Bonaire Day 4

Bonaire Day 4

Started the day by Eva and Barb bringing us breakfast sandwiches from Between Two Buns which was about 1/2 block down from BDA. 

Served on fresh rolls that were outta sight and priced was very reasonable. Get to know these folks for sure when you visit!

Our first dive of the day was at Oil Slick Reef. what makes it unique is that it's about a 15' drop into the water from the edge and the walk down can be a little tricky as well.  Nice ladder to get back out so no problems there. 

When we arrived one member of our group was a little apprehensive about jumping off the edge since they had never done so from anyplace this high before......They changed their mind after seeing another diver making their way down to the edge using a cane.... :)

We started the dive going against minimal current so we could make the return trip a drift dive. Most everything we saw on Bari reef was here as well and the bottom contour was about the same as well. the dive itself was nice and uneventful until we made our turn to go back.....Since the current was pulling us along on our return trip I expected to get back to the buoy at the ladder where the entrance was much quicker than it took going out against the current......All of a sudden I see a concret block with a buoy line on it.....I think to myself that we must have moved really fast to be back already?? But it's definitely a block with a buoy so it must be ours...Eva and I surface expecting to see the ladder about 20 yards away but to our surprise we see a large house with an adobe tile roof.....I look to my left and still can't see the ladder at Oil Slick....This is weird.......I know which direction we need to go so I head north on the surface and as I get a few yards up I can see around a rock outcrop and there is the ladder and marker buoy at Oil Slick we were supposed to get out at.  So I guess you could say we had two dives in one on this site. I enjoyed this site because it was more challenging getting in and out but the marine life although very plentiful was not much different than other sites.

Something I have not noted yet.  Upon instructions from Andre we never left anything in our truck aside from bottles of water, towels and flip flops. We left all the windows down as well and took the key diving with us. This way there was no reason for someone to break an expensive window searching for stuff that might or might not have been there.  On most sites there were other trucks and plenty of divers but better safe than sorry. He also told us to keep our lunch money on us and that most places on the island were used to wet currency and it wouldn't be a problem. 

Next dive of the day was at Andrea 1

This is on a long beach with access that can be a little challenging due to slick and uneven rocks. Take your time and plan your interval between waves and it should not be a problem.  This dive had shallow sandy area leading to one berm and then over into the reef. Seem to be a popular site for snorkeling as the shallow are is quite large.  While we were there a catamaran dropped off about 50 snorkelers in the area but it was far enough away to make no difference on our dive.  Simple easy dive with plenty of reef fish and a couple of eels. 

When we got back I asked Eva if she would cook for us since I didn't want the hassle of a restaurant and Rob and I planned on going night diving and we wanted to get started on that before 10pm. She was kind enough to oblige us and despite being shy of some essentials in the kitchen she made us one of the best meals we had on the island.  To her credit she had the ability to combine random stuff like Ramen noodles, Tang and Oreos into a gourmet meal.

Night Dive on Bari Reef

Having the diving dock 20 yards from your room and open 24 hours makes it pretty simple. 

Our night dive on Bari Reef was nice but most of the fish were sleeping ....Did see a couple of nice sized eels who were much more animated than usual but overall the dive was pretty mundane UNTIL THE TARPON FOUND US......Now by Tampa standards these were little tykes but so far in Bonaire compared to the other fish we had seen so far these guys were like Jewfish.  We spent the last half of our dive being used by them as lures for their supper.  They using our lights to spot fish and when they saw one they liked and the light was on it....They swallowed it faster than you could blink.  They would swim close enough for us to barely touch them from time to time but they kept going around us in circles.  There was a full moon that night and if we turned out out lights we could see the reflection of their silver scales as they swam by......We let them swim around us in the dark for a while and as soon as we would click on our lights they would try to hit another fish....Under the dive dock we parked in the sand with out lights off and waved our hands quickly so we could disturb the bioluminescence in the water and it looked like lightning bugs swimming around our hands. The Tarpon took notice of this and swam even closer looking for another easy meal.  Eventually we got tired of being used by them as fishing lures and went back up the ladder.  The Tarpon made this one of the more fun night dives I had done in a while.