What is Bonaire Like If You Already Dove on Curaçao?

[ronscuba]

Another option not really discussed is to combine boat diving with shore diving. I've become more lazy as I've gotten older. Diving where you want, when you want, for as long as you want, is cool. However, after a while the novelty of diving freedom wears off. Lug around tanks, deal with shore entry and exits, etc..

If I were to return to Bonaire, I would do some boat dives and limit my shore dives to house reefs with facilities.

 

[tkaelin]

Agree with Ronscuba. Boat diving in Bon is more affordable than any place I have been too and the flexibility and options are also a big plus. Correction on my prior post. Rappel was the site with the spur and groove. I think it is the top site for me on the island for interesting terrain. Carel's vision was an amazing dive but that was primarily due to a huge bait ball at the end of the dive that we were in for at least 10 mins.

 

[Ironborn]

Agree with Ronscuba. Boat diving in Bon is more affordable than any place I have been too and the flexibility and options are also a big plus. Correction on my prior post. Rappel was the site with the spur and groove. I think it is the top site for me on the island for interesting terrain. Carel's vision was an amazing dive but that was primarily due to a huge bait ball at the end of the dive that we were in for at least 10 mins.

Aside from cost, convenience, and the other obvious factors, how do Bonaire boat diving and the boat-accessible dive sites vary from the conventional west coast shore "diving freedom" experience?

For example, what about Klein Bonaire? How different are the Klein Bonaire sites from the usual west coast sites? I have heard mixed reviews on this point - some people think that Klein Bonaire is the best thing since sliced bread and quite different from the mainland west coast sites, others felt that it was about the same and not different enough from the mainland to justify the boat trip out there.

I also understand that some mainland west coast sites are only accessible by boat due to a lack of suitable shore entries and exits. Are there any such sites that you would consider compelling enough to justify booking a boat trip in order to dive them?

I also understand that many boat captains will only take divers to mainland west coast dive sites that are not accessible from shore. What is the reasoning behind that policy, and how common is it?

Also, what about east coast boat diving? I understand that the east coast dives are more difficult and typically more rewarding. Does diving those sites by boat make them any easier?

 

[Trailboss123]

I have never personally felt all that compelled to do boat dives in Bonaire and actually only have done 2 boat dives over to Klein Bonaire (which is basically spitting distance away from the mainland west coast- very short boat ride). Of the 2 dives I did, one was the worst dive I ever did on Bonaire and the 2nd was one of the best I ever did-- so....
As for compelling west coast boat dives, they are up north and I would put Bloodlet and Rappel in that category. Also would include La Dania's Leap for those that are not so inclined or experienced to access it from shore. If you are staying at Den Laman, then you are diving or should be diving with Dive Friends. They go to Klein Bonaire 5 days a week and up north to non-shore-diveable sites on Wednesday and Saturday for their boat diving. You would most likely be doing one or two of the dives mentioned above. It is pretty common for them to only take the boat to dive sites that you can't shore dive on the west coast because if you could shore dive it for free, why would you want to pay for it? People want to pay for something they can't access on their own and those sites are great dive sites.

If I were you, I would go with the unlimited shore dive package only and then add boat dives a la carte, if you are feeling the need for a change or a break from driving around and lugging your own stuff. It can be a nice change of pace and I may add some additional boat dives my next trip because I have friends coming along who I anticipate will need that break in the shore diving action.

East coast is more difficult, further away and very rewarding. I don't know that diving them by boat makes them any easier, per se- The boat rides can be very rough. Diving over there is spectacular, but comes with the added cost of time, money and potentially inclement weather that can create some challenges. If you want to know what my game plan will be for my 6 full days of diving in August, it will go something like this:
* 4 full days of shore diving only
* 1/2 day of boat diving to Klein or up north for the sake of friends and the other 1/2 of the day/night shore diving
* 1/2 day of boat diving or shore diving with Bas Tol on the east coast, so my friends can prefer me- they may not even go, given their experience level and then another 1/2 day/night of shore diving.

