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Diving Bonaire: Taking a compass to Bonaire
Bonaire Talk: Diving Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999-2005: Archives - 2003-05-01 to 2004-02-15: Taking a compass to Bonaire
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By craig thomson (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #6) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 2:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Ok....this may well be the most silly question asked here in a long time, so here goes:

I'm in British Columbia, Canada. My 'puter console holds my compass. I have been told that compasses are "tuned" to be used in a certain geographic region. Will my compass read accurately on a vacation to Bonaire ??

Feeling a little silly asking this....but.....

Thanks.

Craig

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Loo Hoo (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #10000) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 4:06 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Craig, there is no such thing as a silly question:-)

I've never heard of a dive compass being tuned to that particular geographic location (but if I'm wrong, I know someone will certainly let me know:-)). Now a boat compass, that's a different story. You need to swing a boat compass to correct for the variation in the compass (relative to your geographic location). For example, if you go one mile, and your compass is off by 1 degree, your course will be off 0.02 of a mile...and so on...the greater the variation, the longer the distance you go, the farther off course you will be.

I use our compass locally when we dive as the conditions aren't great at times, and the landscape isn't straight forward. When I use it on Bonaire, I always surface where my compass says I should be:-) (Kelly was very happy about that one:-)) hee hee

So unless you plan on making a super dive to Aruba, I wouldn't worry about it:-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Loo Hoo (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #10003) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 4:14 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

OMG, that was my 10,000 post! Yipeeee!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #256) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 4:19 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Craig,

The answer to this question is yes and no.

YES..There are magnetic variations from location to location that cause a compass to read something different than true north. To make matters worse it changes each year. Here in North Carolina, the magnetic variation is around 9 deg east of true north(it's been a long time since I uses a nav map so that may be off some) GPS has trashed my nav skills.
NO..The variation is only a few degrees and unless you are swimming a loooooong way underwater it's makes little difference. A slight side current will have a lot more effect on your navigation than compass variations.
So unless you are using your compass to find Bonaire, don't worry about the difference.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By craig thomson (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #7) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 4:22 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Many thanks all....

I wasn't planning on using the compass to find Bonaire .... just hoping it would lead me back to Bonaire at the end of a dive.

Much appreciated....you can all laugh now.

Happy New Year !!

Craig

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kelly Lott (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #730) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 4:28 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Cynde, I am truly humbled in your deity presence.


Merely your loyal and faithful servant,

Kelly

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Loo Hoo (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #10005) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 4:55 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Craig, noone was laughing I'm sure...believe me, I KNOW when someone is laughing (particularly at me)...have a great trip...

Kelly, can you believe I made my 10,000 post and I didn't even know it???? Dawng! Oh, keep bowing and courtseying (sp) please...also, send lots of gold and silver...and purple velvet...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By joe brannan (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #159) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 7:37 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Cynde

I'd bow and scrape but i get gravel stuck in my cheese knees. Just know that by reaching 10 billion posts (whatevah) you have reached mega deity in my cheese covered lil beady eyes.

Craig, we made our first trip to Bonaire last March/April and we're going back again in (OH NO HE'S GONNA SAY HOW MANY DAYS AGAIN!!!!) 14 days. I was a kind of apprehensive about doing shore diving in Bonaire having done most of my diving prior to that with DM in the water on boat dives. Not to worry, Joe's version of shorediving involves getting the water, swimming to reef (very short distances mostly),checking current and turning against it, keeping track of time, turning around when i get down to whatever air level I've set for myself as half a dive and ending up generally close to where I started in equal time. I really had no prob at all with the navigation.

You'll love it

cheesjoe



 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Loo Hoo (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #10014) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 10:28 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Joe, don't want you to get gravel in your knees...LOL!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3005) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 10:57 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Cynde....that's a Big TenK with the LooHoo handle, no less! LOL. HOw many have you hit on your original name?? Congrats, young lady!!! Carole and Joe

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1609) on Thursday, January 1, 2004 - 11:54 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

When diving Bonaire, you really only need to know east from west to return to shallow water and to shore; no compass tuning required.

Do try to remember which side of the island you are diving from, though. Long swim otherwise. :–)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #258) on Thursday, January 1, 2004 - 10:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Craig,
If you want to impress your dive buddies with your great navigation skills on Bonaire, here is how. The reef line is very easy to find, just swim straight out from shore until it makes a sharp drop off, almost a straight down drop from 30 ft or so to 100ft. I do use my compass for entry and exits. When you get to the drop off, look around and find some unique item. A strange coral head, pile of rocks or whatever and NOTE THE EXACT depth. It's better if it's in a more sandy area close to the drop but a little way in towards shore. A taller marker is best. Decide which direction the current is running and head up current. After you turn the dive and have gotten about 1/2 way back to where you think your start spot is, slowly start working your way closer to shore until you are at the exact dept of your chosen marker. Remember that you travel a lot faster with the current and the return time can be deceptive. Cruise at that depth while looking around for your marker. When you find it, simply do a 90 deg turn (away from the dropoff) and head in. It drove my buddies crazy how accurate I was until I told them the "trick".



 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By seb schulherr (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1230) on Friday, January 2, 2004 - 1:35 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman, you mean paying attention isn't cheating?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #260) on Friday, January 2, 2004 - 9:21 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Only if you get caught :-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Loo Hoo (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #10016) on Friday, January 2, 2004 - 12:21 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman, I've tried your method, but in general, when I get out there, check the current, I'm so dang excited with all I see that tying to find an "unusual" piece of coral or marker is pretty much impossible, my brain is on overload by then...much easier for me to set my compass to shore and then just watch that on my way back to get to my exit point:-) hee hee:-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #261) on Friday, January 2, 2004 - 4:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well Cynde, I have another method.
Take an small plastic med bottle and tie 5-8 foot of string to it. Black or red string is best. On the other end, put a 3 or 4 once fishing sinker on it. I wrap the string around the bottle and attach a rubber band to the weight to keep it neat in the BC. Put this in your BC pocket and place it at the exit point as a marker. Instead of a weight, you can wrap it around a ROCK on the bottom. Put a little air in the bottle from your reg, put the cap on and let it float off the bottom. The vertical string is fairly easy to see from a 30 ft or so. It also serves as a indicator of current direction.
Retrieve it on your way out.

 


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