You guys are putting way too much thought into this. 78 to 79 degrees water temp in Bonaire is "cold" and 82 to 83 degrees is "hot". 77 is arctic and 84 is hell. Most of the time it's in the 79 to 82 degree range. Year round.
Dive early. Dive often.
Don't know about 84 being hell. Our swimming pool is currently at 94 and I love the way it feels. I can actually get chilled if I spend a few hours in the water at that temperature. In fact, I did when we were doing our DM classes last summer.
I noticed on my Bonaire pictures that I alternated between my 3mm at the beginning of the week and first dives of the day and my 5 ml for later dives of the day, night dives and all the dives later in the week.
I guess I have a broken thermostat?
But, for some reason I also can't tolerate the heat, at all, which makes me miserable in AZ. I actually love cold/cool weather, being from CO. I love snow and rain. Maybe not the 30 below that we saw up in WY sometimes when I was stationed there.
---------- Post added July 29th, 2013 at 08:49 AM ----------
cant wait to get back! we had a blast the first time and now we know our way around which will help allot. We are cooking for our meals this time in the apartment we rented. food last time was very pricey for marginal quality. We travel to dive not to eat so it really make no difference. look forward to the first day of diving followed by several beers!!! WOOO!!
Take a little soft-sided cooler. That way, you can pack stuff for lunch when you go out diving on the farther reaches of the island. We love to load up with three tanks each and a picnic lunch. Plenty of cold drinks, some tropical fruit, cheese, bread or crackers, maybe some hard boiled eggs. Maybe a couple of beers for after the last dive, if not planning a night dive, which was pretty rare but happened on the longer days.
It was especially great to have the cooler when we went up to Slagbaai for diving, since that's such a long day.
Don't forget some chem lights or strobe lights for night diving! Very important for places like Oil Slick, where you have to find the right spot for your exit.
