I've been pretty busy since returning home, and I haven't had a chance to work on my pics. I do want to share some highlights and lowlights of the trip though.
My cousin came to South Florida the week prior to our trip to do some Jupiter and BHB diving. One of my strobes failed mid week, so going to Bonaire, I only had one working strobe.
We flew on AA out of Miami direct to Bonaire. I parked in the parking lot which said $17 a day. The sunpass entry is no longer available. I used my credit card and didn't receive any sort of receipt. I asked an employee, and they said I would be tracked based on my cc# on exit. Check-in was a breeze. I'm tired of taking off shoes and long lines, so I paid for TSA pre-check for the first time. It was amazing, I didn't even have to tear my underwater camera rig (Nikon D850, Sea&Sea MDX-850, dual strobes, arms, batteries, etc) out of my well packed backpack. Gate check-in was as expected as people jockeyed for overhead bag space. Somehow my camera backpack was moved back a row or two by an airline employee (which I was surprised by when we landed).
I booked an AirBNB for the first time. Matt @T.C. booked the truck through AB Rental and tanks through AB Dive. The AirBNB person was there and someone to take us to get the truck. We've used AB Rental in the past, and after this trip, it'll be the last. Matt prepaid everything up front, and before they would give us a key, they said we owed over $1,000. How could this be? Turns out they reserved a truck and tanks for 2 weeks for 3 divers. At least, that's what it said in the computer. We argued that we paid upfront and that it was for 1 week. The agent wouldn't budge, either pay, or prove me wrong. We booked this like 8+ months in advance, so we're digging through emails on our phones to find the reservation confirmation. We finally find the truck rental confirmation email and it says 1 week, paid in full. Now he wants the exact same thing for the tank rentals else he won't process our reservation. It makes no sense, why would we do a truck for 1 week and tanks for 2? The guy didn't care, pay or prove me wrong. We've been at this for about 45 minutes already. The AirBNB guy is asking what's wrong and appeared frustrated with the lack of service we were receiving. He tried to argue for us, but the agent didn't budge. We finally find the tank reservation email and show the agent. He types on the computer and tells us we still owe $80. /sigh... No we don't... Turns out he was trying to charge us an extra day, the day we leave Bonaire. This took over an hour to settle, and we were in the right the entire time. Now the guy takes us to our truck. Oh man, when I tell you they gave us the most broken-down piece of junk they had on the lot, I'm not even doing it justice. There are all these nice larger and shiny trucks all around it, but we get the runt of the litter. We load our bags and head off to the AirBNB.
We stayed at Villa Nolans. It's just north of the desalination plant and 100 yards south of small wall. It's a 3 bedroom house right on the water with a private dock/stair entry. The house hadn't been cleaned! The AirBNB guy immediately calls the cleaners. We drop our bags off and head to get food to stock the fridge. When we return, the cleaners are done with the rooms and ask if it's ok to return in the morning to deep clean the house, which we agreed was acceptable. Before going to the grocery store, we head to AB Dive to get checked in before they close at 5pm. We got some tanks, weights, a briefing, etc, and got food. We didn't dive that night since we weren't comfortable with doing a night entry on a dock and site we haven't done during the day.
Day 1, we head south. Matt wants to see Red Slave. Once we passed Pink Beach, I called it off since the water was rough, waves crashing, etc. We ended up diving Pink Beach and Salt Pier. On the way to Salt Pier, our tailgate drops while driving. Turns out, the latch is rusted out and you have to smack the handle to get it to close. There were so many things not working in the truck, to include mirror adjustments, glove box, seat belt retraction, and so on. We ate lunch at a food truck where a guy was selling lionfish sandwiches. He was a salesman and trying to talk up his burgers as amazing too. We went back to the house. The cleaners did a very thorough job of cleaning. The house only has AC in the bedrooms, and it took some adjusting to the heat. Diving a lot really helped with the heat. We exchanged tanks before they closed at 5pm and convinced them to give us 3 sets. Next, we dove Andrea II and the house reef in front of the villa. The reef in front of the villa was one of the healthiest coral reefs we saw all week. We ate dinner at Umbrella.
Day 2, we woke up and dove the house reef again but headed towards the desalination plant. The reef was great in both directions. The plan was to head south again. The truck was going to throw us another curveball, the brakes were starting to fail. My cousin Jared was driving and was having to put the brake pedal to the floor. We needed tanks anyways, so we stopped by the front office first. Here we go again... We tell them the brakes are failing. All they care about is how much gas is in the truck, is it full? Well, no, it's over 3/4 but not full. They said, fill up the tank and we'll exchange the truck. But the brakes are failing. Fill it up or no exchange. So, we carefully drove it to the gas station, using gears to slow down. Filled it up and returned without incident. I'm just stunned that the priority isn't our safety, but rather how much gas was in the tank. Matt was wearing his wetsuit as pants and he received a stern lecture about wet clothing and associated fees. We ended up with a larger and much nicer truck, got tanks, and went to Hilma Hooker and the Lake. Someone on SB said there was a sea horse at the Lake, to the right. Oh man, there are thousands of places for sea horses to hide at the Lake. We tried and failed. We at lunch at the red bus food truck near the airport on the beach. It was pretty good, the potato wedges are listed as a side dish, but were easily a fully meal. We headed back to the house and did a night dive at the villa.
