Friday, May 16, 2014

Bonaire: Dive 17 – The Lake, Dive 18 – Pink Beach, Dive 19 – Captain Don’s Habitat, Via Buddy Dive, Dive 20 – Bonaire Oceanfront Apartments House Reef – Night/Flouro

Dive 17 – The Lake 
90 ft/49 minutes


NICE double reef.  Fairly easy entry… Worth doing again.  Spent quite a bit of time out on the second reef because the coral was in such good shape and really fishy. 

Dive 18 – Pink Beach
116 ft/52 minutes
Surface Interval :28 Minutes

General fun in harassing a large (the biggest yet) lionfish that was out in the sand channel between the reef steps – see the photos.


That HUGE Lionfish, large enough that Mary was essentually hiding behind it in this photo.  Notice her yellow fin.  

Mary and I took turns taking photos as the beast turned it's fins from her to me.  That is their defense mechanism - if you get too close to a Lionfish you end up looking at their butts.  

Mary, Photobombing the Lionfish.  

Dive 19 – Captain Don’s Habitat, Via Buddy Dive
98 ft/48 minutes
Surface Interval 3:03

It was ok.  We swam over from Buddy Dive.  The wall wasn't entirely vertical – more of a slope.  Saw a Black Durgeon, lots of file fish, and a lot of eels, etc…

French Angels in a wreck at Capt Don's.

Another eel...

Maryphotobombing another eel.

Yet another eel.

Dive 20 – Bonaire Oceanfront Apartments House Reef – Night/Flouro

73 ft/59 minutes

Last dive of the trip.  It started out lame.  I only had video lights so had to stay with Mary.  Half way through it was starting to feel like a bust but then we started seeing eels everywhere.  Sharp-tail eels in a pile and lots of spotted eels out hunting culminating in a large spotted coming out into the open, being aggressive to my camera, then swimming into a crevice in the mooring and snatching a male sergeant major for dinner.  How cool to watch the eel eat – if a bit creepy.



Mary photographing those little eels.

You can see a silver Tarpon cruising behind the eels.

A closer view.

This guy was about 4 feet long and is the subject of the video below.  
Listen carefully and you can hear Mary laugh.










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