Friday, June 27th 2003
Woke up insanely early and decided to attempt another "night" snorkel but at pre-dawn rather than sunset! I tiptoed out of my room at 5:30am and entered the water with a dive light. The glowing plankton greeted me and I was happy to discover that the water was not significantly colder at this hour! Suddenly from underwater, I heard the muffled sound of a dog barking excitedly. I felt a mild panic because I was completely alone in the dark in the water. I was sure that there were some prowlers around that caused the dog to begin barking.

Carefully and quietly I lifted my goggled eyes out of the water to check out my surroundings. I immediately observed the cause of the commotion, a lone donkey rooting around in the garbage cans along the sea-wall! I sighed with relief and made some clucking noises with my tongue to see if the donkey would "come". It did! It looked right at me and twitched its ears but did not descend the ramp to the beach.

Resuming my early-morning snorkel I found some sleeping parrotfish and watched them drifting and bobbing next to a patch of coral or rocks. As the sun began to rise higher and daylight began to permeate the ocean, their tails began to wriggle and they shook themselves awake and off they went.

Once the sun was up, I kept snorkeling along the reef until the other end of the bay near the Plaza Resort. The slope was much steeper there and there was a big variety of coral and sponges. I saw a flying gurnard hidden amongst the coral! It was so beautiful and has such a silly name! Flying Gurnard…sounds like an insult! I think I will use it as an expletive the next time that someone cuts me off in traffic: "Hey, you $#@$ Flying Gurnard!" Along the way I was adopted by a tiny little wrasse. It swam underneath me like I was the best piece of flotsam in the whole ocean! It stayed with me for my entire three hour snorkel!!!

Once again I visited my buddies at the Seahorse and returned to my hotel for a movie and a nap before my 2pm visit to Klein Bonaire via water-taxi. I stopped for a cheese sub at Cozzoli’s and found it was a very refreshing choice in such hot weather. It had lettuce and cucumber and tomatoes and was served with slices of watermelon and canteloup. I had thoughtfully used the advice of a fellow Bonaire talker and froze a bottle of water the previous night. The water was icy cold throughout my visit to Klein, much appreciated on such a hot day.

There was nothing much to be seen at No Name Beach. I was ill prepared and did not opt for the drift snorkel…BIG MISTAKE. There were so many waves that the visibility was very poor. There was a large sailboat anchored just off the beach and I was afraid to go anywhere near it for fear of being smashed into it by the surge, so I was limited to snorkeling against the current in very small area. I saw some big fish that were obviously used to being hand-fed. They followed me around looking for a hand-out. I saw some brightly coloured finch-type birds that were flitting from tree to tree on the island. The wind was very cooling as I sat on the beach, but I am not a beach person! I know better now and will take a guided snorkel tour next time.