By Ben Hand (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Friday, July 4, 2008 - 1:50 pm: |
My family and I just got back 5 days ago from an otherwise wonderful week in Bonaire. But one near miss has me still somewhat shaken and I hope will create some discussion and maybe prevent future mishaps. We stayed at Belmar (fabulous place) for the week and were informed by the dive instructor that boats were to stay 50 meters or more outside the outer bouys. My son (10 years old) and I snorkeled out the first afternoon to the orange bouy then out past it maybe 10 meters. We were watching a diver on the bottom from the surface when I heard the noise of a motor approaching. I looked up and in shock saw a motor boat about 18 foot length running wide open straight at us within 2 seconds of impact. I grabbed my son's neck and jerked him as hard as I could muster toward the shore and the boat passed within 2 feet of our heads (exactly in the spot we had been). I did yell as they were passing us and they did see us but kept going full speed and laughing. We went straight in to the shore and didn't snorkel out that far for the rest of our week in Bonaire.
|
By Boat Chick************** (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5692) on Friday, July 4, 2008 - 1:57 pm: |
Ben, welcome to Bonaire Talk.
|
By Susan - www.bsdme.info (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #596) on Friday, July 4, 2008 - 4:36 pm: |
Ben,
|
By Ben Hand (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Friday, July 4, 2008 - 11:02 pm: |
Yes Boat Chick, I did report this incident to the dive shop. The dive master stated that he would report it to the Marine Park. He said that there are 2 boat rental places in town. I didn't have time to get the ID numbers on the side of the boat. I can say though that it was a "party boat" type of hull. (ie. a V hull with a rather large squarish shape and a dark blue bimini somewhere around 18 feet or so in length). The incident took place on Monday 6/23 around 5 PM. Thank you both for your concern. Ben
|
By michael gaynor (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3196) on Saturday, July 5, 2008 - 10:00 am: |
This thread has been forwarded to the Director of Stinapa.
|
By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2813) on Saturday, July 5, 2008 - 3:04 pm: |
TKS, Michael.
|
By Boat Chick************** (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5694) on Saturday, July 5, 2008 - 3:49 pm: |
Michael, thanks.
|
By John th'oldun (BonaireTalker - Post #31) on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 6:45 pm: |
Who are you all kidding? it's not only rental boats that are too fast and too close.
|
By Brian* (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3955) on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 3:16 am: |
John you should have reported the incident to your dive shop, they will then raise it with BMP. I did this after Aquaspace did the same thing off no-name beech a few years back. The muppets inside were waving at us divers just feet away from the props.
|
Visit: The Bonaire WebCams - Current Bonaire images and weather!
The Bonaire Insider - the latest tourism news about Bonaire
The Bonaire Information Site, InfoBonaire
Search Bonaire - Search top Bonaire Web sites