Well, the Donkey Divers made another trip to Bonaire. Great trip.

We stayed at Buddy Dive. We may look at Eden Beach next trip. We liked what we saw there when we went to dive to the web cam.

Got in lots of good diving. I made 32 dives. Two days I got in 6 dives and spent over 5 1/2 hours underwater. We got up those two days and did a dawn dive at 5:45 AM then ate breakfast and did two morning shore dives and two in the afternoon and ended it with a night dive. Other days we did 5 dives (skipping the dawn dive).

We found a couple of sea horses. We found a few octopi moving around in the day and a few at night. Saw more juveniles this trip than I ever remember seeing. Lots of juvenile angel fish, drum fish, and even saw four juvenile trunk fish (size of a pea). I saw a chain eel and purple mouth eel for the first time.

We dove off Eden Beach on Saturday and the site was great. There was a huge green moray in the ship wreck and we found all kinds of creatures in the rubble of dead coral south of the reef cam. It was full of sea life.

When you were seeing this:



It looked like this to me:



On Monday we went back to the web cam but the current was the strongest I have ever experienced. It had to be over 2 knots. We had to kcik as hard as we could just maintain our possition. I was trying to hold up signs but they would fold up in the current. Once I tried to unroll our Donkey Diver flag but I quickly figured out that if I held it open for 2 minutes, I would be at Salt Pier in that current.
Most of the group stayed down for only a few minutes. If you look at this picture, you can see that the bubbles are not going straight up.



Here is a list of the dives I did on this trip. this brings my total dives to 474 and 158 of those have been made in Bonaire.

Date	Location	Dive Site	Maximum Depth	Bottom Time
11/24/2004	Bonaire	Buddy's Reef	47	68
11/25/2004	Bonaire (Klein)	Hand Off	59	71
11/25/2004	Bonaire	Andrea I	69	58
11/25/2004	Bonaire	Alice in Wonderland	94	56
11/25/2004	Bonaire	Bachelor's Beach	39	42
11/25/2004	Bonaire	Buddy's Reef	29	35
11/26/2004	Bonaire (Klein)	Forest	69	68
11/26/2004	Bonaire	Andrea II	76	57
11/26/2004	Bonaire (Klein)	Mi Dushi	57	62
11/26/2004	Bonaire	Barcadera	39	66
11/26/2004	Bonaire	Buddy's Reef	53	65
11/27/2004	Bonaire	Buddy's Reef	41	66
11/27/2004	Bonaire	Helma Hooker	100	49
11/27/2004	Bonaire	Bachelor's Beach	67	52
11/27/2004	Bonaire	Angel City	81	49
11/27/2004	Bonaire	Eden Beach Reef	75	57
11/27/2004	Bonaire	Buddy's Reef	48	61
11/28/2004	Bonaire	Reef Scientifico	26	50
11/28/2004	Bonaire	Oil Slick Leap	53	66
11/28/2004	Bonaire	1,000 Steps	57	61
11/28/2004	Bonaire	Cliff	54	55
11/28/2004	Bonaire	North Belnem	52	48
11/28/2004	Bonaire	Buddy's Reef	30	25
11/29/2004	Bonaire	Petries Pillar	53	69
11/29/2004	Bonaire	Something Speacial	53	54
11/29/2004	Bonaire	Front Porch	64	33
11/29/2004	Bonaire	Red Beryl	45	59
11/29/2004	Bonaire	Bachelor's Beach	41	58
11/30/2004	Bonaire	Helma Hooker	73	47
11/30/2004	Bonaire	Yellow Submarine	45	67
11/30/2004	Bonaire	Petries Pillar	52	64
11/30/2004	Bonaire	Angel City	22	53

Thanks for the pic of the webcam, and for the report! What about food? What about other stuff? What about more pictures? Come on!!! I know you can add to it!!

32 dives!!!!! You think we had time to eat?

I thought about that --- lol --- you had breakfast I guess that WAS your food...

