A little tip !!

Since a few weeks you watch most of Bonaire in Hi-Res on Google Earth.

Look for the Blue Hole, you can clearly see it.

What do you think about the Hooker? visible or just the second reef?

Marcel..Can definitely see the blue hole & also the 2nd reef on the south west side of the island.. However I can't make out the Hooker.. You may be looking too hard.

The name is actually "White Hole." It is my understanding it was named because at the bottom is a nice patch of white sand

I need to go check out google earth now to take a peek

After seeing this thread I downloaded google earth...and have been driving myself around the island like a true moron. I'm not sure how many times I need to leave the airport and take myself to places i've stayed in the past.

OK, I've tried to find the white hole on google earth but can't. Also, it seems that it is old, the pier at Eden isn't there, and neither is the Den Lamen!

Cyn..it's there clear as day..I assume you're using the current version of G.E.
Check out Brad's 9/22 Blog to see it..
http://bradtwr.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_bradtwr_archive.html

Try looking in the area of:
12 05'38.72" N
68 13'41.09" W

Just Seaward of that there is a white smear which could be waves breaking around the mooring buoy or depending on when this photo was take maybe Larry's Boat.

As Vince mentioned....this makes it pretty obvious.

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/228/986/800/trench0027.jpg

How shallow is that ledge of coral that seperates the shallow part of the bay to the White hole? Can you swim over that with gear on?

I did find it yesterday after looking at Brad's blog. There was a boat, but it was quite a ways away from the White Hole, so figured it must be a fishing boat.

You can see the double reef on the Leeward side, but I couldn't find the Hooker.

All this of course, did NOT help my PBD!

Did the blue hole in Belize two weeks ago and what a blast. Walt, I know you've been there, how deep did you go. It was very tempting to go deep for all of us. The sharks were cool too!

Bruce, any pics to post for us over in CC?

Cyn, I took my camera and strobe on the first two days of diving and got tired of seeing my dive vacation through a two inch viewfinder. So after taking a few mediocre shots I decided to leave it in the room. Didn't miss it a bit! My friend who is also a UW photog' flooded his camera the first day or two and he didn't miss his either. Ya know there have been times when I'm trying to get a macro shot of a pederson shrimp and a huge turtle swims right behind me. I'll try to get a Belize report in CC soon.

Bruce, good for you ;-) I of course, always see lots of turtles and things when I FORGET my camera I'd love to hear how you like Belize. My husband has that one on his "list."

Jay,

If you are referring to swimming over the shallow area from the windsurf lagoon to the White Hole that is not possible even at highest tide.

I think we should remove some coral and make it possible...Cousteau style.

We dove there in October when the wind and waves were zero - snorkeled first to check things out (we rented a 2-man kayak and pulled our gear and cooler out to the little island-like area to the south of the barrier reef and set up "camp") - the shallow reef between blue/white hole just about breaks the surface - maybe a max depth of 8 inches, although we didn't check out every inch of reef - saw some snorkelers from Sorobon swim over it but they went back the way we came out (walked across our "island" and waded across the bay). Doubt you could swim across with full gear - and the shallows have a LOT of sea urchins and fire coral - BUT: there's a spectacular tribe of unafraid rainbow parrots that hang in 1-3 feet of water, some giant barracuda in the same area, and an excellent dive just below the "island." We were underwhelmed by the blue/white hole...

I have done the White Hole with Larry three times. It is a very cool dive indeed. Last summer, Kathi and I went to Belize, where we dove Ambergis Caye, Caye Caulker, and Lighthouse Reef, where we did the real Blue Hole. It's a big deep dive where you don't see a whole lot, except for cool rock formations. Nevertheless, it was something on our list of things to do before we check out.