Why shore diving?

[gbf]

Dude.

You been reading too much interwebz.

Been taking my hat/T/shades/beer purse for 20+ years and throwing them in the truck bed. Take as many twenties as you want and put them in your pocket. Wet money spends.

Bonaire is small. Driving all over the West side is genera!ly pretty quick - though the sewer system project was a pain.

But sounds like it's not for you.

 

[Going Postal]

Most trucks don't get robbed, if you don't take stuff you don't need and you leave the doors unlocked/windows down there's nothing to steal, this issue is not the big deal some people insist on making it out to be. Theft exists most everywhere. I cannot imagine rooms are commonly robbed, or that there are popular big name dive destination islands where rooms are never robbed.

If it takes 21-hours for you to get to Bonaire, yeah, that bites! And 32? Wow! Might not be your destination.

As for cost, that's not just about money. What about time & misery? There are far-flung foreign destinations where the cost doesn't look bad, but the prospect of a continuous 11-hour flight sounds like a torment to me.

How long does it take you to get other places you like?

Richard.

The places I like close by, less than 8 hr total travel time, Turks and Caicos (only did liveaboard, love it) , Cayman Brac, Coz ( scuba club, like hotel, hate the dive op). San Salvador Island Bahamas ( little cold, went at Xmas, I would try again in warmer month) Roatan.

I don't mind traveling 24- 30 hours if the diving is worth it. I've been to Indonesia three times, wakatobi twice, Palau, Truk, Philippines twice. I don't mind spending the money if the diving is worth it. On most of those trips, I flew out to LA and spent a couple days before. The Philippines trips, I left out of Boston once and JFK once.

 

[drrich2]

Cheap sunglasses and a straw hat are probably pretty safe. Does a couple grand trip really hinge on the small risk of losing that? In a similar vein, let's say you bring a small, cheap cooler with a couple sandwiches & a bottle of water. It'll probably be fine. But let's say you are that small minority who's truck got checked by a poor local hungry for baloney sandwich, and you lost your sandwich!!! Yes, annoying, but is this worth writing off a destination over?

There are restaurants here & there. Stuck a couple of twenties in the dry pack you stick your truck key in & take with you on dives. Not a big deal.

Richard.

 

[gbf]

But don't take oakleys/Maui jims/costas

Common sense.

 

[gbf]

And for me there is no diving so much better that it justifies a 20+ hr flight

But that's just me.

 

[Going Postal]

You are all right, it's not the place for me. I'm too set in my ways of thinking shore dives are for home, but I just can't see myself going away to do it.
The only place, I have ever gotten any crap for doing an hour dive was with Rainbow reef in key largo.

 

[Going Postal]

And for me there is no diving so much better that it justifies a 20+ hr flight

But that's just me.

And that's what Bonaire is for me, unless I want to pay a fortune for air?

 

[drrich2]

Look at total trip cost and total dive count. If we went by airfare alone, Grand Cayman would be billed as one of the cheapest Caribbean dive destinations from a good portion of the U.S.

If you can get to Turks & Caicos, which I've seen claimed to be amongst the best diving in the Caribbean, don't have any desire to engage in shore diving, resent the local risk mitigation strategies of Bonaire, and would take over 20 hours to get there, yeah, I can't make a good case for you to go.

In threads like this we often speak to a broader audience than the original poster, good to keep in mind as we debate the merits of Bonaire shore diving trips. For me, I drive to Nashville airport (1 1/2 hour drive), take a shuttle to the airport, wait to board, fly to Florida or wherever in maybe 2 hours, layover, catch a 4 hour flight to Bonaire...so I guess I might spend 10 hours total travel time, from pulling out the driveway back home, if the layover's decent? But no single flight over 4 hours.

This, too, is a factor in travel times/misery.

Richard.

 

[DustyC]

I don't live in Boston. I just said it's cheaper to fly from there. And if someone's robbed my car every time I went there, I wouldn't go back. I might be a yank but I'm not stupid.

You've been listening to some less than honest people.

 

[Clark Fletcher]

Some people like apples, some people like oranges, some like both. If you don't like oranges, don't buy them. If you've never tried oranges, how do you know? And, if the thought of having to peel the orange to get to the good stuff is too distasteful, don't bother trying them.