Dr. Doo, nice trip (or actually great dive)report!
When we were on the island, we also had one dive with a lot of current; that was on oil slick leap (we did a boat dive there... duh)

Thanks for the report, Dr. Doo...the Donkey Divers definitely accomplished their mission with the number of dives you got in there in one week! I know ya'll had a great time. Ayo. Carole

PS any sign of the red spring form cake pan down there?? I thought we had a sighting on the cams while you were there. cb

Is the current usually like that at Eden?...
Can we get a tow rope for sissy pants divers like myself?
Mary...you better hurry with your rescue course!
DD, what is your opinion of the visability since the hurricane and the past flooding...does the reef look ok?

Thank-you for the report! Any more pics?

Dr. Doo,
Thanks for the bare bones dive report.
I'll give it a NMP -- Needs More Pictures!
What can I say? I LIKE pictures.
Many thanks for the pictures already posted and I'm looking forward to more More MORE!
By the way, you did do an impressive number of dives. I like your down time numbers too.

Mare

AHHHHH! I jsut spent 2 hours typing in a trip report with pictures. I was about 5 minutes from being finished when I must have hit the wrong key and it disappeared. #$%@!!?{!&**$!!!!!

I will try again but it may not be as detailed as the last one was.

Diana,

We did Oil Slick Leap from the shore but the current was very mild (almost none). We saw some great reef color, lots of eels and a big octopus down in his hole, eating a crab. Someone had also put a plastic turtle under a rock by the ladder. It fooled two of my dive buddies who came to get me to video tape it.

Carole,

I was too busy trying swim to see the red pan at the cam.

Meryl,

The current is not usually that strong at Eden Beach. We dove the site on Saturday and there was no current to speak of. I think the current is related to changing tides and can be found at most sites at various times.

It rained more than I have ever seen in Bonaire this year. We got a good heavy rain every day but one. It usually lasted 20 or 30 minutes. Most days were sunny for most of the day. But that much rain was enough to make the island greener than I have ever seen it. There was more particulate in the water than usual and the cloudy skies made some dives darker than I would have liked. But the visibility was always above 40 or 50 feet. Usually closer to 75 feet. Not what I usually expect in Bonaire but better than what I expect in many other places. The reef didn’t seem to suffer much damage from Ivan. Lenny (1999) already wiped out most of the shallow reefs.

OK here is a more complete report. Since Kelly is so hard to please (I pity Steve) and we all know that this site is all about Kelly. I notice that several people asked for pictures but Kelly’s first request was for FOOD so I will cover that topic first before she has hypoglycemic attack and passes out.

We ate breakfast every at Dock of the Bay restaurant (at Buddy Dive) since it was included with our package. I usually had a croissant, water melon, fresh squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs, link sausage and water. (Hope that is complete enough for Kelly).

Most days we had PBJ’s in the room so we did not loose too much dive time. On Monday we did eat lunch at Bongo’s at Eden Beach just before we got in to dive to the reef cam. We needed the energy to swim against that current.

We ate dinner at some of our favorite restaurants while we were on the island.
On Wednesday night we got to Buddy Dive just in time to go through the class and do our check dive before the dive shop closed. Then we went to dinner at Raining Fishes. It is a fun place that is decorated well and the food is always good there. It is right across the road from the water. Great atmosphere and service. We spent most of the time there catching up on what we all have been up to since our last dive trips together. One of our members had been diving with us for about three years. Two years ago she used all her vacation time going to Truk Lagoon and this past summer she went to Galapagos Islands while we were diving in Belize. She told us about the whale sharks she dove with this summer.

On Thanksgiving we decided to eat at the resort. They were having a Thanksgiving Buffet. It was OK but nearly as good as the great dinner we had last year at Jake’s.

Friday night we ate at Croccantino. Great pasta and a quiet atmosphere. We ate there twice last year.

Saturday night we ate at Capriccio. Another great Italian restaurant.

Most nights we ended up at the ice cream/yogurt place in the street mall.

On Sunday night we at Mona Lisa. Great food but the highlight was the desert. I got apple pie (which was more like a tart) with cinnamon ice cream.

Monday we ate a restaurant on Kaya Craane that is about a block south of Raining Fishes. I don’t remember the name. The place seems to change management and décor every year. In 1998 it was Mexican restaurant. I think I have eaten there about six different times and it has looks different every time I go there. The food is always good. This year they had a trendy style. We sat outside and I was on a couch facing the water. The food was good.

