Hi,
I've put together a list of dives that we must do on our honeymoon in September. I would be very interested to hear people's comments on this. Am I missing any great dives (yes, I know, I know, they're all great )? Am I listing a dive that's now only so-so? We are there for 15 nights, so we can do an aweful lot of diving . . . I'd really like a couple of suggestions for good night dives as well

Must Do Dives
-----------
Hilma Hooker
La Dania's Leap
La Machaca
Front Porch
Eighteenth Palm
Salt Pier
Invisibles
Red Slave

Night Dives
-----------
Town Pier
Bari Reef

Don't forget Angel City. The Lake is good also. And of course, Small Wall!

Darryl you can drop Front Porch from the list. It's not the same as it was before Lenny. You may want to add Karpata.

Oops, I had Karpata marked. Not sure how it missed the list.

I can't find a dive called 'Small Wall' in my Bonaire diving made easy. Is there another name for it?

Bonaire Diving Made Easy lists only shore dives. Small Wall is a boat dive.

Not too sure I would have any of the dives you list on my "must-do" list. One I would definitely skip is the Hilma Hooker. Complete waste of time IMHO. The three dives that I would definitely not miss are Karpata, Angel City, and Ol Blue. There are probably others that I would (will) do again, but those three are definite repeats for me.

Darryl,

Make sure you do some of the double reef dives south. We went out to the second reef at Invisibles and it was great. Alot of bigger fish( grouper, bigeyed jacks etc.) chasing baitfish. And it is a really easy dive. Have fun!

Ooops,
I guess that explains the small wall question. We are thinking of doing one day of boat dives, so I will hit the Small Wall then.

We've never been on a wreck diver, so thats why we want to dive the Hilma. Does the front porch still have its wrecks, or were they destroyed by Lenny? I'll add Angel City and Ol Blue.

Anybody want to reccommend any other good night dives?

Also, I'd love to see some turtles, so any dives that turtles frequent would be of interest to us.

Darryl

Alice in Wonderland is a real nice dive.

Try Salt Pier. That is one of our favorite nite dives (midnight is a good time to go).

If You are only doing one boat dive, you should save it for Klein Bonaire.

If the wind is not blowing, do red slave huts south from the boat bouy... very pristine dive site (it's on your list but be sure to start at the bouy and go south)... if the wind is really light do the lighthouse as well while you are down on the south end of the island.

How many weeks did you say you were going to be in Bonaire?? Can't do everything in 6 days.

Hi,
Geez, Salt Pier is already marked as well. I guess I can't read though a book and type. Hadn't put it down as a night dive though. For Salt peir, you only have to get permission, not hire a DM, correct?

We'll be there 15 nights

Darryl

Darryl,,,,Something Special, Angel City, 1000 steps, Ole Blue....You can't forget them!

When you do Invisibles, make sure that you end the dive at the coral rubble shallow just south of the entry--you can see the dark patch from the entry point. Lots of juveniles and small fish. Sometimes trumpets stalking the small ones. You lie on the sand and watch the show. One time I watched a 10" purplemouth or goldentail moray go in and out among the small holes (the smaller the holes, the smaller the fish!!) for many minutes. Should be good for photos if you can save a few frames, or have a large digital memory. Wonderful 'safety stop'; it is an easy snorkel if you use most of your air.

Re: salt pier.

Yes you need permission, but not a dive master with you.
If you go out there at midnight and there is no ship in sight dive away as they don't dock at night. Easy to have your shop get the OK from the harbour master.

Re: La Dania's Leap..
Make it a shore dive and drift to Karpata. Cool drop off. Also good chance for Turtles. Went there last week with some friends (snorkel) and we saw 5 of them. Great dive... will go there any day... snorkel or scuba!! If you go in the weekend and wanna team up for this dive give me a call when you're here 7178830.... I'll do the walk for the car ;-)

Re: Angel City... (suggestion)
Go north on second reef until you find big chain.. follow that over the sand (north/east) and slowly Hilma Hooker will appear... cool sight.
Check Hooker out a bit and go back over fist reef slowly going up.

