Doubles In Bonaire?

[doctormike]

Doctormike:

Who was your tec dive guide and where did you go for the dive?

The guide was Jimmy from Buddy Dive. We did the "La Machaca" wreck. Apparently the small boat in the shallows on the edge of the Buddy Dive / Captain Don reef is also called "La Machaca", but this was the hull of a larger boat. We did it as a shore dive from Buddy Dive. Kind of a long boring swim over sand in the beginning at around 150 feet (Jimmy was looking for large rays and other stuff that sometimes hangs out there). Then a nice ascent along the wall for deco.

Here's the video:

 

[divezonescuba]

The small La Machaca is shallower between Buddy and capt Dons. It used to be upside down, I think. I have never seen that one.

I would like to know the name of the wreck off of the dive inn site at the south end of the city at 165.

 

[Compressor]

As others have suggested there are some issues with doubles.

You can also do "doubles" if you sling a AL80 down your left side. I think buddy offers AL40s for slinging but you can also do 80. You will need to bring your own hardware for the sling but that's easy.

 

[shoredivr]

As others have suggested there are some issues with doubles.

You can also do "doubles" if you sling a AL80 down your left side. I think buddy offers AL40s for slinging but you can also do 80. You will need to bring your own hardware for the sling but that's easy.

If you don’t dive sidemount, Compressor’s suggestion to side sling an Alu 80 is one I have used in Bonaire for a number of dives. It’s easy.

 

[wwguy]

The guide was Jimmy from Buddy Dive. We did the "La Machaca" wreck. Apparently the small boat in the shallows on the edge of the Buddy Dive / Captain Don reef is also called "La Machaca", but this was the hull of a larger boat. We did it as a shore dive from Buddy Dive. Kind of a long boring swim over sand in the beginning at around 150 feet (Jimmy was looking for large rays and other stuff that sometimes hangs out there). Then a nice ascent along the wall for deco.

Here's the video:

The wreck at 130' in this video is the Hesper. It was a 40' sailboat purchased by Captain Don in the 80's for a couple hundred bucks and was undergoing renovation when huge waves generated hundreds of miles away by Hurricane Gilbert sent it to the bottom in September 1988. (For what it's worth Gilbert is still the 2nd strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, exceeded only by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.)

La Machaca is the shallower upside down wreck currently at 30' to 50' depth just off of Habitat's dock. Some of the confusion about "two La Machacas" might be because the La Machaca wreck was originally located at 120' before being relocated to it's current position as a dive site prop for this Dutch TV miniseries in 1979. Not sure if placing it upside-down the second time was intentional or not.

Captain Don's tale of the original sinking of La Machaca goes something like this:

1977

After just a little over a year, Habitat had its foot in the door and was entering the world of Hotels and Resorts. Being designed both by and for hard-core divers, Habitat was an instant success. Starting out, I knew these divers would sleep in a box and eat from tin cans with chopsticks if the reefs were within easy reach, and at Habitat we could step off the cliff and into the corals. Actually, at that time Habitat boasted more corals than rooms, and sleeping bags were in vogue.

Winn, whom I had met as a boy years before and tried to help when he was injured by the bends, now sported his father's name and swung his arm from a repaired shoulder. These days, he owned a muffler shop and had become an ironmonger, among other things, for a hobby. Sport cars, big trucks and steel boilers became his new toys. Amongst all these playthings was a nifty little thirty-six foot steel hull fishing boat.

The engine was gone as was the glass in its windows, and it was for sale. Three hundred he said, and three hundred I paid. I had visions of this wonderful craft sitting amongst the corals just out front of the Habitat.

Winn had gone to great lengths describing the meaning of the name of this little craft, Lamachaca. He said the Lamachaca was a Brazilian fly with the following attributes: if it once bites a woman and she does not have sex within the hour, she will die. What a perfect legend for the new Habitat! Now my resort could be booked as a first aid station. Everyone was involved in the preparations being made for the sinking of this lovely little steel boat. It was intended to drop her in amongst the corals at exactly 40 feet. A beautiful little coral-free sand patch was to be the target.