 

[drrich2]

Those of you who boat dive Bonaire, a quick question that may be of interest. The one time I did a boat trip in Bonaire was at Buddy Dive Resort, and it was the only posted trip that week with 2-tanks. All the other trips I saw posted were 1-tank.

If I'm going to bother meeting up with a boat at a set place and time and hauling my gear onto it, I want 2-tanks. Not go, 1 dive, come back, do another trip...

How common is this? Any idea what the current practices are across the major popular dive op.s (e.g.: Buddy, Dive Friends)?

Richard.

 

[Trailboss123]

Those of you who boat dive Bonaire, a quick question that may be of interest. The one time I did a boat trip in Bonaire was at Buddy Dive Resort, and it was the only posted trip that week with 2-tanks. All the other trips I saw posted were 1-tank.

If I'm going to bother meeting up with a boat at a set place and time and hauling my gear onto it, I want 2-tanks. Not go, 1 dive, come back, do another trip...

How common is this? Any idea what the current practices are across the major popular dive op.s (e.g.: Buddy, Dive Friends)?

Richard.

I think they are somewhat varied. That being said, the ops that offer 2 tank dives will typically run back to dive ops pier during the surface interval to swap tanks and then head back out for dive 2. All of which happens well within a 1 hour surface interval, given the proximity to Klein Bonaire.

Here is an example of Dive Friends from their website:
Although Bonaire is famous for its shore diving, we have many hidden wonders that can only be enjoyed by boat. We go to Klein Bonaire five days a week, but on Wednesdays and Saturdays we head to the north only visiting sites that cannot be accessed by shore.

Klein Bonaire is the flat, small, uninhabited island off the central west coast of Bonaire that is a paradise for divers. Diving on Klein Bonaire offers a great opportunity to see turtles, since this island is now a reserve and a sea turtle hatchery.

The Northern dive sites are covered in beautiful coral gardens jutting up against sheer cliff walls.

• Daily two tank boat dive 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.
• Afternoon 1 tank boat dive on request (2:30 – 5:00 pm).
• Hour long dives with in-water guide.
• 4 comfortable dive boats with places for shade or sun.
• Fresh cold drinking water with eco-friendly reusable cups.
• Emergency oxygen, first-aid and spare equipment on board.

Note: As an eco-friendly dive shop our boats only leave with minimum of 4 divers.

 

[Nuub]

I don't remember DiveFriends coming back to dock between dives.

 

[diversteve]

Rappel was among the best dives we did - boat only because the name describes the access. Some of the Klein sites aren't as memorable but Forest was certainly worth a trip - the name refers to the Black Coral found there. Also liked the drift dive at Hands Off but it was a little sparse in some areas - I believe the west side gets beat up more in storms.

We dove with Toucan at the Plaza. Since they're south of town, when we dove the north sites we did two dives b4 returning. We didn't boat dive any of the southern sites by choice since you can mostly shore dive those. Obviously all 2 dozen plus Klein dives are boat dives. If Buddy's still does the 3-tank Slagbaai park dives, they do all 3 and I believe provide lunch. We also saw dive boats at 1000 Steps which makes a lot of sense - it's not the walk down that's difficult...

I believe the double reef starts somewhere near Punt Vierkant but IDK for certain. It's definitely at the Hooker since someone suggested drop on it first (boat dive) then swim into the wreck. It ends at Invisibles.

A lot of Bonaire and Curacao diving is similar - they're only about 50 miles apart. South Bonaire sites are closer together - at some you can see divers at the next 3-4 sites down. Nothing like the Mushroom Forest area on Bonaire. IMO the entries are more difficult on Bonaire - most on Curacao are beaches with the reef a short swim out - on Bonaire it's like the reef has been moved closer/onshore so there's ironshore on the "beach" and in the surf line and just beyond. I can't remember a single site like that on Curacao .

