Category Archives: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao

The ABC islands

Diving Bonaire

1 Reply

With the purchase of our new dive gear, Matt and I set out to explore as many dive spots as we could on Bonaire – as it is the dive capital of the world!  Listed below are some of the sites we visited -keep in mind that I am a relatively new diver so what I think is cool and exciting might be “routine” for the more experienced diver.

There are over 80 dive sites on Bonaire and Klein Bonaire so you could do a dive a day for nearly 3 months.  This is a good site – Info Bonaire – dive map

  • Back of boat – Matt and I explored the wall beneath our boat seven times, sometimes to burn through the last remaining bits of our air and other times enjoying longer dives. We started out doing the giant step off the sugar scoops but I found it was much easier for Matt to dump the gear in the water and put it on while it floated.  We always saw something new when we explored this site.
Little blue fish in the water off Sugar Shack

Little blue fish in the water off Sugar Shack

  • “Something Special” – Just before the entrance to the marina, and a short dinghy ride from our mooring, is a dive site called “Something Special” which has extremely diverse flora and fauna.  There are not many corals at this site, but the sandy bottom is a great pace to see rays and turtles.  We did see a spotted eagle ray, turtles, and several other beautiful sea creatures.  We dove this site twice as it was convenient and a great dive.  Here is a great shot of a flounder trying to hide from us.

I cannot remember where Matt shot this video of a flounder running from him – but it is share worthy.