On Tuesday we ate at Richards. They always have great food and the atmosphere right there on the water is beautiful. The deserts there were a hit but I passed after filling up in the main course.

Now that we have the FOOD out of the way I will get to other stuff (as Kelly calls it). There were 8 Donkey Divers on this trip. 5 of us met up in Atlanta and we were joined by the other 3 in Monterey Bay. We flew on Jamaica Air. This was the first time I have flown on that airline and I was impressed. They did a good job and the planes were clean and seemed to be well maintained, at least in the passenger cabin.

I stopped by Jakes to deliver some Krispey Kreme donuts. I got to see Jake and Yanna. His new house is nice. We didn’t have time for a tour, I had dive buddies waiting at Alice in Wonderland.

OK here is the part you are all asking for PICTURES. Kelly has probably scrolled down here as soon as she got done with the FOOD part and Mare probably didn’t even read that.

I will apologize in advance. My UW camera is a video camera that also does still shots. It doesn’t have a flash so I have to use available light. For that reason some of the shots are not as clear as I would like. I wasn’t able to get a shot of some things like the glassy sweepers that were up under a ledge of coral.

We found a few seahorses on this trip. Jan found this one at Petries Pillar.



I found this seahorse on the wall just across the street from the Yellow Submarine dive shop.



On Saturday when we dove off Eden Beach we went off into the rubble of dead coral just south of the cam. We found all kinds of life there. I counted 24 drum fish in less than an hour. All sizes and ages. Here is a picture of 4 drum fish in one small area.



There were a lot of different eels at the site, too. There was a big green moray in the sailboat wreck. Many of the eels in the rubble were very photogenic, like this guy.



I found this little blenny poking his head out at that site, too.



This is a banded shrimp in an anemone.



Our last dive was another one where we found lots of interesting things. We dove Angel City in the late afternoon. We saw a school of 9 squid at the top of the wall and we ran into the same school on the way back. The two eels below were not a little shy compared to the ones we had seen at Eden Beach. They are both small eels about the size of my thumb. The one on the right (yellow arrow) is a golden eel. The other one (black and yellow arrow) is a chain eel that would not stick his head out at all. He is black with yellow stripes that look like a chain wrapped around his body.



I also found this big octopus on that dive. He was on the side of piece of coral and blending in really well. I just happened to see his eye as I swam past. He stayed out for a while putting a quite a show for us. I got some great video of him changing color, shapes and size. At one point he swam off taking the shape and color of a brown striped wrasse. In this picture he is grabbing on to the side of some star coral.



In this picture he wrapped around a rock and tried to blend into the background.



This is a picture of my night buddies, Johnny, Wally and Robin (seated) getting ready for a sunset dive off Buddy’s dock.



OK I am done typing for now. The original report was longer but it had the same number of pictures so I think Kelly and Mare should be happy now.

Mare,

Can I get the NMP rating changed to BRE?

Dr. Doo

Yay Dr. Doo!
Thanks for the pictures.
My brain has been too full lately --
what the heck is BRE?

a tired but happy Mare

BRE = Best Report Ever

Oh my Dr. Doo - you sure do aim high.
Ahhh, but if one doesn't aim high, one cannot reach the sky.

Here's to stretching with you,
Mare

Mare,

I was underwater for 29 hours and 51 minutes. Most of the dives were over 45 minutes. A couple of night dives were short. One night no one else wanted to dive so I jumped in by myself but was afraid if I stayed down too long everyone would go to dinner without me.

Another night I jumped in with two divers that I didn't know and the lady ran out of air in 25 minutes. It was her first night dive and she was really sucking air when she saw Charlie. One dive at Bachelor's Beach was in the late afternoon. Two of the divers did not have dive lights so we got out the water before it got dark. And Monday at Eden Beach the current was so strong that I got out after I gave up on holding up all my signs.

But that still averaged 56 minutes a dive so that is not bad.

Wonderful pictures Mike!

Nice Pics and a good report. Thamks Mike

Beautiful Photos! I love the second one of the seahorse and diver in the distance. THANK-YOU!

I love the sunset picture! Great, I mean BRE report!

