(Rest of this post is under trip reports. This is the dive portion)

Here is our report on the diving we did on our trip July 24th - 31st a Lion's Dive INN.

DIVING:

Day 1

Check out dive - Buddy's Reef
Nice dive, good intro to life on the reef

Boat Dive - Ebo's Special
Nice dive

Shore Dive - Buddy's Reef Night Dive
Actually a twilight dive. Decended to about 60 feet at about 7:15pm, and worked our way up to about 30 ft. Got out of the water at about 8:05pm, so we had the pleasure of seeing the light change. Nice.

Day 2

Boat Dive - Klein - Bonaventure
Saw a frog fish, which was a first for us. Took us both several minutes to visualize him, even though we were staring right at it.

Shore Dive - Invisibles
Real neat dive on the south side, with the large coral islands creating easy natural navigation. Lots of garden eels between the 2 shallower coral islands, and the 3rd island which begins at about 85 feet.

Shore Dive - Andrea II
Pleasant dive, but nothing to report

DAY 3

Boat Dive - 1,000 Steps
Considered skipping this one, so we could do it as a shore dive, but then decided was a lot of work. (Wife helped the decision, even though it only is 62 steps) Saw a HUGE shovel nose lobster. Small green eel as well.

Shore Dive - Fish Hut
This dive is not on most of the dive maps (yet), but does have a yellow dive marker (now). Very nice dive, with a huge abundance of every type of fish you could want to see. An spotted eagle ray, and a green sea turtle were spotted by our group, but we missed them. One of our top dives of the week.

Shore Dive - Pink Beach
Probably our least favorite dive of the week. However, keep in mind, that still makes it one of our top 20 dives in our life! Bonaire diving is just that good. I would skip it though. Did see a nice sized scorpion fish (stonefish?) Sand is not pink either.

Shore Dive - Reef Scientifico - Night Dive
Enter Charlie, the resident Tarpon Guide (or perhaps a cousin) For all 35 min of the dive, he followed close by, and passed in front of us. A yellow snapper did the same, and if I would stop to shine my light on something for more than a sec, he would get right in front of the light, and I would literally have to poke him to get him to move. Neat stuff. All the plates bolted to the reef make it easy to name this reef.

Day 4

Shore Dive - Alice in Wonderland
Neat dive, though the swim to the outer reef of the double reef system is quite a kick, and perhaps not worth the wasted air, or BT. Did see a HUGE Green Moray eel which was free swimming. ANother spotted eagle ray was seen, again, not by us.

Shore Dive - Angel City
Right near by, again, a southern dive on the double reef system, the channel between is very close, and you can swim between the 2 to view both. Lots of activity. Saw a small green sea turtle, our southern ray, and a HUGE scorpion fish.

Boat Dive - Klein - Carl's Hill
Cool little wall dive, with the wall starting at about 25ft, and dropping down to about 80ft. HUGE Buff fish. Remember to look up (swim on your back) on this dive. Beautiful visuals.

Shore Dive - Buddy's Reef - Night Dive
Very active this night. About 6 large tarpon making their rounds. Saw my first octopus, and then another one later in the dive. Nice sized spiny lobster hanging out in a open coral head (don't know names, sorry)

Day 5

Boat Dive - Hilma Hooker
Talked into doing this on the boat, and I regret it. Really wanted the visual of swimming up on this wreck from the reef. Was a nice dive, not much life though. I am more of a reef guy than a wreck guy, but was worth doing.

Shore Dive - Margate Bay
VERY ACTIVE. Saw just about every fish you could see. Beautiful dive. One of the top 1 or 2 dives of the week.

Shore Dive - TOWN PIER - Night Dive
We were only 4 of the 40 in our group to do this dive. PLAN IN ADVANCE. You will need to fill out the paper work, give your passport numbers, and need some luck that boats aren't docked. We signed up Sunday, and barely got in on the Thursday night dive. SIMPLY AMAZING. NOT TO BE MISSED. The colors were just astonishing. ORANGE! Saw another frogfish. A first for us as well, 2 seahorses seemingly asleep on a softcoral in the sand about 20 yards off of the pier (good guide) Also saw a spotted eel eating scraps from a local restaraunt, and a baby sea turtle sleeping against one of the pylings.

DAY 6 - Last diving day

Boat Dive - Bloodlet
Was SUPPOSED to be Rappel, but a boat was already moored there. Was a nice dive anyway.

Shore Dive - Jeff Davis
Went Seahorse hunting, as one was spotted that morning (needle and haystack anyone?) Came up short. Was escorted back to shore by a 3 foot baracuda, for at least 15 min. Rather creepy. Did see, and take a picture of, the memorial.

Really wanted to do the Lake, Hilma Hooker Shore Dive, Ole Blue, and Repel Boat Dive. Guess I will have to save those for another trip. We basically crossed the northern most dives past Karpata, and Southern Dives past Fish hut (and around Lac Bay) off our list. With our larger group, and even when it was just 4 of us on a shore dive, we didn't want to even bother with sites that may have a strong current. No point, with 50 other dives to do.

All the shore dives we did require some balance and concentration getting in the water, as there are often holes in the rock getting in that are tough to sea, and some wave surge, moreso in the north than south. No problems if you are careful, healthy, and pay attention.

Easily, the best diving of my life.

Ryan, is the Hilma Hooker accessible from shore? I think I'm going to make a printout of your report, it seems like it would come in handy. We're going to Bonaire for the first time in 18 more days.

Yes, the Hilma Hooker is nice shore dive. 1/3rd of our group did it that way. 3 buoys mark the wreck from shore. Simply swim (compass heading) to the middle buoy, and then drop down and circle the wreck. Wreck sits at about 105, but when it is time to come back, you can take a leasurely swim back along the reef, which starts at about 60 ft near the buoy, and off gas/safety stop all the way back to shore. Otherwise, as a boat dive, you are ascending in midwater, staring at nothing in particular.

Thanks Ryan for that info. We have one boat dive in our package and was planning the HH for that but we'll take your suggestion for sure. Counting down!

For one boat dive go to Klein Bonaire. :-) Nearly all else on leeward side of Bonaire is accessible by shore.

Funny, I was just thinking of posting that exact question. Thanks

Anything on Klein Bonaire would be a good idea. We really enjoyed Carl's Hill. Has a wall there that is really neat.

Supposedly the #1 requested boat dive is Repel, which is along a cliff on the northern side of Bonaire itself. Is supposed to be a really cool wall dive. We were supposed to make that dive, but the site was already taken by another boat, so we did Bloodlet.

People seem to like Forest too.

I'm writing this down. 16 days to go!