La Dania's Leap

[Bob]

Wouldn't it make more sense to drop all the gear and divers at La Dania's Leap, take the truck to Karpata then the driver walks back to begin the dive? When you finish the dive, your truck is right there waiting for you.

Hi Walter,
How are you doing? You're right, it would make more sense to park at Karpata and the driver walk back. Beth doesn't dive, so she drops us off and meets us at Karpata. That makes it easy for us. Here is a picture of of us exiting the water at Karpata after the dive we are talking about. almtree: Bob

 

[snepdiver]

she just drops us off and meets us at Karpata. That makes it easy for us

One advantage of a non-diving spouse. Mine even loved the trip to Bonaire. She did do a lot of snorkling though.

 

[Bob]

One advantage of a non-diving spouse. Mine even loved the trip to Bonaire. She did do a lot of snorkling though.

My wife loves Bonaire. It's nice to have a built in chauffeur isn't it? Beth loves to snorkel, but isn't interested at all in diving. almtree: Bob

 

[snepdiver]

It's nice to have a built in chauffeur isn't it? Bob

Yes it is. It's also nice to have the comfort of someone watching the truck while you are diving since some of the site are really not suitable for easy snorkling, Which is all my wife is going to do.

 

[Walter]

I'm doing extremely well, Bob. How are you and Beth? Please tell her "hi" for me. Let's go diving!

 

[tvictory]

While you're there you should look for a little book titled "Adventures of Captain Don" by Don Stewart, the original pioneer of Bonaire diving. Among the many stories in the book is the tale of La Dania's Leap and how Captain Don named the site. Also many other amusing stories (guaranteed 85% true!).

 

[gajahduduk]

Reviving an old thread. If you've not dove Karpata before, how do you know where and when to exit? Timing? Marker?

Of course I'll look at Karpata first to recognize the exit after surfacing. But what if you pass it?

 

[USC8791]

Reviving an old thread. If you've not dove Karpata before, how do you know where and when to exit? Timing? Marker?

Of course I'll look at Karpata first to recognize the exit after surfacing. But what if you pass it?

Why would you want to? DO NOT dive La Dania’s if you’ve never dived Karpata. If you pass it you’ll be in the “no diving allowed” zone between Karpata and Bopec. You’ll have to pop-up, take a look then nav back to Karpata. Unfortunately, when surfaced in the shallower waters, it’s hard to see the Karpata entry once you pass it due to the tiny peninsula at the northern end of the site (top side). It’s also sheer cliff face for about a 1/2 mile past Karpata. If you find yourself in this area, you’ll have to surface kick back to the blue to visually find the Karpata entrance. If current is working against you and it’s too far to get back to Karpata, look North for a white light/camera/solar pole on the side of the road (good luck). This is where the cliff area stops and a more traditional grade begins. You should be able to exit here after a long, exhausting swim. All this is to say, DO NOT dive La Dania’s without first having dived Karpata (multiple times). Just don’t.
Here’s a video we made about finding the La Dania entry. There’s also a link in the video for Karpata, which should always be dived before attempting La Dania’s. I hope this helps.

 

[gajahduduk]

Why would you want to? DO NOT dive La Dania’s if you’ve never dived Karpata.

I hope this helps

It did help very much, thank you. I watched your helpful video before diving it, but didn't see your text or sound warning. The dive was lovely and made it out without incident. I'm not sure having dove karpata before would have actually helped us much without really recognizable markers. We never found the anchors though we were looking at around 11m. Had a feeling exit was close but not past around the 45 min mark going slowly, and turned out to be right.

Glad to have taken two trucks, to make gearing up at La Dania easy (and clean) from the tailgate.