Who has the smallest, fastest dive boat on Bonaire?

[rreconnu]

My wife and I are leaving in four days for our second trip to Bonaire. Our first trip was last November where we did a week of shore diving. We definitely didn't have enough time to do all the diving and relaxing we wanted so we decided to head back for two weeks this time.

We are considering doing some boat dives on this trip to check out some of the Klein and northern sites. I've been an instructor for about 10 years and have dove from just about every type of dive boat there is in the Caribbean and the East Coast, but this will be my wife's first boat dive. I want to ensure she has a good experience so I'd like to avoid cattle haulers as much as possible. Do any of you know of an operator who runs anything similar to the 6 packs you can get in Cozumel or the Caymans? It looks like the smallest/fastest boat I can find so far is Wannadive which looks like a "10 pack". Any feedback on Wannadive? Is there anyone running anything even smaller?

Thanks in advance. I'll post a trip report when we get back.

 

[chauncy19]

rreconnu,
I am no dive boat expert but I am guessing there is not much on Bonaire that compares to Cozumel. I personally am fond of the carib inn dive boats. in my limited experience they were only dive boat that let me dive my own profile.they are open boats so no cover from sun so be prepared for that. Also reasonable amount of people on the boat. I'd check with VIP diving and any other smaller dive operation you can find. I did do boat diving with Plaza and with wannadive. Bart at wannadive is great but not sure you can depend on getting him as boat operator or divemaster.
should add that they do NOT do nitrox. also guessing you are better off doing whatever boat dives with who ever you get your air from.

 

[Nivek Llekots]

Check out "Bonaire East Coast Diving", they run a large RIB for trips on the east side, which in my opinion is the best diving on Bonaire.

 

[wwguy]

Carib Inn definitely has smaller boats. Their objective is to offer a more intimate boat dive experience, such as you describe. Here's a link to a photo of Carib Inn's boats from their website.

In general I don't think boat speed is often discussed as a competitive advantage for dive operations on Bonaire. The exceptions may be excursions to Washington Slagbaai park in the north, and east coast diving from inflatables.

The majority of dive sites are close to the dock and the "best" sites are everywhere. There's no need to race to get business, so most dive ops aren't investing in expensive high performance equipment. Just my opinion after 10 trips to Bonaire spread out over 17 years. We quit diving from boats on Bonaire after our 5th trip, when we started staying for 2 and 3 weeks.

You'll love the extra time on Bonaire. Enjoy your trip!

 

[DiveMaven]

I wouldn't recommend East Coast diving on the RIB for a beginning boat diver!

 

[tkaelin]

Where are you going to be staying? That will make a difference. East Coast is great but that does not sound like what you are looking for. We have only used Capt Dons. Fast should not be an issue as most sites are 10-20 minutes away. Slow down. Its vacation. As far as crowds, we found at Capt Dons the afternoon dive was always less crowded and many times 6 or less divers on a big Newton or Newton type boat. They also tend to go to Klein in the afternoon. They post their schedule the afternoon before and you can call or stop by to see what is up. We found even on morning dives which can be more crowded, that we were diving with experienced divers so gearing up, getting in and out was never an issue. My wife and teenage kids were fine with the boat dives. No problem.

 

[rreconnu]

Thank you for the replies. We are staying at Djambo but since we aren't planning on doing more than a few boat dives, where we do them doesn't really matter. The East Coast looks cool, but I'm concerned about getting the hell beat out of us on the way. Maybe, if she likes her first few boat dives we'll give them a shot. As for speed, it's not about my being in a rush to get somewhere (I'm on island time), it's about minimizing the time spent banging around, sucking exhaust fumes, cooking in the sun and being stepped on. Typically I find smaller boats mean less divers, less dive gear, more comfort and fewer divers in the water, all good things in my book. I also tend to find that smaller dive boats are typically more sociable just because there's less of a crowd and there are smaller groups aboard. Carib inn's boat's look like what I was interested in. I think we'll give them a shot. Again, thank you for your replies! Hope to see you in Bonaire soon! (on a small boat) ;-)

 

[Doctorfish]

To each his or her own. I personally look for the biggest boat around to decrease possibility of getting stepped upon or bounced around. You can always head up to the bow for fresh air and privacy. All of the operators in Bonaire West side that I have been out, apart from Bruce Bowker, seem to try to pack in a lot of divers on their boats.

If you are still looking for small fast boat, Bruce Bowker runs a great op, if he has room for you. He will appropriately look after his own guests before drop ins.

The east coast wild side operation offers great diving but in my opinion can be a lot for a newbie as you need to be able to do a safety stop in open water, getting back on board can be a bit of a challenge in the waves and the dives are drift dives, limited by who sucks up most air. If your spouse has the skills, however, makes for a great morning of diving with opportunity to see big animals. I've seen Bruce Bowker sneak around to the East when the conditions are favorable as well. I'm not aware of othe operators going east apart from all day three tank trip through Buddy Dive on their big cat. They usually go North and will head around East if calm and they are in the mood.

 

[diversteve]

You might like Bonaire Dive & Adventure - in addition to smaller boats, they're pretty close to Klein.
Bonaire Dive and Adventure

Toucan at the Plaza goes with 12 max afaik. Most mornings it was 4 of us and a family of five. One afternoon it was 4 of us. They need 4 to go. http://www.sherriandjim.net/scuba/bon2006sep/DiveBoat1.jpg - they have 3 like this and one bigger boat.

 

[uncfnp]

It took me awhile but I finally found this post by Bon Diver in another thread :

"If you want to do a nice park trip try gooodive.com Menno's doesn't take 26 people like some other operators do I think a max of 10 people, and he really goes to dive sites in the park instead of doing taylormade or dive Karpata.... His boat is really nice and even has a hot shower...!!!"

This last trip, Bas Tol also recommended Menno if we decided to do any boat dives. I understand he will do other dives besides the park as well. We elected not to do any boat dives though so I can't give a personal recommendation.

Lisa