Day 3, in the morning we surface drifted to Small Wall. The girl at AB dive gave very clear instructions on where she's been seeing 4 sea horses. She pointed them out on the map, etc. We couldn't find any sea horses in the area, and we looked really hard. We ended up making the entire swim back to the villa underwater. We got new tanks and headed to 1000 Steps and Weber's Joy. Vis was lower than down south, but still pretty good. We ate dinner at Mi Banana, which was pretty good (got the recommendation from SB). I think we ate lunch at Between 2 Buns. Man, I kinda miss the old version of the place. The food was still good though.
Day 4, we went to the national park and dove Playa Funchi and Wayaka II. Vis was lower than yesterday at 1000 Steps and Weber's Joy. The corals weren't nearly as good as we hoped. In fact, we weren't impressed at all and skipped a 3rd dive in the area. We drove south and dove Oil Slick Leap instead.
Day 5, Matt was determined to dive Red Slave, so we went south again. Conditions looked much improved and there were many divers parked at sites south of Pink Beach. At Red Slave, it was really rough to the south, but that was a couple hundred yards away. We did notice the buoy was leaning hard to the south. No one was parked at the site. We got in the water and immediately realized there was a strong current south. We dipped into a valley to get out of the current and were able to hop easily into another valley to the north. A 3rd valley was in direct alignment with current, so that was as far as we could go north. Luckily exiting was really easy and a short swim. Upon exiting, we see 4 trucks and divers lined up waiting to talk to us. We showed them some pictures of how strong the current was. Everyone got in their trucks and left LOL.
We were hungry, so we headed back north to the beach to try the Kite food truck, near the red bus one. Lunch was good again. We didn't realize at the time that we were in the coral disease area. I knew Something Special was affected, including some dive sites to the south of it. We were right there and dove Windsock. This was by far the worst reef and not because of the coral disease. It was just in rough shape period. During this dive, my only strobe starts acting up and fails too. Ugh, so my picture taking days are over. Realizing we dove a site we shouldn't have, we headed to clean gear. AB Dive has rinse bins where you drive in with all the treatment chemicals.
Later that night, we did a night dive at Salt Pier. Once again, we have some very specific detail about the location of sea horse. We searched and searched and searched. We couldn't find it... We dive BHB here in Florida regularly. We have sea horses and frog fish on a regular basis, so we're used to searching and finding these critters. We didn't find a single one this entire trip.
My cousin came to South Florida the week prior to our trip to do some Jupiter and BHB diving. One of my strobes failed mid week, so going to Bonaire, I only had one working strobe.
We flew on AA out of Miami direct to Bonaire. I parked in the parking lot which said $17 a day. The sunpass entry is no longer available. I used my credit card and didn't receive any sort of receipt. I asked an employee, and they said I would be tracked based on my cc# on exit. Check-in was a breeze. I'm tired of taking off shoes and long lines, so I paid for TSA pre-check for the first time. It was amazing, I didn't even have to tear my underwater camera rig (Nikon D850, Sea&Sea MDX-850, dual strobes, arms, batteries, etc) out of my well packed backpack. Gate check-in was as expected as people jockeyed for overhead bag space. Somehow my camera backpack was moved back a row or two by an airline employee (which I was surprised by when we landed).
I booked an AirBNB for the first time. Matt @T.C. booked the truck through AB Rental and tanks through AB Dive. The AirBNB person was there and someone to take us to get the truck. We've used AB Rental in the past, and after this trip, it'll be the last. Matt prepaid everything up front, and before they would give us a key, they said we owed over $1,000. How could this be? Turns out they reserved a truck and tanks for 2 weeks for 3 divers. At least, that's what it said in the computer. We argued that we paid upfront and that it was for 1 week. The agent wouldn't budge, either pay, or prove me wrong. We booked this like 8+ months in advance, so we're digging through emails on our phones to find the reservation confirmation. We finally find the truck rental confirmation email and it says 1 week, paid in full. Now he wants the exact same thing for the tank rentals else he won't process our reservation. It makes no sense, why would we do a truck for 1 week and tanks for 2? The guy didn't care, pay or prove me wrong. We've been at this for about 45 minutes already. The AirBNB guy is asking what's wrong and appeared frustrated with the lack of service we were receiving. He tried to argue for us, but the agent didn't budge. We finally find the tank reservation email and show the agent. He types on the computer and tells us we still owe $80. /sigh... No we don't... Turns out he was trying to charge us an extra day, the day we leave Bonaire. This took over an hour to settle, and we were in the right the entire time. Now the guy takes us to our truck. Oh man, when I tell you they gave us the most broken-down piece of junk they had on the lot, I'm not even doing it justice. There are all these nice larger and shiny trucks all around it, but we get the runt of the litter. We load our bags and head off to the AirBNB.
