Ever felt really small???

Today we had a dive I will never forget for the rest of my live. I've been in Bonaire for 10 days and my holiday is slowly coming to its end. I’m staying at Deep Blue View, which BTW is a very nice little resort. I had really been looking out to this trip because I knew the owner of DBV, Menno, had his new East Coast dive RIB delivered. I like all dives in Bonaire but do prefer the wild site, because of its variety of fish life. You do find fish on this side not found on the leeward side and what you see tends to be bigger.

For today Menno proposed something special: a two tanker but from shore. (-: One tank on the back and one the side, so we can do a very long dive. 150 minutes to be exact. The dive today was a test dive for tomorrow. Tomorrow, my last dive this trip, Menno suggested to cross Lac Bay, from the old music tent to Sorrobone. Today the plan was to leave from Lac Bay, turn back after an hour and return to our starting point.

We spent most of the morning organizing our equipment, custom mixes (40 % Nitrox) and side bottles. We started the dive around 2 o’clock. Boy that equipment weighs a ton on land, luckily not a problem at all in the water. The first part of the dive was your regular Lac Cai dive: tarpons and eagle rays. We continued along the reef and had a fare share of big turtles, both in the shallow and a bit deeper. I really stopped counting but certainly 10+. At some point we saw two huge turtles playing at around 40 meters but could not get closer due to the depth limitation of our mix (24.9 meters). The viz was so-so. Normally you get easily 30 meters on the reef once you pass the tarpon dip. Not this time. The water was really murky and at times we “only” had 8 meters of viz. After an hour I got cold and we decided to turn back.

70 minutes in the dive, a shape appears out of the blue (actually more gray). It is big, .. it is impressive. A small whale shark???? It had a big fat head. Three meters in front of us it turned and showed its stripes on the side of its massive body. Suddenly we realized what had come to investigate us … a huge, 4 meter tiger shark!!! I never felt so small in my life. I was really glad we had a big coral head between us and that U-boot. That shark showed some real power. So muscular. Unbelievable. It turned in front of us and slowly moved away. When you are faced with such a magnificent animal, you realize you are not top of the food chain.

Do I need to mention that on the way back we constantly looked around?

We finished the dive after 150 minutes. Summary: 50+ tarpons, 10+ turtles, 10+ eagle rays, a couple of moray eels and one very impressive TIGER SHARK.

I wonder what we will see tomorrow when we cross Lac Bay.

Safe diving,

Peter

OH MY!!! chills reading your note! thanks for sharing!

Ok...right up until reading this I thought "I have to dive the wild side on my next trip." Then I realized, I don't really like sharks....

Peter,
GREAT dive report !! Thanks for sharing.
Hope tomorrow is as impressive.

Peter, enjoy your dive tomorrow!!

Wow, I had the chills too reading that. I am sure it was amazing to see! Enjoy your dive!

(Message edited by Eileenbkimmett on November 21, 2005)

Peter..Sounds great, but personally a 4 meter tiger shark is a bit too large for me!

Vince,

The shark did not show any agressive behaviour at all, so I guess it was quite safe. I think the big guy was just investigating who those noise creatures were. What was interesting to see was that its dorsal fin had a huge chunk missing. (-: If that was done by another shark then that is the shark I do not want to meet while diving.

Today, Menno will take his camera with him, so hopefully we will see it again, but it is very unlikely. This encounter was extremely rare for Bonaire.

(-: But who knows, perhaps he even has friends.

Peter,
That was a great report of your diving adventure. I am glad that you had such an exciting experience in Bonaire. I never thought I would say this but, that is one encounter that I hope I never have.

Peter, thanks for sharing your adventure...I imagined in my mind you and Menno "looking around" all the way back...I would be placing myself next to the reef and in front of Menno...LOL!

I've snorkeled with leapord sharks (6 feet, 2 meters) a few times, and gotten very close and it was "heart thumping" and they don't like humans, they exit as soon as they see you...I can only imagine how "heart thumping" a 4 meter tiger shark might be! I know in the past, some have reported seeing black tip sharks, but never a tiger...a rare occurence for sure.

One never knows what will be seen; that's adventure! Remember, you just have to swim faster than your buddy!

At what depth did you see the shark?

Now when posters ask, 'Do you meet sharks around Bonaire?', we have a new answer!!! That is the first leopard shark encounter I remember hearing about. 'Wild side' indeed.

I gather that you were diving along the reef drop off southwest from the mouth of Lac Cai????

Hello Peter, I suppose you weren't able to take a picture of that shark ;-)

@ Kris - No picture of the shark, since this was only intended as a test dive so we did not bring a camera.

@ John and Sue - the depth was around 15 meters

@ Glenn - the shark encounter was at the barriere reef. From the old music tent then turn right.

Follow up on our dive today.

We did surface, which is always a good thing (-:, after 156 minutes. We exited behind the shrimp factory in medium wave action. Menno would have been dead if he had done this dive on air. His air computer indicated 40 minutes of missed deco. Good we were diving on Nitrox 40. No deco at all. Maximum depth was 20 meters.

What did we see? The first 45 minutes of the dive were rather boring. The viz was better then yesterday but still not up the usual Bonearian standards. Besides the resident school of tarpons and a couple of geen moray eels, nothing really special. Then things took a turn for the better.

Turtle soup - all varieties. We saw carret turtles, green turtles and loggerheads. All without tags!!! I found these turtles not as shy as the ones you encounter on the normal dives. If you approach them calmly you can get really close. We found lots of sleeping turtles. It is really funny seeing these bug turtles with their heads under a piece of rock taking a long nap.

Ray action - we ran into several schools of eagle rays. One school had nine eagle rays, the other ones were smaller. Near the end of the dive we found a sting ray.

Other than that - schools of carribean chub, big groupers, cubera snappers, ...

I hope that Menno joins in and posts some photos of todays dive.

The dive was long, very long but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

If anyone happens to find an orange halcyon DSMB (inflatable bouy) near the White Hole, please deliver to Menno @ Deep Blue View. I lost it when I rearranged my tanks underwater. Reward will be in beer.

Peter, why were you not diving your Rebreather?

Wow, that is an amazing dive experience! I think I'd have dropped my regulator from my gaping mouth! Congrats on such a great sighting.

Great trip report - thank you for sharing!
Just amazing

Hi Walt,

problems with the Hammerhead. I received one of the first new units and that batch has some metal issues. The metalic finish has inpurities in it so the units corrode really badly. The corrosion blocked both depth senors, rendering the unit totally useless. It will be replaced free of charge upon my return to Belgium.
I like the features though, full trimix computer, great handsets, awsome O2 control.

What a great dive report....I hope my wife don't find this post, we will never dive the "wild side" with the shark sighting.