Trip Report – 4/27 to 5/10 – very long
The planning for this trip started in September of ’02 and involved 6, at times 8 people. I think travelling with that number makes the trip a bit harder to organize in order to make sure, or at least try to make sure, that everyone is happy with the arrangements. It got to the point that we said, we're going, we’re doing this and that’s it. It turned out to be a smart decision.
Travel Days
Four of us started out from Tampa with a 5-hour drive to Miami to catch DCA’s flight at 2pm. It poured rain all the way, making it a bit stressful on the driver, my husband, but like the trooper he is, he took it all in stride and got us there by 11am. We checked in with DCA, no problems, got a pass to Delta’s concourse so we could wait in the Delta Crown Room. Security was a bit disorganized but we managed to breeze through once we realized that there was a special line for Delta Crown Room members. We gave ourselves time to get back to DCA’s concourse and went through a bit more intensive security area, having to take off our shoes, as well as any metallic items, belts, watches, etc. The shoe bit kind of threw my husband because we had sandals on and we had to walk around on dirty areas. They inspected both our carry on’s – mine because I had what appeared to be a gun barrel shaped object – it was part of my Olympus PT-010 housing; and Bob’s because again there appeared to be barrel shaped objects – it was the 4 bottles of liquor he was carrying (him and his special tequila!)
I have to say that I have read a lot of complaints about DCA but this was our 4th time flying them and we have yet to have encountered any problems. The flight was a bit late leaving but that was only because of the storms outside. The tower wanted to get as many planes landed before allowing any to take off because of the thunder/lightening in the area. The flight was uneventful, the pilot made up a bit of time and we landed in Bonaire 15 minutes late. Got our bags – the new security there is different from 2 years ago in that they put your luggage through x-ray on the way out? While the guys watched the bags my sister and I picked up the truck from ABCarental – they were great. The only problem with the truck was it had an alarm that would go off all the time – which is until I got used to leaving the key in the ignition until everyone had exited the vehicle. You also had to make sure that no one opened their door until you had engaged the ignition key – you didn’t have to turn the car on, you just needed to double click the key. Only once did I forget and leave the key in the ignition on a dive and we lucked out that no one realized this.
We were staying at Sorobon with 4 other friends who were arriving separately. We had expected 2 of them to already be there, margaritas made, munchies ready, but alas we arrived and no Bob & Beth. This was indeed odd because their Air Jamaica flight was supposed to have arrived at 2pm and we assumed that the weather on the east coast might have caused delays. They were flying from Denver taking a red eye to Atlanta and hooking up with A.J. The did arrive around 10:30pm, which made us very happy, as we hadn’t seen them since Christmas. It turned out that their A.J. flight from Atlanta was cancelled because of plane problems. They ended up being put on a flight from Atlanta to St. Maarten where they spent the day/evening trying to get to Bonaire. They finally were put on a DCA flight. Unfortunately their luggage did not travel with them and did not even show up until the next A.J. flight on Wednesday.
Our return flight was an uneventful as our original flight. We got to the airport just in time to escape a downpour – the first rain we encountered in 14 days. We got the luggage unloaded just before the rain started. I returned the truck and the car rental agency was nice enough to allow me to drive the truck over to the terminal and park it and leave the keys inside. The rain stopped after about 20 minutes or so and I decided to take the truck back to where it belonged. The flight was not a direct one this time but had a short layover in Curasou. We left Bonaire on time, sat in the airport at Curasou until 9:40 and boarded our plane for Miami. Arrived on time, with all luggage, no problems at customs and the shuttle to outlying parking was right there. We were in the car and heading for Tampa within about 40 minutes at the most. Five hours later we were home.
The Diving
We dove through Buddy Dive, which I would recommend to anyone and would use again without hesitation. My sister and I did our orientation on Sunday (my husband picked up a bug and was quite sick on Sunday and Bob & Beth were still trying to track down their luggage). This was my sister’s first real dive experience and she was excited to get on with it. She had a lot of new equipment so looked forward to an easy dive with few people. We got geared up and walked into the water at Buddy Reef.
