Hello again everyone, already posted my water temp question, now wondering about some recommended night dives. We are staying at Divers Paradise and sounds like Small Wall there is nice to do. Any other suggestions or is Small Wall worth doing a couple of time? We would like to do a couple of night dives while there (Mar. 29-Apr 4)

Thanks & we'll soon be warm in Bonaire!!

Small Wall is worth doing multiple times. It is not an available shore dive for most, so is full of life, especially at night.

Does Black Durgon Inn prohibit access to divers not staying there? I didn't ask or try back in November.

Night diving is great all along the coast from Habitat (Cliff just to the north then continuing on down through Buddy's, Bari Reef, Sand Dollar area, Eden Beach. Easy access, great sights, and worth maybe 5 night dives in this area.

Also try the Hilma Hooker at night or before sunrise.

Sheila the general rule is to night dive somewhere that you dove first in the daylight. Since it sounds like the Black Durgeon and the Small Wall will be your house reef. Man you could not pick a better night dive. I love that wall, I did it at dusk on my first trip and still have visions of that dive. The Small Wall will be to the left from where you get in at the Black Durgeon. You will have to be careful at dusk or you could get run over, I'll leave it to you to discover why.

Tom, no, black durgon does not let non-guests dive small wall or from their dock. Al does have an agreement worked out with the owners of Diver's Paradise where they get the breakfast, and the BD is their "dive shop" and house reef.

I agree with Cecil, it's one of my favorites.

If you are up for something unique, do a UV night dive with Bas N. It's like diving with a blacklight at night...way cool!

Cliff is a great spot to dive at night as well, if you enter from Hamlet's shore stairway down to the beach, it is easy accessible and beautiful, if you have no time to dive the site previously as Cecil suggested, take a compass with you. Of course, diving Small Wall is not comparable but it is quite similar. Never had any issue at Hamlet diving there, house owners are all very friendly.
You can also use Cliff entry next to where the yellowsub/dive friends facility is at Hamlet - however, I found entering from there quite difficult, considering that the stairs they built are destroyed and you have to enter from the other side, but eventually they fixed it?

Cliff is fairly accessible from Habitat which may or may not require a small fee. If you use air sparingly I have done Cliff this way. Just stay along the drop off at 30 fsw going north to Cliff, drop down to the base, swim further north, come back up to the top and swim south back to Habitat. Usually little current if any.

hey Dan, I did not see that you already suggested Cliff previously, sorry.

Silvia, the stairs at Hamlet are gone, well, mostly gone. They have the area roped/blocked off. They got damaged in Omar. You have to walk around to the other side of the dive shop there, and then along the coral rubble to the entrance around where the stairs were.

While we were on island, several of the dive operators have posted signs for diving only if you are staying at the resort or are diving with them. Apparently, someone got huffy about non-guests using their docks and now it's catching on at many other places. Too sad, friends of ours were asked to leave as they weren't guests.

Judy - where did these events occur???

Or is that a permissable post on this board ??? I don't like negative reporting but it is potentially valuable information for divers and snorkelers.

Mods ???

We need to identify specific places so that individual actions can be taken.
Where were you staying, Judy, that these other folks were denied access?

what I know for sure is, that BDA at Sand Dollar has such a rule, however you can access Bari Reef from Sunset Beach easily anyway.

Tink hello - always looking forward reading posts from you! Yes that"s what I meant in my previous post, I hope that they finally fixed the stairs, the difficult entry is the entry you mention as well in your post, walking long side the dive shop.

Wow, sounds like night diving will be great and we are really excited! You all are a great help and thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm a little confused over the possible difficult entry for the Cliff site, since I'm not sure if Hamlet is a dive shop or a dive site? Is it difficult enough to deter a dive and go elsewhere? And, feeling stupid, I don't know what BDA is that Silvia mentioned?

Cecil, I look forward to seeing what we will be run over by at Small Wall; one more mystery to look forward to on our trip!! Yippyyy!

How do I contact Bas N to inquire about a UV night dive? That sounds awesome..

Thanks again to everyone!

We saw signs at Sand Dollar (BDA) and Captain Don's. Don't know if someone was having a bad day when our friends were asked to leave, or if it's new policy but there was no posting. Rather not say where. Talk around a certain restaurant bar was this is becoming more the case (insurance?)or maybe the time of year is too busy. We were hesitant to try other dive op's docks because of this. Guess it's just better to ask first.

My favorite night dive, enter the shore entry at Sand Dollar (adjacent to the dock/Den Lamen, and exit Buddy Dive's dock.

so sorry Sheila for not being more specific. The dive site is called cliff, which is at Hamlet Oasis, the dive facility is run by Yellow Sub/Dive friends. It is not difficult at all to dive there, to my opinion, never had any problem, however, I did always ask first, either one of the home owners at Hamlet Oasis or at the dive shop.
what was maybe confusing was, where to enter Cliff. Either you can drive directly into Oasis and park there and enter the beach side through a pathway between houses or enter next to the dive shop which is located conveniently next to Oasis and enter there.
I wish you loads of fun on Bonaire!
Yes Judy at BDA you have to sign up first to use either the dock to dive or the general dive facility. Since the dock is exclusively for Sand Dollar or Den Laman or BDA Bonaire Dive and Adventures) divers only. I was totally unaware that they regulate more restrictions, I can understand the dock thing but are you talking about using a dock or a beach?

sheila, you can contact Bas through his profile on this thread describing the dive.