I also found many of the South Bonaire sites to be very similar - at one my buddy asked "haven't we done this site b4" and I had to look at my log to check...actually near the end of the week we did more driving just to find something a little different.

 

[tkaelin]

The questions being asked on this thread are getting varied responses because the inquiries are subjective in nature. Everyone will have an opinion on the subjects without anyone necessarily being wrong in their responses. To the original poster, I think you have gotten a good spread of opinions. Some of us have in the excitement of planning for a new dive trip have the tendency at times to overthink or overplan. My advice at this point is go enjoy the island and the diving and let us know how you enjoyed it. Whether you boat dive or not or hit this site or not I suspect you will thoroughly enjoy your diving and trip.

To drrich's point about boat diving and preferring a two tank, again this is all personal preference. If I was not staying at Capt Don's and had to load my truck from where I was staying, drive over, find parking, load onto the boat etc. than I guess I see your point. There are other ways to do it though. We have our gear at a locker at Capt Dons right by the boat dock. So for us it is very easy to walk from our locker to the boat and off we go.

We actually prefer the one boat schedule. The rides out are short. The schedule is varied with two trips in the am and one in the PM. This gives us the flexibility to get in house reef and shore dives when we want. The most attractive part of boat diving in Bon besides the low cost is the way Capt Don's runs their boat dives. I have not seen this anywhere else and wish more places did the same.

They run boat diving with the true dive freedom thinking. Book in advance, don't book in advance. Book as part of a package or go ala carte. It doesn't really matter. If you dive with Capt Don's say on a shore diving package which includes some boat dives which we do, you get a dive number. The boat dive schedule is on a chalk board. They post each of there three dives the day before. They tell you the site the boat is going to the day before. You sign up by writing your number in one of the squares under the boat. The number of squares represents the number of seats on the boat. You can sign up the day before or anytime up until the boat departs. You can also change your mind up until the boat leaves. You could have signed up say the afternoon before but decide to change your mind for whatever reason, the weather, how you feel, last minute change of mind whatever. Just erase your number. That's it. No penalty. No problem. This also gives you the flexibility to see how full the boat is. The morning boats tend to be fuller with those who have a 12 boat dive package. The afternoon boats tends to be less full and tend to go to Klein. We have on more than one occasion jumped on an afternoon boat last minute seeing a boat with just a couple divers signed up.

At the end of the week's stay they total up the number of trips you have taken. While 6 or 12 are the common number of boat dives in a typical boat/shore package, you can make a package with any number. We have done 3 in the past. Going over is not a problem as it is not that much more ala carte. Also, we dive as a family of 4 and they will let you apply the total to the group so if we purchased 3 each but I dive more but others dive less it is the total of the group purchase that they will look at. This all works great for us and is a big part of why we love boat diving as well as the shore diving in Bon. Sorry to ramble on this point but you get the idea. If you don't want to boat dive on Bon or prefer 2 tanks that is great too.

 

[KeithG]

Those of you who boat dive Bonaire, a quick question that may be of interest. The one time I did a boat trip in Bonaire was at Buddy Dive Resort, and it was the only posted trip that week with 2-tanks. All the other trips I saw posted were 1-tank.

If I'm going to bother meeting up with a boat at a set place and time and hauling my gear onto it, I want 2-tanks. Not go, 1 dive, come back, do another trip...

How common is this? Any idea what the current practices are across the major popular dive op.s (e.g.: Buddy, Dive Friends)?

Richard.

Divi sends out their (up to 5) boats twice a day. The morning boat is a 2 tank dive. Boats are staggered and leave dock between 8:00 and 8:30, back by 12:00ish. Morning dives are limited to 45 minutes with a 30 minute SI on the boat. The afternoon boat leaves dock 2:15? and is a single tank 60 minute dive. No boat night dives offered. Every morning boat will do the Hilma Hooker during the week, but on different days.

We use the afternoon boats since a 45 minute dive is too short. We generally sleep in a bit and do a single 80 minute dock dive instead.