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Trip Reports: Trip report March 6-13
Bonaire Talk: Trip Reports: Archives: Archives 01-01-2010 to 04-30-2010: Trip report March 6-13
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Rollins (BonaireTalker - Post #24) on Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 1:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

OK...here goes with ALL the details I can remember.

I'll start with the hammerhead and digress from there. The first full day we decided to check out Red Slave to see if we could dive it...CALM!! In we went with no problems...current was not bad so we drifted south. We were at about 80 feet and I look out to sea and there he was...10-12 feet. He was as big as any I saw in the Galapagos!!!!! He came in to check us out within about 30 feet and then turned and swam on down the reef. It was great!! My dive buddy had never seen one. He said the one sighting made the trip worth everything. He was grinning from ear to ear!!! Same dive I found a lion fish!!! What a beautiful animal to be such a problem. Dive Friends was wanting folks to mark their sightings with a little ribbon and cork they provided, report the sightings along with depth so they could go capture, and they would retrieve and turn in the animal. They had found about 135 of them to date. Anyway, we forgot the marker so when we went back the next day we found a piece of wire and an old flip flop on the beach. We took them with us and found it again. There it was...a flip flop at 77 feet!!! I am pretty sure they found it and got the fish. They empty their stomachs to see what they are eating is what we were told. Everyone seems to be trying to help eliminate them...bad things for the reef critters...seem to have an unbelievable appetite. One diver told us they lay 36,000 eggs!!!!

That is the biggest stuff so now I will back up to the beginning.

Drive to Houston and flight down were without any problems!! We followed the normal schedule...breakfast at the City Cafe, went to Happy Holiday Homes to drop off luggage but nobody was at the office. We ran back to Dive Friends across from airport and called the telephone number. Got an answer...new manager named Louise...very nice lady. She let us in the room so we were able to lock everything and take the gear to Yellow Submarine to do check dive, etc. Improvements at HHH...bars on the windows, new safe, plenty of lights on outside at night, and a dead bolt on the back door. Mosquitoes not bad. Of course we had Deet on us the entire time!!!!

Did our check dive, picked up tanks and headed for Alice in Wonderland. I wanted to show my buddy the double reefs. He had been to Bonaire twice but didn't know about the double reefs. Did three dives the first day. The coral looks good...the sand is still gone because of the hurricane. They were reclaiming the salt in a pond right next to the road at the Salt Pier so we were able to watch that process...interesting. Pink Flamingo were almost nonexistent. Couldn't believe it after all we saw a year ago. Lots of development in the housing projects. There was a cruise ship almost every day...sad.

The second day we made our run to Red Slave like I explained. It was the dive of the week!!! They said they see a hammerhead about once every ten years. COOL!!! We also were able to dive the Lighthouse. There was a guy there that said he had been to the island 10 times and this was his first time to be able to dive it. It was good BUT we thought Red Slave as a better dive. The exit from Lighthouse is tough! If you tried it with the waves we usually see I think you could really get hurt (if you get out). We did Red Slave three times...loved it. Once we put in about 300 yards north of that house at Red Slave and did a drift dive down to Red Slave. It was incredible. You could see 150 feet. The sandy bottom would let you see anything that was happening close to the wall...we saw a large schooling ball of jack fish there and on the north end. I will get to the north end later. On the last morning we decided to do Red Slave one last time because it was the best chance to see the big stuff. Put it and went with the current...which wasn't too bad at first...at 2,000 PSI the current had picked up dramatically so we turned to head back...WOW!!!!!! I began to wonder if we were going to make it. We had to stop and rest. My heart was pounding!!! Those are the times you can panic or have a heart attack. We finally made it to the flats and the current eased a little but my buddy was at 440 PSI. I was at 1000 PSI and we still had to the the safety stop and swim on in. What a dive!!!!! As my buddy said after the dive...we can probably eat anything we want the rest of the day after that workout. That was the only real diving challenge we had other than White Slave. You remember that current!!! We clawed our way to shore because we had overshot it just like you and I did...so we turned around and fought the current. That was a good workout too but nothing compared to the final dive at Red Slave.

The vis on most dives was really good. The temp seemed to range from 77 to 81. We both got a little chilled after the first two dives in the morning so I decided to add the hooded vest I brought. Made all the difference!! Had to add a couple pounds of weight but that was ok.

We decided to do the dives above BOPEC because my buddy didn't know about them. Talked to our neighbor at lunch. He had just come from there. My buddy loved the sites up there. The coral has more brilliant colors. We saw another feeding ball of the jack fish...Cool!!!!

It was a good trip for both of us. We were not ready to leave the island but were ready to see our wives.

Bobbyjeans is only open on the weekends now. We followed our eating plan for breakfast and lunch and then out for supper.

Again...no frogfish...but not for a lack of looking!!!!

We did get robbed at Karpata. There were some other guys that had caught some 20-30 year old guys stealing out of cars. My buddy hid some gear but they found it. They had to have been watching him from the bushes to know where it was. A GSS security guy drove up. His comment was, "What do you expect me to do about it." He finally called the police to come to the location.

Flight and drive home no problem.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lloyd Haskell (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #501) on Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 1:50 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Awesome trip report DR. I felt like I was there . You are a lucky guy indeed !

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By brenda (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #342) on Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 4:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great trip report! How fun just to read about it. Awesome sighting of the hammerhead, how lucky.

Thanks.

just to note, there was another hammerhead there (Yellow Sub pier and north), in I believe, Nov/Dec? Very cool....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Pat Furlano (BonaireTalker - Post #11) on Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 6:31 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

David,
How fantastic to see the hammerhead! Thanks for the report!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jason Rogers (BonaireTalker - Post #40) on Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 10:19 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

my head is always stuck down by the coral looking for frog fish. I bet a hammer could swim right up to me and I would not see it =) very cool

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sarah Jane (a.k.a. Bauer's girl) (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2443) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 8:04 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

A hammerhead - WOW :)

So pleased to read you did not have a heart attack! Being physically fit is clearly a bonus for divers!

Sorry about the Karpata incident. I have been to Bonaire around 9 times, since 1997. We have had fuel siphoned twice.. once at Karpata and the other from the parking area, near to Toucan Diving.

Thank you for the report. I hope you will return soon :)





 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dianna Mark (BonaireTalker - Post #46) on Sunday, March 21, 2010 - 1:45 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

David - AWESOME - Hammerhead!!! OMG!I am now double stoked about our trip. Hopefully it doesnt get killed like the other reported seen. (NOT passing judgement - just stating my hopes--beware the grumps......;O )
Sorry about the cruise ships. ( I am remiss most of my sisters are podders )
Thanks for the great trip report - sorry your buddy got gear lifted.
I know what you mean about Houston - we try not to fly through it, but all hassles are small inconveniences once my "toes in the water- a&& is the sand - not a worry in the world - cold beer in my hand"......

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eric M. "CamMan" (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #507) on Sunday, March 21, 2010 - 2:31 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Correction, "... cold Bright in my hand!" :)

e.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dianna Mark (BonaireTalker - Post #51) on Sunday, March 21, 2010 - 3:39 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I stand corrected :P.... Only 69 days to go (my suitcase & stuff has already been out for a month... Excited much maybe??????

 


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