We stayed at Villa Nolans. It's just north of the desalination plant and 100 yards south of small wall. It's a 3 bedroom house right on the water with a private dock/stair entry. The house hadn't been cleaned! The AirBNB guy immediately calls the cleaners. We drop our bags off and head to get food to stock the fridge. When we return, the cleaners are done with the rooms and ask if it's ok to return in the morning to deep clean the house, which we agreed was acceptable. Before going to the grocery store, we head to AB Dive to get checked in before they close at 5pm. We got some tanks, weights, a briefing, etc, and got food. We didn't dive that night since we weren't comfortable with doing a night entry on a dock and site we haven't done during the day.
Day 1, we head south. Matt wants to see Red Slave. Once we passed Pink Beach, I called it off since the water was rough, waves crashing, etc. We ended up diving Pink Beach and Salt Pier. On the way to Salt Pier, our tailgate drops while driving. Turns out, the latch is rusted out and you have to smack the handle to get it to close. There were so many things not working in the truck, to include mirror adjustments, glove box, seat belt retraction, and so on. We ate lunch at a food truck where a guy was selling lionfish sandwiches. He was a salesman and trying to talk up his burgers as amazing too. We went back to the house. The cleaners did a very thorough job of cleaning. The house only has AC in the bedrooms, and it took some adjusting to the heat. Diving a lot really helped with the heat. We exchanged tanks before they closed at 5pm and convinced them to give us 3 sets. Next, we dove Andrea II and the house reef in front of the villa. The reef in front of the villa was one of the healthiest coral reefs we saw all week. We ate dinner at Umbrella.
Day 2, we woke up and dove the house reef again but headed towards the desalination plant. The reef was great in both directions. The plan was to head south again. The truck was going to throw us another curveball, the brakes were starting to fail. My cousin Jared was driving and was having to put the brake pedal to the floor. We needed tanks anyways, so we stopped by the front office first. Here we go again... We tell them the brakes are failing. All they care about is how much gas is in the truck, is it full? Well, no, it's over 3/4 but not full. They said, fill up the tank and we'll exchange the truck. But the brakes are failing. Fill it up or no exchange. So, we carefully drove it to the gas station, using gears to slow down. Filled it up and returned without incident. I'm just stunned that the priority isn't our safety, but rather how much gas was in the tank. Matt was wearing his wetsuit as pants and he received a stern lecture about wet clothing and associated fees. We ended up with a larger and much nicer truck, got tanks, and went to Hilma Hooker and the Lake. Someone on SB said there was a sea horse at the Lake, to the right. Oh man, there are thousands of places for sea horses to hide at the Lake. We tried and failed. We at lunch at the red bus food truck near the airport on the beach. It was pretty good, the potato wedges are listed as a side dish, but were easily a fully meal. We headed back to the house and did a night dive at the villa.
Day 3, in the morning we surface drifted to Small Wall. The girl at AB dive gave very clear instructions on where she's been seeing 4 sea horses. She pointed them out on the map, etc. We couldn't find any sea horses in the area, and we looked really hard. We ended up making the entire swim back to the villa underwater. We got new tanks and headed to 1000 Steps and Weber's Joy. Vis was lower than down south, but still pretty good. We ate dinner at Mi Banana, which was pretty good (got the recommendation from SB). I think we ate lunch at Between 2 Buns. Man, I kinda miss the old version of the place. The food was still good though.
Day 4, we went to the national park and dove Playa Funchi and Wayaka II. Vis was lower than yesterday at 1000 Steps and Weber's Joy. The corals weren't nearly as good as we hoped. In fact, we weren't impressed at all and skipped a 3rd dive in the area. We drove south and dove Oil Slick Leap instead.
Day 5, Matt was determined to dive Red Slave, so we went south again. Conditions looked much improved and there were many divers parked at sites south of Pink Beach. At Red Slave, it was really rough to the south, but that was a couple hundred yards away. We did notice the buoy was leaning hard to the south. No one was parked at the site. We got in the water and immediately realized there was a strong current south. We dipped into a valley to get out of the current and were able to hop easily into another valley to the north. A 3rd valley was in direct alignment with current, so that was as far as we could go north. Luckily exiting was really easy and a short swim. Upon exiting, we see 4 trucks and divers lined up waiting to talk to us. We showed them some pictures of how strong the current was. Everyone got in their trucks and left LOL.
We were hungry, so we headed back north to the beach to try the Kite food truck, near the red bus one. Lunch was good again. We didn't realize at the time that we were in the coral disease area. I knew Something Special was affected, including some dive sites to the south of it. We were right there and dove Windsock. This was by far the worst reef and not because of the coral disease. It was just in rough shape period. During this dive, my only strobe starts acting up and fails too. Ugh, so my picture taking days are over. Realizing we dove a site we shouldn't have, we headed to clean gear. AB Dive has rinse bins where you drive in with all the treatment chemicals.
Later that night, we did a night dive at Salt Pier. Once again, we have some very specific detail about the location of sea horse. We searched and searched and searched. We couldn't find it... We dive BHB here in Florida regularly. We have sea horses and frog fish on a regular basis, so we're used to searching and finding these critters. We didn't find a single one this entire trip.