You say your pictures are dark but lead off with that great seahorse!
Pictures look great to me!

Way to go Dr Doo!! Now that is a great trip report!!!

Nice pictures Dr. Doo!!! Even though they are from a video camera, I think they still look good! Especially the seahorses.... Unfortunately we did not see them last time in Bonaire

Eileen,

I wanted to get a diver in the picture with the seahorse so that you could see how big he was. As you can tell, he was about 5 feet long.

Lisa,

Thanks for the BRE rating. I always knew you had the best judgement of everyone on the boards.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. When I get around to putting some video clips on my web site, I will let you know.

Dr. Doo

Your pics are terrific, Dr. Doo!! No need to apologize at all. I do love the seahorse shot the best...wow, what a biggun! LOL. Nice touch with that shot. Carole

Such a wise guy... you're lucky you're so darn cute.. lol..

Wowwww the pics are great.. the second seahorse pic is one of the best I've seen, verrrry creative Dr. Doo....and that sunset at Buddy's almost made me cry.. [Cynde?? You, too?]

And the food report... well it's just very impressive. Did you make it to Casablanca? Best filet and mushroom sauce ever! LOL

I know what you mean about Thanksgiving dinner. I had a great dinner at Steve's mom's, but I thought more than once about last year. It was fantastic, and Jake made me cry with his little speech.

Thanks for the report buddy!

Dr. Doo
Buddy's has an unlimited boat diving option. We are interested in it. Did you notice the Buddy boats being jammed with divers? Was Buddy's near capacity or hurting. Please give us a reef assessment, since you have been there several times you probably have a good sense of the state of the reef. Are things spiraling slowly downward? By the way, thanks for the pictures and the compelling report. Oh....I think I better get my zoloft in the chewable tablet. Sorry for the rambling...

Jane,

Buddy Dive just aquired Lion Dive so they have plenty of space. The last two years we were unable to stay there because they were full by the time we were booking. They did have a lot of people there but they now have 3 dive boats. The problem they are having during the transition period is that the dive opperation can not always get good numbers on how many divers are booked at Lion Dive. The systems are not fully integrated. So some days more divers show up for boat dives than they are expecting and they have to juggle things quickly. Since we were in a group of 8 they gave us our own boat a couple of days and let us decide when and where we wanted to dive.

I have been to Bonaire twice before Lenny and 4 times since. I have noticed improvement every year for the last four years. I guess they had some high winds and waves from Ivan but I didn't notice any new damage below the surface from that. If Lenny had not hit in 1999, Ivan might have done a lot of damage but there wasn't too much left to damage this year. Once you get down over wall(15 to 25 feet or 5 to 8 meters depending on the site) the coral looks great. The life on the reefs was as good if not better than I have ever seen. Lots of juveniles (angel fish, drum fish, trunk fish, trmpets, damsels, eels).

I notice more new coral growth, most markedly soft coral in areas, but there is some new hard coral in some of the shallows. It is still my favorite place to dive. And Buddy Dive is my favorite of the places we have been so far, partly because of the drive through tank pick-up and good personal service from the staff there.

Eden Beach Resort looked nice. They have a tank pick up in their parking lot so that would be easy for shore diving. I made 26 shore dives this year. 7 were off the dock and 19 were sites we drove to, so easy tank pick up is a big plus for me.

Dr. Doo

Mike, great report! Love the pics and the narrative! Can't wait to get back myself! My impression is that there is quite often a strong current at Eden beach...I watch the bubbles on the cams now after having used up all my air in about 25 minutes there on my 2 cam dives just trying to stay in pic distance....the staff there attribute the current to the fact that it is at one of the narrowest points from Klein...???

Babs,

That was my theory. When the tides are changing, the currents pick up and/or change. As the current picks up along that side of the island, the strongest current would be at the narrowest point between the islands.

Dr. Doo,
Thank you for the updates. Loved the pics too! Thought I was over it....Should have known better.

Oh Doo, you are great medicine! Your report and pictures save me as I won't be diving until end of summer 2005! We are going down in Jan, but I'm not allowed to put my head under water! I just love to stare and imagine what it will be like again!

Hugs and Thanks!

Liz Ginocchio