Last day of diving. Only one dive today; early in the morning. Nice dive, 40-90 feet, lots of fish, Greg got some great photos.
This may be hard to visualize, but this is the “carpet” of fish we dove into today. Millions of little anchovies!
Here is a close up.
Greg, real close to a trumpet fish swimming by.
This coral looked like it was lit up for Christmas.
Two small fish fry on coral.
Up close and personal with another trumpet fish.
Long day; it’s after 10PM. Three dives and a great Italian meal tonight, full and exhausted. So….just some photos to share today. Probably just one dive tomorrow morning, then we have to let our bodies “degas” all the nitrogen out before our flight for US leaves Saturday morning at 7AM.
Sea Anemone
Fairy Shrimp, probably and inch from pincer to pincer
An 8” crab
A “Dori” fish, (see the movie “Nemo”)
A Drum Fish, rather rare and difficult to photograph, they are about 2 inches long. Greg nailed this one.
This is a monstrous Moray Eel that Alex found, he is probably over 6 feet long, a bit intimidating.
Interesting day today. Two dives, but one of them was the most challenging we have had as a family. It started out like all the other dives this week, but we quickly found that we had a rather severe current to deal with. About 2/3 into the dive we realized we weren’t really going that far, and we had to very carefully swim in the right direction to end up where we started. Each dive site has a buoy to mark it about 50 yard off shore, Alex did get us to the buoy on our swim back toward shore, but it was almost impossible to hold on to it due to the current.
So we each powered in to shore swimming at almost at a right angle to the current so that it would take us to the starting point. All went well, except I did run out of air! Not real serious, since I was only 20 feet down and I could go to the surface, but rather disconcerting to be swimming that hard and realize you had no air to breath. Nobody panicked, but we are a bit more careful of the currents now.
Still got some pictures though. I have included a video of Alex, Greg and Gloria fighting the current. Not real dramatic, but you can see what it is like scuba diving in Bonaire.
This is a picture taken at about 60 feet of an area probably 6 inches across, there are probably 20+ different species in the photo, amazing diversity!!
At the north end of the island is their National Park. A bit of vertical terrain, a few small lakes and flamingos!
The PM dive was fairly uneventful. No current, thankfully, but poor visibility; maybe only 30 feet. I decided to do some macro photography of the coral. These two pictures represent about an inch of coral at about 50 feet.
Gloria hasn’t told me the name of this fish yet.
Finally, a video of an iguana enjoying an apple core someone gave him. He is about 3 feet long. Prior to this scene, as we were finishing our first dive, Gloria was getting her wet suit off, when all of these lizards about a foot long came from all over to check her out. She was swatting them away like flies! Reminded us of Jurassic Park, with those little lizards that attacked people, except they were miniature dinosaurs walking on two feet, these weren’t as menacing, but just as pesky.
OK, lets talk about Danish/Bonairian food. In brief, not that good and never that cheap. We keep looking for something that is produced, raised, made, manufactured, assembled, grown or exported here; all we can find is salt. They don’t seem to grow or raise or make anything. Indeed, even the salt comes from Italy, go figure! So….all the food whether it is in the grocery or the restaurant is imported. At the market they advertise its source, mostly US, then South American countries, finally Europe. In restaurants they will note “Caribbean fish”, haven’t found a dock yet for the fishing boats, I think it is flown in from who knows where.
Having said all of that, the food, depending on the restaurant is passable. Tonight, we had a fish salad, ribs, and jambalaya between the four of us. As we drive around the island to dive, we are always scoping out another restaurant. We have our eye on pizza tomorrow night. We have also noted a trailer similar to the burrito truck in front of Kragen in Sonora that looks inviting as well!
On to diving. Three dives again today. The first was a wreck dive. This large ship. the Hilma Hooker, sank in the 80’s. Apparently it was full of dope, nobody claimed it, eventually it started to leak, the government (after the dope was removed) sank it for a reef. It lay in about 100 feet of water, a nice dive.
This is a typically “pose” for the needle fish. The like to hang out this way.
Lots of shrimp hiding out. This guy’s body is only a couple of inches long, his tentacles over a foot.
Another great fish shot by Greg.
This is a great picture of a flounder, probably around 18 inches long sitting on a rock he mimicked almost perfectly. As we watched him, his perimeter would flush to blue as he got nervous. In this picture he was nervous.
The third dive was a night dive to the pier where they load the salt onto huge container ships. I didn’t go on this one, I am trying to return home less exhausted then when I arrived. Gloria, Greg and Alex reported two large sting rays, and lots of current! They went to bed, while I am writing this!
Another 3-dive day! Highlights would be one of the biggest lobsters we have ever seen, a small turtle swimming above us, a very nice sting ray to chase, and a large flounder that Greg found on a sandy bottom.
Most dive profiles, led by Alex, is to snorkel out to the reef, usually 100-200 feet from shore, then dive to around 80-90 feet, stay there for around 20 minutes, then spend the rest of the time between 60 and 30 feet depending on what we are looking for. By diving that profile, we only have a safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes instead of a decompression stop that could last 10 minutes or more. Most dives last 50 to 60 minutes. This is the best way to dive without a professional guide.
Greg took pictures today, nice to see another perspective. He did an excellent job, see below!
Greg has turned into the moray eel spotter. He usually spots 2 or 3 each dive.
I am usually the one taking pictures, so you are one of the first to see me diving!
This is actually one of my favorite pictures. These are little snails attached to a fan coral at around 40 feet.
Another excellent picture that Greg took of an angel fish.
Finally, a picture of the monster lobster; probably 2 feet long, he was mean too. Usually they slink back into their caves when a diver comes by. This guy just stood there daring us to catch him. He won.
Finally, we also drove by the salt ponds on Bonaire. Apparently the primary reason the Dutch annexed this island in the 1600’s was for a source of salt. Their previous source was lost, so they started producing salt here and have done so for 400 years. These “mountains” are huge, difficult to get a perspective.
The huge bulldozers are the specks on the far left, in the middle is the conveyer to make the mountains, the pond in front is one of the many evaporating ponds. We think it is lavender due to an algae that may grow in the brine.
Tomorrow, we will discuss the Dutch cuisine here on Bonaire. French Fries and mayonnaise anyone??
More diving!! Actually three. AM, PM, and a night dive. Alex is our guide, and has the computer he wears on all the dives, that way we can pace ourselves concerning nitrogen saturation in our blood. We maxed out today. A few pictures
Greg and Gloria at about 50 ft.
Puffer Fish
Corral Garden
These little guys on the coral pop in when they are touched
Alex and Greg behind a rather large jellyfish!
This is a 3 inch nudibranch
