Arranging truck and nitrox

[boat sju]

We rented from AB last year. Got a fairly new truck and with the full insurance we didn't worry about nicks and scratches either. We used AB because Buddy Dive was out of trucks. I was just comparing the prices last night and the way I see it, we're going to pay just as much to get a beater from BD this year as we paid for the nicer truck from AB. It will be a little more convenient because the truck will be at Caribbean Club waiting for us and we can just leave it there.

If I had to rent a truck independently of a Stay, Dive and Drive package I'd go with AB and full insurance.

 

[howswedeofme]

We just used AB with full insurance last week. The extra $8 a day for full insurance is worth it to me to not worry about any damage to the vehicle. AB was very nice, picked us up at the airport, and had us in a truck after about 20 minutes at the shop (3 other couples there renting at the same time). They're right up the road from Van den Tweel market and across from another market so you can get your groceries for the week right away if you want. The truck was a little older but we had no problems with it other than having to slam into gear pretty hard.

We stayed at Bonaire Exclusive, which we really enjoyed. We did not use the pool because it wasn't cleaned on the deck area but we also didn't go to Bonaire to sit by the pool. The only down side is that wifi is at a fee per hour (not crazy expensive, like $10 for 3 hours which lasted us the week) but still odd because almost everywhere else we looked at renting it was free. Only the houses in the front of the neighborhood get the wifi, as well. The more permanent neighbors were very friendly. We got 20% off our dive package with Dive Friends for staying there, and had a great week of shore dives and some boat dives with them. My only gripe with DF is that our nitrox mix was consistently low (29-30%). I think we only had one day where we got 32%. Not a huge deal, but annoying to have to keep reprogramming the computer First world problems, I know.

 

[rmorgan]

Swede, can you report on the water temps? Also, did you talk to DF about the low 0 on the nitrox blend? Thanks.

 

[cjibber]

Swede, can you report on the water temps? Also, did you talk to DF about the low 0 on the nitrox blend? Thanks.

We did 37 dives over the new year and the water temperature was 27 c on just about every dive.

We had no problems with the nitrox from Dive Friends. I think every tank was close enough to 32% that I did not change my computer once in the time we were there.

 

[rmorgan]

We did 37 dives over the new year and the water temperature was 27 c on just about every dive.

We had no problems with the nitrox from Dive Friends. I think every tank was close enough to 32% that I did not change my computer once in the time we were there.

Great news on both fronts, cjibber. Thank you.

 

[howswedeofme]

Water temps were great for me, but the husband got a little cold in his shorty. For the most part we were around 81F, but we had a couple dives that were 78-79F. I didn't have any reads above 81F the whole week. I didn't talk to DF about the low nitrox, the location we had as our main location (Yellow Sub) was always a bit chaotic and we wanted to get in and out as quickly as we could. The whole signout sheet had the same low mix, so our tanks weren't out of the ordinary, and just changed up the % in the computer. We were still able to do very long dives since we kept it generally to about 60 feet max depth, so it wasn't a big deal for us.

 

[wwguy]

We just returned from 3 weeks on Bonaire over the holidays and have used DFB for shore diving EAN fills for our past 15 weeks worth of diving on Bonaire. For the past several years their O2 blend has consistently been in the 31.5% to 32% range, but this last trip we did notice it fluctuating between 30% and 32%. We didn't complain because we didn't think it was warranted, not did it impact our diving. IMHO the whole point of checking the blend on every tank you check out is this exact scenario. Since it's not atmospheric air blend, variation in EAN blend is known and expected to fluctuate sometimes.

A simple and safe method for dealing with this is to set your computer for the lowest EAN O2 blend (e.g. 30%) and your MOD to the highest EAN O2 blend (e.g. 32%). The difference in bottom time and MOD is negligible, the profile is safe, and there's no need to keep adjusting your dive computer setting back and forth.

 

[spikeinleduc]

We have always rented from AB Carrent newer truck full insurance and zero problems. We use Dive Friends for tanks etc great outfit. We stay at Perla Boneriano, gated compound, 7 villas with a pool.