Good dive op in Bonaire for a day trip?

[Web Monkey]

My buddy and I and our non-diving wives will be in Bonaire this January for a day (on a cruise, unfortunately, since I'd love to stay for a week).

Can anybody recommend a dive op where we could charter a boat for the afternoon, for a few dives, where the wives could also go snorkeling?

I'd rent a car and do shore dives, but don't want to spend time picking up tanks when I could be in the water.

Thanks!

Terry

 

[blawler1]

Depending on when your cruise ship arrives in Bonaire, you will have some logistical hoops to get through in order to go diving. First you have to buy your required BMP tag ($25) and go through a mandatory orientation which is typically conducted around 9:30AM at most operators. I know that Buddies also does it in the afternoon around 2PM. (you may be able to contact the operator in advance to schedule an orientation out side of their normal hours) After the orientation, you are required to perform a check out dive in order to test your equipment and demonstrate your bouyancy skills on dive shop's house reef. Not a bad thing as some of these are the best dives on the island. The only boat dives that are appreciatively different are those going to Klein Bonaire. Most operators run a second boat (you will have missed the early boat due to your orientation) around 11 and a third around 2PM to 2:30PM.

The closest operator to the cruise pier downtown would probably be Divi Divers at the Divi Flamingo just south of downtown and a possible long walk (longer with gear).

If you are up for a cab ride, I would go to the Den Laman/Sanddollar to Bonaire Dive and Adventure (BDA) for the following reasons (1) They offer unlimited nitrox/air tanks and weights for $20 for the day (2) BDA is located on Bari Reef the #1 rated dive site in all of the Caribbean for the number of species noted according to REEF.org (3) there is good snorkeling onsite for your wives (4) in addition to Bari Reef, there are about 4 other dive sites reachable from BDA's dock so you could burn 3 or 4 tanks and still not see it all. And as the reef generally starts in 20' and gently slopes down to 110'+ you can plan your dive profiles as deep or as shallow as you choose and (5) if you still need to ride in a boat, they run a 2PM boat that you can catch for only $25 more.

My recommendation would be to catch a taxi to BDA try to squeeze in 3 to 4 shore dives (more depending on your schedule because as mentioned earlier, the reefs can be dived at any depth starting around 20' so you could keep your profiles shallow) on Bari, Buddies, La Menchaca and Capt Dons all from BDAs dock, have lunch at the Den Laman and skip the boat rides. You can get off for $46 (BMP, tanks, weights and tax included) for all the diving you can do in a day, even with nitrox.

Sweet.

 

[herman]

The closest dive op I am aware of is the downtown shop of Wannadivebonaire, it's beside the City Cafe restuarant which is just up the street from the cruise ship dock. While I really like WDB, I think if it were me, I would do what blawler suggested. The cab ride is only 3 or 4 miles and Bari reef is really nice. There are places to eat close by and Lovers Ice Cream for a snack. Email BDA and see what they can arrange for the dive orientation.
By the way, the City Cafe has a really good burger and their other food is quite good.

 

[Web Monkey]

Great info!

Thanks for the help, it sounds great!

I didn't necessarily need a boat. Taking a taxi to the beach is even better.

Terry

Depending on when your cruise ship arrives in Bonaire, you will have some logistical hoops to get through in order to go diving. First you have to buy your required BMP tag ($25) and go through a mandatory orientation which is typically conducted around 9:30AM at most operators. I know that Buddies also does it in the afternoon around 2PM. (you may be able to contact the operator in advance to schedule an orientation out side of their normal hours) After the orientation, you are required to perform a check out dive in order to test your equipment and demonstrate your bouyancy skills on dive shop's house reef. Not a bad thing as some of these are the best dives on the island. The only boat dives that are appreciatively different are those going to Klein Bonaire. Most operators run a second boat (you will have missed the early boat due to your orientation) around 11 and a third around

 

[Web Monkey]

I'd also like to come back for a week around March. Is the weather usually OK, or is it the rainy/rough water/hurricaine/tornado/flaming brimstone or other season I should be aware of?

Terry

Depending on when your cruise ship arrives in Bonaire, you will have some logistical hoops to get through in order to go diving. First you have to buy your required BMP tag ($25) and go through a mandatory orientation which is typically conducted around 9:30AM at most operators. I know that Buddies also does it in the afternoon around 2PM. (you may be able to contact the operator in advance to
Sweet.

 

[diversteve]

Great info!

Thanks for the help, it sounds great!

I didn't necessarily need a boat. Taking a taxi to the beach is even better.

Terry

SandDollar is one of the few places in that area that actually has a little strip of beach. I sat through part of a BD&A orientation one morning while waiting for someone, as I recall it was just b4 10am.

We saw squid just off the dock at Bari and lots of fish. After going deeper down the slope, I found some interesting stuff in 10' of water right out in front of Den Laman, there's a lot of construction debris in the water that stuff hides in. You can also do an official REEF fish survey there, ask the naturalist for details.

Be careful if you GS off the dock there, it's less than 5' deep on the side opposite the boats. There's a wide set of stairs there also. And rinse tanks, lockers, etc.

If you did want to go out on their afternoon boat, they sometimes find dolphins in the channel there between Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, they stop so you can snorkel with them on the return. I've seen/heard of it happening twice.

There's a divesite inside the channel off Klein called Jerry's Reef, there's turtles under the rocks in about 15' of water for the snorkelers and the divers can go deep by swimming away from the island. As I recall you could even snorkel over and get out on Klein near there - maybe not...ask BD&A.

Always ask about boat/DM availability even if it doesn't look like they're going out. We paid $18pp one afternoon for Toucan to take 4 of us out. The DM and Captain just floated around while we did our longer than normal dives.

Or you could get a ride to Capt. Don's a few blocks away and shore dive both the Cliff and LaMachaca sites also. Don't try to walk it though, the access is back 1/4 mile to the road then back in 1/4 mi. - all the resorts in that area run perpendicular to the beach. They have a big covered restaurant/deck and a bar overlooking the dive dock.

And if you had a little extra time, City Cafe is just across the street from the cruise dock. As is what little there is of souvenir shops, etc. downtown.

 

[herman]

I'd also like to come back for a week around March. Is the weather usually OK, or is it the rainy/rough water/hurricaine/tornado/flaming brimstone or other season I should be aware of?

Terry

The weather there is always OK on Bonaire. The "rainy" season is Nov-Dec and even then it's no problem. Rains like crazy for 10 minutes and then clears up.