Hi,

We are back in Bonaire in March and this time we have our diving linked to Buddy Dive.

I have heard their house reef is very good and apparently you can jump right in off a jetty??? Beats climbing over rocks lol!

Can anyone update me on the HR at BD. Thought I may try a "sunset" dive as did a night dive some time ago and hated it. Thought if I did a "sunset" dive I could get aclimatised gradually. Also heard BD HR is supposed to be good for nite diving. Is there entry /exit by shore too?

Any info welcome.

PS sorry if this entry is posted twice. My computer was playing up.

(Message edited by Rosie on August 17, 2008)

Not to worry Rose, and Welcome to BT.
The house reef at Buddy's is very nice, this also puts you smack in the middle between Sanddollar and Capt. Don's house reefs all good dive sites well marked returns (ropes or a pipe) to their respectful ins and outs by either a dock and/or a ladder. I know there is a rather small area at Sanddollar that you could do a shore entry from but both Buddy's and Capt. Dons have a small "cliff" that bars you from shore diving at these sites.

I'll be there the end of Sept. and first two weeks of October.....can't wait to get wet.

Jimmy

I usually sunset or night dive at BDA, just the next spot down south and love it! I have had dinner at Buddy's and watched several divers enter and exit from their dock. No one seemed to have any problems. Hopefully someone will post if there is a rope or pipe or something. Most of the resorts have some time of marking for night dives. Enjoy!

My dive shop stayed at Buddy's in March and we did several night dives on the house reef. It is very nice and lots to see!

We did a giant stride in off the dock and there are some nice stairs to get back out again. There is a rope or pipe marking the way back to the dock.

Charlie the tarpon will join you for your dive if he's hungry

Hi ,
All sounds good to me. Thanks for all your imput. Is so welcome.xxx

I believe all three dive ops mentioned (BDA, Buddy's and Don's) have lights on their dive docks after dark, at least till 'late diving time', making gearing up, entry, and return, etc., easy. In the past I found I could see the lights from the outer edge of the reef top while underwater (Brewster's angle and all that physics stuff, you know). It makes orientation a snap.

Some of my best night dives were by sitting on the sand in front of Don's around 9-10 pm with my dive light off. Many times very large tarpon cruise down the reef flat, north to south, and will come close to an 'unlighted' diver. Then judicious use of a shaded, small dive light will get you a good look at the tarpon without scaring them off. Should make for good flash pics, too, but I haven't tried that. A red dive light would be worth trying. Likely all this works all along the reef flats. Has anyone tried it on the flats down south??

There are a number of other species of fish and crustacea that are shy of bright light so 'diving in the dark' can let you see new things, too. At any time, 'smaller is better' for personal dive lights. You want to see the animals not 'light up the night'!

Enjoy!

(Message edited by glenr on August 17, 2008)

We've found that the tarpon are actually attracted to the dive lights. They use them to hunt by and will pass within a couple of feet of you. The first time one of them zooms by you in the dark can be unnerving as they are about 4 feet long.

I too have been shadowed by the 'house reef' tarpon who feed in diver's light pools. These tarpon are 4-6 feet long and can be seen many days idling along in 60-80 feet of water on the slope.

The ones I refer to above are much larger and I have only seen them in the dark. They have the sagging bellies of large animals and seem to be 7-8 feet long. Larger, I know, than the books say but those sizes are only 'scientically ackowledged' one that Mother Nature doesn't always stick with. Witness the big green morays many divers have seen on Bonaire reefs. Two or three other posters here have seen the big tarpon also.

Come to think of it, 'dark' may be a relative term here since my experience was just off the lights of the restaurant and not in an area without shore lights. But they had to transit the dark to get to Don's reef and they continued on south. Just go and check them out and enjoy! :–)

Thanks for your replies. We loved the Tarpon at 18 Palms in March they are so cool.
Looking forward to doing a night dive.

It's a bit of a surface swim, about 15 minutes at an easy pace, to get to the bouy for The Cliff from the dock at Buddies

If lucky (check out the direction the soft coral bending in front of Buddies prior to the swim north to better insure your luck) you can then drop down to depth and have a nice semi drift/relaxed dive back to Buddies dock.

You can get a real taste of the differences available so close by.

I dove Buddy's reef just last week. It was very nice. As a suggestion, I might add to go north. About 22 minutes into your dive, at about 50 ft. there is a small wreck on the reef. Make sure you go to the front of it and look inside. We found the largest puffer fish that I have ever seen. It was incredible. He looked like Casper the friendly ghost.

I saw that same puffer fish at the wreck (La Machaca) and he was HUGE. I also thought he looked strange. His skin wasn't smooth. Did anyone else notice that?

(Message edited by sirto on August 18, 2008)

I resemble that remark, I've been trying to lose weight!

Good luck with that, Boat Chick. N-I-C-E profile pic!

Hi Rose - My wife and I will be on Bonaire in March as well. Not sure if we will be at Buddy's or Den Laman yet but I can confirm what everyone here has said.

Buddy's has a very nice operation for Evening/Night Dives. We normally just count moored boats as we head into the current then reverse and head right back to the concrete block that has a line that leads to the dock. You can see the lights from the Lions Den when you get close. Very easy night dive. We have only ran into current 1 time.

Hi John,

Thanx for your post.

Will prob be checking out Buddy this time. Our diving has been booked with our room which is Toucan next year. Cant wait. Hope to see a seahorse this time in Bon. Maybe see you out there????

Rose

Yeah maybe we'll run across each other. We are staying at Den Laman. You'll love Buddy's. Good luck finding the sea horse.