So I will be heading down in less than a week and I have a few questions.

1- I am a bit worried about the rain for next week- is this something to worry about.

2- How many dives can be typically done in a day. I know this is a very gray area due to many factors, but say the computer allows is it possible to do 4 dives a day.

3- What do you all think of these dive sites North to South:

Taylor Maid
La Dania's Leap to Kaparta
1000 Steps
Weber's Joy
Oil Slick Leap
Andrea I-II
The Cliff
Reef Scientifico
Bari Reef (staying at Den Laman)
Front Porch
Eighteen Palm or Windsock
Town Pier or Salt Pier
Angel City to Hilma Hooker
Invisibles
Tori's Reef
Soft Coral Garden or Hidden Beach


There are a few that I have one or another, if anyone wants to take sides please let me know. Also, we only have five days so if there are any sites that you think I am missing or should be eliminated please let me know. Do you think this plan is too many sites?? I know a lot of questions get repeated, but I appreciate the help.

-Andrew

Go to www.reef.org for survey data on the reefs you mentioned. As for the number of dives per day, on our last trip we had a guy nicknamed "Aquaman" since he was doing at least 6 dives a day. Personally, I could not keep up with him and settled on about 4 a day.

My goodness Andrew!
Them thar be lots of questions, ArrrrrrrGH!
(Oopsie! It's not 'talk like a pirate day' anymore.)
Here be some answers:
1 - the fish don't know it's raining and I get wet when I dive so the rain doesn't bother me.
3 - I haven't done Taylor Maid or Soft Coral Garden or Coral Reef -- all others are great dives. It all depends on what you are looking for. The WOW factor of coming upon the Hilma Hooker from Angel City is a nice element, the soft corals at Weber's Joy are beautiful, the sand channel at Invisibles is a nice spot, I do believe you now need an island guide, permission from the harbormaster, and maybe even copies of your passport (?) for both the salt pier and town pier.
2 - When on a live-aboard I can do five dives a day. When shore diving and dragging my gear to different parts of the island, I can do one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and maybe one at night.
When doing multiple dives at the resort I'm staying at, maybe three or four. (My ears get cranky being wet so often.)

Pace yourself, dare to repeat a dive you find exciting, and I always like to do the site that I plan as a night dive as my last afternoon dive. This way I can navigate the night dive better.

Have a blast,

Mare


(Message edited by mare on October 16, 2006)

skip some of the middle dive sites, try to get to klein and check out the southern dive sites (red beryl for example)...

5 days ain't enough;)

4 dives a day is;)

Hi Andrew:

If you space your surface intervals properly and are careful about depth you can do 4 dives a day - especially as you are young.

I do recommend that you do NOT wear a shorty - wear a full neoprene body suit, even if it is only .5, and that you wear a neoprene hood of some kind. Even on Bonaire, you can get chilled diving and if that happens you will need to take a break from diving for a day or so to warm up.

I would suggest a 3mm full wetsuit.

Andrew,
You can certainly do 3, 4, or 5 dives a day on Bonaire: the reef profile allows you to stay as shallow as you want, tanks are available 24/7, and you're on you're own as to when/how much you want to dive. I think another factor that isn't often discussed is how long your dives are. There are those who will dive 5 or 6 times a day, but use up lots of air by trying to cover lots of distance and keep moving and therefore have short dives, say 40 minutes or so. Those of us who prefer longer, slower dives (staying relatively shallow and taking it real slow) can easily have an hour to an hour and a half long dive (or more). Three 90 minute dives a day gives you more time under water than six 40 minute dives (do the the math).

I guess the point that I'm making cuts to the heart of MY diving style on Bonaire. Everyone's different, but here's my feelings on how best to enjoy your trip:
--Take it SLOW: there is so much to be seen if you just slow down; barrelling over the reefs at high speed just makes all the fishies hide and results in you missing a lot of stuff. The chances are that it's just as likely that there's something cool to see within 5 feet of where you are as opposed to 100 yards down the reef.
--Stay relatively shallow: there is so much to be seen in, say, 60 feet or less. This gives you longer bottom times and your computer will agree.
--Don't worry about getting to see lots and lots of dive sites in five days; there's not that much difference from one to another and your chances of seeing something are just as good at the site you're at RIGHT NOW as opposed to the one you're rushing out of the water to get to down the road. Check out one of the double reef sites (like Angel City), do one up north (like Oil Slick or Karpata), try to get out to Klein Bonaire by boat, check out the Hooker or another wreck if that's you're thing, but don't go crazy tryin to cover lots of ground thinking that each dive site is going to somehow be better than the last.

Just one man's humble opinion, but go slow and you'll have a much better experience.

(Message edited by scott_phillips on October 17, 2006)

Quite an ambitious program. Think about limiting yourself to two sites per day, one northern and one southern--bring enough tanks for two dives at each. Karpata is calmer earlier in the day. We believe that it's the quality of the dive experience rather than the features of a dive site itself that make for good diving. We could dive the same site twice and have two completely different experiences. Klein is worth the trip. If you don't like boat dives, the water taxi can drop you off there for 2-3 hours or more.

