Bonaire non-guided night dive location suggestions

[sffrenchman]

We did several night dives at Salt Pier, Winsock and Cliff (in front of the villa we were renting) in September. It was very nice. The tarpons were everywhere and really liked the lights for hunting!

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

When I dove at night, I saw a dearth of fish, not sure if it is because of the tarpons, whom seems to eat up any fish that is not smart enough to dart away when the light is shone on them. With no lobster or crab walking around or eels or octopus swimming in the open, I noticed the corals and their nighttime feeding alot more, plus all the things hiding inside and under the corals.

 

[akirawut]

You could really night dive anywhere that doesn't have a tricky entry/exit without a guide. This might mean no dice on some of the northern sites.

The diving and navigation is so easy there, it's pretty well a non issue.

 

[Paleo]

Am in Bonaire now. Of the night dives the two that stand out so far are Front Porch and The Cliff.

Front Porch - easy entry with the reef, while not being in good shape, has a lot of invertebrates out at night. Saw many Yellowline Arrow Crab - on one sponge there must have been nearly a dozen.

The Cliff - can enter from Hamlet Oasis where there is a public access walk to stairs and a pocket beach. Easy entry with a nice channel through fire coral to the left (looking out) between the tree and first large rock in the water. Nice small vertical wall, though I have seen little other than the usual cast of characters.

While not a night dive the surprise this trip has been Oil Slick. A lot of uncommon sightings:
Huge school of Bigeye Scad with Giant Barracuda hanging around the edges (looking well fed).
Several juvenile Trunkfish looking like levitating spotted marbles.
Small school of Atlantic Bumper in the cave behind the ladder (at least that is what they look like to me, but have a picture and will key down).
Blackbar Drum.
Yellowtail Hamlet (never thought I'd see that Hamlet here).
Spotfin Butterflyfish - while I know these are not all that uncommon, the yellow color on the pair of adults I saw was striking.

This past week the current South has been heavy. In particular Red Slave was ripping. Even from the surface you could see a wall of heavy current coming off the tip of the island and creating a very heavy southward current across Red Slave as an eddy. Not for people who cannot handle diving in current at depth.

Will provide a better report once home (with pics, I hope). Any advice on posting pics?

Anyway, one last item - If you dive NITROX because of a lot of dives during a day, Buddy Dive has oversold their support. I've only gotten half the tanks I would like and had to dive air. Have seen many trucks at their station without a NITROX card taking those tanks. So, if you do actually need to use EAN look for a different outfit.

 

[chucksaul]

Will be there Saturday... Any thing special we should know such as water temps, etc...

Thanks

Charlie and Donna

 

[WoodyLompoc]

Thanks for the report Paleo. That stinks about the Nitrox situation, and this is the week BEFORE the Thanksgiving rush. I hope our OP has a good supply for next week. Trips like these are why we went for the Nitrox cert.

 

[Paleo]

Water temp has been a steady 82 - 84 F. We have had strong currents and large swells at the far southern sites at times so tired of being beaten-up we stayed north. Today was the first time that we actually had almost unnoticeable current in two weeks, and having consistent current seems odd for Bonaire.

Our last dive for our trip was to Tolo (Ol' Blue). Found lots of Spotted Drums hiding in the reef and one huge old Midnight Parrotfish that just cruised past us. Susan keeps on finding juvenile trunk fish but every time I try to sneak up on one they must see the big lens of my camera and start playing hide and seek.

Did not get to check out a colony of jawfish at Cliff, but if you dive and see them, let me know. Again, a fish that you need to be quiet to sneak up on.