October 8th, 2001

On this day, Faith and I went to Angel City, a particularly nice dive site. We were joined by a Dutch fellow who needed a buddy. The three of us swam out, and before descending I said a few words:

"We make this dive in memory of Chuck Jones, scuba instructor and avid diver, who died on September 11th aboard American Airlines Flight 11. We make this dive to honor Chuck, and hope this earth never sees such an event again."

With that, we descended, and had a very relaxing dive. Faith and I were snapping photos and looking at critters. True to Chuck's likes, we were looking at large things like Angel Fish, many varieties of Parrot Fish, a large Sea Cucumber, Peacock Flounder, anenomes, and the like. We also looked at small things, as Chuck loved macro subjects as well. Many small fish and other small creatures were also observed. Chuck would have been delighted with the tiny Harlequin Pipefish we found.

It was a nice day, with great weather, and an opportunity to remember someone who loved the sea.

Dan and Faith that was very nice of you to pay tribute to a lover of the sea as you did. Nice touch. Thank the Dutchman, too. cb

Dan isn't that interesting, the dive I did a couple weeks ago on Cape Ann was also dedicated to Chuck Jones. I did not know Chuck but he works for the same company as I and his picture has been in our lobby. I knew he was a diver because the picture showed his smiling face with a BCD on. We were not as eloquent in our dedication but the sentiment was there. We had the option of going to a memorial service the same day, but our feeling was that Chuck would want us to go diving as he would have.

Dan & Faith, Very nice tribute. It seems that many divers are genuinely caring people. levon

Dan and Faith, we've forwarded this thread through company channels hopefully to the family of Chuck, maybe they can get some solice from the effect Chuck has had on others.

Hi Cecil,

Faith and I were at the memorial service in Bedford. Many folks from the local shop (Northeast Scuba, Chelmsford, MA) and local dive club were there. Glad to hear someone was out diving at the same time. A fitting tribute indeed.

Dan

Dan, how fitting that you would take your Faith to Angel City to pay tribute to a fallen diver who is most likely with the Angels. I was very inspired by the sensitivty and caring.

Prayers to Chuck from a friend in Indonesia.

October 10, 2001

One year ago, Faith and I were on Bonaire, and diving with Stephen Brannon and Angela Saxby. This date last year the four of us made our last dive together. Stephen passed away in January while skiing in the Alps. To honor him, we went to one of his favorite dive sites here on Bonaire, called Karpata.

The day was windy, which suited the sailors in the Bonaire Regatta just fine. For us, it made the ride to Karpata interesting with following seas. Jake set out a fishing line on the way to see if he could snag tuna. I drove the boat for part of the trip north. After picking up the mooring line and securing the boat, we did our best to get into the water quickly. The swells were starting to mount, and we were all looking forward to greater tranquility below.

Throughout the dive, we took pictures of christmas tree worms, which Stephen also loved. He used to give us a hard time about getting good pictures of them. That was before he came to Bonaire and found the ones here are fairly cooperative.

Stephen always found sea horses at a particular spot at this dive site. He and Angela first found them in November of 1999. In October 2000, they hadn't moved. We dropped down the reef, and swam south looking for this magic spot. After a bit, I passed the huge anchor, which I recalled was one outcropping north of the sea horse place. Finally, we came to the spot, but the sea horses were no longer there. As we swam along, I was thinking it kind of fitting that the sea horses had gone, now that Stephen wasn't there to enjoy them. Faith was thinking about Stephen too, quietly asking him to show us something interesting, something we don't usually see on a normal dive. She thought the coral face with the dozen cooperative fan worms was a pretty good answer, but there was more to come.

We continued up the reef, stopping to take pictures of the big anchor from some long-lost sailing ship. As we returned to the mooring area, Jake found a lone sea horse clinging to a soft coral. It appeared to be one of the two that had been in the magic spot the year before. Jake shot some video, and Faith and I took pictures of it.

We surfaced into rough seas, and had a tough ride back to port. I spent the return ride thinking about the fun dives we did last year on Bonaire, as well as the dives we'd done with Stephen in New England.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful tribute to your friend! You have a way with words that just toched my heart!

At the URL below you can see some of the shots Jake took on the dive with Dan and Faith plus a couple from Regatta Festival last night.

http://www.bonairediving.com/richter/20011010-Karpata+Regatta

linda, just awesome. thanks-- having big time withdrawal symptoms, i want to come to bonaire so much.

Linda and Jake,
These pictures are excellent! It is unfair to single one out, but the butterflyfish looks almost as if it is floating IN FRONT of the screen! The sharpness of the lot is so good that you woulddn't get any better in a aquarium.

Linda & Jake,
Very touching tribute to your friend. The pictures are so nice, they don't seem real!! I'm so looking forward to visiting Bonaire for the first time. Is it possible to have withdrawal symtoms before I've even been there??? Linda

Daniel and Faith, it seems that you have lost two friends in one year, my condolences. How nice to dedicate dives, and have their spirit with you...Thank you also for your sharing on the boards while you were here, I enjoyed your input.

It's been a tough year, no doubt. But I just -know- that Stephen pointed Jake toward the seahorse at Karpata! There was something very uplifting about that, yet the fact that there was only one seahorse this year, where last year with Stephen and Angela there were two... well, the symbolism of that wasn't lost on us, either. Not all of my blurred vision on the way back from Karpata on Wednesday could be attributed to the salt spray slapping my face...

For those of you who have been subscribers to the Bonaire Reporter (http://www.bonairenews.com) since last year may remember a story about a rental pickup truck that took a leap into the water at Oil Slick Leap last October. That was Stephen's rental... His first visit to Bonaire was about a day after the Lenny storm surge, the second was last October when the truck took a swim. I suspect he would have appreciated our wild boat ride back from Karpata last Wednesday as yet another instance of his luck with Bonaire...


Faith

Faith may be right. I never actually met Steven in person (I was off island last time he was here), but considering I've never also ever found a sea horse on my own (without being told roughly where to look by a divemaster friend here), the coincidence is pretty amazing...

My dive would have been better and longer (may have found another seahorse then) if my regulator hadn't decided that a slow free flow was the thing that it wanted to do, though. Nice dive nonetheless.

Jake