rjchandler
Contributor
Are the 17th and 20th travel days? You may not be able to dive on the day you arrive if you are dealing with a resort that does checkout/orientations at a set time each day.
Bonaire shore diving
- Thread starter land luber
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Just about any resort/condo you stay at will have a dive package with somebody. Most also have one that includes the truck. Some even add in the insurance.
As laurel said, at GRI you'll want a truck. They're a little too far to walk to the water - with gear. They're just east of the rotary but the diveops in that area are all perpendicular to the water (except Sand $) so it's quite a walk to the ocean - no beach there as it's all ironshore. And you're also a few minutes north of town, most of the affordable restaurants, the bigger foodstores etc. Although there is a little market just past the rotary also. And the Lover's Ice cream store. Not a lot of cabs on Bonaire either and no other public transportation - it's just too small.
Most of the orientations are done in the morning. At the smaller resorts you might be able to get a personalized one on your schedule. One of the best was BD&A's, their naturalist gave it. I was doing an SI so sat through about 20mins. of it, it was a lot better than ours had been. But you'll probably kill the better part of your first morning doing it and your checkout dive. So if there's an 11:00 or 1:00 boat you could be on those.
If you plan to dive the piers, I'd set that up before you go. There's a limited number of slots and almost all the diveops do them. If a boat is loading at Salt Pier, you won't be able to dive there.
I'd add Witches Hut to the list of north dives that were an easier entry. You can also park close to the water there. 1000 Steps is 64 rock steps down to the water. It's easy going down...lol.
You might do a day north and a day south. Good south sites with easier entries are Bachelors Beach, Angel City, Alice In Wonderland or Invisibles (just past Salt Pier)
Anything farther south is going to be (mostly) advanced diving. From White Slave to the Lighthouse. In the afternoon you may be the only ones in the area also - we were more than once. So heed the warnings about windows down (coral rubble breaks them nicely) and not leaving anything of value in your truck. (except tanks)
As laurel said, at GRI you'll want a truck. They're a little too far to walk to the water - with gear. They're just east of the rotary but the diveops in that area are all perpendicular to the water (except Sand $) so it's quite a walk to the ocean - no beach there as it's all ironshore. And you're also a few minutes north of town, most of the affordable restaurants, the bigger foodstores etc. Although there is a little market just past the rotary also. And the Lover's Ice cream store. Not a lot of cabs on Bonaire either and no other public transportation - it's just too small.
Most of the orientations are done in the morning. At the smaller resorts you might be able to get a personalized one on your schedule. One of the best was BD&A's, their naturalist gave it. I was doing an SI so sat through about 20mins. of it, it was a lot better than ours had been. But you'll probably kill the better part of your first morning doing it and your checkout dive. So if there's an 11:00 or 1:00 boat you could be on those.
If you plan to dive the piers, I'd set that up before you go. There's a limited number of slots and almost all the diveops do them. If a boat is loading at Salt Pier, you won't be able to dive there.
I'd add Witches Hut to the list of north dives that were an easier entry. You can also park close to the water there. 1000 Steps is 64 rock steps down to the water. It's easy going down...lol.
You might do a day north and a day south. Good south sites with easier entries are Bachelors Beach, Angel City, Alice In Wonderland or Invisibles (just past Salt Pier)
Anything farther south is going to be (mostly) advanced diving. From White Slave to the Lighthouse. In the afternoon you may be the only ones in the area also - we were more than once. So heed the warnings about windows down (coral rubble breaks them nicely) and not leaving anything of value in your truck. (except tanks)
OP
land luber
Registered
Thanks again for all the help!
We just booked out tickets.
Flying in the night of 8/27 (through CUR) and leaving 8/31. So we'll have the 3 days (non travel) of diving. It would be 4 days but my better half insists on a day/night in Willemstad to
"tolerate" all this diving
We just booked out tickets.
Flying in the night of 8/27 (through CUR) and leaving 8/31. So we'll have the 3 days (non travel) of diving. It would be 4 days but my better half insists on a day/night in Willemstad to
"tolerate" all this diving
salth2owannabe
Contributor
If you haven't booked a place to stay I would also throw out Coral Paradise, check out their web site. The Treadaways are great folks, and a very nice place to stay. They coordinate your diving portion with Capt. Dons, which is right out their back door. They are centrally located and have nice dive sites very close. Night diving is very easy at Don's house reef. From what I saw, Capt. Don's is also very flexible in giving the marine park orientation talk so if you come in at an odd hour they would probably be able to get you off and diving.
Shore diving couldn't be easier then on Bonaire. A typical dive we would decide which way we wanted to go once we reached depth. Never found any current on any of the dives so that didn't come into play. We would swim straight out from the entrance, go to depth, and parallel the shore. When we had used about 2/3 tank we would swim up to the upper edge of the reef (about 20'-30') and return under water in the reverse direction. After a couple of dives we could gauge it really well to be back at the entrance and finish out the tank.
Have Fun!
Shore diving couldn't be easier then on Bonaire. A typical dive we would decide which way we wanted to go once we reached depth. Never found any current on any of the dives so that didn't come into play. We would swim straight out from the entrance, go to depth, and parallel the shore. When we had used about 2/3 tank we would swim up to the upper edge of the reef (about 20'-30') and return under water in the reverse direction. After a couple of dives we could gauge it really well to be back at the entrance and finish out the tank.
Have Fun!
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The Marriott is really nice...It would be 4 days but my better half insists on a day/night in Willemstad to "tolerate" all this diving
LaiLaiDiver
Registered
Land Luber - I'll be there from 8/16 - 8/31... perhaps we can meet up for a dive? I'm AOW with only about 10 more dives than you guys! Feel free to send me a message if you'd like...
CLEAR BLUE
Contributor
In 3 full days of diving you can probably get 12 dives in easy. As previously said,,,,navigation is easy as the reef runs parallel to shore . we would surface swim out to the mooring and get a compass reading on our entry point. Would then descend and check the depth. Would swim into the current until 1500 psi. Would then turn around and gradually work our way up to the depth of the mooring. We would run right into the mooring and then follow our compass bearing into shore (there is always good things to see over the sand, too). Don't miss Oil Slick Leap. That was my favorite. Also, we stayed at GRI. There is no possible way that you could walk to the water...especially with dive gear.
See my trip report entry I just made (7/31-8/10) for some dive site conditions. I agree totally about thick sole booties. Bring your compass and dive watch. Most of the time you swim straight out to the reef then make a right or left turn depending on current and time your swim. Many times its a 5 minute swim out from shore, 15 or 20 down the reef, then back, then back in. You may wish to consider not trying some of the park sites and down toward the lighthouse ans the currents are challenging. Some shore entries can be challenging and you and buddy will want to assist each other walking in and putting on fins.
Check out the Lonely Planet book on Bonaire as it describes most of the sites to a tee.
Check out the Lonely Planet book on Bonaire as it describes most of the sites to a tee.
agilulfo
Contributor
Have you factored in a 24 hour surface interval before flying out of Bonaire? Depending on the time your flight leaves Bonaire on 8/31 you may not be able to dive on 8/30. That would leave you with 2 days of diving.
OP
land luber
Registered
I'll dive the last day no problem. 18 Hours after flying is the recommendation by DAN for repetitive dives. That leaves plenty of time for third day diving. Also, the 18 hours allows for standard cabin pressure of commercial flights at 8000 feet. I'll only be headed back to curacao on a puddle jumper, not likely to get anywhere near that high (though okay by DAN's standard even if it did).
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