bonaire night diving?

[SDAnderson]

I've got a handful of Princeton Tec Aqua strobes - they're reasonably small with a user changeable AA battery. They aren't the brightest light but sometimes that can be preferable.

I've also got a couple of Tectite Xenon 300 strobes - more $ and much bigger but a heck of a lot more light. 3 "C" cell batteries that you can change. They work very well at the bottom of the mooring line or as a place marker on the reef in lower viz conditions.

There are some new LED lights out there that I don't have any first hand experience with - though they seem like they might be a good idea if they put out enough lumens at the shorter end of the spectrum.

All underwater strobes should float, but that's a good question to ask. I don't bring weights along, I'm happy tying them off to some (non-living) substrate with a little bit of line.

Check your local dive shop or the online places.

 

[DrSteve]

You guys keep mentioning strobes.
Some tied off at the bouy.
Others tied off at depth.
a) what model/brand are you talking about? I'm looking for something with user-replaceable, common batteries.
b) are they positively or negatively bouyant? I think someone even mentioned bringing your own weight to hold them down. But I'd think that was a no-no in bonaire.

There are also cheaper ones...INNOVATIVE LAZER STICK can be found for about 12 dollars anywhere (including scuba.com). The batteries run about 2-3 dollars to replace, but they last a long time.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

There are also sections of reef along Bonaire that have scientific research grid laying on them, kind of like a checkerboard made of rebar along the slope of the reef. We used that as our natural navigation reference, as one was right by where we stayed, and my understanding is there are a number of these around Bonaire - although we didn't see any on any other site we dove while we were there. It sure made night dives a breeze for finding our way back, no matter what critters we were engrossed in watching.

 

[Flsunshine]

I was in Bonaire 3 years ago, and our best night dives were on the "house reef" outsiide the Lions Dive Resort. We would leave at dusk and come back in the dark - great dives and it's easier to exit at the dock than to shore. After you come back, you can sit on the dock and watch all the lights moving underwater as other groups return - almost as good as the dive itself.

 

[DrSteve]

I haven't had a chance to post a full trip report yet, but I do have some comments which may help you. Maybe I'm just weird, but I thought the night diving in Bonaire was pretty boring. The only real influx of night life was the tiny bait fish circling my light beam. We did night dives at Oil Slick, Buddys (the best), Something Special and The Invisibles. All decent dives, but not a patch on the ones we did out of Grand Bahama (but having said that, the day diving in the northern Bahamas was absolute crap).

Something important I learned if you are diving a site which is not lit by buildings. Put a marker light/light stick/strobe on the bumbper of your truck. You'll easily be able to see it when you get out. When we dove Oil Slick we didn't leave a marker as we thought the entry steps would be easy to see...well combined with attack of the thimble jellyfish and some minor fog we missed the exit. Thankfully we found a cove a bit further up and made our exit there.

Just FYI - fave dives for us were Hilma Hooker, Invisibles, Aquarius, Atlantis and Alice in Wonderland