Trip Report Bonaire one week with Dive Friends

[SelfDiver]

Landed Friday on American Airlines flight from Miami at 2:30PM
- Pay your STINAPA nature fee of $40 here Bonaire Nature Fee | STINAPA - STINAPA
- Pay $75 tourist entry fee here Bonaire Visitor Tax Official Page
- There are some SCAM websites out there that steal your data
Budget rental car at the airport - please reply with better options. The people are nice. Trucks are fine. But the wait can be problematic. It is better if you can split the task of baggage claim and rental car.
Checked in to Hotel and drove straight to Dive Friends in Delfins Beach to check in. $210 Nitrox package for 6 days. $50/day for full gear rental including computer.
First dive was an hour later (16:30PM) to Alice in Wonderland 25meter [Dive # 1]
Saturday: Andrea 1 40m, The lake 24m, Angel City night dive and Ostracods 26m.[Dives 2-4]
Sunday: Oil Slick Leap 37m, Bari Reef (in the new park) 26m, Larry's lair 30m, Invisibles Night dive 24m. [Dives 5-8]
Monday: Andrea 2 38m, Bari Reef 22m, The Lake night dive 20m [Dives 9-11]
Tuesday: Margate Bay 30m, Hilma Hooker 29m, The Lake night dive 20m [Dives 12-14]
Wednesday: Karpata 42m, Red Slave (Saw the two eagle rays and a hawks-bill turtle) 20m, Weber's Joy UV night dive 19m. [Dives 15-17]
Thursday: Salt Pier 28m, Sebastian's reef 21m, The Cliff 20m, Angel City to Hilma hooker and back 30m [Dives18-21]

Total 21 Recreational dives on Nitrox (No deco).
5 Night dives.
- UV light rental is $12 per flashlight. Order them in advance and pick them up early in the day.
- We brought our own regular lights to test them out:
(1) New Model MK-05 100m/325ft Underwater 1000 Lumen Diving Torch-Video Light-www.seafrogs.cn
(2) Volador Dive Light 1000LM
(3) APLOS AP20 Dive Light, 2000 Lumens Scuba Diving Flashlight, IPX8 Waterproof Underwater Torch with Rechargeable Battery and Charger
- They all use 18650 rechargeable batteries in a USB-C 4 Bay Smart Universal Battery Charger
- For comparison: The SeaFrogs is the smallest, The Volador has a simple on/of switch, Aplos feels like the best built. They all have about the same brightness with a tight beam.
- For casual video: Suptig are cheap and good enough. Amazon B07BCC4VQW and Amazon B071CWNYCR
Both Suptig lights last at least an hour and good to 30m. Also good for lighting up the truck bed after the dive. They both have built-in MicroUSB charging connectors.
- $25-$35 cost per light and they are really small in the carry-on. They are useful for camping, hiking, whatever.
Water temps 28-29°C. Wetsuit - 3mm shorty just to prevent the gear from chafing
Dive times between 40-70 minutes.

We had sea wasps coming out of the night dive from Weber's joy.
Tights and long swim shirts are good for sun and sting protection.

 

[tursiops]

Sounds like you had a great week!
I'm sorry to read that Dive Friends at Delphins does not seem to be following the STINAPA (Marine Park) rules, which include:

• Orientation Dive: Begin your journey with a mandatory orientation dive upon arrival.

That usually means right in front of the resort, over sand/rubble, as an equipment and buoyancy/weight check. Alice in Wonderland would not really be within the guidelines, I don't think.

 

[ScottsdaleSteve]

Thursday: Salt Pier 28m

May I ask how/why you're doing a 28 meter (91 foot) dive at Salt Pier? 100% of the good stuff there is no deeper than maybe 50 feet max (14 meters), from the bottom of the pilings to the surface.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Some great diving!

For trucks, we’ve been using Prins. They will meet you at the airport with the truck for a quick check out, or, I believe, they will shuttle you from the airport to their office. I prefer the airport pickup, myself.

Much like @tursiops I’m surprised that Dive Friends didn’t require an orientation and checkout dive. They are very strict about is at the Sand Dollar location.

Anyway, sounds like it was a great time.

Erik

 

[SelfDiver]

Some great diving!

For trucks, we’ve been using Prins. They will meet you at the airport with the truck for a quick check out, or, I believe, they will shuttle you from the airport to their office. I prefer the airport pickup, myself.

Much like @tursiops I’m surprised that Dive Friends didn’t require an orientation and checkout dive. They are very strict about is at the Sand Dollar location.

Anyway, sounds like it was a great time.

Erik

There was an instructor on check dive.
There was orientation, check weighting, DSMB, STINAPA payment verification and other rules for diving (no gloves or knee pads).
In February the check dive was at the Salt pier and last year it was inside Delfins from the dock.
Some divers were saying that Wannadive did a check dive in Eden Beach. The Dive Friends place with rental UV lights did it at Yellow submarine. It looks like you can do the check dive anywhere but I am not 100% sure.
Maybe you can ask the shop you are renting from to do it in a specific place?

@ScottsdaleSteve for the Salt Pier dive it is 28 meters to the sand.
Went down to the sand at 26 meters and started going up the slope to 20 ish meters.
There is a tion of interesting stuff on the slope.

I did one little jump down to 28 meters to take a picture of a Stingray in the sand.

Then went up to the top and made our way back the opposite direction. Swam back at 70 minutes on the sandy area looking for turtles.
Out of the water 77 minutes.

@tursiops next trip is planned for April. Want to come?

 

[tursiops]

There was an instructor on check dive.
There was orientation, check weighting, DSMB, STINAPA payment verification and other rules for diving (no gloves or knee pads).
In February the check dive was at the Salt pier and last year it was inside Delfins from the dock.
Some divers were saying that Wannadive did a check dive in Eden Beach. The Dive Friends place with rental UV lights did it at Yellow submarine. It looks like you can do the check dive anywhere but I am not 100% sure.
Maybe you can ask the shop you are renting from to do it in a specific place?

@ScottsdaleSteve for the Salt Pier dive it is 28 meters to the sand.
Went down to the sand at 26 meters and started going up the slope to 20 ish meters.
There is a tion of interesting stuff on the slope.
View attachment 873645
I did one little jump down to 28 meters to take a picture of a Stingray in the sand.
View attachment 873646
Then went up to the top and made our way back the opposite direction. Swam back at 70 minutes on the sandy area looking for turtles.
Out of the water 77 minutes.

@tursiops next trip is planned for April. Want to come?

Thanks, that sounds good. And unusual! In may places the orientation is in two parts...one on land (with rules and regs) and one as a simple dive by yourself, no staff with you.

 

[tursiops]

@tursiops next trip is planned for April. Want to come?

I'll be there with a group in June, but thanks. We stay at Buddy Dive.

 

[Brant Emery]

My wife and I will be going next week and are curious if the sea horses are still prevalent?

 

[Doctorfish]

I've done many trips to Bonaire and my experience has been that at the dive shop, they check your Stinapa certificate and or sell you one, and then give a land based orientation. I've never had a check out dive monitored in any way.