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/1022/386182.html?1233623096

BDA has always requested sign a waiver before you dive the reef there. I think since the dock has been rebuilt, they are a little more "resistant" to have non guests using the dock. I would assume that the beach area is not off limits, but I think they still want you to sign the waiver.

Cap Don's has had the policy for quite some time. I think it's $5.00 (or that's at least what it used to be) to dive off the dock of you are a non guest. There is an alternate entrance, someone can chime in.

In my experience Habitat did charge $5 to dive from their dock. Buddy's had no charges - just dive. Buddy'sisgreat for night dives.

And from Buddy's it's an easy 5-minute surface swim on your back over to the vicinity of Habitat's dock...

(Message edited by tschamp on March 18, 2009)

If you have access to small wall, by all means do it at night. The wire coral grows horizontally from the wall and many many trumpet fish "hide" horizontally among the coral after dark - it's really cool. Also orange cup coral comes out...

You have all given us some great ideas, thanks again. Looks like we will plan to night dive between the Small Wall to Buddy's sites. Guess now there's no alternative but to dive the 5 nights; don't want to pass up any great opportunities! Appreciate all the helpful hints; much easier to get the info now before we get there.

One other question: Are there any restrictions using lightsticks while night diving? We usually do, but it seems somewhere they were not allowed.

No lightsticks. They are prohibited as potentially harmful to the environment if they leak or break.

You need tanklights.

Hi Sheila.

You can email me at bas@noij.com

You can use battery light sticks but not the chemical ones.

Dan,

Do we need to bring our own tanklights or do some of the dive shops there rent them? We've never used tanklights, have only used lightsticks so we don't know much about them.

Thanks for your help-

Sheila...there was an article awhile back in Sport Diver (I think) about two guys who went to Bonaire and only did night dives. It was a great article. Maybe someone can remember the citation. Any way, they did a night dive on the Hilma Hooker that had to have been outrageous. They swam out to the buoy and descended - with no lights! They had some "guy" bet going on about who would turn their light on first. It sounded like a riot! I really need to find someone to do that dive with me.

Sheila - you can get the battery tank lights on Bonaire but it may be less expensive to get them in the states at a dive shop or by mail/internet prior to the trip. Not expensive. They use AA or AAA batteries and likely will work the entire trip for several night dives.

I just did a quick on-line check and they are $10-15 or so in various forms.

Just do a google search for "scuba tank lights"

The dive shop at Buddy Dive has a very small LED type tank light that was used by a DM from there last year that could be seen from an amazing distance at night. I remember him mentioning that they came in various colors. Might be worth looking at those online as well.

This is the kind of lights Buddy Dive has for sale.
http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/CategoryID_972/Context_965/Sort_Stock/DescSort_0/AQTLMLC.html?Hit=1
They work fine, except they are not buoyant so they hang down beside the tank...some of the lights are buoyant so stick up above the tank, which is visible from all directions.

The lazer-stiks are buoyant, which is nice.
http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/CategoryID_972/Context_965/Sort_Stock/DescSort_0/AQULS.html?Hit=1
They are available at places like REI.

Please do not get a flashing light; they are somewhat more visible, but really irritating for everyone except the person wearing it!

Thanks again everyone - this has been a really big help, and some hints I would not have thought of! (ie; no blinking tank light, which is what my husband wanted to get!) Will definately buy a tank light before we go, and then enjoy the sights! Only 10 days and counting....

And since the word battery came up ... don't forget to bring any of your used batteries home so they do not end up in the Bonaire landfill.

Rechargeable batteries are the way to go, all of our LED dive lights are AA or AAA and use NiMH recharge batteries.

The small wreck La Machaca between Buddy's and Habitat is good to visit at the end of a night, lots of orange cup coral and you never know who will be inside the wreck.

Most dive shops and resorts have battery disposable deposits now. I was surprised to see Bellefonte have one in their office this trip. They said that most ops and resorts have them now.

There is another stairway around Captn Dons it in front of Hamlet villa 7. The walk through from what I can recall is in between villa 4 & 5. The villas are to the right of the dive shop - there is road access just past Captn Dons entrance.

Angie

That is correct and there is no charge for access there. The access is in front of Villa Number 6.

That is good to know. Saves a bit of swim and air to get to Cliff or further north.

We're just finishing a week at BDA and they are quite insistent that all dock facilities are for guests of Sand Dollar/Den Laman who are registered divers with BDA. They have two signs posted to that effect - and try to keep a careful eye on things. This includes the benches...

Peace,

Gina and John

I really enjoyed the Front Porch tugboat as a night dive. It's easily accessible from the beach. Depth is about 90 feet and saw the biggest Cubera Snapper down there.