Boat diving in Bonaire...worthwhile?

[PharmDMark]

Hello,

Buddy Dive in Bonaire offers 1 boat trip daily, with unlimited shore dives. Is it worth the little extra to take the boat trip, or is it better to devote the whole day to shore diving on your own schedule?

What say you??:huh:

Thanks,
Mark

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board.
Personally, I don't bother with boat dives on Bonaire, I much prefer to do my own schedule. Once in a while we will do one or 2 to Klien Bonaire (a small island about 1 mile off the main island) but we never buy the package. There are some nice dives on Klien Bonaire that are worth doing but with a few exceptions, the "mainland" dives the boats do, you can shore dive the same spots. I often use the boat mooring blocks as my entry/exit marker. Don't assume the boat dives are better than the shore dives, they are not. If anything, the shore dives are better IMO. Most ops want you back at the boat in an hour, my average shore dive is 75 minutes and some go as long as 90. At Buddy, all you have to do to add a dive is to sign up for it on their dive boards and it's added to you bill so adding one or 2 is very simple. You run a tab with the dive shop anyway so it's no big deal. The per dive cost for the 6 dive package is a little less but not by much. The single dive is in the $25 range. A word of caution (?), a lot of times the boats at Buddy fill up quick so if you want to do boat dive, reguardless of wheather you have a package or not, you need to sign up early. Most people who have packages will sign up for the next dive as soon as the boat returns to the dock. It is possible to have a package and have difficulty getting on a boat. Another reason we choose not to bother with boat dives.
Buddy is a greaty operation. Super staff both at the dive shop and the resort, you will enjoy your stay.
Pat Puck the resort dog on the head for me.

 

[Ann Marie]

Depends really on what you want to see.

I wanted to see a Sea Horse and Frogfish. Without taking a DM to point them out, I would not have found them myself (and I looked, every dive. Just not lucky on that trip).

Otherwise, I think that there are enough dive sites to go to without taking a boat. We were doing 4-5 dive a day and the boat kind of slowed us down.

My recommendation would to be to do a day of boat diving when you first get there...maybe day 1, (if you want to see a frog fish or sea horse ask, they usually know where to find them as they don't move around too much). If you like it, then schedule more otherwise hit the shore dives. My favorites were Witches Hut and Karpata. (I know there were more but can't remember the names off hand). You can also ask the boat to take you to Klein Bonaire, something that you can't reach from Bonaire when shore diving. If you are taking a boat, make sure they go somewhere you can access when shore diving.

 

[ETnScuba]

I just returned from my first Bonaire adventure last week. On the advise of SB members, I did not book a boat dive package but did book one boat dive to Klein Bonaire once I completed my orientation. I was not disappointed. The trip to Klein was a wonderful experience, but my favorite sites were on Bonaire. I also liked Witch's Hut (easy entry with lots of color), but my two favorites were Angel City (amazing coral formations) and Red Beryl (a spotted eagle ray swam right beside me and my buddy).
Have fun on your trip!

As Herman said - sign up for the boat dive early because they do fill up quickly. This rather surprised be because of the ease and variety of the shore diving.

 

[SteveFass]

Isn't The Hooker (wreck dive that bottoms at 100 ft depth) much easier as a boat dive? I did it twice as a boat dive (I recommend it by the way). My friends had a little more energy and also did it as a shore dive, but it sounded like the surface swim was kinda long. Though they also said it wasn't crowded when they went.

I'm with ETn though that next time I wouldn't care whether I made a trip over to Klein. I'd be just as happy either way.

 

[skynscuba]

We didn't find the Hooker to be a long swim from shore. I'm not a strong swimmer, and my girlfriend is less so. She doesn't like to snorkle, so we ususally swim in and out on our regulators. If there happened to be a lot of current, it might get a bit long.

We did all shore dives when in Bonaire for a week. We really enjoyed the lack of schedule. If I had been there for two weeks, or if it had not been my first trip to Bonaire, I would have found time for a couple of boat dives to Klein.

 

[herman]

Isn't The Hooker (wreck dive that bottoms at 100 ft depth) much easier as a boat dive? I did it twice as a boat dive (I recommend it by the way). My friends had a little more energy and also did it as a shore dive, but it sounded like the surface swim was kinda long. Though they also said it wasn't crowded when they went.

I'm with ETn though that next time I wouldn't care whether I made a trip over to Klein. I'd be just as happy either way.

Not really, we do it from shore all the time. Even on nitrox we are at NDL before running low on air and the return part of the dive makes a really nice long deco stop. I take a heading on the center bouy and head out.

 

[PharmDMark]

Thanks for all your comments! I was leaning toward fewer boat dives and your experiences help. Another question comes to mind though.

Is there any requirement for shore divers to have a dive flag?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[herman]

Nope, all boat traffic is required to keep out in the blue water and only idle speed is allowed closer to shore. The boat ops are very good about looking for divers.
Lets see if I can guess you next question.
What about the checkout dives?....The checkout dive is nothing more than you doing your first dive in front of the resort so you can check out your equipment and get your weighting down. No one comes along or watches.

There are a bunch of hints, tips and list of favorite places that have been posted on this board over the years, a search on Bonaire will give you hours of reading. Also, come join us on the Bonaire board, any and everything Bonaire can be found there. www.bonairetalk.com

 

[Dragon2115]

Just returned from Bonaire. The serface swim to the Hilma is a piece-of-cake. It just looks long. Just take your time and enjoy the scenary. After all, it's not a race.

As for boat dives I mostly agree with the others. You can dive for a week on Bonaire without ever setting foot on a boat and have a great time. Klein does have some good sites (I particularly like Bonaventure) but it's not like they're that much different from the the main reef that you can reach from shore. However, having said that I also have tell about a dive that we did last week from the boat that was great. We dropped in at Bloodlet and swam north through the Rapel site and on up to La Dania's Leap where the boat picked us up. That was a 70 minute dive that went through some of the best hard coral stands I've seen on Bonaire so far. That area has huge coral heads with tons of crevices and holes in the coral with lots of things hiding in them.

My point is don't go boat diving just to go boat diving. Use the boat to get you to special spots that you wouldn't have the chance to see otherwise.