Trip Report: Buddy Dive, Bonaire (3/18 thru 3/25/2000)
Up at 4:30 AM for the trip to JFK to catch the 8:10 flight on Air Jamaica to Bonaire. After a brief stop in Montego Bay we were off to Bonaire and actually arrived on time with all our luggage(same thing on the way home)! A representative from Buddy Dive was waiting to take Louise and I and a half dozen others to the dive resort.
We were checked into our room which was a one bedroom apartment with plenty of room for us both and our gear. Large closet in the main part of the apartment held most everything we had but naturally it wound up all over the place within a day or two. A nice balcony that could hold a crowd with a table and chairs overlooking the pool and out to the ocean was just great. Couch and two chairs in the living room, dresser with a small TV on top and full kitchen with stove, refrigerator, microwave and a full set of utensils. What more could you want?
On Sunday AM we had to participate in a walk around given by the dive shop which explained the policies of the dive shop, marine park rules, where to meet the boats, info on where to sign up for boat trips, sign the usual disclaimers, etc. Very informative if you have never been there. Next it was time to grab your weights for the week and jump off the dock for a check out dive. No one went with us they just recommended it to get your buoyancy together and get wet. The dive was nice and easy, swim out about 40ft to the buoy drop down and the wall was nearby. We cruised towards Capt Don's and were greeted by some nice schools of a variety of sea life...ah, this is so nice! Next boat out was at 2pm and we were ready to hop aboard.
Since the hurricane hit Bonaire in November things got messed up a little. The dive boats which were previously docked in front of Buddy Dive at their dock were no longer able to dock there. Probably because there were no longer any docks! As of this writing they were about three weeks away from completion of the new dock which is scheduled for completion in mid April. No Problem! Hop in their little van or take the pickup if it was included in your package and drive about a mile and a half to the marina next door to Harbor Village and the boats were there. We were signed up for 12 boat trips and really didn't feel to inconvenienced by this at all, we had our own pickup so we decided to take ours. Sure it will be that much nicer when all you have to do is walk out to the dock at Buddy Dive and hop in but hey. Boats are not the best I've seen but adequate for a comfortable short ride out. Someone asked for a rinse tank for cameras so we had one part of the week but that was all the rinse tanks they had on board. Nicest boats I saw there belonged to Capt Dons.
So how was the diving, Superb! Water was 78-80 degrees and visibility was anywhere from 75ft and UP! The shallow areas in some spots were hit bad by the waves from Hurricane Lenny but this was mostly seen in 30ft of water or less. The sites around the eastern shore of Klein Bonaire were unaffected and we did quite a few dives there. I can't say which sites were "best" because all had something nice to offer. We also did the Hilma Hooker one day which was fun as well as Karpata in the Northern End of the Island. The sea life was abundant in all areas but the biggest thrill was right off the Dock of Buddy Dive. We ran into a HUGE school of Bigeyed Scad that was 40 to 50ft in length or maybe more 15 or so ft wide and maybe 10ft high. I'm sure this school will get bigger as I tell this in the years to come! I have some photos on my website to give you some sense of how big it really was. It was a gas swimming into them and having them completely circle us it's something we won't forget. Turtles, Sea Horses, schools of Blue Tang, Morays, Eel- Snakes, Scorpionfish, Frogfish, French Angels, Tarpon are just a few of the fish we saw. It also happened that some of the Tube Sponges were spawning one day or "smoking" as they call it. Looked like a volcano on some of them but we had no idea what it was until someone told us on the boat, very cool! I wore a 0.5mm ScubaPro Steamer the whole week except for the 3rd dive one day when I switched to a 3/2 fullsuit when I finally got chilled. Louise wore her 3mm Farmer John, Hood and then added a skin later in the week, she chills easily! :-)
Food was good to real good! We ate quite a bit right at the Dock of the Bay at Buddys. Walked over to Capt Dons one night, nice atmosphere and very good food! A little Italian Restaurant in town called Croccantino served up some real tasty dishes and would recommend that one if your in the mood for some very good Italian Food. It was a little more costly than some of the other places around $60 for the two of us, we only had a coke and a sprite to drink. Shamballa's near the Town Pier was also quite good and we hit that place twice.
Two nice afternoons were spent driving around the Island. One day the Northern Route up and around through Rincon, watch the goat crossings...sheesh! The second one the Southern Route down towards Pink Beach, around the Lighthouse up towards Lac Bay and back to Kralendijk, watch the Donkey crossings...sheesh.
The staff and DM's at Buddy Dive were top shelf! We mostly had Alex as our DM who after every dive was freezing, then again he has no body fat on that 98lb frame. He was fantastic and did a roll call at the beginning and counted heads at the end of each dive. This guy uses NO AIR! He would have 1500psi or more left at the end of a dive. You didn't have to follow him but somehow he would find us when he found something cool. after the fifth dive we still hadn't seen a seahorse and wandered off when he came swimming up to Louise and grabbed her wrist and motioned to follow him so he could point one out to her. Dive profiles where drop to 70-80-90 ft or whatever you wanted, watch those gauges, then against the current if there was one to 1500 or so then slowly work your way higher and back. You really can do whatever you want and sometimes we just hung a little higher to take pictures or wandered off with another couple we did a bunch of dives with.
Bottom line is this was a great trip for us. We were lucky to meet Jim and Elanna and hope to meet up with them again, thanks guys! You'll enjoy Bonaire if you are looking for easy diving with nice walls and lots of sea life, we did!
I put some photos up on my website but not too many yet. You can take a look here;
http://www.decamp.net/bonaire/
If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.
George |
By George on Sunday, April 2, 2000 - 5:09 pm: 
