It sure is looking purdy out there this morning. The morning sun is making the water look like gold.

Very nice light on another pefect day in Bonaire!

Ahhhhh! 4 days and a wake-up. Good morning all.
A beautiful Bonaire day.

morning all...dog's out and about this AM

I could learn to hate you Kevin. Grendal's lose, the female donkeys better head for the hills.

Oops a double dog.

Thats ok Cecil he's big enough for a double post!

Kevin are you flying Air Jamaica? We booked our May trip and were amazed at the rate increase

Hi Meryl..
No we are flying ALM out of Miami roung trip with a stop in Curacao. I booked back in September believe it or not, about 2 weeks after 9/11. I got Business CLass for $700.00 PP reound trip.
No Cecil's really gonna hate me.

yeah thats about what we are paying 720 something...it was 540 last trip in Nov. quite the price hike! But I guess you have to pay the price for feeling nice! I don't think it's hate Kevin...envy maybe!

I Know. I was envious of everyone a few months ago. The coach fare was 400 at that time. I usually don't spend the extra on business class, but my wife, Claire, has just become a cancer survivor and I wanted the best for her. Well, at least the best ALM can offer.

I paid 351.00 pp for my first trip in Aug. Xmas was 651.00 booked last June. My last min. trip next week (President's Day / School break) was 850.00 and my April trip booked in Dec. was 759.00. The Feb. and April trip are on AA as JM was sold out from BOS to MBJ. That leg is very popular in BOS.

The best travel deals that I am seeing are the charter wholesaler packages to Aruba, Punta Cana etc..(ick)

Annie
Cape Cod

You are very sweet! A trip to Bonaire is always what the doctor should order! Are you guys packed already...

All the dive gear is sitting next to me about 80% packed. I'm doing pre dive checks on everything. Our clothes will go in a tissue box. I thinks that's all we'll need.
Claire's R&R is a long time coming. We were last on Bonaire in 1997, almost to the day, it was our honeymoon. This is our 5 year anniversary, survivor celebration, and massive decompresion from what life has offered over the last 7 months.

Gosh! No one will deny you this trip! Wish we could send you there today! Happy 5th Anniversary!!!! I hope to see you guys on the cam's and we can toast to all your accomplishments! Do you plan a day to come by the cams? signs? dive gear colors?

Annie,,,aren't they outrageous! but again they know they got us....I'm still going to pay!

I will try to make it this Friday around 4pm. Just when I know everyone will be on. As for the UW cam. I'll be the guy without my mask on. Don't ask... it's an old habit from when I use to teach, It made the students a little less anxious. They also thought I was nuts, but It worked.
Hey !!! Visitors

Wow..no mask I am impressed. I am a "nose breather" as I was called in my class...I have mask anxiety! You are closer to fish evolution than I !

mornin' all (Meryl, Cecil, Kevin)...Kevin, give your wife a hug, and i am very glad she is better...i just lost a good friend to melanoma...nice to hear someone beating the beast...also, congratulations, sounds like you have a lot of relaxing and celebrating, a vacation well deserved, i won't say i'm mad or jealous anymore off to go skiing for the day...get some good pics for me gang!

Cynde enjoy the snow! Where ya going?

Time to get moving around this house.,.will check in and out with you guys....be back in a few!

I use to throw all my gear off the boat in 30' of water, jump in, and resurface a few minutes later with everything on. I use my weight belt to hold everything together. It really freaked e'm out cause they thought I wanted them to do it. I would then follow NAUI/PADI guidlines for their dives. You could say I'm a throwback to older days. My AOW intructor was a SEAL, and my Instructor for my Instructor cert. was a guy names Drew Richardson. He headed PADI for a while back in the late 80's and into the 90's. I did more training than most and ended up working for the SEAL. That was interesting. We ended up developing the solo diver theory back in the 80's along with several other leaders in the industry. If you couldn't help yourself underwater what good were you to your buddy? It was an interesting philosophy. I was at the 1990 DEMA show where it was talked about a lot, along with a few meetings, unsanctioned of course, since the certifying agencies didn't want acknowledge us.
It was a fun time.

meryl, snow summit at big bear mountain (a couple of hours away)...Kevin...SEAL as in Navy? didn't know there was any other SEAL!

Yep, He is a Vietnam vet. I still dive with him, I don't teach anymore though, but we still do crazy stuff from time to time.

The parrotfish escort!



Closeup!

Hello there. We have divers approaching along with our favorite stoplight parrotfish.

Heading for the wall

Good Morning Rusty...
I hope you have a good time skiing Cynde. I have chores to do. I'm heading to Daytona this afternoon for the opening NASCAR race tomorrow, the Budweiser ShootOut. Claire has me working.
I catch everyone later, most likely Monday.

Kevin

I see Charlotte is out & about.

Kevin, you win I do hate you. I've got to wait till April and it's killing me. I'll show you how desperate I am, I'm going to take the U/W camera and using the self timer, I'm going to dunk it through the ice to get a picture. That's desperate and if I put my hand in the water do I get to log that dive.

Divers and bubbles:





Morning, buddies! Kevin - you are THISCLOSE to being there! We're psyched for you, except for Cecil, of course. LOL

Nother diver... this is great - all action all the time! I love this channel!

Kevin, Mr Wrasse say's


Have a great trip, happy fifth, take lots of pictures, leaves lots of bubbles and please write a trip report for us poor people w/o a life.

Rusty, how do you put in cartoon bubbles in Photoshop. The help file was worthless.

Cecil - I have a cartoon bubble font - I'll send it to you. It's easy to lay one over the pic - fill it with white or something - then type over it. Give me a few minutes to find it.