Just seen a report on Rodales inquiring about Bon Bini's dive boat sinking on Friday - all 14 on board safe, also Captain Don's having a fire on a boat. See

http://www.scubadiving.com/talk/read.php?f=1&i=424116&t=424116

Anyone know anything more??

It gets more interesting - Heres more from Rodales.

Capn Dons: The good news--no report of injury or gear loss to date. One of Capt. Don's Pro-42's had just returned from a dive, and while divers were off-loading the smell of smoke lead the Captain to find that the entire compartment below deck forward of the engines was filled with it. Multiple fire extinguishers were emptied. Wiring harness was destroyed & some minor structural damage to the underside of the deck. No reported damage to the hull or major hull components. Boat is out of service and will undergo complete inspection & cleaning. Otherwise, it's business as usual at Habitat near as I can determine.

Bob Bini: The good news--no report of injury. The "Antonio," one of Bon Bini Divers boats, sunk at Jerry's reef in about 120' of water. It was raised that afternoon. I'm looking into the cause. It's apparently now on shore being repaired. Otherwise, it's business as usual at Bon Bini near as I can determine.

One of the divers noticed the boat was low in the water when they left the dock at 1pm for an afternoon dive on Klein Bonaire. No crew member seemed concerned so they went out as usual. Upon mooring at Jerry's reef, the crew informed the divers (who had yet to do their dive) to get into their gear as the boat was going down. The boat sank at the stern in about 2 minutes. There was no fire or explosion. All but one of the divers were able to get into their BCs and tanks and exit the boat. Apparently one diver wound up tangled in the tag line and had to be cut free at 70 ft by one of the divemasters. No one was injured and only some personal articles like glasses and hats were lost. Most of the gear left on board was recovered during the salvage operation.

Of course this is only heresay from a guy at the airport. I was staying at Buddy Dive literally right next door and heard and saw nothing. Of course I was underwater at the time!

Can anyone on the island confirm or add to this.

Brian, that is pretty much what I have heard. The incident at Captain Don's was in the local paper yesterday. The incident with Bon Bini's boat I heard about from my son who told me much the same as your report above.

Ellen

Thanks, I hope both boats are back in service soon. Have you heard why the Antonio went down, this could be a real definition of 'Dive Boat'

...i don't know how many times we have come back into our slip...only to find that our back bilge pump working overtime and to find that some small "gasket" has slipped off something...very scary feeling especially when we were tooling around in the ocean and didn't know there was a "problem"...and as we have also witnessed several other boats "sink in the slips" it can happen to anyone...i would prefer to be "in the water with my air and bcd fully inflated" should it happen out in the open...

oh, and brian...i of course would have my purple hat on...(maybe you can still donate your purple octi???)..ditto to brian's well wishes to bon bini...

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all your good wishes. Yes, we did have an incident on Friday, but we are very thankful that everyone is fine.

The boat has been put into dry-dock and an investigation is underway to ascertain the cause. Although I would like to give you more information, it simply is not available at this time.

I will say that many of the details given here on Bonaire Talk are incorrect or exaggerated, which can naturally occur when it goes from person to person to person.

Again, thank you for your continued support, and I’m sure everyone joins me in giving thanks that both divers and crew are fine.

Sincerely,

Susan

Susan,

Perhaps you will give us an accurate account of the incident, 'straight from the horse's mouth'.

Cynde

The purple Octopus has survived the puppy's attention so it will come back to Bonaire. Must admit Bon Bini have the edge on easy diving - just stay on the boat!!!

Susan

Are you saying it was less than 14 people? It did seem high to me.

On a more serious note - I hope all is well and the boat is quickly and safely back in service.

The following is copied from the D2D board at the Rodale's Scuba Diving website. I do not know the author, so make your own judgement on the accuracy of the tale:

"I noticed that there was a thread on the board yesterday about a boat sinking in Bonaire on Friday so I thought that I would post the story since I was one of the twelve divers on the Antonia on that fateful afternoon...