OK,
Here's the new list:

Must Do Dives
-----------
Hilma Hooker
La Dania's Leap
La Machaca
Front Porch
Eighteenth Palm
Salt Pier
Invisibles
Red Slave
Karpata
Angel City
Ol Blue
Salt Pier
1000 Steps (is this worth it ??)
Alice in Wonderland

Night Dives
-----------
Town Pier
Bari Reef
Salt Pier

What about Oil Slick Leap - have they fixed the ladder and is it worth it?

Bas, I'd love to meet up with you for a dive. My fiancee (well, I guess she'll be my wife by then) and I will be there from Sep 14 to 29. If you don't here from me a few a weeks before that, shoot me and email.

Darryl

Darryl,
Don't forget the great dives on the south side of Klien..
Rock Pile
Forest
Captain Don's
South Bay

Nice deep and in the shallows!

Scott

Hi Scott,
We're planning on doing probably all shorediving (right now we have 12 days unlimited air researved). We may do one day boat diving, but we're not even sure.

Darryl

One more thing. Are the dives on the East coast worth the difficulty? We were thinking of trying as many of them as possible, conditions permitting. Main reason for this is the hope of seeing bigger animals such as turtles, sharks (i know, unlikely), etc.

Darryl

Hey Darryl,

Great you wanna team up!
East coast sure worth the difficulty!! I love it there. A number of good dives on that side. Certainly worth diving east coast if only to see the difference between the two sides. September is pretty good time.. winds usually not that strong.
Yes, you will see other/bigger stuff.....
Lac Cai.. big school of tarpon on the way out and good chance of seeing Spotted Eagle Rays.
Boca Spelonk... cool little 'cave'
Baby Beach... Sting Rays, Black Tips, Nurse Sharks, turtles.
'De Sleuven'... 7 cannon, field of fans, HUGE spunges, big grouper and lots of lobster.
And other sites with or without names :-)
Planning to dive east coast tomorrow morning.. not sure yet where.. depends on conditions.. can write a lil report on BT after.

You ask if 1000 Steps is worth it -- it's my favorite dive site on the island. The steps down aren't bad at all, there's a nice wooden bench at the bottom for getting into your BC, the stuff underwater is just incredible! Just pace yourselves coming back up the steps (there are only around 64 on the way down, but they definitely feel like 1000 on the way back up!)...

Faith

If you go to Baby Beach or The Blue Hole, be sure you have very thick soled boots. The sea apples are abundant and you can't help but step on a bunch. The winds and surf will determine if you do these dives or not... same with Cai, and if the wind is up so is the current (that you have to fight on the way back in).
Keep your fingers crossed that the dive gods that controll the winds, will allow you the east and south ends... both are different then the west side and you will see much different things.

As promised a bit of a dive report of this morning.
We went in just south of Marcultura the shrimp farm and dove south passed Baby Beach. Wind was about 15 knots. Surf was pretty rough with about 5-6ft waves (from the bottom of the wave looking up) further out towards the drop off. So here's how it went...
Walked out to about chest deep water.. first sort of throw your self against the white wash of the surf so you wont be pushed back or lose balance. And later when it gets a little deeper and the waves/surf bigger you just duck under them like the surfers do. At chest deep quickly put on fins. As the waves were too big to swim into we went down right away and swam over the bottom out passed the surf zone. Saw a big anchor about 8 feet long but could not stop to look at details. When the waves were breaking overhead all the surrounding water turned white... almost into foam..lots of tiny bubbles... no visibility. That was about 10 feet deep. Resurfaced to catch up on breath a bit (hard work PFFFF :-) after the surfzone when things got quieter and slowly swam out to drop off. Drop off started at about 25 ft. where it was still pretty surgy. Not much of a drop off as it was very gradual. Visibility not great but have seeen worse here. Hit the sand at about 65ft. Not much around..not many fish and also the corals in the beginning not very plentyful. Lots of soft corals. Headed south at about 50 ft. Later on got to the ridges with the coral.. slopes up and down with sand in the 'valley'... kinda like Karpata but more horizontal slope. Just as I was thinking this was gonna be a dull report because there was nothing special around... the was a big 3 to 4 ft. long Green Turtle sleeping between the gorgonians. He had two Ramora's on his back. One brown and one much lighter brown with almost golden color stripes. So far the sharksuckers I have seen were blue-ish with black stripes. We slowly approached the Turtle. He woke up and started very slow to make his way out of the soft corals... when he got out he went NUTS, obviously annoyed over the 2 fishes attached to his back... never seen a Turtle make such weird moves. At one point he was like a horizontal Yoyo.. just spinning around himself. But he could not shake'm off.. he dissappeared into the blue.
At 850psi turned towards shore. Use the surge to make progress. Stayed on bottom till about 3 feet of water.. fins off and walked out. 500psi left. 44 minutes dive time. Deepest 63ft.
However the most amazing fact of this dive is that the age of my dive buddy is 70!! Chapeau!

