Just curious what time does it get light enough in the morning that one could snorkel. I am an early riser and have found that many places are much clearer for diving and snorkeling in the early morning. Also have found the water tends to be calmer too. Here in AL it is light enough by 5:30 AM to play golf or fish with out any additional lighting.

I'm not sure of the time, John, however you might want to hop in the water just short of daylight, to catch all the little critters waking up to start their days as well... I'm sure others will pop in and post an approximate time for you.

Just checked the archives for oyou John...The time of first light was 5:50 a.m. a year ago today. Hard to tell the exact sunrise but it looked pretty light out by
Here's a couple of pics
Hard to tell the exact sunrise but it looked pretty light out by 5:54

You may find an early morning snorkle as well as a night snorkle with a flashlight to be quite interesting.

Early Morning Snorkeling.

John,
I do early morning snorkeling and swim training, mainly for the Bonaire Bud Light that starts at sunrise and ends at sundown. It is possible to start swimming by 6:15 and see everything. It is the best time to see large stingrays in the shallows feeding, particularly at the southern end of the island. Also fish activity, like at dusk, is increased. Sometimes there are meso and benthic critters in the water column, including jellies and zooplankton not seen during regular daylight, before they descend for the day. If you don't mornings, as my daughter t-shirts says, this may be the cure.

Happy a.m.

Bud

Hey Bud,

In my humble opinion, nothing beats a dive watching crepuscular piscivorous predators.

Mary

Super. I know from previous experiences of living on beaches that the surface tends to be calmer in the early morning before the air heats up and causes the winds to pick up. Plus things have been quite in the water for several hours with regard to humans in the water possibly allowing the sea life to "relax".

Go to the Weather Underground page for Bonaire: http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/78990.html . It lists the time of sunrise (and sunset) and twilights for Bonaire each day in local time. Lots of other good weather info also.

As suggested, it is fun to be in the water as it becomes light: the night creatures go into the reef and the daytime folk come out, go through their daily ablutions (cleaning!) and then go about the day's business. You can watch nighttime activity, the change and then daytime all in one visit. The reverse process happens at dusk. Change of light is the time of greatest activity on any reef, morning or afternoon.

Mary.

Especially with the angles and shafts of light that gives those times of day(light) highlights and context. But I never heard it put the way you did. Clever lady.

Bud

Thanks (blushing). See you on the 20th at Gibi's?

John
You might wanna try to stick to south early and north later in the day, the cliffs in the north kind of block the early sun from the water for a while and the south entries are pretty much open to whatever light there is. Also, the south entries can be a bit rougher as current builds through the day.

good luck

cheeseit

John,

As you know we are currently on Bonaire. I would say the sun rises around 6:30am.

Liz

everyone thanks for the info. Now if I can get my wife to get up a little earlier. She tends to sleep in to 6:00 AM sometimes. Getting up early has its advantages. While over at my folks house for the weekend in South Carolina, my mother who is and early riser, woke me around dawn and showed me a black bear in the back yard eating food scraps. It was a fairly young black bear and seemed to not might us sitting on the porch watching him for a short period of time.