Meryl Virga
As you wish mij lady.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Alice in Wonderland: A story that telling makes me feel warm all over. Over the years many windows have affected me in a similar manner. Karpata, for example, prior to the July 21st storm in ‘75 when every coral polyp grew undisturbed in a manner that let me know that I had entered a secret place.
I think Wancho and his hoax about the Siren and the flintlock was a remarkable diving experience for me. At that moment in my career (story Snake Valley), there had been no window giving me the same feeling. I became absolutely fascinated with this complex that boasted Snake Valley’s second reef.
A developing hotel as well as building a new tourist industry demanded my total attention, and when hosting divers there just wasn’t time for me to slip off and do a little exploring on my own. I loved to dive alone as there was no diversion of my attention. It is now I confess why it has taken me so long to clarify the naming of the complex that we call Alice in Wonderland. You should understand that Alice in Wonderland is not a single window but rather a description of a total complex commencing at Lake Bowker and racing many kilometers south until merging with Snake Valley.
In the center of this system is what we called Angel City. Please note that I refer to "We" as the naming source. True! Snake Valley and Lake Bowker I did name. However, the two remaining sites I did not. My divers named both Angel City and Alice in Wonderland, most likely for the numerous angelfish at the former and the "magic mushroom" topography of the latter. Take a look at the photo and see if you agree.
By 1972 I had started preparing Angel City for the popularity I expected it to achieve. It was necessary to take a good look at the terrain into which I expected to be putting hundreds of my divers. Aquaventure’s limit of divers at any one site was twelve. And I have to admit that Angel City on several occasions even with a lesser number nearly gave me a heart attack when divers got lost, totally losing their direction. The territory was immense and the corals were profuse. Often, divers would become confused and think the second reef was the first reef and chase it at depth until running out of air. And that was bad news as they would still be at 30 plus feet with no time even for the simplest of decompression and still eons away from the shore. On almost every dive I had the problem of a diver wandering. Worst was when one, not two together, went missing.
I desperately needed an intelligently planned and laid out swim program so that a novice would feel confident, yet not herded. I was the guy who invented diving freedom and depended on the basic intelligence of my divers. I figured that if they were smart enough to earn the money to purchase a trip to Bonaire, they should be smart enough to be trusted with a simple dive and not to have to be led on a tether.
Ebo Domacasse and I were the only dive guides on island at that time. We discovered that the vastness of this window was, for some divers, frightening. The instructions were simple, however. We parked the truck on the coral flat opposite the 700-foot TWR tower. Divers were told to "Enter the sea and swim on your back, keeping the truck and tower in line to serve as a range marker. Then pump away until the drop-off is directly under you. Rest a moment, then drop down into the reef and have a wonderful dive. If you cross the sand channel, remember that it runs parallel to shore and to the first and second reefs. Be sure to cross it again to find the first reef on your way back. Crossing back over the sand channel at about 1100 pounds is a good idea. (Remember, our tanks at this time were steel 72’s, which meant a fill of 2250 psi.) At 500 pounds, go back up the slope of the first reef and swim towards the shallows. When at 15 feet, pop up to have a look and find the truck so you can see where you entered."
Sometimes it was disastrous with some divers missing the exit by hundreds of feet. Then the stronger swimmers would have to fetch them back to the entrance. Or we would just let them climb ashore and pick 'em up on the way out. In those days the coral grew fast to the shore and some of those folks not only destroyed a lot of coral but also got severely cut up. Wetsuits were not yet in vogue but saving coral was. Damaging of corals Aquaventure did not tolerate.
Angel City was to receive one of our marking systems and one of my dive groups from Chicago and I were able to install all the buoys, markers and trail route in a single morning dive.
The system was not only a confidence builder but also a near foolproof way of getting all my divers back to where we started. I had used this system before at 1000 Steps, for example, (Number 07) where there was so much antler coral that the divers returning from the deep would often miss the channel and make a mess of the corals and themselves getting ashore.
Let me tell you how the markers were installed at Angel City. Our big stake truck was parked directly opposite the 700-foot TWR tower. Divers snorkeled the edge of the drop-off, lining themselves up with the truck and the tower in the background. Then the snorkeling divers would drop vertically down into the reef and secure the Clorox bottle onto a piece of hard coral. A diver with monofilament fishing line attached to the shore would gather in the slack as he went down and secure it at the base of the Clorox bottle’s tether.
Then they would return to the shore and fetch an armload of bottles, carrying them out to be spaced and inflated along the monofilament trail. Once at the drop-off, it was easy to see where the other markers would be placed. The Trojan markers were fun, but the Clorox bottles were more permanent. As long as Aquaventure controlled the reefs, these guide systems were maintained, along with the new mooring system we were installing. (1965 /1976}
Here are a few photographs taken with a Nikonos II using Tri X 400 film, B&W, of course. From these you can get some idea of the density of the second reef.
A typical sentinel Dozens of these on the crest @ 30 ft.
o - - - - - - - You know what this is!
Photo Marcel Nahr, March 17TH 1984
And in the middle, we put a big marker no one could miss.
AND SO ENDS THE STORY OF THE WINDOW KNOWN AS
"ALICE IN WONDERLAND"
don/ -79-
Hey too bad this story is loaded pic'cs This program won't allow. when your on island sept 20 or so... Will personally give the original by..
The ® Wicked Mind's Eye of Captain don/
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By Captain Don (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #356) on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 2:43 pm: 
