Bonaire's Future

[dcdev]

Resurrecting thread with a cellphone pic my friend just sent me from the Divi Flamingo (which is right next to the town pier if I remember correctly). Thought folks would be interested. The closer dock is the Divi dive dock where the lockers are, the boats pick you up, and you enter to visit the house reef (Callabas?))
Is it me or is that thing parked awfully close to shore / reef?

 

[oly5050user]

Resurrecting thread with a cellphone pic my friend just sent me from the Divi Flamingo (which is right next to the town pier if I remember correctly). Thought folks would be interested. The closer dock is the Divi dive dock where the lockers are, the boats pick you up, and you enter to visit the house reef (Callabas?))
Is it me or is that thing parked awfully close to shore / reef?

Looks WAY TOO close..I wouldn't want to be in the water at that time..Cruise ships screwed up Grand Cayman so that when you are inn the water near eden rock all you hear is noise from their launch boats.You cannot even dive the harbor area anymore on the Balboa,used to be a great night dive.I feel that a multitude of ships coming and going into Bonaire will be the end of a way of life there.

 

[tvictory]

I think this pic has got to be either an illusion or a manipulated image. It's definitely the Divi dive dock but I don't think the authorities would permit any diving so (apparently) close to such a big ship. Perhaps the ship was just underway heading south from the town pier?

I have to say I was already questioning whether I would ever return to Bonaire but this is pretty stark.

 

[dcdev]

The only manipulation of the image was to resize it down to 320x240. It has been retouched in no other way. It was taken some time around noon today by a friend of mine who is staying there. I will ask him to grab a shot with a real camera if he's not out having fun as opposed to reading emails. Seriously, I've better things to do than fake pics of cruise ships.

 

[tvictory]

Dev,

I wasn't suggesting that you faked a photo and I apologize if that's how my message sounded.

 

[dcdev]

No prob - guess I was in a mood after looking how close that thing was parked to the reef. :11:
Hopefully my friend will get me another pic before the boat leaves - if not, I'll replace the 320x240 with the larger version - it really does look close to me, although you're right - it could be the angle.

 

[13x]

That was my pic. We were eating lunch at the balashi bar when that monstrosity pulled in. The ship was maneuvering to tie up when I took that shot. It's actually a little further away from the reef now. But not much. This is a shot from my room. Sorry for the blurry image, it's past sunset.

 

[georoc01]

My guess is that its the Celebrity Summit out of San Juan

Package Detail Ship

In looking at the Cruise Critic website, there are reviews of ships going to Bonaire as far as back as 2000. So this is nothing new.

The fact is the Bonaire is so far south in the Caribbean that its not going to be a major destination like Cozumel. You need to be on a 10+ day trip out of Florida or a 7 day out of San Juan to get there. That in itself will reduce the overall number. Its not like Cozy that gets ships from all over the Gulf coming there.

 

[tedtim]

....all you hear is noise from their launch boats.

We were diving the house reef at the Divi during the last two weeks of November when a cruise ship was headed into port. Never mind the noise from any lauch boats, the noise from the ship itself was horrible. We were suprized the fish did not high tail it.

Our dive was around 70 minutes long. The noise kept getting louder throughout the whole dive. When it subsided it was suddenly very quiet. What a difference.

 

[reefdiva]

In looking at the Cruise Critic website, there are reviews of ships going to Bonaire as far as back as 2000. So this is nothing new.

It is true that cruise ships are not new to Bonaire. However, what is new this year is the number, size and multiples on one day.