The Week 2016-06-11-17

[BHB ScubaTroll]

We are on Bonaire! It only took a 3 hour layover in Curacao (From Miami), where I corrupted a group of college students (and their instructors) from Key West State college, met a man on his way to Aruba to visit a sick friend and had fun with a cop from Saba who is visiting family on Bonaire... All in all, it's great to just strike up conversation with anyone around me while my wife simply rolls her eyes...

I have a rule for decompression that I have instituted... The first day on vacation, nothing is scheduled and there are no rules to follow.for the first day of vacation after flying. We did not dive today, but got the orientation done, spent some time looking at neighborhoods on island, grabbed some snacks from Van Den Tweel and spent a lot of time in the pools here in compound (Especially the pool bar).. Tomorrow.... Dive On!

 

[drrich2]

Where you guys staying? Who diving with?

Richard.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Where you guys staying? Who diving with?
Richard.

We actually own one of the only timeshares inherited by Buddy Dive from the old "Lion's Den"... an old RCI property, and this is our week every year for this property... We are up against the ocean on the second floor about 30 steps from the dive shop from the ground. My wife (Kbeck) and I... Took me 10 years to get her out of the "Go, Go, Go..." mind set to "Hey, get a BS day in between work/travel to better enjoy the actual time off from wook", and then we can "Go, Go, Go" and enjoy the time off.

In vacation mode, I will likely dive the house reef before breakfast, enjoy breakfast and then dive the house reef again. After that, we will find a dive we have not done before and go from there... We planned a windward side boat dive and visit to the caves this year

 

[wwguy]

We actually own one of the only timeshares inherited by Buddy Dive from the old "Lion's Den"... an old RCI property, and this is our week every year for this property...

Lion's Den was a restaurant operated next door at Buddy Dive. Your property was originally Coral Regency Resort until purchased by Lion's Dive & Resort Curacao in 1996 and renamed to match the sister property in Curacao. In 2002 the Van der Valk's purchased it and incorporated it into their Buddy Dive operation next door. I'm not sure when or how RCI came into the picture. My brother, an RCI member, stayed there in 2003 and had some difficulty booking and applying his RCI points at the time.

We stayed at Lion's Dive in '97 or '98 and preferred it over previous stays at Buddy Dive next door. Bon Bini Divers operated the on-site dive operation with a fantastic crew and there was a great seaside restaurant and bar where the seaside lounge area is near the dive shop now. (That restaurant was later washed into the sea by waves from a big storm up north, as was the Green Parrot restaurant that sat over the sea in front of Sand Dollar.)

Enjoy your trip... I'm properly envious!

 

[Doctorfish]

I used to love both the Lion's Den and the Green Parrot. Both had relatively good,inexpensive, oceanside dining.

My personal strategy for unwinding once I get to Bonaire is to shore dive Buddy house reef in the AM, head to Van Den Tweel. Lunch, then another house reef shore dive. Then drinks and dinner.
Day 2 is when the go, go, go starts.

No matter how you organize your schedule on Bonaire, it is always a pleasure.
Have fun.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

It finally happened... Flooded the camera yesterday
All is not lost. I have another camera body at home and Ikelite has a lot of experience with their housings... I needed to send in the housing for a yearly anyway, so I will have them change out the housing electronics while doing the yearly...

Entered at Cha Cha Cha reef, got my gear together and ready, dipped my head under the water to look for any camera moisture, and crap... The DSLR was flooded to the top. I stood up and realized the port dropped off on entry. Instead of ruining the dive all together, I was able to find the port and the O-ring, drain the water and made the dive... Don't remember much of the dive, but the wife does, and is glad I never complained or ended the dive early. Drying the camera body now for the rest of the trip... Might work, might not...

In the mean time, the GoPro Hero 4 will still help capture the memories. I just have to learn about it a lot quicker than I thought I would. I learned a ****-ton today! We stopped at the ScubaPro shop just south of Buddy Dive, and between the owner and I, we were able to put together an Invicta solution to a dual mount light and housing mount for less than $150. It will work well for a night dive and our scheduled cave snorkel on Friday (Much better than the GoPro $400 mounting solution)... It did involve a couple of zip-ties that we always carry on vacation dive trips.

This trip was more about the above water places to visit. We are looking at neighborhoods where we would like to retire to, and it is freaking the wife out not to make 4 - 5 dives each day as we visit more neighborhoods. What was really interesting was that we found a neighborhood with cul de sac roads. In the middle of one, we saw the typical island sign totem and I stopped to have the wife take a picture... One of the resident's came out of their house and invited us in for a visit any time (after he helped his mother to the pharmacy)... Wow! That's island living!

On another note,, if you didn't know.... Bonaire was where the U.S. military first tested radar during WWII. Tanki Maraka was a U.S. Military Base that housed more than 100 military personnel during the war. Aruba and Curacao rounded up German sympathizers during WWII and shipped them to an internment camp on Bonaire. There is an ongoing excavation of the site and it will soon become a national park area (over 50 years).

We did the "Outback" today. We visited the northern lighthouse and the caves in the northern area of the island. Pasa Bon Pizza opened for the week, and we both have our leftovers for lunch during the rest of our trip.

Hmmm, I seem to be meandering and somewhere off topic all over this post

 

[Doctorfish]

Too bad about the camera.
With housed cameras, it isn't if it will flood, but when. Eventually it will happen.

I think there was a prisoner of war camp at the Divi site as well. There was a lot of u-boat and surface raider activity in the ABC area because of all the oil being shipped.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Doc,
Thanks for the sympathy/empathy, and you are correct on the when. Luckily I found another complete camera on E-Bay, and it will be at the house on Monday. The Ikelite housing can be repaired, so it will all turn out... Just think, I was this close to insuring the camera for the trip... I would have earned a new camera and a new housing

Per Captain Don, that is correct. The original hotel was named "Zee Bad" (Beach Bath), became the Flamingo Beach Club in 1957, and eventually Divi

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

We tried an experiment this week...
We have left nothing of value in the truck all week, except for $.75 in change in the open console - plain sight...
The change is still there

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

We tried diving Tolo (Ol' Blue) yesterday, a mask issue had us abort the dive (dropped earlier in the dive shop). The shortcut was passable this week, so we took that. Got to the main road just at the turn to Oil Slick Leap (CCR) and saw a "lilly white" couple walking down the street... obviously from the Netherlands where they walk a lot.

We stopped and asked them where they were headed, and they told us Kralendijk to pick up their rental car. They had no water on them, white, white skin and were just walking to town. We offered to drive them to the car rental shop if they wanted a ride. They told us they walk a lot at home and they should be good. We told them they don't know about the sun in Bonaire, the fact they had no water and there was no amount of walking in their homeland that compared to what they were about to get themselves into... they finally agreed to get in our truck.

Their car rental was located at Divi Flamingo, so I pulled through town along the shore to give them an idea of Kralendijk sea front... Over the years we are accustomed to the word "drempels", which is basically a step up or speed bump. As we approached the first, I said Let op! drempels. From the back I hear "drempels?" until we went over the first and he said "Ah, drempels yes!"

I thought we were going to bust out laughing!

Got them to Divi and said our goodbyes. They both shook our hands and admitted that they would not have made it that far in the heat.

We were in the area, so it was time to give Bruce Bowker some money for a mask (Dive shop at Carib Inn) because they have helped us out in the past with gear issues and always refused to take money for it (easy fixes)

We went south from their to get a dive in and then went back to Tolo in the afternoon for a great dive to the south and an easy drift back to our exit point (Tip for the entrance and exit at Tolo... folding cane worked great for the entry and exit $13.00 anywhere like WalMart or order online)