Last updated: 3/13/05

Check out individual dive profiles and notes for each trip/dive. Contains above water updates about resort/boat activities and logistics for each trip too.

Bonaire

This section includes individual Bonaire dive site notes and dive profiles by year - Also some photos:

• Bonaire - 2005 - First trip to Bonaire and Captain Don's Habitat

Bonaire - 2005

Diving: 

The weather let us dive almost exclusively on the West side and Klein Bonaire, although we tried to dive at Salt Pier on the South side one night! The viz was quite good to 40 ft with moderate viz to 60 or so. Some particulate in the water here and there did challenge us underwater photographers, but not too badly.

The boats were generally only moderately filled, with 12 or so divers on the first part of the week and 8 or 9 the latter part of the week. Nice...

House Reef (aka Captain Don's Reef): 

They have a 'house reef' in front of the resort where you can dive 24 hours a day; just grab a tank (free) and jump off the small dock!

Boats: 

They have two boats, one was 'Ocean Freedom' and the other wasn't. <g> They each hold about 22 divers.

Sunday 2-6-05

1st dive on house reef with Lynda - checked out weight, etc. - lots of critters

2nd dive – house reef with Lynda - brown spotted moray blue spotted moray – free swimming and about 4 ft long – had green tint to edge of fin - On the small wreck we saw several purple egg patches guarded by Sgt Majors. They're very aggressive for small fish – boat is 40-50’ deep – left of the guide line – saw large grouper with lure hanging from his mouth – LARGE black grouper – my first lizardfish – several soapfish – BIG boxfish/puffer/balloon – several trunkfish (juvenile to Adult) – spotted filefish – banded coral shrimp

We did dinner next door to resort at the Lion’s Den – Lynda and I had the prime rib. Don't remember what Bob had. <g>

Monday 2-7-05

1st boat dive – 11:15 – divermaster: Sherman – Nitrox 33% -
Site: BonAdventure

The divemaster pointed out a frogfish (yellow) but trashed several sponges with his console in the process – brown adult drum – black grouper – brown spot moray – 'Little' Karen managed the boat.

2nd Dive – Boat – Andrea I – North – Nitrox 32%

Several adult drums – 2 brown moray – one big one in a coral head with another smaller one free swimming (hunting) – it rained on the boat too This is the day we lost power in the a.m. – power back on about 6:00pm – rain today too

Tuesday 2-8-05

1st dive - 8:30 – Site:1,000 steps – not great visibility but obviously a great site – nice coral heads 

2nd dive - 6:30 p.m. Site: Salt Pier

Scheduled to meet Sherman at 6:30pm for drive to Salt Pier (Cargill) – had right form and stamp from harbormaster but ship was loading and we couldn’t dive – swell sets were coming in big too – tough entry/exit in the dark with unknown bottom – I had camera too – other couple backed out first then Lynda – we gave him $10 a piece to make up for it – couldn’t do town pier as cruise ships were docked there that night.

Wednesday 2-9-05

1st dive - Petrie’s Pillar – 11:15 – shot macro – this site just re-opened from being off-limits for several years to replenish – one of Capt’n Don’s original sites – octopus found by Sherman – flamingo tongues – banded coral shrimp - Borrowed extension o-ring from photo store – he didn’t charge me anything – I would have rented an entire set of tubes - Nice service!

2nd dive 2:00 – Small Wall – two sharp tailed eels – got one right in the framer for a (hopefully) portrait shot – a bigger one going from coral head to coral head with fish swarming over the head looking to eat anything he pops out. – Lynda showed me two turkeyfish (stonefish?) – nice wall to 60’ – brown moray, BIG – tried shot but only got part of his body with framer – lettuce leaf slugs – did macro shots of several nudibranches 

Thursday 2-10-05

1st dive – Weber’s Joy (Witche's Hut) – where the shore divers bombed me three times – they had the WHOLE ocean and needed to pick the 1 Square Foot around my head to dive in! – Saw nice flounder free swimming – lobster – Sm golden eel in coral head – Lynda posed for some shots in front of soft coral

2nd dive – Joanne’s Sunchi (Kiss) – Found nice anemone shrimp for guy with macro rig on; I shot wide angel – group of blue tangs grazing along the reef (like locusts) – flounders – sharp tailed eels – lots of sand just under the boat – three vertical sponges were nice guidepost back to the boat

Friday 2-11-05

No diving as I was traveling Saturday – We did the island tour instead – "Thanks Bob and Lynda" - wild donkey herd - Got the “Indian love call” by the male when I approached his mares too close - Wild Goats - Stopped at Gota Meer – watched the wind surfing while we had a beverage at Lay Bay - lunch by Lac Bay at Dutch restaurant – parrots on cactus – my topside camera died – walked down to 1000 steps to the beach and took pictures – Bob thought it would be nice to come back to picnic and snorkel here some time

(Access pictures from these dives in the photo gallery (future)

Tell me what you think. Questions or comments are always welcome!

Email me at timboyd1 at yahoo.com  
(you know how to put this together)

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