Author Archives: Eric

Diving Sharon’s Serenity on Klein Bonaire

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We had managed to sweet talk two of the crew on Arielle into taking us diving on Klein Bonaire, which is supposed to have the best diving of all in Bonaire. We have been wanting to go, but the wind and swell are way too strong for our little 2 horsepower dinghy motor to handle. First thing this morning, they picked us up in their powerful rib and we set off. It was actually a fairly long (and bumpy) ride. We went to a site on the west side of the little island called Sharon’s Serenity. One of the crew Mike, was diving, the other, Jack, was snorkeling.

Sadly, Jack said that it isn’t a very good snorkeling site. In all honesty, while Bonaire may be a diver’s paradise, it isn’t a great destination for snorkelers. The reefs aren’t really shallow enough for snorkeling. However, the dive was excellent. We are pleased to report that Mike has a dive camera and that he managed to get some phenomenal photos. The following pictures are all compliments of him.

The first shot is of Christi shortly after we descended, higher up on the reef. We like this picture because you can see the little gray chromium fish that are everywhere on Bonaire dives, and you get a good idea of what the landscape of the reef is like. Note the neat soft corals to the right. They really do look like they could be terrestrial plants.

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As we were making our way down, we had a huge school of Continue reading →

Touring the Northeast Part of Bonaire

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Yesterday we had rented the car at 0800, but the car wasn’t actually due back until 1300 today. Nice! We decided to make the most of our time and took a drive over to the northeast corner of the island, the only major area we haven’t explored yet. The map shows a paved road that went due east to the coast. There is a connecting dirt road that follows the coast around to the north of the island that meets up with the main highway near Rincon. There are four caves up there with Indian inscriptions that sound interesting to see.

The road east is one we haven’t been on before. It is pretty much residential the whole way. We drove to the wetlands that open into the ocean and stopped. Hmmm”¦ the road north should be right here somewhere. It is a scenic location and we took some photos before getting back in the car.

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On the next pass we saw the road. It had a sign for a ranch that made it look more like a driveway than a road, which is why we missed it in the first place. At first the road was fine. It was a little rutted out from when people drove in the mud, but it was a clearly marked road and it looked like it was regularly maintained. The farther north we went, the thinner the vegetation got. The trees slowly disappeared, replaced with low growing scrubby brush. The big bushes became fewer in between. It was really starting to Continue reading →

Land Sailing, Windsurfing and the New “Welcoming Committee”

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Yesterday was another errand day. First thing, we were back on the camera hunt. We heard about a place at the south end of town that might have one. We walked down there, but still no luck. Every place we have been to sells regular cameras with dive housings, not water resistant cameras. We understand why. They are afraid that someone will take a camera safe for 3 feet into 60 feet of water, then demand a refund. Anyway, we ran a few other errands, including going over to Harbor Marina to pay for the mooring and drop off one of our propane tanks to be filled.

As we were heading back to Kosmos in the dinghy, we saw a sail boat coming into the mooring area. It was about to Continue reading →

The Clean Up Operation in Kralendijk Mooring Area

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As instructed, we were at the rendezvous spot right at 1000, in full dive gear and ready to jump into the water. The rendezvous spot was another boat in the mooring area. We tied up to it. Another couple wearing snorkeling gear came along and joined us, and we all waited for instruction.

Apparently, after Hurricane Omar, a bunch of tires appeared in the mooring area and on the reef behind it. No one is sure where they came from, but the theory is that the tires were used as fenders on the various docks up and down the coast that had been destroyed in the storm. One of the cruisers who spends a lot of time in Bonaire every year contacted the park service and offered to coordinate a clean up effort. Last week was the big day. Many cruisers had volunteered to pick tires up off the ocean floor and put them in the park service boat so the park service could dispose of them. The effort was incredibly successful and they filled up an entire trash dumpster with tires. The only problem was that there were still lots and lots of tires left. So, today’s effort was to try to get the last of the tires.

A few minutes later, someone came over and explained what was happening. Eric and Christi were responsible for Continue reading →

Diving Cliff and Snorkeling Near the Venezuelan Embassy

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This morning we returned the car and ran some errands. One was the boat store, where we had the shock of a life time. They had one and only one Shurflo 5.7 pump in stock. We couldn’t believe it! The store doesn’t normally carry them, it was special ordered for someone who never picked it up. We bought it and are happy to have a proper spare again. A second errand was for Eric’s SCUBA equipment. The hose that attaches the gauges to the tank is leaking, so he bought a new hose. And, Christi got a much needed haircut.

Once errands were done, we went back to the boat. Eric changed his hose, which turned out to be a harder task than he had anticipated. Then we loaded all our dive gear in the dinghy and headed up the coast to a dive spot called Cliff, near where the fancy neighborhood starts. We tied to the mooring and worked on getting in. Hard dingies are not really good for diving as they tip easily. Getting into your gear on board and jumping off with your tank strapped on you isn’t a good plan. So, Christi got in the water, then Eric handed her the tank and BCD. She put everything on, then Eric handed her his rig. Then Eric got in and put everything on. We were ready to roll and hadn’t even flipped the dinghy. High 5!

Being as we hadn’t gone up the coast very far, the dive site was similar to the one behind our boat. There are a lot more soft corals here, both more species and more of each species. The only ones we can identify are the giant sea rods, which are a good 5 6 feet tall, and the sea plums, but there are many more varieties. We also saw a few basket starfish, which look like a plant, not like a fish. A basket star is the creature that latched onto Christi’s hand and wouldn’t let go in Guadeloupe, reminiscent of a space alien latching on to a host human in a science fiction movie.

However, this site has less fish and less variety of fish. The most exciting fish that we spotted is a midnight parrotfish. It is gigantic, as in comparable in size to a Napoleon. It looked all black with iridescent blue markings on its face, but when we looked in the fish book, we realized it was dark blue, not black. We have never seen anything like it before. It was really exciting. This must be the spot for abnormally large fish, because we also saw an unusually large trumpet fish. We saw a couple different species of file fish that had very odd designs on them. One of them was also quite large. And, finally, we saw a fish in the distance that Eric thinks was a very large fish and Christi thinks is a small shark.

Getting out was the exact opposite of getting in. Eric took his rig off. At the same moment he pulled himself up on the port side of the boat, Christi yanked with all her might on the starboard side to keep the dinghy from flipping. He got in with no problem. We put in both sets of rigs, then Christi hopped on, with Eric carefully counterbalancing her weight. Another high 5!

After diving, we unloaded our rigs aboard Kosmos, then went snorkeling in front of the Venezuelan embassy, which is just a couple boats over from us. We were told there is a lot to see there. When we pulled up in the dinghy, six pelicans immediately landed in the water right next to us. They watched us intently. We watched them back intently, amused that they were so interested in us. Apparently, the fishermen will clean fish here and throw them the scraps, so they were waiting expectantly. We eventually got tired of the staring contest and got in the water.

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The area is rocky, there is little coral growth, and there weren’t many fish. But, there was a good variety of fish to look at, and we got some decent photos. We heard a turtle is frequently sighted here, but we never saw it. The first is a juvenile longfin damselfish. It will turn brown when it matures.

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This picture is neat because you can see how easy it is to confuse fish species. The fish in the background is a blue tang. We’re not sure what the fish in the foreground is, but with similar color and shape, it is easy to mistake it for a blue tang.

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Here is a sergeant fish. The silver variety is the Continue reading →