  • “Just a Nice Dive” is located off Klein Bonaire.  Erik, Kyle and Max from Ad Astra joined Matt and I for a 60’ dive.  We swam up current first as it was pretty darn strong, and when we were about half way through our tank we turned around.  The current was so strong that it took us less than 1/3 the time to get back and as we popped up hoping to find our dinghies close by we realized we over shot it by a 1/4 mile.  We attempted to swim back on the surface, but realized we were not moving forward, but rather backward.  After what seemed like forever, we accepted that this route was not going to work, so Matt and I swam toward shore.  Kyle and Max followed as Erik tried to power through.  Unfortunately, he ended up about a mile back.  Matt took off his gear, handed it to me, and swam along the coast in about 18” of water. He passed our dinghies and kept going to the tip of the island and was then able to swim/drift back with the current to the dinghies.  He went after Erik first as he was the furthest away and out of air, then rescued me and the kids.  It was a pretty dive despite the current.
  • “Small Wall” – Our friends, Mizzy and Brian from Kokopeli joined us for a dive at Small Wall which is north of the mooring area. This dive has a stunning vertical wall of corals beginning at 7 meters that deceptively entice you down to about 25 meters.  I would have thought that this would have made me nervous with the wall on one side and the bottom and surface 25 meters away from each other, but it was lovely.  I truly enjoyed seeing all the coral embedded and thriving on the wall – what a totally unique and different experience.  Loved it.
  • “Andrea II” – This site is known for its large variety of sea anemones, hard and soft corals. You will easily spot Grooved Brain Coral, Corky Sea Fingers, and Staghorn.  A remarkable number of large female Queen Parrot fish  (each kind: blue, midnight, and rainbow over 1 meter in length) and can be seen throughout this site.  It was a stunning dive site with a large variety of fish and coral. Kokopeli joined us for this dive.
  • “Mi Dushi” (Klein Bonaire) – Our day out with Ad Astra, Always Sunday, Manado, Kattimi, Cape Grace, Kokopeli.  Mi Dushi is a reef dive with lots of different corals including elkhorn, staghorn, ad gorgonians, sea anemones, and lots of fish.  There were so many of us diving that the allure was a little lost, but this was a very pretty dive site. See blog post “A Day out with Ad Astra”
  • “Karpata” The 2nd dive, on a day out with Ad Astra, was at Karpata.  Good visibility, panoramic view, over branching colonies of elk horn which can stretch from 3 meters up to the top of the surface.  This site freaked me out a little bit as the wall was enormous and curved or was in the shape of a side ways wave.  Meaning there were caverns that you could swim in and out of – the problem was that each cavern had no end in sight – you could not see the bottom – it was a vast empty hole below and that completely WIGS me out.  See blog post “A Day out with Ad Astra”
  • ”Vista Blue” Shore dive with amazing topography of soft corals and sponges along the top reef with schools of goatfish, wrasses, blue chromis and a pretty large green moray eel! See blog post “Sea Donkey Takes us to Vista Blue”
  • “Bachelor’s Beach” –We arrived by dinghy which provided an easy entry and descent. A fairly shallow dive that maxes out at 30 meters.  Lots of hard coral and sea life but not many pockets of sand which makes it harder to see the beauty under the sea. Many fish including reef fish, trumpet fish, file fish, trunk fish, and wrasses.  Kokopeli joined us for this dive.
  • “Eighteen Palms” –This is the first site as you travel south where the reef separates into a “double-reef”. Large tarpon and schools of fish like to swim and play between the two reefs.  I really enjoyed this dive as the fish were exceptionally active, the corals seemed more colorful and the water was crystal clear. Kokopeli joined us for this dive.
  • “Night Dive” – Ad Astra invited Cape Grace, Always Sunday, Manado and us for a night dive. It was my first night dive and I was very nervous.  We jumped in the water right at sunset so that there was still light in the sky.  We headed to the front of the boat to check out the eel between his mooring and to get comfortable in the water as the sky turned dark.  Everyone was outfitted with flashlights so it helped me keep an eye on where everyone was at all times.  We soon headed to the wall and slowly descended down until we hovered at 16-18 meters.  I had hoped to see iridescent corals and fish but it was probably too early in the evening (even though it was pitch black out).  We did get to see all the night fish and sea creatures come out (that usually hide during the day), spotted several eels, some brittle stars and other fascinating creatures.  But, truth be told, I much prefer to dive during the day.
  • “Hilma Hooker” is a wreck dive located on the southern side of the island and is the only dive site with multiple buoys . I will dedicate an entire blog to this dive as it is really interesting.  We dove this site twice and the first time it was pretty clear, but the second dive was later in the afternoon and with a setting sun it made it little merky – but over all a super cool dive.  The stern of the wreck is 21 meters (69′) and the bow is 26 meters (85′) which made this my deepest dive yet at 95′ (stay tuned for this blog). Dove with Ad Astra
  • “The Invisibles” is a double reef system and is located on the southernmost tip of the island.  With gorgeous soft corals especially Sea Plumes and Corky Sea Fingers.   This was one of my favorite dives!  The first reef runs parallel to the shore and a sandy channel cuts through it. The first reef is beautifully overgrown with soft coral that gently dance with the current, it is magical.  An enormous school of Boga were spotted here along with lots of Butterfly fish, Angelfish, and Trunk fish.
  • “Sharon’s Serenity” we dove this site during the day first to get the “lay of the land” before our night dive.  We came to this spot to see the beautiful Ostrocod sexy dance (which is described in detail in a separate post).

I asked several people where there favorite dive spot is and came up with a list of dive sites to explore next time we visit Bonaire.

  • Wayaka II (new post w/ details)
  • Alice in Wonderland (new post w/ details)
  • Salt Pier
  • Tori’s
  • Joanne’s Sunshi (Klein Bonaire)
  • Angel City (two reefs)
  • Cliff
  • Oil Slick
  • 1000 Steps

 

Catering to the dive community with this rum bottle?

A Day out with Ad Astra

2 Replies

What do you get when you mix Germans, Norwegians, Canadians, American and Dutch folks?  A fantastic day of exploration, diving, laughing and celebrating.  Our new friends on Ad Astra (a 45′ Lagoon whose name means “to the stars”) invited 25 people on to their boat for a dive trip to Klein Bonaire.

