I have heard that the Hurricane in Nov. of 1999 had really hurt the reefs in the very north. Is this true, and how is Nukove after the hurricane?

Nukove the dive site is trashed. The channel through the coral is filled in, the elk and stag horn coral was decimated to almost 30 meters. Nukove the beach was unaffected, Nukove the home to a zillion "flying teeth" Limipi's, is much the same.

I was there last year, and disagree. Although there's certainly damage in the shallows, it was a very nice dive. The exit/entry, though, were quite difficult.

What is it you disagree with ??? I was there too, the channel is gone, the forest of elk and staghorn coral is decimated, the beach and cliff remain unchanged, the limpi's were out in force. Reef damage, resulting from the impact of the waves generated by Hurricane Lenny, could be observed down to 30 meters. ???

Now, now.....cb

I had a nice dive there. Sorry you didn't. I didn't realize I wasn't entitled to my own opinion. By the way, why do you post as "Ananymous"?

Oops, I mean "Anonymous". Don't want to get attacked for the typo.

I "did" Nukove last November for the first time in 3 years. I'm sorry to say that I have to agree with Ananymous (I kinda like the typo Mary). It was indeed a very sad sight when compared to my last dive there. I don't really understand why he/she seems to be writing with such apparent aggression tho'?
Daren, I also dived Boka Slagbaai, a little further around the coast & that was sadly equally as decimated as Nukove. I've only got those two sites to base my judgement on but I'd be surprised in any of the northern locations escaped a serious beating.

Well, I am a new diver, so I couldn't compare it with how it was. It was obvious there was a lot of damage (I had snorkeled there), but we still saw stuff and had a nice dive. We did Weber's Joy, which is a little further south, and there was less damage.

What I really didn't like about Nukove was the entry/exit! It was ROUGH-especially for a new diver.

Damage to elkhorn and staghorn would correctly be down to 30 feet not meters since that is where they grow. Although I know in some places the reef slope had slide damage down further so I'm not disputing that there might be damage lower than 30 feet.

Andy, I had heard that the beach area of Nukove was filled in with coral rubble instead of the previous sand. Anon seemed to imply the beach was not affected. Do you remember if it was sand or coral rubble?

It's just as you speculate at Nukove, Linda.
The the broken hard corals from the shallows have been dragged down the reef face by the wave action. At seventy feet it was still pretty grim. The sand that presumably once formed the beach is now smothering the remaining coral growth on the slope.
I'm a little hazy about how sandy it was before Lenny, after all, I wasn't there for the sunbathing :-), but you'd have struggled to find enough sand to spread your picnic blanket out on, last November.
Can't we get on to something a little more cheerful?....How's that donkey, Grendel (le?), of yours coming on?

Actually the lack of size sounds about right for Nukove. It always was a maximum two body beach.

Grendel is doing great. She was visited by her now favorite BonaireTalker - Leann. She brought Grendel size chew bones and knew the perfect place to scratch.

That's good.
I don't think that we have "Grendel size chew bones" in the UK...Thank heavens!

So,
Do we need to bring carrots for Grendel if we want to pose for the cam?
Gordy

We dove Nukove in October 2000. The shallows were a mess. We found a tiny channel to make it out, but on the way back in we didn't find it again, and skimmed across the coral rubble with 2" of water to use. Only a few bruises. The beach was still there, a climb down the rocks, but there.

It helped that there were 4 of us, as we could shuttle the dive gear and cameras down more easily.

Below the shallow zone, the reef was in good shape, and we got some good pictures. As I recall, the dive time was 72 minutes, so I guess we found something interesting to look at!