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Trip Reports: Bonaire Trip Report : 25/04/2003 <-> 06/05/2003 @ Windsock
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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Olaf (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #267) on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 6:14 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bonaire Trip Report (Pt.1)

Arrival : April 25th 2003
Departure : May 6th 2003
Residence : Windsock Appartments
Why : Couldn't stand the PBD ...
Who : Olaf (Padi Open Water), Roland (NAUI Open Water)

Pictures : Bonaire Pix
DivesTab : Bonaire Dives



Friday, April 25th

Leaving Amsterdam on Friday 25/04 (00.15hrs) we hit Bonaire at 03.45hrs in the morning, after a relatively easy flight. Picked up the car at the airport, and drove down to the Windsock appartments. There we were greeted and handed the key, and got a little tour through the appartment. We wandered a bit around (looking for hidden features) before we hit the sack at 05.30. After a few hours we once again got up to have a shower, get a shitload of groceries and check out the place.

We first drove up to Wannadive at Eden Beach to get us our supply of air & led. The peeps were quite easy .. one of forgot his certification card, we had absolutely no clue how much led to take along and we hadn’t any money yet. Anyway .. it all worked out fine, took the stuff along on the Cultimara trip. We managed to get us some money, and we got in some sort of spending mood (US$ 240 for 2 guys, but the fridge was nicely filled). Afterwards we got back to Windsock, and geared up everything for the first time. We just bought quite a bit new equipment and wanted to be sure it was working properly. Well, fortunately it was .. and so we went to Windsock Steep (#33) to get the first dip of this trip. All worked out well in this relatively short dive, and I guess we’re all set for mucho diving.

We cooked a chicken/rice meal, and after a shower we brought back the tanks to Eden/Wannadive, for we didn’t have much energy left for a nightdive. We had a few Amstel’s at Bongo’s (which is always nice & crowded on Fridays), and met with Jan .. a guy we met last Oktober/November. He was going to dive Karpata the next morning with a few people, and we decided to go along. So this was pretty much day 1 and we killed the lights around 0.00 …


Saturday, April 26th

Got up at 08.00 to have some cereal and get packed for our first dive of the day. We went to La Dania’s Leap and did some sort of drift-dive to Karpata. Karpata still rules big time, as it did last time .. and probably as it’ll always will be. We saw a Hawksbill turtle swimming along, and ran into a very small species of the pink flamengo tongue. After the dive we were invited for a BBQ that night at the couples place (Edwin & Sandra).

Anyway, went back to the appartment, chilled for a few hours, to get back to Eden for air and to pick-up Jan and some other girl. We headed for Oil Slick Leap (#17) this time, and what started as an easy and rather shallow dive (15/20m), turned out the be a mess. At 20m the current (quite strong) was 180º differing from the current at the surface. Other than that, my BCD’s inflator started leaking and when I got to 75 BAR left in my tank, my divecomputer went blank. And as for staying at 20m having no clou of how much air you’ve got left isn’t really smart, so I had to resurface after only half an hour. That’s where I had to swim a few 100 meters in the opposite direction of the current. So pretty tired I got to the stairs, and tried to figure out what was wrong with the equipment. Battery seemed empty, but I wasn’t sure about what happened with the inflator. At night we went to Ed & Sandra’s place for a nice BBQ with very nice peeps, meat and too much drinks. Got back at the appartment around 02.30 …


Sunday, April 27th

We were supposed to meet at Wannadive at 10.00 to dive Ol’ Blue with Jan & Sandra, but because of a power-surge in the middle of the night our clock got reset and we kinda overslept. Besides that we still had to go to Playa Resort to get me a new battery for the computer, so we only got to Eden at 11.00 to find out they’d already left. The night before at the BBQ I talked with another dutch guy who had gone to Nukova Beach (up north of the Bopec), and since the others already left, we decided to do that dive instead. It was a pretty long and bumpy drive to get there, but the little beach is very nice. From the top we could already see a turtle surface to breath, so it seemed quite promising. The dive itself was pretty common and although the first 50/100m from the shore looked pretty devastated (probably by Lenny) it was very Karpata alike at the drop-off. We got to about 25/30m and the coral formations were very very nice. We didn’t ran into turtles, but spotted a fairly big barracuda. We stayed deep a fairly while, so it didn’t turn out to be a very long one .. but still it was a nice one, despite of the rather bad vizability.

