Wednesday, May 20, 2015

We're back from Bonaire

Hey everyone, had a great week of diving on Bonaire. My first time diving on Bonaire, and all I did was dive, eat, sleep, dive. The reefs were in very good to excellent condition. Lots of marine life! The water was at times a cold 79 (at least on my computer) to 80. I’m glad I took my 5mil and a hood. If you’re the type that get’s cold and have a 3mil, I’d take extra layers like a hooded vest just to make sure. Vis 100+. To name just a few, some of my favorite dives on Bonaire side were Karpata, Tolo, Helma Hooker, Salt Pier, Little Wall, and of course the Buddy Reef night dives with tarpons swimming all around you. When you shine the lights on the small fishes, they would make a “Womp!” sound and swallow them. 4-7 tarpons would follow us right back to the steps at Buddies on almost every night dive. Oh, and Dive sites on Klein Bonaire are also very nice. At Buddy’s the facilities were totally geared toward divers. Buddy Dive threw in 9 one tank boat dives in our package, so we were diving from our own boat in the morning, then after lunch we would take off in our trucks and van for shore diving in the afternoon. The usual allotment was 2 Nitrox tanks per trip, but we were allowed to take up to 3 tanks per diver if needed, needless to say we had plenty of tanks to take along. The Nitrox filling stations were easy and accessible both on the dock, and at the drive-through fill station. Tanks were available 24 hours at the dock which made night diving on Buddy’s house reef a cinch. Just grab a filled tank, and drop in the water. We didn’t get to utilize the kitchen much in our units since breakfast was free, and 50% off deal at the Blennies restaurant (on premise) kept us going back for the convenience. The food at their restaurant was very very good, however we did make it out to a few restaurants in town recommended by Michelle, and they were excellent I must say. Can’t remember their names except one “Capriccio.” Some peeps went sight seeing, and took some great photos which I’m looking forward to seeing posted soon. I personally did 26 dives, but got left in the dust by Jorge and Christine who did a whopping 32 dives. 32 dives! Sheesh. Jorge, Christine, and Sheri stayed next door at Captain Don’s, so we couldn’t coordinate our dives together as well, but we did manage two shore dive with them. Oh yes, if you’re used to shore diving in Southern California, shore diving in Bonaire is a cake walk. ;-) Kaz Aizawa