Overall the diving was good; visibility was less than previous trips – around 50’ and as less as 10’ on one dive due to a “helo inversion”. We encountered quite strong currents at Vista Blue although that was one of our more favorite sites – say 4 different turtles there. The winds were stronger this time, which probably caused the choppier water, less vis and stronger currents. A lot of the beach entries (we only did beach diving) were more difficult because of the wave action. We tried to do different sites this time, but still repeat some of our favorites. We did both south - Buddy Reef (5 times some nights), Bari Reef, Vista Blue, Salt Pier (2 times), Atlantis, Alice in Wonderland, Town Pier (one night/one day), Helma Hooker, Margate Bay, Tori’s Reef, The Lake (2 times) and north - Weber’s Joy, Jeff Davis, Oil Slick Leap, Ole Blue, Karpata, Andrea I. It was at Tori’s Reef that we encountered what Jake told us was a helo inversion which happens when the salt from the ponds are being drained and because they are heavier than the ocean they sink causing terrible vis. with an oily appearing substance in the water. We aborted the dive and spent the remaining time in shallow waters and saw a lot of great things including lobster, octopus, scorpionfish, anemones, etc.
We saw the usual sea life, free swimming eels, some huge green morays (well over 6’), drums, file fish, queen triggerfish, angels, both Fr. & Queen, octopus, lobster. We saw a lot of juvenile fish this time. Juvenile trunk fish (yup they look just like dice), filefish, angel, lots we couldn’t identify without reference to the Hunan Books. I was doing digital u/w photo for the first time and was able to capture several frogfish and the seahorse at the Salt Pier. We also saw a lot of eels and scorpionfish this time.
We had made arrangements through Caren to dive with Sipke on the Town Pier. With Caren being pregnant she cannot dive. Sipke was fabulous. We actually did a night dive and then 2 days later a day dive. It’s amazing how they can take you right to a specific item. He showed us lots of tiny things including a pigmy octopus, an eel that was perhaps an 1” long at the most, of course the usual frogfish but also an orange sponge with 3 different sized frogfish. An all purple scorpionfish, and a spotted lobster which is very uncommon. It’s well worth going with a private guide because you aren’t in the water with a lot of people. We did the night dive at 8pm well after the resorts are out. Here are some pictures I took with the Olympus 3040 in an Olympus PT-010 housing. I had some leaking problems with the housing that I have to address. I’m still not sold on digital after using my Nikonis V for so many years. If anyone can instruct me how to set up a slide show as others have done I’d appreciate it.
Dining
We didn’t eat out all the much as we are light eaters and did happy hour with nibblies. We did go to China Nobo at Michael Gaynor’s suggestion - you have got to try this place – it’s amazing. The food is made to order so don’t expect it to arrive all at once like state-side Chinese food restaurants. The plate decorations are amazing – thinly sliced pieces of tomato, cucumber, carrot make designs that look like a part of the plate. The food was exceptional. We also went to It Rains Fishes – we had planned to do this place twice but they were closed on election day – something they did not advertise. We did the Rib Factory twice – it wasn’t bad but the ribs at It Rains Fishes were better. We also ate at Lions Den several times. I would have liked to have tried the Pirate Steak House or Casa Blanca but as mentioned before it’s tough to organize the number of people we had.
We met at Gibi’s on the 2nd Tuesday we were there. I can’t remember who all was there – Jake can you help? I know Jake’s neighbor was there as well as Bas and 2 other people who live on Bonaire. There was a couple from N.Y. (state?) who had housesat for Jake and were leaving the next day. I’ll try to post the pictures here but can’t guarantee they will show up. Here’s some pics of those who were there.
We were able to get all of our nibbles, beer, etc. at either Cultimara or the Food Warehouse. After the 2 day holiday both were virtually empty so we are glad we stocked up the day before.
Summation
To sum up the entire trip – it was FABULOUS (sorry for yelling). The accommodations at Sorobon were as good as in previous trips, the winds a bit strong but it kept us cool, the diving was great with the exception of the decreased visibility as mentioned, meeting up with Jake and other B.T.rs was great. Thanks Jake for the offer to dive Small Wall, unfortunately you weren’t home when we came by – next time tho! We delivered a GPS system to Ellen’s son who we met. Sorry we didn’t get to meet Ellen tho. Bob & I are looking forward to our next trip to Bonaire already. \image {Bob & Gail}
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By Gail Currie (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #497) on Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 2:03 pm: 