The islet, which sits within the rough crescent formed by the main island, is 6 square kilometers (1,483 acres) and extremely flat, rising no more than two meters above the sea. The only structures on the island are some ruins of slave huts (small, single-room structures dating to the region’s period of slavery), and a small open shelter on the beach facing Bonaire.  During the period from 1868 to 1999, when Klein Bonaire was in private hands, it was stripped of its native trees resulting in a scrub growth across the island.  Several attempts were made to develop the island but where never successful.  Concerned locals formed The Foundation for the Preservation of Klein Bonaire (FPKB) and then they partnered with other concerned parties and government to successfully purchase it for 9 million Netherlands Antillean guilder (US$5 million). Klein Bonaire is now part of the Bonaire National Marine Park.[1] Long-term plans include reintroduction of the native vegetation.

From the mooring field, you can take your dinghy to Klein Bonaire but you will almost always encounter a bumpy, wet, and uncomfortable ride back to the mother ship.  So, having a large boat to travel in comfort among friends was a huge treat!  Eric, Kate and their two boys Kyle and Max were the perfect hosts providing a wide array of snacks, food, and beverages throughout the day.  There well equipped boat has an air compressor on it so we were even able to fill up our dive tanks to do my first two tank dive in Bonaire!

Ad Astra at her mooring

We had everyone bring their dinghy to Sugar Shack since we are moored right next to Ad Astra.  It sure looked like we were having a huge party with 6 dinks and a kayak tied off our stern – except the lights were out and nobody was home.

Our crew consisted of our friends from Kattami (Thea, Ragnar, Veslemay, & Hedda from Norway), Element (Shawn, Sherri, Paige, & Jordan from Canada), Kokopelli (Mizzy & Brian, U.S.), Manado (Manuel & Nadja from Germany), Always Sunday (Ricky & Robin, U.S.), Ad Astra crew (Erik, Kate, Kyle, & Max, U.S.), new friends on Cape Grace (Howard, Andrea, & Brian, U.S.) and of course the Sugar Shack crew.

It was a quick motor over to Klein Bonaire where we found a mooring on our desired dive spot, Mi Dushi.  Seventeen of the 25 people were planning on diving, so Matt and I decided to wait until most had hopped in the water.  With so much gear on board, we stowed ours at the bow with everyone else.  So, Matt was kind enough to set up my tank and drop it in the water for me so I could easily put it on (with the weight of the tank, extra 8 lbs of weight in my BC and the BC I have a really hard time putting it on outside of the water).

Unfortunately, we did not bring the GoPro since we had so much stuff already, so I cannot share any of the sightings with you, but it was a beautiful reef populated with many beautiful sea creatures.   We had heard that it is a good site to spot sea horses, but they eluded all of us.

After we all emerged from our underwater trip, we enjoyed some hearty snacks before heading to our next stop which is the furthest dive spot on Bonaire called Karpata just east of the no dive zone.  We motored around the south side of Klein Bonaire to reach Karpata.  As we were heading that way, we all marveled how it felt like a wonderful charter expedition as it was so nice being on someone else’s boat!  As Matt said to our new friends, “the only thing missing are the dolphins” and low and behold they appeared!  It was a spectacular showing with even a baby dolphin.  It was a sight to behold for sure.

We arrived happily to our dive spot, which appeared radically shallow, but we were able to expertly tie off to our mooring with no incident.  Fewer divers were going for the second tank dive so Matt, Brian (our new dive friend on Cape Grace) and I were the 2nd group to jump in the water.   Brian is a very experienced diver and had all the latest technology and gear.  It was pretty amazing to see how minimal his BC was compared to our bulky ones.   The topography was unbelievable offering what I would describe as a wall wave where you can swim in and out of crevices along the huge sea wall.  Lots of beautiful coral, fish, and sites to behold.  As we were swimming by, Matt made a confusing hand signal between a turtle and a lion fish and after I deciphered  it, I realized he was pointing to a beautiful, mid-sized turtle sleeping on a rock on the side of the wall covered by a beautiful, vibrant elk horn coral (not sure if that was the real identification of the coral but that is what it looked like to me).  As we were admiring this turtle, 8 others divers from our boat came by to admire this pretty turtle.

