Who has the smallest, fastest dive boat on Bonaire?

[Damselfish]

Are you sure you should look for the smallest boat you can find? Some people prefer larger boats and having some more space and niceties. Are you sure your wife as a new boat diver won't be in this category? She may be happier to start on larger boat where they don't fill the boat, and this can depend not only on the op but also day/time of day/time of year.

I'm all for avoiding cattleboats but IMO it's much more than size that makes something a cattleboat. Lots of things affect the experience on a boat besides number of divers.

 

[diversteve]

Unless he's upgraded Menno has a RIB also.

 

[KeithG]

I agree with the statements above that you will likely find the smaller boats the most crowded, and with less features (no shade, no bow to sun on, no camera rinse, ...). They are also likely to be harder to board and then move around on.

We have been using divi recently. On the single tank afternoon dives the boat seems empty as there are often 10 or less divers. I believe their boats can handle about 20 divers for double tank dives. Their signup board has 16 spots per boat on it. They have 4 boats available and my general impression is that they try to under fill their boats.

They do have a minimum diver count as they shuffled us onto another boat one day since our boat only had 2 signups and the other had 6.

The morning 2 tank trips appear to have more people on them (but I think the dives are limited to 40 minutes each).

 

[bkpix]

We did a short day with Wannadive boat diving. Were scheduled for two but stopped after the first. They were totally disorganized, took forever to get away from the dock, then they took us to a site on Klien and didn't even check the conditions. Just dropped the divers into a swim-spa strength current and headed out for a not very nice dive. We were glad they went back to the dock between dives because we, along with most of the other people from the boat, got off.

 

[Bas Noij]

Unless he's upgraded Menno has a RIB also.

Menno has upgraded.

 

[farsidefan1]

Hey Bas, my wife daughter and her friend still talk about standing behind the jet takeoff. Well actually my wife laughs about what it did to us (she stayed in the car). I still give "glowing" reports about your ultra violet night dive.

 

[Drewpy]

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

Sorry..but I have to disagree. My wife was newly minted diver and boat diving was new as well..she had no problem. In fact getting on the boat was a breeze as they remove one of the inflatable sections making it very easy.
I have used this op several times..with both owners ( Larry's Wild Side was 1st) and would highly recommend it.

 

[Doctorfish]

Drewpy, ease of boat access on the East all depends on the wave height that day. Ketting right to the boat and staying together as a group is sometimes the challenge. Once you are at the side the divemasters can haul you in like a seal. The other potential challenges for a new diver are air consumption on a group drift dive and doing a safety stop in open water, Most new divers in my experience, don't have the buoyancy skills yet. If you are lucky and it's calm, which is unusual, could be a great day.

East Side diving is a great experience, but for a new diver, I would suggest diving on the calm West side and maybe going East towards the end of the trip, once your skills are consolidated.