What a great day, Bas! Thanks for the details. The turtle must have been awesome. Any cameras on hand for this dive???

Did anyone see the huge turtle on the news yesterday? Over six feet across and ended up on a beach in Venezuela somewhere. The locals claim they had never seen one as large as that before...he was alive, too. I do hope they helped him back into the waters....the film clip did not show that part of the feature. Quite a sight to see, for sure! CArole

Hey Bas thanks for the dive report. My husband is insisting on diving that side and I'm not so sure its a good idea. Is it worth the work??? That turtle sounded interesting. Will you be reporting on other sites you do over there? We will be in Bonaire the last two weeks in May and I would like to know more about what I am getting into. Also, I notice you collect license plates. Do you have Nevada? Gloria

Hi Carole,
Nope... no camera's along on this dive. Only once a buddy took a video cam along. I got 2 still pics out of that..last year november.. same dive as today..
image{ns} image{turtle}

Hi Gloria,
Is it worth the work?? Dunno.. depends on what your interests are and also level of fitness and skill so I could not tell if it's a good idea for your husband to dive there or not. Personally, I have always liked waves and love playing in them. To me it's a game to make it through and most of the times I get rewarded with (IMO) a great dive. Today's was a bit boring as far as seeing 'special' stuff but had dives on same spot that were outrageous.. like a discovery documentary.. before you finish looking at one cool sight there's another. (However that's not exclusive to the east coast ok!?) You don't HAVE to go there to see interesting things. Leeward side has plenty to offer.
Plates... I do have a Nevada passenger plate... the silver state.. blue on white/grey with mountains and goat LoL. If However you have a different one.. trailer, truck, apportioned, antique, motorcycle, bicycle, boat plate... whatever or different NV passenger I'd be very interested.
As far as future reports on dives on east coast (as most of them will be there.. If I go leeward side it is likely to be La Dania's Leap to Karpata or Angel City).. sure.. why not!?

hehehe... no pics :-(
try again ..

Tres cool, Bas! Carole

Bas

You sound like a fried of mine that owns a racing sailboat... he won't go out unless the double red flag is flying (gale warning).
Did you ever dive this area when the winds are down under 6 or 7 knots?? Would be interested to know what the wall looks like... the Baby Beach wall is a long way out and not much of a wall to speak of. Is it better a bit further south??

I have never seen a wall in the baby beach area. Drop off is hardly a drop off... very gradual to about 65 - ft where the sands start. Dunno what beyond the sand... could go out one day and find out... looks tempting, always wonder whats out there. As far as I know there are no walls on the stretch Marcultura to Willemstoren lighthouse/ Red Slave.. all very gradual drop off. However some sites are distinclty different as far as the numbers of hard and soft corals & spunges.. and the way they are arranged.. all different gardens :-)
And yes.. I dive there when the winds are down..of course.. even more so. Viz gets much better then.. you'll see much more.