Matt also found this beautiful spotted drum fish under a piece of coral – this is not my photo, but courtesy of Google


I have to admit that it gave me fright every time we came to an Inlet as there was no end in sight – just a giant abyss down below.  It is so deep you cannot even see the bottom, it seems endless and dark and foreboding.    During these moments, I just kept my eyes on the wall and tried to find my sea horse.  Matt and I do not have a dive computer (yet) so we were not sure how long we were down, but it had been awhile.  And at one point, I turned around and realized our group was no longer following us, so we decided to turn around at half tank.  There was a bit of a current so we knew it would not take us as long to get back to the boat as it did to swim out to where we were.  We headed back, slowly allowing the current to take our bodies along the wall – it was magic being transported effortlessly once you gave in to it and stopped fighting the urge to control your movement.  We quickly emerged and realized we had been under for over an hour – long dive for me.  Our deepest moment was 20 meters (60′).

After more snacks and cold beverages, we headed back to the mooring so we could clean up and head to Taste of Bonaire.   Many of our friends attended this fun event and had even secured a great sitting area by the shore.  Matt and I headed to the Indonesian place he ate at last time and settled in for a long wait in line.  Luckily, it was not as bad as the last time, only took about 30-35 minutes to get our scrumptious food.

Tired and well fed, we chatted for a bit and headed back to the boat – well past sailor’s midnight!  It was actually 11pm.

 

A Night Out

Leave a reply

Usually we stay on board and Matt cooks an amazing dinner, but this night we decided to go out and try something new.  It was Thursday night so we started at Karel’s Beach Bar for happy hour.  It turned out to be good timing as the bartender/manager we met Don De Leon was leaving and heading to Aruba for a few years.  Of course, we will have to track him down when we get there next month.

Karel’s is right on the water and always treats us to a beautiful sunset.  I walked a little down the water’s edge to capture some pretty photos of Sugar Shack.

Sugar Shack enjoying a peaceful sunset.

We have not eaten out much on island so we had a lot of options to choose from.  There is a casual place called Diver’s Diner right down the road as well as a fancier place called It Rains Fishes which is on the waterfront. But we headed toward a Brazilian place that never seems open when we walk by (of course it could be a night only place and we walk by during the day). On the way, we passed a cute little place that looked like a French cafe with tons of arepas (a Columbia/Venezuelan dish) but all of the outdoor tables were full (they only had about 6) so we peeked in next door at a place called La Cantina Cerveceria.  We were looking for something casual and thought this had the same menu as both menus were out for perusal.  We walked under this beautiful pergola dimly lit with decorative lights and entered a private, beautiful, garden courtyard.  I was sold on the setting, but Matt was sold on the IPA (which he had been missing since we arrived at the islands)

La Cantina entrance.

Garden courtyard.

Saison and IPA for Matt – oh happy day!

This menu was different than we thought, but they had a lot of fresh fish.  It was not crowded so we served pretty quickly.  They start you off with complimentary appetizers including mixed olives, bitterballen (a Dutch staple, but not my favorite) and assorted nuts.

Complimentary appetizers to start.

After we ordered, a delicious bread platter arrived on top of a cutting board that was shaped like Bonaire and Klein Bonaire with BREAD, assorted spreads and cheeses (I had already eaten my bread ball before the photo).

Check out the bread board in the shape of Bonaire and Klein Bonaire!

We were already getting full and our meal had not even arrived.  But not long after, the fresh tuna with three shrimps arrived accompanied by a bowl of fingerling potatoes.

Tuna, veggie salad, and shrimp.

It was a pretty tasty meal, but I think Matt’s favorite thing was the Saison and Blonde IPA!  I topped off the dinner with some local ice cream and we happily called it a goodnight!

Here are some more photos I took of Sugar Shack around Sunset time.

Pretty orange blooms on this tree in front of Sugar Shack.

Another pretty tree, but this one has red blooms.

Sugar Shack looks so pretty in the orange and purple hues.