I have to agree with what everyone else said. We usually do 4 dives a day and rarely go below 60ft. Helma Hooker draws us down, but it shortens the dive time. We like to do long slow dives and my husband does the photography. We all wear 3 mil wetsuits or more. My husband has very little bodyfat so he wears a 5 mil. The repeat dives can really leave you chilled. I haven't done all of your dive sites but we love oil slick leap, and all of the southern sites. We have found that you can repeat the same site and have completely different dives. We dive what works into the day and enjoy them all. You should pick up a copy of "Shore Diving Made Easy" when you get there. It's a great reference to each site and how to navigate the site. If you have a ride try entering at the north edge of Capt Dons and head back toward your hotel. Depending on the current it can be a relaxed drift dive.

We were there last week and did not wear suits or skins. The water was very warm. In past years we would wear a polartech skin or at best t-shirts, but this time we just did not need them... This included night dives. Each person has their own preference of course.

I agree, use the Shore Diving Made Easy book. Very helpful.

We did find that doing all shore diving, we just couldn't squeeze in more than 3 or 4 dives in a day. Where as in the past with 3 of the dives being boat dives each day, the timing was structured and allowed for 5 appropriately planned dives.

. . . . Enjoy!!

Soft Coral Garden was one of our nicest dives this year.

I just got back from Bonaire on the 15th. Had a fantastic time. This was my second time to Bonaire.

We averaged 3-4 dives a day. It usually went like this: We did 2 before lunch, usually in the north, than did 1 after lunch, usually in the south, and then did a night dive on the house reef (Bari).

My husband and I wore 3mm shorties and had no problems with the chill. Two of our friends did the same, but one, who gets cold easily, wore a full 3mm.

We did stay shallow - 70ft or above - except for the Hooker. We also dove Nitrox a few of those days.

Visibility was pretty poor in the south - less than 50ft. North viz was great. I would recommend diving Old Blue. It's a GREAT dive - one we did twice. On that dive, not only did we see turtles, but also an Eagle Ray, big puffers and lots of squid.

The house reef at SandDollar (Bari) is currently home to 2 seahorses, a few turtle, some spanish lobster, a purple mouth moray, stingrays at night (close to shore as well) and at least one Frog Fish. The Bari reef is really a great reef - both day and night.

Amazingly, we saw no octopus this trip, though we did watch several coral heads bloom. That will be still going on when you go and is pretty cool to see.

You do need a Divemaster to take you to either Town or Salt Pier. You will need your passport. Try and arrange something early in the week as only so many groups can go and you may have to wait a few days. Also, most DiveMasters want more than 2-3 people (but can't take more than 5) before they'll go.
Both were closed last week for diving due to the sailing events, so we were unable to dive either. In May we dove Salt Pier at night. It was pretty cool.

Thank you all for your responses so far.

Teresa welcome to BT

Very interested about what you saw - though we did watch several coral heads bloom.

Was this on a night dive, any idea which night/time

Anything like on this thread. http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/30/296056.html?1158589460

Yep, that's exactly what we saw. Interestingly, saw the bolder coral spawn on a day dive on Old Blue on October 10th. On the night dive at Bari, it was another coral (brown tubular shape), October 11th. (don't know coral ID's as well as I do fish.)

There is always some confusion on the coral spawning thing. A Buddy Dive boat came back to the dock last week from Something Special with everybody saying they'd seen coral spawning on the afternoon dive. Well, it wasn't coral, it was the touch-me-not sponge. Here is a picture of it: http://www.curacao-diving.com/index.php/diving/pictures/coral_and_sponges/touch_me_not_sponge

- Mel

Mel

I thought the same thing

We just returned from our visit. 17 dives in 6 days. By the end I was ready for a rest.

The drift dive from Bloodlet to Rappel is great if you're doing a boat dive.

The only thing I didn't see this time was a frogfish. Saw my first squid and octopus (pi?)

The salt pier was awesome! We hit it on a great day. Two free swimming green morays, turtles, tarpon feeding on the silversides, and an octopus. There was so much to see.

Make sure you've got some really good bug spray. I think the stuff I used attracted them. I've never had so many bites on my legs. I think the brief rains have created a bumper crop.

It did rain *somewhere* just about every day. But it was brief (10 -15 min).

You'll have an awesome time - just relax and enjoy yourself. Then make your plans for your *next* trip :-)

Thanks Mel,
That's exactly what I saw on the night dive! Had no idea it was a sponge. Thanks for the lesson.

Andrew,

Taylor Maid can be very unpredictable on current. It is one my favorite dives. The exits and entrances are limited. By limited I mean you have a few cuts in the coral of 6 or 8 feet wide that you have to find for your exit point. I would recommend doing it with someone familiar with the site. The other sites you have listed are not as demanding. I used to think I was wasting my vacation if I did not get in 4 dives during the day and a night dive. I would agree with the other people that have suggested taking your time. We now do a couple of 90+ minute dives moving very slowly and see a lot more. If we are feeling really good we will get in a third dive.

Thanks all!


Any last suggestions before we get down there in less than 48hrs.

Teresa

This is the Touch Me Not Sponge that we saw smoking away, it is hard to make out the smoke in the picture. Thanks for clarifying what you saw.

hello andrew
i must agree with scott. i'm making my 1st. trip 2 bon. right after thanksgiving, and i can't wait to dive in low current conditions. i've been to cozumel 3 times & love it, but because of that type of diving(i.e. drift diving) you can miss many cool things. diving is a sport meant to b done slowly(in my humble opinion). remember, some of the best critters & coral formations are in the 1st. 30' of your dive. dive shallow,dive long, and prosper(could'nt help it).

ron