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Snorkeling Bonaire: Night Snorkeling
Bonaire Talk: Snorkeling Bonaire: Archives: Archive 2001- 2007: Archives - 2001-09-06 to 2003-03-31: Night Snorkeling
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Wednesday, August 7, 2002 - 7:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

My wife and I are snorkel crazy. We like it so much that we try to take one or two trips a year to some place great to snorkel. Wish I could dive, but for health reasons I can’t. Neither of us have ever done any night snorkeling and we are both anxious to give it a try when we return to Bonarie again this November. I noticed that the Seacow offers a guided night snorkel and we’re certainly going to give that a try. We're both comfortable in the water and swim well but of course we’re going to be careful and check out any place we are going to night snorkel in the day first. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on spots that are particularly good for night snorkeling or any suggestions on types of flashlight (wide beam, focused beam, any old waterproof, etc…) and any tips at all about night snorkeling in general.

Thanks,

Scott

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bas on Wednesday, August 7, 2002 - 10:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Scott,

I often go to AndreaII for a night snorkel. It has easy entry. There's quite a lot of coral in shallow water and lots of interesting stuff around. Some very shallow coral. Small lobster in the reef right under the shore before the sand starts. Sofar there were always a couple squid around. Eels are often seen free swimming. It's always been very nice there. I check out some deeper bits first for 30-40 minutes and then move to the shallow reef and play around overthere till my light starts to fade out. I also REALLY like the Ladania's to Karapata drift as a night snorkel. Tons of neat stuff to see at night. Turn off your lights and wave your hand around stirring up the water.. you'll see lots of little lights appear. Another neat thing is to feed the coral with your light. Lots of tiny organisms are attrackted by your light. The coral feeds on these little creatures. At night the polyps of the coral are open with their lil tentacles out to catch what passes by. When you aim your light up close to the coral and the little organisms hit the coral polyps close. Look for the coral with big polyps to do this. Also cool is to focus on what passes by in the beam of your light from right at the lens till about 2 feet out. Look for tiny lil space ships from the deep, no kidding :-)
Look for sleeping parrot fish. At night they blow a cocoon/slimy transparant membrane around them in which they sleep. I think it is to keep their smell inside as protection against predators.
Look just under the watersurface for needle fish, they are shiny and colorfull in your light.
I use a powerfull 75watt halogene light with focussed beam. This is especially nice for snorkeling as you are up there and still wanna see the stuff that's down there. For really interesting stuff you can freedive for a closer look. Generally am in no deeper then about 15-20ft for a night snorkel.
Hope this helps.
Bas

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 1:17 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Snork...if you are not as adventurous as Bas (I wish I were, too!) you might consider contacting Renee (owns the Woodwind) over at the Divi to see if she will guide you on a night snorkel right there at the Divi Calabas Reef. I know she used to do this (along with Janice Huckaby, I think) and it is easy access and a "safe and secure" way to break into night snorkeling, if you are not too comfortable with the "open" waters as mentioned by Bas in his post. Boy...Bas' night snorkels sound absolutely fascinating and exciting, too...maybe he can go out with you guys one nite while you are on Bonaire??? I can't speak for Bas, by any means, but it was just a thought as I know he is truly part "fish" and loves to play in the water!! Either way, you will LOVE the sites you will see...a whole different world to explore by underwater lights...truly fascinating. Carole
PS Bas was diving tonite at the Reef Cam too...check out his underwater pic posted on another thread this evening. cb

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 9:02 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Bas, those are wonderful suggestions, just the kind of thing I was looking for. I’ve been snorkeling at Andrea II before and I can do a quick refresher in the day. I don’t know where Ladania's is but I’ve done Karapata, I’ll just have to check my map for this. I can imagine that getting down towards the bottom is more rewarding as it is in the day. I really appreciate the advice from someone who obviously really knows the island. I’ve read many of your posts before and we’ve chatted about mini’s and that great group of dogs in your profile picture.

Carol, I didn’t know that the Woodwind did a night snorkel, that’s a great idea too. Also actually I said that we are comfortable (or that was my intention) in the open water (at least in the day) so Bas’s suggestions were right on target. Of course it would be great to have him along! I appreciate your response Carole, I know you’re an avid snorkeler too! Can’t wait to see the bio-luminescent and night creatures.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bas on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 9:10 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Here's another idea.... book a romantic dinner cruise on the Oscarina. I'll make sure I am crew for that night. Sail and chat for a bit, pick up a mooring and while Karen preps dinner we go snorkel. Her pumpkin soup is very nice!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 12:51 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

That’s an offer I can’t turn down! Just tell me where to sign-up. If I recall the Oscarina is a sailboat correct? Two of my wife and my favorite things in the world, sailing and snorkeling.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Lee on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 3:15 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

snork, we stayed at the sand dollar, and did a night snorkel at bari our first night (as we coulnd't dive until we went through the briefing and got our marine tag). The water is so unbelievably clear you will love it. We used our night dive lights (very bright and big). you can see quite far, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. I forgot where you were staying...buddy??? you can night snorkel there as well. in such clear water as bonaire, it really is "no big whoop" as far as the fear factor goes...now night diving locally where i am is another story! i've done 3, and all were pretty bad (vis maybe 3-5 feet) in really cold water...i din't enjoy it very much!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 6:12 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Cynde, yes we’re at Buddy Dive and I’ve certainly swam up to Sand dollar before. That’s what we figured we also do the first night, familiar and close. I can only imagine how spooky a night dive would be where you live. Bad vis and giant kelp, kind of scary! I’m not much for cold water either, must be getting older :o)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bas on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 7:04 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Yes Scott, The oscarina is a 42ft sailing yacht. We can pick you up from the buddy dive dock. Karen's e-mail for more details and signing up.. oscarina49@hotmail.com

