I'm in Bonaire, leading a group of 14 folks who want to get wet. Their experience level ranges from pretty basic to quite advanced. What dive sites are currently good to dive....entries/exits (with the occasional large roller) not too difficult, vis not too bad?

We are "surveying" this morning and want to get wet (for the first time since Monday) this afternoon.

P.S. Buddy Dive boats not going out today (from Marina), maybe tomorrow.

Good morning Mel, I'll be arriving @ Buddy's on Sunday. I hope you and your group can get in the water and have some nice dive experiences. Would you mind sharing how the diving is/status of Buddy's, etc when you have time? I'm sure others will want to know the status of the reef, vis etc too.

Please give us an update on the diving.

Thanks,

Ric

Didn't get in the water today but heres what we saw. Headed North to Andrea 2, stood and looked at the entry for a long while but decided against it. Older, maybe wiser but do know the bones are more brittle than they used to be. Continued on North but road was blocked just befor Oil Slick. Went South down to second set of slave huts. Saw diver in at Hilma, Margate and one or two others. Again, looked at a few entrys but decided there would be other days. Went back to the pool and got sunburned on my nice safe floatie. Lighthouse on the south has been calm all week but haven't seen many divers there. Went back North this evening to see if the road was open. It was, Oil Slicks planks and ladder were gone, a small section of road was washed out but repaired soon after Slick. We saw two divers in at Witches Hut and about 4 coming out of 1000 steps who said vis was about 40'. Looked at Karpata whick we had never done but had planned on doing this trip so we could also do the La Dania to Karpata drift. Only thing in the water was a large cement platform but the entry/exit looked very doable, due to calming waters. Stopped at Ol Blue for sunset pics and the water seemed to be clearing and calmimg nicely.

Not that I have any idea what the conditions are after Omar but we dove Karpata our last time in Bonaire and it is a great site with an easy entry. We had previously read some complicated instructions but we found it easy in low surf.

At about 8am, I went for a snorkel. Viz in less than 10 ft of water was about 12 inches. Past the drop off, I would say it was 6 to 8 feet.

At about 2pm, I went for a dive. Water was 84 above 35 ft and 82 below. Viz was 20 to 30. I talked to someone who did it several hours later and they reported the viz was improved over that.

Tori's Reef was packed as was Hilma Hooker. Pink Beach had about 5 trucks in their parking lot. This was 3 PM yesterday. I would love a dive report.

Any word on what the reef looks like? Lots of visible damage?

Tori's....it's that new "easy entry" now...

Thursday-Friday: Have done Lighthouse, Angel City, Batchelor's Beach, Andrea II, and with Larry on the east side. As of this afternoon seas are quite calm, no issue. There are some currents here and there. Andrea II looked like a snowstorm hit it, all the way down to 130 ft. Some entries have changed a bit; BSDME will have to be revised.

Buddy Dive has no functional docks but they are working hard to get one back in shape so they can start boat dives again (suspended since Tuesday). BD kitchen not yet working, but may have breakfast tomorrow for the first time since Monday; we've been eating at the Caribbean Club (another BD property up by Oil Slick). Rum Punch party in the pool bar starts in 13 minutes (they have go their priorities straight!) followed by our group having dinner at Rum Runners (also back in commission now

Except for docks, and some entries, and an awesome and depressing amount of sand on the coral and sponges, things are getting back to normal.

Going home tomorrow....

Mel, are the dive shops asking divers to fan the sand off the coral? I know they have done that in the past.

I told my divers to fan sand, but I haven't heard any dive-shop instructions to that effect. However, we haven't had a lot of interaction with dive guides in the last few days....all shore dives, no boats. The first BD boats are going out Saturday afternoon (from the marina), and I'll be taking off from Flamingo Airport on Delta.

I am wondering how the shallow corals are doing. If anyone has dived or snorkeled in the south around Margate Bay or Vista Blue for example, or at Ole Blue or at the Andrea sites. We love gassing off in the shallows. Aside from sand coverage; which is to be expected, are people seeing major breakage of the staghorn, elkhorn fire coral or gorgonians as was seen after Lenny?

Please keep updating with reports on snorkeling. I'm flying in tomorrow for my first trip to Bonaire and hoped to snorkel myself silly. I'm landing at 2 pm Saturday and hoped to jump in the water right away. All reports are appreciated.

Does it make sense to snorkel the mangrove areas and Lac Bay firs? Maybe those areas have better visibility? All advice welcome. Thanks!

The yellow submarine shop website suggests that divers should fan sand off the coral...and be careful not to touch.
I'll be fanning in a couple of week and enjoying it.

joe

We just returned this evening from a two week visit ... on Thursday, we dove the lighthouse twice ... no difference in visibility or underwater conditions from dives earlier in the trip.

On Friday, we dove Vista Blue as our second dive ... a lot of sand washed away from the shore and some on the coral ... with the ripping current on our dive, the visibility was superb and the fish were out in abundance. However, at about 50 minutes into the dive, the current slowed and nearly stopped, so visibility declined.

Overall we saw a huge difference in visibility from Thursday to Friday. Thursday night we had a healthy rain shower, which probably helped to settle out some of the sediment ...

We got to go to the east side on Thurs and it was very cool. Tons of fans and fish. More rays too.

We didn't get to check out anything on the west side since Fri was our no dive day since we left early this morning.

Greetings from Bonaire. My husband and I are snorkelers who have never been here before, so we have nothing to compare the current conditions except our experiences in Florida.

Saturday we snorked around the Sand Dollar/Den Laman Pier and clarity was pretty good - or better than I expected with a sandy bottom at 30-50 feet. Great variety of fish.

Today we were at Red Beryl and thought the conditions were similar. I have not seen any sand on the corals. Maybe they washed away in the shallow zone already.

We also visited 1000 Steps and there was a considerable difference in the waters near the shore where it is sandy. Very low visibility - maybe 5 - 10 feet very close to shore around the sandy bottom. Visibility improved to 50-60 feet closer to the reef drop off. Again, no sand on the star corals in the shallower areas before the big drop off. Wow! What a show. Loving, loving, loving 1000 Steps!

Anything south shore is fantastic. The coral's aren't that bad as everyone is saying, but you do have to go out a little ways. Visibility is as you can expect from Bonaire, perfect. Red Beryl and Angel City is fantastic. Forget about doing City pier though, that is gone for about 10 years, honestly. Oil Slick from what I hear should be back up by Thurs (10/23) but anything north is still really good and easy entry. The Shore is up very high and opens a lot of options. The waters are very calm which again for this time of year is as expected so enjoy and have fun. Omar is out...

Hi, coming this Saturday for a week, staying at Den Laman. Since first time to Bonaire, which sites are the "gotta see" since Omar?
Can't wait to get there!!!