Boat diving in Bonaire?

[simonds]

I realize there are boat dives to Klein Bonaire, but do any of the dive operators make regular boat dives up to sites like Karpata and 1000 Steps? We're too old now to drag our gear down and up those steps.

 

[lmorin]

Bonaire Dive and Adventure boats have a sign-up list and the first person signing gets to pick, more or less, where the boat goes. The captains do listen to requests and they also get tired of going repeatedly to just Klein Bonaire. BDA has taken us to Small Wall and Kalli's Reef to the north and Hilma Hooker and Angel City to the south. Toucan Dive from the Plaza took us all the way south to about Margate Bay for a drift dive (not sure of the exact location). All our diving at the Plaza was from a boat (2 tank trips), except for the dives on the house reef. Just ask. I think you will be accommodated.

 

[robint]

We stayed at Buddy Dive, and they let us request dive sites and if everyone on the boat agreed, we went.
We did Karpata and Rappel as boat dives and they were both fantastic. I heard that another group did the Hilma Hooker as a boat dive while we were there.

 

[diversteve]

We dove Rappel with Toucan. It's virtually impossible to shore dive. Oil Slick Leap would be another one - there's a ladder to get out. Most of the shoredive sites are also boat dives. Bonaire Diving Information--Dive Sites

Small Wall is another boat dive only - unless you get permission from Black Durgon Inn to cross their private property.

Buddy does a 3-tank into Slagbaai park now. That's the way I'd do it - the roads are bad.
NEW! Washington Slagbaai Park Safari

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[chauncy19]

simonds,
Carib Inn does boat dives. I did several with them in 2009. Great and highly recommend them.
small group of less than 10 but small uncovered boats. go where there is group consensus. south , north and klein. also very cost effective. you don't have to stay there to dive with them. would dive with them again if required, i usually shore dive. Have also done 2 klein dives with wannadive out of eden beach location.

 

[Damselfish]

big secret of Bonaire that's unclear from this board - if you don't want to shore dive, you can boat dive pretty much anyplace, not just Klein Bonaire. That's what we always did. We've dove 1000 Steps and Karpata and sites in all areas with a couple ops. Didn't even have to ask it was part of their normal schedule.

 

[bkpix]

We did only one boat dive when we were there last month, and the way it went, that was enough!

I don't know if the DM was very inexperienced or if it was the entire crew, but when we got to the dive site they wanted to dive, instead of the DM evaluating what the conditions were, he got everyone into the water and had us swimming against a fairly strong current. It was like doing a dive in a swim spa.........absolutely ridiculous! We, along with everyone else on the boat who were scheduled to do the next boat dive cancelled.

 

[Damselfish]

what site in Bonaire even had a strong current?

 

[diversteve]

Vista Blue in the afternoon was one. It was ripping, the fans were folded over flat. We kicked against it about 15mins, let it blow us back to the entry point and got out. Didn't seem bad on the surface. I've heard Sweet Dreams and the Lighthouse can be similar.

 

[simonds]

Thanks to everybody. It sounds as though we have several options for boat diving. We haven't been to Bonaire since 1992, so things have obviously changed.