On the way back we drove alongside the Goto-Lake with it’s flamengo’s .. very nice views at some stages. When back at Rincon we had a drink at Rose-Inn, before we headed back for Wannadive to exhange our tanks for new ones. There we met with the other guys from yesterday, who were just chillin’ at Bongo’s. We sat with them for a while before we got back to the appartment for a quick bite, and to continue with our 2nd dive that day. We wanted to do a southbound dive this time, and we drove up to The Lake (#39). We met a guy outthere who said it wasn’t really special that day, so drove a little bit further, down to Salt City (#47). It turned out to be a fairly easy dive with nearly no currents at all. Spotted a big green moray and a few spotted moray, but other than that none real special fishies. Vizability was once again a bit fair, but nevertheless it was a nice and chill dive.

We got back to the appartment, had a shower, a few drinks, a quick bite, and got off to Cai for Sunday’s gathering. It turned out we were quite late, and most people were already leaving. We met our friends, and together we drove up to ehh .. dunno, some salsabar with a big band (which played at Cai the afternoon). We had some nice grill meal, a few Amstel’s, and ofcourse lotsa laughs … at 10 we left to get some money at Kralendijk and emailing at De Tuin (which didn't work-out). After that, back to the appartment and chill-time .. so lights out, off to Monday ..


Monday, April 28th

Monday was the day of the lazy start .. since hitting the sack at 22.00 already, we got up around 8.00 in no hurry at all. We wanted to do a night dive, but weren’t in the mood for a 3-dive-day. So we had a lazy morning .. did some Internet check-ups at Playa resort, drove up to Wannadive for some fresh air, hung around at bongo’s for a while, got back for some sandwiches at 13.00, and had another chill. Only around 15.00 we went down south to Larry’s Liar (#44), just south of the Hilma Hooker. The double reef is usually a very nice dive, but due to bad vizability, it wasn’t too great. Didn’t see anything real special, not even some eels in the sand. But there were nearly no currents, so it was fairly easy diving.

We got back to Windsock and initiated the pool, which opened that day. Nice way to cleanse yourself from the salt. After that we once again chilled (we are getting deeper and deeper in our very chill-out mode), and as my mate fell asleep for two hours, I watched a movie on me notebook. At 20.00 we grabbed the gear for a nightdive at Ol’ Blue. But due to the fact our dive-lights weren’t fully charged we changed plans, and did a familiar dive which wasn’t so remote. We decided to do Front Porch and swim a bit up north. We got down to 20m were we ran into the deeper Machaca wreck, and little further we turned around. We found out that suddely the current’s direction and strength were changing. So it was quite a swim back, but we were treated very well. First we ran into a dead nurse shark (which was probably used as bait), with head and tail-fin still in tact. The abdomonen were eaten away, and she was lying there pretty sadly. As we moved on in fairly shallow water, I got over a rock and right behind it there was a big stingray at rest !! Just right in front of Bongo’s, only 5m out of the shoreline, in max. 4m of water !! I was sure it wasn’t a spotted eagle ray, for it was equally grey all over. As soon as he mentioned me in our close encounter, he slowly swam away. Minutes later it was again coming by for a few secs. The ray was gone, and a medium sized barracuda showed up. And right after that the two “house tarpon’s” showed up. So after all, a very nice dive. Had a few drinks at Bongo’s, a burger in Kralendijk and then back to the appartment .. for another day’s end.


