Wildcat Sailorgirl: Bonaire May June 2018

Tom gearing up to go diving

May / June 2018

Sabrina snorkeling

After reading the other blogs postings about Bonaire, you are probably thinking "But what about the diving?"

Tom prepping to dive off the back of the boat

We did do a fair amount of diving. We went through two Tank Fill cards, 22 refills on each card, so.....44 or so dives total. In the end, we were diving every day and sometimes twice a day.

Sabrina diving

We also did a lot of snorkeling. Many mornings, Laura and I would go snorkel in the shallows in front of our boats - say 10 ft of water or even less. There were tons of interesting little sea creatures and every stage and color of Parrot fish.

Tom diving

One of the selling points of diving in Bonaire is that there are many dives sites that are accessed from the shore. This means divers can come to Bonaire on a dive holiday and have the freedom to do a bunch of dives on their own, no dive boat or guide needed. All the rental car companies have dozens of pickup trucks for rental. In the back there are wooden palettes so you can easily lay down a bunch of dive tanks safely and drive to the various dives sites.

Sabrina diving - not cold, trying to keep my hands in and not flail about

While walk in dives sites are a big attraction for most holiday divers, it wasn't so much for us. All we had to do was dive off the back of sv Honey Ryder. See, her bow was in about 25 ft of water at the mooring and her stern was in about 50 ft of water, right on top of the wall drop off. The wall runs all along the mooring field. In fact, pretty much around the island. No getting lost in underwater valleys that go this way and that. One world famous diver told me her favorite diving site "is just at the edge of the mooring field behind all you yachties. It's just lovely along there."

Tom diving

When we weren't diving off the back of the boat, we would hop in our dinghy and go to sites north and south of us.

Sabrina snorkeling in the National Park

Tom had 25 or so dives under his belt when we arrived. I only had 16 dives in my logbook. Diving in Bonaire gave us the chance to really develop our diving groove as partners and establish a routine for before, during and after. Invaluable, important experience.

Pic by Laura

We did do one shore dive together with Laura. Tom did his first wreck dive as well.

Laura the fish with the fish

There is a dive shop on every corner. We used Dive Friends at the Yellow Submarine, a great dive shop. Tank fills were $6. If they didn't have our tanks ready, we would just grab one of theirs.

So many fish

Stenapa is the official marine park office. There is a junior ranger program of the local kids, events, dives, talks and such. Additionally, there are a couple of coral farms and other interesting things - sv Blue Blaze helped move sponges on the Salt Pier as part of a sponge relocation project, very kewl!

Tom free diving down to check out the coral farm

We even did a night snorkel. Some super, duper glow in the dark shrimp/worm things were supposed to be out 30 mins after dark on the third night after the full moon. Did you catch all that? Well, Tom and I met up with sv Celilo and their visiting son Phillip to snorkel and see this phenomenon. We arrived at dusk and waited for the right time to slip into the water. Then we watched and waited. And waited and waited some more. It was our first time snorkeling at night and felt a bit weird. Honestly, it felt like a Snipe Hunt. Remember those when you were a kid? Usually a group of older kids (scouts) would take the younger ones out at night hunting for the elusive snipe, basically making them run around the woods or prairie like silly fools looking for an animal that didn't exist for the pure entertainment factor of the older kids. I even said to Mike at one point, "This feels like a Snipe Hunt." He snorted into his snorkel and mask but assured me that this was real. Finally, we saw some glow in the dark things firing up.

Tom heading to a night snorkel

sv Celilo - night snorkel

But you probably want to know specifically what the diving is like in Bonaire? FABULOUS!! The reefs looks good, with fish and sea life everywhere. We saw the most amazing creatures. And because the entire island is a protected marine park, there is an abundance of sea life. It is like diving in a big, fancy aquarium. Seriously! So kewl!

Laura getting ready for a dive at Klein Bonaire

We were lucky to be with sv Blue Blaze as Laura and Jason are master divers, commercial divers and Jason is a marine biologist. And we took full advantage of them. "Hey Jason, we saw a long, skinny fish that was green and blue with a hooked snout. What was that?" He would usually say "If it had blah and blah, that is a long snout whatever. Those are really cool because......." They pointed out the Yellow Jawfish to us. We had never seen one and didn't know what it was. "BTW, the male carries the eggs in it's mouth." Jason explained. WHAT! When Laura and I would go snorkeling together, she would spot something kewl and call me over "I am going to dive down and point something out" . I would follow along to see what she had spotted. Then we would surface and she would tell me what we were looking at and all about it. They also loaned us dive computers and helped fix some of our gear. Thank you sv Blue Blaze!!!!

Tom prepping for another dive

Actually, being around sv Blue Blaze and then on our own, we started slowing down on our dives and really looking. Not just at the big stuff but the little stuff as well. On one morning snorkel with Laura, I spotted THREE octopus!