/Montego Bay/Kingston/Miami at the last minute. We got conflicting stories from the agents. Some said this was a permanent scheduling change some said it was temporary. However, it put us into Miami a couple hours late, but all the luggage made it.

Other than the return trip, the entire trip was wonderful. We dove several times each day, sometimes three dives per day. We did miss a big deal in Bonaire. About 3 days ago, whales were seen in the channel between Klein and the coast. The call went out on the radio that they were seen and two of the dive boats converged and according to Murph. the divemaster at Buddy, they were over 40 feet, long balling bait in the channel. He said when one broke the surface right by the boat there was just a huge hole in the surface and he swallowed an entire school of tuna. There were several of them in the pod. General consensus was baleen whales although one of the local naturalists said humpback. Of course, there were no cameras on either boat. Kim and I were shore diving and missed it. This was the first trip that we made where we didn't see any turtles, although there were plenty reported while we were there. The wind blew better than 20 knots every day we were there but one and the visibility was not as good as it has been on our previous trips, however, 80 or so feet is still great. We actually think we saw more fish this trip than earlier trips. Our last trip was two weeks before Lenny hit the island and we were anxious to see the difference since we there last. It was surprising that some sites showed moderate damage and sites very close by showed very little damage. It seemed quite selective. As always, the dives were great. Is there ever a bad one?? Anyway, we will post a more detailed trip report when I get some ours chromes scanned and can include the pics with the post.
BTW, Jake if you're listening in, the opinions on the photo I showed you at Buddy's is running about 70% juvenile pipefish and about 30% juvenile trumpetfish with one insisting it is a juvenile trunkfish. I'll try to post the picture when I get the scanner hooked back up. We also appreciate the assistance and it was great to meet you guys. Didn't get to see you after your presentation dive, but I heard it went well. The workshops that Jack and Sue put on at Don's covering digital photograghy were excellent. On Wednesday, when we were getting ready to leave for the airport I saw Jack getting ready to go in the water to test the new Nikon 5000 in an Ikelite housing. I see ads for the camera for around $700 US. Jack was having a problem with the ttl flash but was going on with trial and using the flash in slave mode. I hope they are going to do a review soon. That makes a 5 megapixel camera relatively affordable to house and take underwater. I also think the Tetra housing folks announced an upcoming housing for the 5000 as well. I know you said you were looking so you may want to look at this combo. Once again thanks for the assistance.

That will be it for now, have to help Kim unpack. Yuck, spending the first night back in Miami was a good way to get PBD set in firmly.


Steve & Kim ....wishing we weren't home

have to control myself...holy jeez! whales bait balling...way cool, of course swallowing a whole school of tuna?...and baleen whales? filter feeders, so nah, but, great story/report, so glad for you, look forward to greater details.

Wow,
Sounds cool. I'd love to see whales. I don't think they swallowed tuna though - tuna can be hundreds (thousands depending on the type) of pounds. It was probably some type of baitfish.

Darryl

Pilot Whales have been seen over that way before.. though they're usually around 9 to 16ft (short-finned)..approx, so, my guess is Humpbacks. As Dean pointed out, they're filter feeders and eat tiny crustaceans, plankton and a variety of other small fish.. Would love to see them myself someday..

Steve and Kim,
At least you have "us" to help you thru the PBD.
We understand. Looking foward to the rest of your report. The whale siteing must have been great, too bad you didn't get to see it.You never know what can suprise you on Bonaire. I like starring into the "blue" sometimes, just so that if something unexspected is out there, I might get lucky enough to see it coming.(if I'm looking in the right direction!)Heh you never know.

Steve hope the PBD is not that bad!Shock should be setting in around now ...huh" Whales! wow..Ive heard from a few people in the past that whales were sited but thought it was a "tale" Looking forward to the rest of your report....

Steve :

Without seeing the picture your talking about I'll tell you want we recently learned. We also just got back and on one dive friends we were with got video of a small round fish. I think it was dark with dots all around on it. It was about the size of a pea and as it moved it looked like a moving dice. We looked in a reef fish book and found it was a juvenile trunkfish. So hopefully this gives you more info. to go on.

Jeff

A 40 foot baleen whale could be a Bryde's whale. They gulp in giant mouthfuls of ocean and strain out the water. We have several species of tuna which are small like the black fin tuna. Although the more common whales seen here are pilot whales and false pilot whales.

The fish Steve has a picture of is long, very thin yellow and very small.

Hi Steve,

I was wondering if you had had any feedback on the little yellow thing. Definitely not a baby trunk fish though - those are like black peas with yellow spots. You may want to post a copy of the image here for comment :-)

Separately, I've opted to plunge a bit more into the digital world - I'm getting a Sony F707 (5 Megapixel as well) - it has a number of features over the Coolpix 5000 which I prefer. A few places have housings - I'll worry about those later though.

Jake

Humpback whales have white flukes - very obvious in clear water. Fin whales have white on one side only. Linda's suggestion of Bryde's whale seems more of what it could be but whales are known to 'take a vacation' too.

Same Cetacea, different Genus.. Shame there were no pics, but it's very exciting indeed

Hello all,

We are unpacked and have resumed some sense of normalcy, I guess. I told Kim I am going to the marina tomorrow to babysit our boat. That is the best I can do to deal with PBD.