The 1 PM boat trip was a Dive Master's choice to Klein. Pulling away from the dock at Bon Bini Divers (Lions Dive Resort) we saw one of Captain Don's boats smoking from from an electrical fire. Maybe this should have been an omen? Anyway, the group decided to head over to Jerry's Sponges for the dive and within a matter of minutes we were moored off of Klein. Onboard the Antonia were 12 divers, the captain, a diver master, and Henrick (SP?) a videographer filming the trip (I guess to sell the copies).

Once moored it was pointed out by several divers that there was water coming up onto the dive platform but the crew seemed unconcerned, noting that they may run the bilge pumps after the divers left the area. I was one of the first divers in the water and once I retrieved my camera from the crew I immediately descended and headed for the reef, not waiting for anyone else as I was diving solo. About two minutes into the dive I noticed two divers behind me. A few minutes later the divers were nowhere in sight. The rest of the dive I saw no other divers on the reef and I did briefly wonder why but then assumed that they had decided to swim into the current and not with it as I had chosen to do.

After 40 minutes I was back near where the boat (The Antonia) was/had been moored when I noticed a boat circling above me. I also noticed a fin floating on the surface. Realizing something was up I began my ascent. On the surface I found the Bon Danki waiting for me and looking around discovered that I could not see the Antonia moored where I had left it. I swam up to the Bon Danki and as I climbed onboard the crew and other divers told me about her sinking. The rest of this is based on what I was told and not actual eyewitness since I missed the actual sinking...

After I left the boat things happened fairly quickly. The boat continued to take on water and within minutes, the boat rolled onto its side tossing several divers overboard. There is some disagreement as to whether or not the crew realized the boat was in trouble before it rolled. I am pretty sure that nobody was expecting it to roll though.

Once on its side it was not much more then another minute before Antonia started for the bottom. On its way down one diver got his gear tangled in the tag line (my guess for the description I heard is that the line was wrapped around the tank valve/first stage) and was pulled over backwards and down with the boat. Henrick the videographer had, fortunately for everyone, handed his camera to another diver to help the crew and passengers. When he saw the diver going down Heinrick followed and managed to cut the diver free at 40 - 50'. The diver survived but suffered barotrauma to the middle ear which kept him from leaving Bonaire on Saturday with his group as orginally planned. All in all pretty lucky considering he was unable to grab his regulator and put it into his mouth on the way down.

In the end there was that one injury, plus a cut on someones shin, and some lost gear. Most gear was retrieved but I believe that a dutch couple lost their credit cards and money. Bon Bini went out and raised the Antonia within two hours and she was sitting on shore by the airport when we left on Saturday. The Bon Danki had to be towed in from the salvage operation since she wouldn't start (which seemed to be a chronic problem all week when we were there).

And me? Well, I had a great 30th and final dive of the trip and a whopper of a story to tell afterwards (even though I missed most of the excitement). Since I had all my gear on my person during the dive I didn't loose anything in the sinking (other then the boat of course) and so I was pretty fortunate I guess. Next time in Bonaire I might stick to the shore diving though...

DSDO,
Craig"

Kind of scary...

"only to find that our back bilge pump working overtime and to find that some small "gasket" has slipped off something."

Cynde that is so true, I don't know this boat but I assume it is a big diesel, risers and manifolds can and do leak.

IMHO, a correctly configured bildge system is both redundant and automatic, a great addition is a dash mounted indicator light of the bildge cicuits.

You really do need to know when those pumps are running, I sleep on my boat, so I also have an alarm wired in.


IF this boat was heavy when she pushed off, it tells me that no engine/fluids check was performed prior to starting up or she popped something in the cooling system soon after the engine(s) were started.

or she had a breach in the hull, or a bunch of other stuff now that I think about it.

Never mind.

I’m glad nobody was hurt too badly.

Dave, desil is correct! she is a 1956 Wooden Owens...so there are a lot of things that go pop! We have 2 bilge pumps...both on auto...nice to know they work...luckily my husband works on the boat and is real "handy" so he has been able to fix the problems before I have to start pulling stuff off the boat!

Was there any damage done to the reef? Was there a fuel spill??