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Lee on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 8:16 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

snork, we ate at the restaruant at buddy's a couple of times (the name is eluding me right now, almost time to go home...dock by the bay?" anyway, you could see the lights from the night divers very clearly, sitting in the restaurant. michael and i were laughing, as it was so clear, and is so not clear here!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Thursday, August 8, 2002 - 8:32 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

The last time we were at Buddies they were still rebuilding the restaurant from Lenny. They improvised the best they could, but I’m looking forward to seeing the dock completed and the restaurant, etc. I’m especially interested in seeing what the difference is in the reef and how noticeable the growth is.

We also saw night divers at one of the restaurants at the Plaza (name also escapes me) but it did look very clear.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bud Gillan on Friday, August 9, 2002 - 11:31 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Snorkel guy.
One of my favorite night snorkels on Bonaire is at Pink Beach. First it is simple, simple access and the coral heads and initial patch reefs in the ultra clear water are very interesting at night. There is lots in the water, including some bigger pelagics that cruise through.

Snorkeling out to the deep dropoff is optional and deeper, but very interesting, though maybe not for the weaker swimmer. There is plenty to see in the gin-clear water even if you don't go out to the deeper areas.

A second area for great night snorkeling is entering at the north end of Pink Beach and going north along the coast. There are sections of the fossil reef and ledge that are loaded with fish, invertebrates, octopi, etc. Watch the wave action but it is a treat to swim along right next to the edge of the coastal reef. I would suggest you can do this during the day and go all the down the little inlet which is always loaded with silversides and balloonfish. Repeat this at night so you know where you are going, but like a new world at night.

Happy trails.
Bud

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Friday, August 9, 2002 - 12:26 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Bud, these are great suggestions. I also haven’t done any snorkeling south of Windsock before and this would be a great opportunity to check out some new places. I appreciate your comments.

Scott (Snorkelguy)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker on Friday, August 9, 2002 - 6:39 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Snork...when you are snorkeling at night and see something HUGE that is silver and shiny and "think" it might be a monster barracuda, don't panic...it is most likely a tarpon digging on your beam of light to catch some chow! Joe and I almost "freaked" our first time alone at night..thought for sure it was "junior jaws" out to get us! What a sight to see us scrambling out of the water to the beach for safety! LOL. Of course, we felt like morons once we found out what it was and how we overreacted!! Way too funny. I don't think Renee actually takes the Woodwind out...I think she can give you a "guided tour" from the shoreline at night. She was doing that a couple of times while we were there. Sounds like you will have a ball...I am green with envy!! Yup...I love snorkeling. If I could live in the water with the fishies I would do it without hesitating for one fleeting second! Ayo. Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Snorkelguy {Scott} on Friday, August 9, 2002 - 10:15 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I think I can relate to tarpon experience. I was snorkeling in the British Virgin Islands (Peter Island) and came across a school of bait fish. It was huge, it was like being in a dust storm, and all you could see is millions of tiny fish. All of a sudden they cloud of bait fish parted and there we 6 (no fish story) 6! tarpon within 10 feet of Emi and me. They all jumped at the sight of us, and that of course further startled us, but as soon as I realized they were tarpon and not sharks I just started laughing. Both the tarpons and us humans soon settled down and I got a chance to get very close to them. I think they were so full that they could barley move. I imagine that it took very little effort for them to fill their bellies in such a huge cloud of fish.

I know what you mean about snorkeling, given a chance I would spend my entire vacation in the water. I finally had to get a dive skin so I could stay in the water longer.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By karen gaffner on Sunday, August 11, 2002 - 12:55 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

how much cooler is the water at night?if we wanted to do night snorkeling would we need wet suits?be back in bonaire 10 days.yes!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mercy Baron on Monday, August 12, 2002 - 2:30 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I'm proud to say I did my first night snorkel a couple of weeks ago with Bas. He took me to Andrea II and he pointed out many wonderous and squiggly things...lots of eels! Tom and Becky dove beneath us part of the time too which was very cool. But from now on, I will wear a skin of some kind. I thought I had enough fat on me to keep me warm in just my bikini, but I was goose pimply for most of the snorkel! Becky said it was a rite of passage, my first night snorkel!

I also did the drift snorkel with Bas at La Dania's leap to Karpata, incredibly awesome. Thanks Bas!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linnea Wijkhof-Wimberly on Monday, August 12, 2002 - 3:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

The water is the same temperature at night, but since you don't have the sun warming you might want to add a wetsuit or wear a t-shirt inside one if you wear one during the day. Night snorkeling is so much fun, you never know what will show up in the beam from your dive light.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Monday, August 12, 2002 - 8:58 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

As, as an additional point, it's a lot colder when you finally get out of the water, again because of the sun effect (or lack thereof) combined with a breeze. Wear good thermal protection for night dives and night snorkels. Also easier to unzip a zipper and cool off than it is to add layers in the water :-)

Jake

 


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