Tuesday, April 29th

We got to Wannadive at around 10 for some new tanks, and to pick up Jan for a dive at the Hilma Hooker. It turned out to be the DiveBus was there, so it was fairly crowded. We met the guy from the bus at the BBQ a few days earlier, so we talked and waited a bit until most people were out of the water (there was a big group of 9 ppl). It was a very easy dive with hardly no current .. saw the big tarpons in and out the wreck. Once again, vizability wasn’t to great but it was a nice dive once again. We hung around the divebus for a while afterwards for a drink and some icecream. Then we got to the airport to say goodbye to a few ppls.

We got back to Wannadive to cleanse the gear for our supposed nightdive at the Town Pier. However, it was turning out to be a very very crowded dive. Although I would have wanted to dive the pier, I didn’t much like the idea of getting in with 25+ people. So we decided to skip it, and do another afternoon dive at the webcam. I had a look the days before how far it was swimming from just out of town, back to Jake’s and I reckoned it wasn’t too far for some healthy guys. I kinda felt like last time, not knowing Jake too well to just ring his bell. Besides that, in my rush back at Amsterdam Airport I totally forgot to get bribe-material (belgian choc’s). So, I decided not to bother Jake, and have a bit of a swim. We went in just out of town which wasn’t too easy, but it can be done though. We swam all the way up to the first pier, and from there we got down to about 22m. After a while, Small Wall with the cave showed up .. it’s a really idyllic site somehow. The wall is really 90° and the cave is right beneath it. I had a good look into it for I heard sometimes nursesharks could be sleeping there. But I guess they were all out for business of whatever kind. From there we got back and ran into the cam, where we hung around for a few minutes. From that, we swam back to the point of entry. Besides the fair bit of upstream swimming, it was a pretty special dive. Not only because of the cam, but as well for Small Wall itself and the incredible amount of curious fishies around.

We washed out the gear at Wannadive and headed back for the appartment. We didn’t really feel like eating out, so we cooked some beef shoarma and chilled out. After that I went back in town to check some email etc, and to see how the cam appearance was. When I got out of De Tuin, I ran into Jan and a few other guys who were about to go to City Café and I went along. Turned out to be City Café’s 6th anniversary with champagne and cake and a good band and eventually a nice party. At City’s I ran into Marc & Kitty, two other BT dutchies who just settled here on Bon. But since the next day would be Rincon Day, and I wanted to make at least 1 dive before heading to Rincon, I didn’t drink too much, and got back home around 0.00


Wednesday, April 30th

Queensbirthday .. aka Rincon Day on Bonaire.

Got up around 9 or so, and hung around the appartment/pool up to 12, when Jan drove by with a few tanks to dive Alice in Wonderland. He brought someone from Eden Beach along, so we were with four. The dive wasn’t really special, for once again the vizability was once again not to good. Besides a couple of very large tarpons in between both reefs and the sand eels, I didn’t spot any special fish species. We hung around at the site for a while, before getting back to the appartment for a quick bite, little change in clothes, to get off to Rincon for the afternoon

We got at Rincon around 15.00 in the afternoon, and afterwards said it was a bit too early for it was far too hot without the sea or a pool nearby. In town it was already very crowded with music everywhere, snack-shags all over the place which filled the air with the smell of BBQ. Around 18.00 the parade through town started with 2 big trucks driving bands around town, followed by heaps of dancing people .. going round and round. We had a few drinks at Rose Inn, little chat around and partied along up until 20.00 or so. We got backto Kralendijk to have a decent meal at De Tuin … but it seemed they where still at Rincon, for it was closed. We then decided to have some mexican food at the boulevard, just across from Karel’s. It didn’t turn out to be spectacular food, but since being quite hungry we ate it (but it’s not recommended by me). We got back at the appartment around 23.00, had a shower, logged my dives on the notebook, watched a bit tv and eventually turned down the lights.



Part 2

 


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