Fine...
Diving….
This will most likely be the hardest part to report – there is so much to say! I am sure you already know it’s GREAT. Water temps ranged from 79-83F and there was so much to see my regulator was falling out of my mouth on regular intervals. I gave up trying to look up absolutely everything from the fish ID book, and decided to just enjoy it. I got into this pattern of choosing “ the coolest critter” for each dive, and this way I managed to keep some sort of order with learning new stuff. (I am a fish idiot).
We pretty much did only shore diving. Only one boat dive, so that we could say we visited Klein. Our house reef was Bari Reef. Great reef, and we dove it several times and did our only night and dawn dives on it. After our first ever reef dive on Bari we did the following sites (in the this order, leaving out repeats): 1000 Steps, Andrea II, Alice in Wonderland, Hilma Hooker, Invisibles, Oil Slick Leap, Bachelor’s Beach, Ol’ Blue, Angel City, Front Porch, Calabas Reef, Tori’s Reef, Pink Beach, Leonora, Salt Pier, Red Slave, The Lake.
Our favourites were Invisibles, Red Slave, Salt Pier, and Alice In Wonderland. Invisibles for its general landscape warranted a couple of visits, and on our second visit there we saw a Southern Stringray being harassed by a snapper. Red Slave we did not think we’d get to do because early on the week there was some sort of wind reversal, and we had already gotten a bit cautious having had a couple of rough exits in south. On our last day though, we got a chance to go, and it was a nice mellow current with beautiful viz.
Alice in Wonderland was the first double reef dive we did, and when we hit the channel between the reefs I first thought the coral was floating in the water because I had this visual illusion of the white sand being water. I absolutely loved the double reef dives when we were ‘flying the reef’, scooting on top of the ridge, and then slowing down again for more closer investigations. For Salt Pier that needs to be guided, we had hooked up with GUE instructor Benji Schaub before the trip. Benji briefed us, and we went out with him and his Fundies student to cruise between the sponge-encrusted pillars. The viz was amazing that morning, and we had a very relaxing dive. A lot of critters, some huge tarpons but unfortunately none of the resident octopi or nurse shark.
In general, it’s hard to pick favourites. Regardless of the site, we seemed to like the dives early in the morning and then again the dusk dives. This is when the sites seemed to be at their best, so the sites we visited outside of those times were at disadvantage. We saw some amazing fish commuter lines, and there was this different energy going on. I much preferred the early morning dives to night dives – and I am not a morning person at all.
We liked the northern sites a lot too but on afternoons the waves there seemed to get a little rougher. Our first morning we planned to go to Ol’ Blue but shared a confusion with another group about the site not appearing before the one-way part of the road began– so we ended up diving 1000 Steps instead. I would highly recommend doing this dive before high noon – when the steps are in shade. I did not find it strenuous at all when the sun was not blazing on me. And the dive was gorgeous. We returned for Ol’ Blue another morning and wanted to do our second dive on Karpata but bailed out – again with another group deciding to do the same. One guy fell on the steps and another diver nearly bashed his head onto the platform. That was enough to deter us. It looked like a long hike down the steps and an unsteady walk past the platform when the waves were striking across it. It was only supposed to get worse during the way, so we just have to go back to do it in better conditions. What a shame. This dive was on our must-do list.
Another good tip is to avoid going to the sites that get crowded in the hottest part of the day. We made that mistake with Oil Slick Leap. It really is no fun waiting in line to splash and feeling like barbeque chicken. There is no shade, and once you thought it was all clear, got yourself ready and some people start dragging their feet or floating underneath the entry point, you will think why did you not come at 7 am!
Another thing I personally was doing all wrong in the beginning of the week was hurrying to get underwater. There were some good reasons for that but when I stopped doing that I started enjoying things more. I think it was part of the original panic to go under to dive dive dive, more more more. (It’s the long winter I blame
) Slowly I calmed down and was able to take in the whole experience. That is - to get into the water from the scolding sun, get your burning hair wet, turn back towards shore taking note of the landmarks, and slowly kick away just cooling off, and enjoying the turquoise water. I think we generally missed this part of the dives early on the week but then the entry and exit floats became one favourite part as we stopped running around and ‘calmed into it’. The island started taking over more.
And yeah. Like I said, there were couple of days where entries and exits were a little more exiting. We have not dived in ocean much and learnt a few things. I came up crawling a couple of times just to be sure. I don’t know if this is uncommon but the dive staff was saying there were couple of wonky days. (I am sure with my legs I am wonky all by my self). I managed to avoid wounds but I have a good buddy with steady legs to lean onto. I learnt that fins are better removed before you get too shallow, and I was very religious keeping my regulator in mouth because I saw a few people being tossed about just as nicely as we were thrown about. And always take a look under if there are urchins on your path if you plan to crawl. Man those things were huge!
So what did we see? I felt like we saw everything! My favourite things were porcupine and balloonfish because they look so friendly, and trunk- and cowfish because they look so silly (and are slow enough that they will pose even for me). I also liked Juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish, Whitespotted filefish, the very wiggly Juvi Drum fishies, Redlip Blenny, Peacock Flounder, and one great favourite was the bait ball next to our house reef - what fun that provided every time we exited water. We saw all kinds of moray eels,at least 7 different types. One snapper tried to bite my finger when I was pointing at an eel too! (I had grilled snapper at the restaurant that night for revenge). We saw a couple of Hawksbill turtles and Toadfish and 3 different types of rays, all babies. Generally, I liked the silly fishes the best. And the ones that were easy to recognize…
Despite the water being so warm, after the scorch of the sun it started feeling pretty cold from the 3rd dive of the day on. I had to use my Aeroskin to protect my skin from the sun when gearing anyway, so in the mornings, I threw my 3/2 wetsuit on top of that. It was amazing how quickly gearing up would rub that 45 SPF off of you! For afternoon dives, especially in the end of the week I happily added my 4 mm hooded shorty on top of my jumpsuit. I shuddered looking at the guys in their shorts only. From now on, I will admit I am temperature-challenged. The more dives, the less flexibility my inner thermostat would have. I have to say though that my thermostat was whacked for another reason. I developed a full-body rash the second day. I got stung twice (brushed on my chin and lip). I have no idea if that did it or what but I was looking pretty icky, and I was having chills couple of nights. It could have made me more cold. I was not going to get freaked out since it did not stop me from breathing and more importantly diving! I just kept my skin on and scratched when I could
However, I would consider 5mm suit for Bonaire if I stayed 2 wks to be honest. (And next time I will pack more light long sleeves! I always pack at least 1-2, you know why if you are fair skinned.)