As to the whale sighting, I didn't see it, but the same story was related to me by Murphn, the divemaster at Buddy, who I think is a native Bonairian, as well numerous people that were on the dive boat at the time. Murph said he had never seen anything like it. He did say that he had seen pilot whales before, but this definitely wasn't a pilot. He was sure it was much bigger than their dive boat which I believe 37-38 feet. He said when it broke the surface it looked like it had a complete school of fish in it's mouth, which he called tunys'. He also commented that fish were hanging from the sides of it's mouth. That was also stated by several of the others on the boat. I didn't see it, just relaying the message. I was busy taking pictures of a cute little frogfish, that Kim and I found off of Andrea I at the time. They also said the guy who runs the parasail boat was there as well. I think he is married to someone that works at Buddy and was called on the radio from Buddy.

Jake,
As to the fish photo. It was at Town Pier. I think it is a juvenile pipefish. That seems to be the prevailing opinion right now. I'll post the pic later in the week. My film scanner is at the office and I won't get to it for a few days. He was about 1 inch long and half the diameter of spaghetti. Nice description I know,, but that about covers it. He is however, yellow with no banding as is always shown in the fish id books. I know its not a trunkfish. We got some good pics of juvenile trunkfish smaller than a dime this trip. Kim thinks they are cutest fish on the reef. Look like a bumblebee.

Jake, I would be interested in your experience with the Sony. I think that cam has the best optics of the current 5 MP cams below the super expensive models. How is the shutter delay on this model? I am relatively sure that I'm going to make the move to digital. Wanna buy a couple Nik V systems? How about an Ikelite housed N60? I need to get rid of some stuff, but I'm pretty sure that I'm making the move. BTW, who makes housings for the Sony?

Maybe I'll see a whale tomorrow off of Clearwater...

I'll let you know once I get the Sony in my hands - sometime next week thanks to some wonderful BTer :-)

Housing made or at least offered for the F707 are Ikelite, Amphibico, Hugyfot, and Bar10 (Hong Kong) as far as I know. Hugyfot is very expensive (over $2K), no one I know has ever heard of Bar10 housings, which leaves the comparably prices Ikelite and Amphibico (the latter isn't shipping yet thought), so I may go for Ikelite.

Jake

Steve is that Clearwater, FL you speak of in your post. We live in Largo but do most of our local diving out of Clearwater. I hope the whales are around when we arrive at Buddy's in six days.
Jake our plane leaves Tampa at 10:25 a.m. on the 29th and if all goes well and we are on schedule we arrive in Bonaire at 4:30 p.m. I am picking up bagels at our neighborhood bagel shop...real NY style says a coworker of mine. I know the flavors you like...cranberry nut is one of my favorites also. They also carry bialys (spelling)if you care for them. What is schmear? Are you talking about cream cheese? I'm a native Pinellas County, FL girl that just happens to love good bagels too. We also have a new Krispy Kreme store not too far away but I don't think they will hold up as well as the bagels.
Michael I will pick up a NY Times for you at the airport and I picked up some red Folgers yesterday. The only problem is there are many varieties of red bag, classic, French vanilla, 100% Columbian and a few others. What is your preference? Since I don't know where and how to get in touch with you, can I leave it at Jakes? Might you be there for the barbecue that night?
I want to thank you fellows for all the information I have picked up off this site in the last few months. My husband probably thinks I have a thing going on with the computer because I hit it every night when I get home from work, but you guys are so helpful. THANKS!

Hi Deborah!

Bagels are better than bialys, IMHO :-)

Schmear is flavored/blended cream cheese (smoked salmon, horseradish, chive, etc.)

Krispy Kremes in a small Tupperware container (as we've found) hold up great :-)

If your flights go well, will you be joining us at the BT Potluck BBQ at our house on the evening of the 29th?

Jake

Hi Deborah,

Hope you see the whales, but based on the reaction of the locals I wouldn't hold my breath. They watched for them the next few days and no one reported seeing them again, but hey you never know. Yes, we keep our sailboat at Clearwater marina. Right by the world famous roundabout. We actually live in Wesley Chapel, just north of New Tampa. We don't do much diving here, I spoiled Kim in Bonaire and now she has no interest diving here at all, but I'm still trying to convince her. We went to the marina today so I got to try convince her again. What kind of diving do you do out of Clearwater? Spearfishing seems to be the most popular endeavor and Kim isn't the least bit interested. She is spoiled and thinks anything less than Bonaire isn't worth the effort.

We had a great trip, as always. Hope you do as well. This was our first stay at Buddy and we were pleased. Also, we treated great by Lola as Cappricio's and recommend it highly. We are already jealous of those talking about going and I haven't even been back to work yet. That joy comes tomorrow.

Oh well......

Jake we will be by your place sometime in the evening of the 29th. I'm not sure if we will be sharing in the barbecue, depending on our actual arrival we would sure like to. There are six of us altogether and I sure wish our arrival was earlier in the day to enjoy the Small Wall dive. I told my husband earlier today that I could bring Krispy Kremes in Tupperware and he just chuckled. What kind do you like? I will bring a few to go with the bagels and flavored cream cheese. Anything else you might like from the Tampa Bay area?
Steve we have dove the Gulf for the past six years and enjoy it very much. Of course not near the vis as Bonaire but many nice things to look at. We usually dive the summer months because I like the water in the 80's.

Plain old glazed are the best!

Nothing else I can think of from Tampa at this point. Thanks for asking!

Here's hoping your flight's on time to Bonaire!

Jake