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 Bonaires 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 Walts truck and back to the hotel. The Windjammer is truly an outstanding dive and probably one of the best technical dives in the Caribbean. Its a must see for any technical diver visiting Bonaire.
Here are some photos:
Bow of the Windjammer
Green Moray at 200 fsw
[
Inside the Windjammers cargo hold
Tar seeping out of the barrels (consistency of taffy)
Stern
Deco
Heres my wife from earlier in the week on a recreational dive:
Other images from the week are here:
debersole.com
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 Walts truck and back to the hotel. The Windjammer is truly an outstanding dive and probably one of the best technical dives in the Caribbean. Its a must see for any technical diver visiting Bonaire.
Here are some photos:
Bow of the Windjammer
Green Moray at 200 fsw
[
Inside the Windjammers cargo hold
Tar seeping out of the barrels (consistency of taffy)
Stern
Deco
Heres my wife from earlier in the week on a recreational dive:
Other images from the week are here:
debersole.com