Sinking day arrived, and the terrace at Habitat was crowded with fun-loving, hard-drinking divers. Everybody was there, for the long ropes centered the craft exactly over the target cove. Two of the ropes led ashore where linesmen were to slack off the rope as the boat sank. Snorkelers on the surface were to guide this action. The other two ropes were secured to the sterns of two powerful outboard motor boats that would keep the lines ashore tight as the Lamachaca settled. These ropes were more than long enough to do the job intended.

I opened the event by pouring a bottle of Amstel beer into the sea and motioned for the diver aboard the Lamachaca to open the seacock. The little boat started settling, slowly at first. Then as she filled with water the sinking became faster and faster and then even faster; the line tenders on the shore ropes were having trouble. Ropes became tangled. The rope tenders to the north tried to hold the rope by hand and were pulled off the cliff, leaving only one shore rope to hold the Lamachaca in place. The strain was awesome. The remaining rope became taut as a banjo string, then parted with a loud twang.

Lamachaca now having no shore restraint was fully influenced by the pulling boats. Later, the snorkelers on the surface said the Lamachaca resembled a glider as she started her dive for the deep, sailing smoothly over the top of the corals as she plunged down the steep incline that ended somewhere in the black abyss far below.

Suddenly, both of the pulling boats came to an abrupt stop even though both engines were running in forward. Then both boats were pulled backwards into a position where their stern ropes pointed vertically into the sea. The larger of the two boats was prepared for anything and knives came into play, cutting the rope that was dragging them down straight into hell. The other boat, smaller and less powerful, had only one man and no knife. With engine racing, the bow of the boat suddenly flipped up and into a vertical position as if wishing to race to the clouds, then simply disappeared. The captain was left floating about, saving his life by hugging the five-gallon fuel tank that had broken loose from the boat.

I watched the snorkelers racing out to sea, trying to stay above the descending Lamachaca as she ghosted on and downward toward the center of the earth. It was frightening, the stillness on that cliff after witnessing such a fine show of engineering. I walked over to the bar, ordering two fingers of tequila with ice. Downed it, looked out to sea at the floating quagmire of snorkelers and the remaining boat stationary over a spot a long way from shore. I ordered another tequila in a paper cup and went out to find my diving gear.

The sinking of the Lamachaca had been one helluva exercise, a lotta fun followed by a damned fine party that ran well into the night. Interested divers practiced air lifting with homemade lift bags, and a mechanic cleaned up the now salvaged engine of the smaller boat.

In addition to the excitement of sinking the vessel Lamachaca, the new Habitat was now considered a first aid center for the bite of the deadly Lamachaca, a reputation that swept the diving industry. There was a time when our register showed the men out numbered by women, quite unusual in the dive industry. In fact, the end result of our engineering exercise was rather amazing. The Lamachaca landed on a pure white patch of sand at exactly 130 feet, just at the base of the coral mountain. That boat knew exactly where she wanted to go from the onset of the sinking. Never question the intelligence of any boat called the Lamachaca.

 

[doctormike]

The wreck at 130' in this video is the Hesper. It was a 40' sailboat purchased by Captain Don in the 80's for a couple hundred bucks and was undergoing renovation when huge waves generated hundreds of miles away by Hurricane Gilbert sent it to the bottom in September 1988. (For what it's worth Gilbert is still the 2nd strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, exceeded only by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.)

La Machaca is the shallower upside down wreck currently at 30' to 50' depth just off of Habitat's dock. Some of the confusion about "two La Machacas" might be because the La Machaca wreck was originally located at 120' before being relocated to it's current position as a dive site prop for this Dutch TV miniseries in 1979. Not sure if placing it upside-down the second time was intentional or not.

Captain Don's tale of the original sinking of La Machaca goes something like this:

Awesome story! Also, thanks for the name of the deeper wreck, now I can correct my logbook…