Early to Detroit Metro for the 7PM to a hotel and early morning Air Jam flight. Northwest tells us at 7:30 that their plane is broke but they MIGHT have another available at 9 pm. Baggage claim refuses to give us our luggage - says we can pick it up in Chicago.
What to do? Will I ever get that beer that Kelly has waiting for me? Will my wife leave me if I try to make it through ten days with the one t-shirt I packed with my dive gear in my carry-on? Well- she is in the same boat sooo..
Taxi home, get the car and an extra pair of shorts and drive to Chicago. Surprise- we make it in plenty of time, retreive our bags just before Chicago baggage claim closes and spend the night at O'Hare and get to be first in line to check in a 5AM. Thus I score exit row seats--a good idea on Air Jam if you have long legs (leg room was never a problem on ALM)
All of this is very reassuring. A travel snafu means I MUST be on my way to Bonaire.

We arrive without a hitch. My brand new toaster van from Netty's is waiting as is Tim-owner extrodaniare of Ocean View Villas where we are staying. We have actully arrived mid-day--there is time to settle in and go diving. Sue at Bon Bini Divers politely suggests I might want to get some sleep before diving and more firmly suggests I won't get any weights until I do.
So we retire to that fish rainin' place for a relaxing meal. We are staying 11 days, there is no need to hurry.
Staying 11 instead of the usual 7 days is one of two smart decisions we made. Got in 35 dives without having to push the profiles and had plenty of time to relax. The other was to stay at Ocean View Villas. They have two studios and a two bedroom with private patios. There is also a nice garden in the shared courtyard. A Queen of the Night cactus was in bloom while we were there. Quiet, private and not expensive--this was exactly what we were looking for. I was so comfortable here that I started referring to it as "home" before the week was out.
Favorite restaurant is still Mona Lisa. Did the Lions Den three times after night dives off the Bon Bini dock. They do a really tasty dinner. Hamburgers are pretty good there too. Donna and Giorgio's does simple,inexpensive italian and is open later than a lot of the places. Good place for coffee and desert after a night dive. Did Rains Fishes twice and Blue Moon once.
to be continued

(part two)

Used Bon Bini Divers shore diving package.(They have a drive thru) Only did one boat dive- to klein. Blew the budget a bit on Nitrox but it was probably a good idea because the wife bent one of our backup air computers. Did seveal night dives- one at Batchelor Beach the rest in fornt of Bon Bini. One night I was able to drift down towards the site of the old Green Parrot to look for that beer that Kelly CLAIMs he bought for me. no luck. Did see several crinoids a nd a beautiful basket star.

Visibility was in the 80-100 ft range on almost every dive. On many dives we could cruise at 60 ft and observe the entire reef from top to bottom.

critters: Turtles on almost every dive. Lots of squid. Seahorses. One shark (probably a black tip - I did not feel like swimming up close for a positive ID.) Sea cucmbers everywhere-fitting since their namesakes were braying me to sleep every night. One ray. Lettuce sea slugs-once you figure out what they are, you see them everywhere.
Lots of crabs and shrimp. two lobsters. Not many Morays. Tarpon cruising almost every site. And all the other usual suspects.

Second dive of the trip was Karpata. At 51 ft in a patch of sand was a resting turtle. i swear that this turtle was in exactly that same place when we dove this site last December. We saw three turtles on this dive. dove this site 4times and saw urtles each time. The last dive we saw the shark cruising the shallows.

Dove Angel City several times. Saw turtles, squid, a ray, a very large porcupine fish, grouper. This site aloows you to enjoy the double reef withou going deep or long swims. You can also drift down to the Hilma Hooker if you wish.

Thanks to the pink bus we had access to the salt pier. Saw a slimy Doris and a scorpion fish but there was too much current to really enjoy the dive. Sweet Dreams was another site where we found strong current but I want to go back to this one.

Oil Slick had black seahorses both times I dove it.

The last morning as we ate brekfast at the Lions Den, it rained breifly. This was followed by a rainbow over the water-- a perfect arch displaying all its colors. Then the dolphins swam by--oh maybe thirty of them. Ithink Bonaire was trying to tell me something.

Postscript: When we arrived back in Chicago we still had vacation time left so of course we drove to Georgian Bay in Ontario,Canada to dive an 1860's shipwreck. None of which has anything to do with Bonaire Talk except that near the Coldwater exit on Hwy 400 is the Bonaire Golf Club. A good place for it.

nice report...

how was the water temp in georgian bay? which wreck did ya dive?

thanks,

Bob- The Marquette water temp was 63 but the wreck is only 40 ft down to the bottom.

thanks joe,

guess you were diving a bit south of tobermory...63 degrees sounds like heaven compared to what i'm expecting...

thanks again,

Bob- Thermocline varies a lot at Tobemory. The caves is a popular swimming site for hikers. You might see low 70s there. Thed Caroline Rose is only about 50 ft- you might see low 60,s on that one.

Joe, great trip report. I will be down there Sept 1st for the first time on Bonaire. Glad to see the turtles were plentiful. As we have only dove the West Coast and Mexico, haven't had the pleasure to see the turtles, and are really hoping to see them on this trip.