Bonaire vs Curacao

[Flutter]

@tkaelin , good to know. We may have to check out the East End yet, although we currently fly direct to the Brac (my husband is a GA pilot). I believe GC has quite a few shore dive sites, probably more than Brac, which my spouse prefers due to his sea sickness tendency (not being in control - ha!). Where as - I am used to being tossed around, so it makes no difference to me (rough skies vs rough seas). Thanks.

 

[tarponchik]

@Flutter Thanks for the info! I'll email you over the weekend, dog tired today. GC is not that urbanized, only in the west. However, shore diving is very limited. They have Turtle Reef, they have the reef at Cobalt resort, and this is it. The Eden Reef is right in the city. It wasn't good already 10 years ago, and now their reef is reportedly damaged by ship anchor. Someone here described to me shore diving in the NE but he swam out a mile on surface. So if you'd like shore + boat diving, GC is great; if you only want shore diving, you'll be bored in 3 days. The only other place in the world except Bonaire and Curacao that I know where you can spend time shore diving endlessly is the Big Island of Hawaii.

 

[jimw]

CocoView Resort on Roatan has very good shore diving on their house reef and they drop one off after the single tank boat dives so that one may dive back to the resort.....There are a few more similar resorts on Roatan.

In the Pacific, there are great house reefs at numerous locations.

But you are correct in that there are few places one can drive along the shore and pick a spot. I've been to the big island and Bonaire--as we get older, we do boat dives and some shore dives out front of the resort.

 

[tarponchik]

@Flutter I just carry the dive flag (simple inflatable one) on a 50 ft string with a 2-ponder lead weight on the other end. I do not use the whole string, just about 30 ft. I drop it at around 25-30 ft depth where it stays anchored, then pick it up on the way back. So you don't even need a mooring line. I consider dive flags to be rather a hazard than safety because they affect your buoyancy, drag you along cause they work as sails, distract you, limit your freedom of hands and entangle you.