Most of the shore dives follow a similar profile. What we do is to enter the water and surface swim out maybe 50 ft from shore to where the water is around 10 ft deep, decend and head out straight out. The bottom will gradually drop to around 35 ft where it will do a 60deg or better drop to anywhere from 80 ft to over 300 depending on where you are on the island. This dropoff is very obvious and the distance from the shore to the dropoff varies greatly, with the dropoffs a lot closer (and deeper) on the north end of the island. We go to the drop off, head up current,do 1/2 of our dive into the current and ride it back to the exit point. The current can be anywhere from almost 0 to mild. We rarely go deeper than 40 ft with 2 exceptions, the double reef at "Alice in Wonderland" and the Hilma Hooker, both are in the 100ft range. On the return we follow the reef dropoff back to a point straight out from shore from our truck, do a 180 from our entry heading and slowly work our way back to the exit. We typically spend at least 15 to 20 minutes in the 15 to 20 ft water as there is quite a bit of life in the shallows and make a great deco stop. If you have air remaining, why not. I rarely surface with more than 500 psi but you are in 15 ft of water and 30 ft from shore so it's no big deal. Our typical dive is 40 ft max and 75 to 90 minutes.
Here is how I navigate on Bonaire, it works very well and if you keep it to yourself, your buddies will be amazed at your nav skills.
1. take a heading straight out from shore, decend and follow the heading until you see the dropoff. You will be in 25 to 35 ft of water.
2.look around and find something odd you can remember like a big rock or coral head and NOTE THE EXACT DEPTH- this is important. This is your exit marker.
3. using the fish and coral as a guide, start your dive into the current.
4 note the time it takes you to get to your turn pressure- we use 1500 psi, turn and follow the reef dropoff back. It will take you a good bit less time and air to get back to your return point.
5 As you head back to your return spot, start slowly working your way away from the dropoff and into shallower water until you reach the EXACT depth where you noted your exit marker- the coral head/rock/whatever. Hold this depth looking for your exit marker. The depths on Bonaire reefs are fairly constant so if you are at the right depth you will pass very close to your exit marker. When you find it, do a 180 from your entry heading and head in. Pay attention to the current and add a few degrees of correction if you need to. At 10 to 15 ft I will usually pop up and make sure I am on course.
I can usually get within 20 or 30 ft of my exit.
You may want to carry some form of marker to drop at the dropoff. I use a small plastic med bottle with 10 ft of line on it and a couple of lengths of plastic flagging tape on the line. It rolls up nicely, fits into a BC pocket-lid removed. To deploy I let some exhuast bubbles into the bottle, screw on the cap and release it. I tie it off to a rock on the bottom. It's small, cheap and works great...
And here is another idea for you. At home, bore 3 or 4 small holes in a soda bottle lid and when on Bonaire, save an empty 2 or 3 L drink bottle. Fill the bottle with water and put it in the sun before the dive. Put the lid with the holes in it after the dive and you have an inexpensive solar shower. It feels really nice after the dive.