Also.. you mentioned Blue Hole.. thats interesting.. cause I dont know what it is. I do know White Hole. Half way between Marcultura and Lac Cai on the other side. It's an oval shaped hole in the terrace between the 'barrier' reef of lac bay and the drop off... about 200ft. long by 100ft wide...about 30ft. deep. with the surrounding terrace being only 10ft deep. Walls are covered with coral growth and bottom of the hole is filled with white sand and you're likely to find schools of tarpon and barracuda hanging out in it.
Used to find it by going north outside the reef at marcultura and line up the old Sorobon ruins with the TWR transmitter towers(at Hilma Hooker).
Never thought about diving it from shore as the swim out would be too far. Did go several times on snorkel. Would love to dive it one day... spend some time in hole.. swim up.. hop over edge and go down drop off for rest of the dive.
So where's Blue Hole... always see the yellow stone at the entrance of the sorobon area but cant imagine they are refering to the white hole and most of all it being a shore dive. Maybe I missed a hole LoL

The blue hole is a long surface swim (and not really worth it) especially after you lug all you equipment thru loc bay which I might add is a lot longer in 2 feet of water than on dry land.
Once you find it, you can drift down toward baby beach and the farther south you go the farther out you wind up from shore (that is why I asked about how far out you had to go for the wall (aka drop off). Most of the operators know where it is and can probably give you fairly good directions from the last land point on the ocean side of lac bay. (the white hole you mentioned may even be the same place). Entry is full of sea apples so thick boots are a must.

All along the coast there the drop off is pretty far out from shore. However it has never bothered me and has always been worth it. Do agree though that carrying all your stuff through lac bay is a lot of work :-) Never done that.. only snorkeled from that location.
Blue hole must be a different place then... same entry point but for white hole you have to swim north along with the reef/wall towards Cai.. about 20 minute snorkel to get there. Get the idea that blue hole would be straight out the back of Marcultura... that way the drift towards baby beach after you find it also makes sense??
The sea apples can be tricky.. also a lot of fire coral overthere. Found a 'passage' (or entry) that is free of urcheons and fire coral about 400ft. south of the last land point. Look for a 'beach' of small coral pebbles.. cant miss.. very different from rest of shore where you find big chunks of coral and sharp solid rock at the water line.

Darryl

You should just catch the Coral Spawning. I think the Full Moon is the 20th Sept, so the spawning should be the 27th - 29th. I hope that the people on BON can confirm the dates.

My wife and I will be there for our 25th Anniversary, last year 10:00pm was the best time to get wet and see the spawning - remember to leave a no dive time before you fly.

Brian

My calendar shows the September 21st. Therefore branching corals like elkhorn and staghorn should spawn the 1-2 days later and the star corals 5-7 days after the full moon.

I would suggest catching up with one of the naturalists on island when you get here and get some insider tips like good location, time from their past experiences. Any dive shop can hook you up with someone good.

Daryl,

I caught the spawning last year, both by accident and on purpose. Saw some "smoking" sponges by accident at Alice in Wonderland, which was amazing. Then signed up for a night dive with Jesse Armacost (marine biologist, author of the Bonaire shorediving book) at Photo Tours to watch the Star coral spawn. She did a great job, showing a slide show before the dive, alterting us how to approach the coral and starfish with our lights, and timed the dive perfectly to see the spawn. I highly recommend talking to them to see if they are doing it again this year. Jesse is great and she really knows her stuff.

Regards,

John

Linda

Thanks, Looks like we should catch the whole show. I will check out the exact dates when we arrive at Cap'n Don's. It is a shame that Ditte has moved on, hopefully they will have someone to replace some of her emmense enthusiasm.

Ditte left Captain Don's??? That IS a shame! Is she still on-island?

I think she was going to South America to learn Spanish. After that well the world is her oyster. (sorry couldn't resist the pun)

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the input . . .

DArryl

D: I would add Andrea I, Windsock Steep and North Belnem to your list. We dove all three last October; these are good choices for easy 2d or 3d dives of the day. P.S. Don't forget to buy your Bonaire Deep Water Diving Team T-Shirts before you leave Bonaire. Get Wet Dude!