I am wondering about the boat dive schedules on Bonaire. Recently, boat diving in Grand Cayman, BVI, and San Carlos Mexico has meant a relatively deep dive; snacks and time on the boat, maybe moving to a new location; second shallower dive; then back to shore. It sounds to me that boat diving on Bonaire may mean one dive at a time with a trip back to shore after each dive. How do most of the shops work on Bonaire? Or does it depend on where you are going? Thanks for the info.

Rosemary,
I think only Divi and Plaza do actual 2-tank dives without coming back to the dock. Most everyone else do single tank dives. I'm not exactly sure of their departure times but maybe they will see your post and respond as well. Here at Habitat we do 3 single tank departures daily, 8:30am, 11:15am and 2:00pm, and on the days of our scheduled night boat dives we do a 7:00pm departure. It is possible for you to make all 3 or 4 departures if you wish.

Thanks for your reply, Jack. It sounds to me like the travel time to dive sites is relatively short. How long is the average trip out to Klein? To preferred island sites? Thanks.

Rosemary, Just to continue on with Jack's response, at Buddy Dive we also have three departure times, 8:30, 11:00 and 2:30. I think it is safe to say that most of the boat rides last from a short interval of 5 minutes with the longest probobly being maybe 15 - 20 minutes. The closeness of the dive sites is one of the primary reason so many of us do one tank boat dives. Plus our resorts (Habitat, Buddy's and others) are so centrally located, that if we did offer two tank dives, we would likely be passing right by our docks enroute to the second dive site. So why not stop anyway and let those who want to do only one tank depart, and those who want to continue on have a 15 minute breather while we switch tanks!

Couldn't have said it better myself Carol

Everything you say makes sense. So, if you sign up for a two tank a day package, do you generally get to choose which of those three dives you go on? I realize that may vary with the different dive operations, but is there a general plan that most shops follow? Thanks again.

One of the nice things (among many) about Bonaire diving is that with the 1-tank dive approach, and the short boat rides along the coast, you can sit out your surface interval back on shore, while having lunch or a soda, instead of sitting out on a boat for another 45 minutes or so.

It's also a great time to change film in cameras (without worry of of accidently getting water in from dripping hair, etc., or trying to find a dry spot on board to make the film change, etc.)

And if you simply can't wait for the next boat trip, (say between noon and 2) many divers sneak in one little dockside shore dive between those boat dives. (I know, it's a little "hard core", but I see it almost every trip!)

Rosemary,

I can't speak for the other operations, however here at Habitat you may choose which departure time you would like to go on.

Hi Rosemary. I responded to your inquiry yesterday, but don't see it posted, so I'll try again. Buddy's, like Habitat, let's you pick the departure times yourself. But I want to clarify that we don't look at our packages as including "X" number of boat dives per day. The 6 boat dive and 11 boat dive packages allow you to allocate not only what time you want to go, but how many boat dives per day you want. So with an 11 boat dive package for example, you can take 3 on some days, none on others, whatever - as long as the combination totals 11. (And you can always add on more a la carte).

Rosemary, The reef starts right off the beach in Bonaire, so the the ride on the boats are never long, in practically no time you'll be at the dive sites, The hardest thing is that there's so many to choose from. Have fun!