We got into Bonaire this evening just past sunset. It’s been a long day. I was up at 1:55 to get to Logan by 3:30; it was a good thing I was early because the line to check in was enormous; I didn’t have my boarding pass in hand until close til 4:30. Thankfully, the flight, which had been scheduled for 5:30, didn’t leave until close to 6; It was a good thing, because Jack, who’d been trapped in the check in line, just barely made the flight. Even better, they made up for the delay in transit, and we arrived in Houston nearly on time. Continue reading
Category Archives: Bonaire 2018
Diving Begins
Today was the first day of diving for the half of the group that arrived through Houston yesterday. We had a brief re-orientation from Augusto, the manager of dive operations here; everyone in the group had been here before, so he just highlighted a couple of changes, and reminded us of the park rules. Then it was time to get in the water. Continue reading
Rappel and Something Special
This morning was our first day of boat diving.
Paul asked for “Rappel” as the first site. Like most of the sites here, it was named by Captain Don Stewart way back when. He did it as a shore dive, dropping a rope off the cliff and then rappelling down and back up again. For us, it was a boat dive. Continue reading
Bioluminescence Dive
I’m sorry, but I have no pictures of the best dive I’ve done here so far. It would have been impossible. Continue reading
I Shot the Moray (But I Did Not Shoot the Octopus)
Tuesday was a big boat day for us. We had a two tank boat dive for our group in the morning, and for the afternoon, several of us signed up for the afternoon boat dive.
Shore Diving
We had no boat dives booked today, so today was shore diving day.
The initial plan was to go to Salt Pier in the morning, do one dive there, and another dive also at the southern end of the island, and then figure out what to do in the afternoon. Mike and I were talking about doing Karpata, despite the fact that Paul had mentioned doing it Thursday morning.
Karpata, Knife, and Oil Slick Leap
Fourteen years ago, near the end of my first trip here, we visited Karpata, a shore dive on the northern end of the island. You go down a number of concrete steps to the shoreline, and there’s an abandoned building up above. I remember liking the dive, and have been wanting to do it ever since, but for one reason or another, never have.
Today, I finally made it happen. We had an open morning, so after checking to see if anyone else was interested, I headed up there by myself. We were scheduled for boat dives at one, so I made sure to leave early enough to get up there, do a dive, and get back by 11:30.
Last Day
Today was the last day of diving. My flight leaves tomorrow at 3:30, so I wanted to be out of the water by 3.
Most of us had not yet taken all of our boat dives, so Paul was able to reserve a boat for two tanks this morning. The first site was Country Garden, to the north of the resort. Country Garden has a number of large coral outcroppings. Under one of them, the guide pointed out a very large sea lobster that put most of our New England lobsters to shame.
Bonaire 2018 Pictures: Sunday
We had our first dives of the trip on Sunday, after a brief re-orientation from Augusto, the head of Dive Operations at the resort. I did one dive in the morning, then took care of business, including renewing my driver’s license online, picking up some groceries, and renting a truck, and two in the afternoon: one early, with my roommate Mike, and one later with Ralph and Joe Quinnan as well. Continue reading
Bonaire 2018 Pictures: Monday
Monday morning saw a pair of boat dives to “Rappel” and “Something Special”, Monday afternoon I did a dive off the house reef before doing the Bioluminescence Dive that evening. Continue reading