drrich2
Contributor
Hi:
Made it to Bonaire the last week of August 2012. Stayed at Dive Hut, which uses WannaDive as the dive op., so we often dropped by Eden Beach Resort for tanks. I've stayed at Eden Beach Resort 4 times before (stayed at Buddy Dive once), so the diving there is of interest to me.
Historically, the dive site at the resort is called 'Eden's Rubble.' There's a shallow rock shelf (with a ledge along the bottom in places where you can see animals), then a sandy region with varied rubble (hence the name, and a good place to see sea cucumbers and scorpionfish at times), then as you swim out, there's a 'big bowl' effect as the sea bed drops down and you can swim out to a small wreck, the Bakanal. Here's one of my old photos of it from a prior trip:
I tend to hit around 80 feet deep doing a circuit of it, if memory serves.
South of Eden's Beach Resort is the wreck of the Our Confidence, which was much larger but in pretty decayed shape the one time I made it down there with a buddy. And the bottom was pretty much rubble for that trip.
So, historically the basic message was, while Eden's Rubble is a decent dive site (particularly enjoyed some night dives there), it was a site where you just didn't get the 'coral reef' effect.
This trip, though, my buddy Wallob decided to do something different. EBR now has a dive-through to pick up tanks, and he wanted to try diving at the north end of the property. In other words, park off the drive through, before reaching the dive shop, then head down to the north end and go in for an evening dive.
Well, I finally got to see the 'tug boat' (I think I recall?); max. depth around 91 feet as I swung around the wreck. This is Wallob at the site:
We then headed north, and it was a decent sloping wall coral reef dive.
I'm posting this because for years I thought if you stayed at Eden Beach Resort, you can to get in your truck and drive to go find a traditional 'coral reef.' Not so.
Richard.
P.S.: The Hilma Hooker is the only rec. diver level wreck I see mentioned in Bonaire much, but there are these other, much smaller wrecks. There's also a sunken boat you can find by entering at Buddy Dive's house reef & heading a good ways north (or at The Cliff dive site, and head a good ways south). Small but technically it is a wreck.
---------- Post Merged at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:32 PM ----------
Went & found an old Our Confidence photo (with Wallob for size perspective; Wallob's around 5'7" or so). I don't know what shape the wreck's decayed to now.
For that dive, I had to grab a piece of old dead coral (like litters the shoreline) use it like a pick axe (on the rubble bottom, not damaging reef) to pull myself along into the current.
There's intermittent current off Eden Beach, where the sea is sandwiched between Bonaire & Klein Bonaire. I was taught to look at moored boats off the resort. If they are perpendicular to shore, fine, dive. If they are parallel to shore, the current is strong enough to've turned them that way, so be warned. When we did that dive, the current was significant. My skinny, muscular, fit buddy swam right into that current; I'm a lot larger in cross section than he is, & had to swim (fin?) hard to stay in place. Hence the 'pick axe' maneuver.
Hey, it wasn't the first time we went looking for that wreck, and I was determined to get a look at it.
Richard.
Made it to Bonaire the last week of August 2012. Stayed at Dive Hut, which uses WannaDive as the dive op., so we often dropped by Eden Beach Resort for tanks. I've stayed at Eden Beach Resort 4 times before (stayed at Buddy Dive once), so the diving there is of interest to me.
Historically, the dive site at the resort is called 'Eden's Rubble.' There's a shallow rock shelf (with a ledge along the bottom in places where you can see animals), then a sandy region with varied rubble (hence the name, and a good place to see sea cucumbers and scorpionfish at times), then as you swim out, there's a 'big bowl' effect as the sea bed drops down and you can swim out to a small wreck, the Bakanal. Here's one of my old photos of it from a prior trip:
I tend to hit around 80 feet deep doing a circuit of it, if memory serves.
South of Eden's Beach Resort is the wreck of the Our Confidence, which was much larger but in pretty decayed shape the one time I made it down there with a buddy. And the bottom was pretty much rubble for that trip.
So, historically the basic message was, while Eden's Rubble is a decent dive site (particularly enjoyed some night dives there), it was a site where you just didn't get the 'coral reef' effect.
This trip, though, my buddy Wallob decided to do something different. EBR now has a dive-through to pick up tanks, and he wanted to try diving at the north end of the property. In other words, park off the drive through, before reaching the dive shop, then head down to the north end and go in for an evening dive.
Well, I finally got to see the 'tug boat' (I think I recall?); max. depth around 91 feet as I swung around the wreck. This is Wallob at the site:
We then headed north, and it was a decent sloping wall coral reef dive.
I'm posting this because for years I thought if you stayed at Eden Beach Resort, you can to get in your truck and drive to go find a traditional 'coral reef.' Not so.
Richard.
P.S.: The Hilma Hooker is the only rec. diver level wreck I see mentioned in Bonaire much, but there are these other, much smaller wrecks. There's also a sunken boat you can find by entering at Buddy Dive's house reef & heading a good ways north (or at The Cliff dive site, and head a good ways south). Small but technically it is a wreck.
---------- Post Merged at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:32 PM ----------
Went & found an old Our Confidence photo (with Wallob for size perspective; Wallob's around 5'7" or so). I don't know what shape the wreck's decayed to now.
For that dive, I had to grab a piece of old dead coral (like litters the shoreline) use it like a pick axe (on the rubble bottom, not damaging reef) to pull myself along into the current.
There's intermittent current off Eden Beach, where the sea is sandwiched between Bonaire & Klein Bonaire. I was taught to look at moored boats off the resort. If they are perpendicular to shore, fine, dive. If they are parallel to shore, the current is strong enough to've turned them that way, so be warned. When we did that dive, the current was significant. My skinny, muscular, fit buddy swam right into that current; I'm a lot larger in cross section than he is, & had to swim (fin?) hard to stay in place. Hence the 'pick axe' maneuver.
Hey, it wasn't the first time we went looking for that wreck, and I was determined to get a look at it.
Richard.
