No more scuba for us for safety reasons as leaving the island tomorrow. Instead of diving we
went snorkeling with our cameras and stopped at the Salt Pier because we were told by the cute Kite City food
truck boys that turtles like to hang out there in the sand flats to the north
of the pier. We were not disappointed!
Saw 2 or possibly 3 turtles, all swimming quickly away as soon as we spotted
them. Mary was shooting her fish eye lens
which turned out to be a very good choice. She got some nice Action Chick photos of me freediving around the pier.
Mr Turtle. Photo by Mary.
Yours truly freediving at the Salt Pier. Photo by Mary.
Yours truly freediving at the Salt Pier. Photo by Mary.
Yours truly freediving at the Salt Pier. Photo by Mary.
Then we headed south to Tori’s Reef (I think?) because the
book said it was good snorkeling. It was just OK… Cool to swim with huge
schools of tiny fishes in the canal but the rest of the site was really
hammered and rather boring.
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.
Long-ass swim to the Hooker.Lots of life around the wreck, a school of at least 8 tarpon inside, and
a spotted eagle ray feeding in the sand channel just beyond the wreck.
A drawing of the Hilma Hooker, courtesy of Mares.com
From numa.net:
She sailed under five aliases, carried an illegal cargo and was wanted by the FBI. Built and christened the Midsland in Holland in 1951, she visited a host of foreign ports while changing owners frequently over 30 years. She also sailed at the Mistrial, William Express, Ana, Doric Express and, finally, the Hilma Hooker. Her last port of registry was San Andres, Columbia, South America. The 236-foot freighter was heading north from San Andres in 1983 when it experienced steerage problems near Bonaire. The captain maneuvered his ship to the island and tied up at the Town Pier, but failed to navigate through customs. He had no papers to declare the vessel’s port of departure or designated port of entry. Local authorities red-flagged it, then ran it through Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) as a prime suspect for drug trafficking. Both Interpol and the FBI had been tracking the vessel for months, the latter dubbing it “a designated drugger.” Sure enough, a fine-tooth comb search uncovered 25,000 pounds of marijuana stowed in bales behind a false bulkhead. Bonaire’s customs agents had themselves a sting and shipwreck aficionados had a new dive site. In 1984, after dive operators and volunteers diligently prepped her for sinking, the Hilma Hooker was put down off the southeast cost of the island. She came to rest on her starboard side in 60 to 95 feet of water and is heralded today as one of Bonaire’s premier dive sites.
Dive 15 – “Honey Hole”
106 ft/46 minutes
Surface Interval: 6:10
Unnamed dive site we named “Honey Hole” just south of Invisibles. The entry was next to a small-ish (think 2’ square) concrete block next to the road. Easy sand entry with a long-ass swim to the wall. At depth was a sand channel with an “Island” of coral that was 105’ at the sand and rose to 65’. VERY cool. 3 Lionfish in a small area, lots of fishes, holes, etc. Crossing back over the sand channel (populated with Garden Eels) we found a MASSIVE Green Moray – at least 5-feet long and very girthy. Also saw a large spiny lobster in a large cavity behind a coral head.
We thought we had discovered a new kick butt dive
site but later on I found it in the book, listed as “The Rock” (rather than the
normal yellow painted rock, there was a rock stack on the shoulder of the road
marking the site).
Mr. Green Moray
Dive 16 - The Cliff
113 ft/40 minutes
Dusk dive. We entered
down a cobbly beach into uneven substrate difficult to maneuver with the
surge. Decent dive, but nothing super special.
We went back to show Mary it really was a nice reef after
all. Our first time here she was in
caffeine withdrawal and had a wicked headache making her just a wee bit less
than stellar.
This is at the north end of Kralendyke.Decent entry with a nice wall.It was like swimming in a fishbowl with so
many fishes. We saw 5 – FIVE juvenile spotted drum in the same little
nook.VERY COOL.
Mary, excitedly telling me she sees 5, count em - FIVE, juvenile spotted drum.
Look close. You can see the little beasts in the lower right of this photo.
This is a juvenile spotted drum.
The entire fish, including that long top fin is maybe 1 to 3 inches tall.
The adult looks very different from the juvenile. Mary took this photo.
May 14, 2014, Bonaire:Dive 11 – Buddy Dive – House Reef
130 ft/38 minutes –consumed 1,900 PSI
Surface Interval: 45 minutes
Went back with the cameras to try and film the Garden
Eels. Unfortunately they weren't cooperative. Buddy has a coral nursery program, photos below. They attach coral fragments to the floating trees so the corals can grow. Later they'll reattach them where needed.
Mary, behind the "coral tree", always taking photos.
Yours truly, hanging out in front of the coral trees.
Steep staircase to a rock, then down a few steps to a
gorgeous white sandy beach. SUPER easy
walk in on sand then across a rubble pile – passing fire coral and then the
drop-off in about 30 feet of water. Lots
of fish, gorgonians, a few eels, a honeycomb cowfish star coral, trumpet fish,
and a black grouper. Decent vis. Sadly no turtles.
This was our only dive of the day. Mary apparently opted out of drinking coffee today and had a wicked withdrawal headache. Note to Mary: DO NOT stop coffee while on vacation. :)
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