Bonaire at 200 fsw -- Windjammer Wreck

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Dr. Doug Ebersole

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Scuba Instructor
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Last week my wife and I vacationed in Bonaire. We were both on faculty for a dive medicine meeting sponsored by Medical Seminars (Medical Seminars, Inc.). As we have been to Bonaire several times, I decided to experience some “firsts” while there. First of all, I shot wide angle all week with no macro as I have tons of macro shots from Bonaire. Secondly, I certified my wife on the Kiss CCR during the week. Finally, I did my first dive on Bonaire’s technical diving gem – the Windjammer.

The Windjammer went down during a storm in 1912 while transporting barrels of tar back to Italy. It rests just off a beautiful wall dive in 200 fsw. My buddy for this world famous shore dive was Walt Stark of Rec Tek Scuba (Rec Tek Scuba Bonaire - We do it silent. We do it deep. Techincal diving.). He has all the technical supplies you could ask for – doubles, deco bottles, rebreather bottles, trimix, Sulfnolime, etc.

This is not your usual shore dive. The entry site is on the property of BOPEC, the Bonaire petroleum company. You must send them your passport information in advance and bring a copy of your passport the day of the dive. You cannot dive if there are ships in port or coming into or out of the port. Thankfully, everything worked out for us and we were allowed entrance into the pad-locked and barbed wire entry point. It was just a ten minute kick out on the surface and we dropped down onto the wreck.

I was on my Kiss CCR and Walt on his Evolution CCR. We both were using 16/35 trimix as a diluent gas with open circuit bailout of air and EAN80.

As we descended to about 100 fsw in the clear blue 80 degree water the wreck came into sight. She sits on her starboard side with the bow aiming south. As we hit the sand near the bow in 200 fsw, a large green moray was swimming around. We then perused the outside of the wreck and then penetrated the hull where there are a multitude of barrels with tar still seeping out of them. According to Walt, the tar continues to move along the sea floor at about six inches per year.

After a 25 minute bottom time, we began our ascent with deco stops along the picturesque wall. During deco we had encounters with multiple eels, a small green turtle, lots of tropicals and several beautiful peacock flounder. The wall begins in about 10-15 feet of water so we spent our last 15 minutes of deco exploring the shallows which were filled with tropicals, lettuce leaf sea slugs, and flamingo tongues.

After a total run time of just under 100 minutes, it was a short walk up to Walt’s truck and back to the hotel. The Windjammer is truly an outstanding dive and probably one of the best technical dives in the Caribbean. It’s a must see for any technical diver visiting Bonaire.

Here are some photos:

Bow of the Windjammer
bonairefeb2008crw_7363a.jpg


Green Moray at 200 fsw
bonairefeb2008crw_7361a.jpg

[
Inside the Windjammer’s cargo hold
bonairefeb2008crw_7380a.jpg


Tar seeping out of the barrels (consistency of taffy)
bonairefeb2008crw_7382a.jpg


bonairefeb2008crw_7385a.jpg


Stern
bonairefeb2008crw_7398a.jpg


Deco
bonairefeb2008crw_7403a.jpg


bonairefeb2008crw_7297a.jpg



Here’s my wife from earlier in the week on a recreational dive:
bonairefeb2008crw_7283a.jpg


Other images from the week are here:
debersole.com
 
Great photos Doug! Looks like you guys had a great trip. Are you heading to NC this August? Jillian and I are talking about an RB trip out there!
 
Mike:

Walt Stearns is arranging a CCR only trip to North Carolina for the Sand Tigers in August. Details should be out soon but the dates are August 20-22, 2008. Hope to see you and Jillian there -- assuming she calls me and gets her Sport Kiss training! :)

Doug
 
Thanks for sharing the images, Doug. I wish I had that much light and vis at 200 fsw here off Catalina! Actually we often do get decent vis at such depths... there just ain't much light penetrating down there (and it's cold!).
 
Thanks for the info on how to dive it, great pics, congrats to your rebreather buddy, your diving is endless with a wife dive buddy-whos gonna say no you can't go.

Thanx again for info.

Cold, what DR. Bill no more drysuit diving for you.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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