Bonaire diving navigation?

[klpscubagirl]

I am heading to Bonaire 3/18/07 for a week and I am incredibly excited about the prospect of nonstop diving all week...my buddy and I are staying at the Buddy Dive resort and booked the dive and drive package...my question is that while shore diving is great and all, niether one of us have much experience diving without a DM or at least local quide....is this something I should worry about? I am sure we can find the shore again, I am just worried it will be no where near the truck! hehe

 

[spectrum]

Assuming you have been doing some navigation be sure to always enter the water with a heading that will get you back to shore. Setting the bezel for this should be SOP on every dive, certainly on shore dives. If you stay on the western shore many will be the same. That sets you up to make it back to land. You can practice some just walking around the house or yard. On shore dives with pronounced drop-offs (like most I have read about in Bonaire) natural navigation, like following the slop will go a long ways.

This is a good artlcle:
http://www.scubadiving.com/article3168

Many of the dive guides point out the sites with notable currents, especially to the north and southern ends. As always when in the water take note of any currents influencing your movement and tack into the accordingly. Always make it a point to swim out against the current so that you have the easier swim on the return leg. As long as you hit land anything else is just an inconvenience. With a little practice and self trust you shoiuld be surprised at what you can do.

It's mostly common sense and learning to trust yourself so dive in and pay attention.

Even if you are not the designated diver you want to take a heading and keep an eye on the route. You never know when the lead navigator will absent mindedly get things turned around in his/her head. This way you will be building skill on each dive.

Disclosure: I will be diving Bonaire for the first time about 5 weeks after you. I've probably been primary navigator on about 100 of my shore dives in 5-15 foot visiblity.

Pete

PS, we lok forward to a full report!

 

[Norm Cover]

Most of the shore diving is quite easy. You park next to a yellow rock with the name of the reef on it and enter into shallow water. Most of the shoreline is a mix of rock and sand. The reefs drop off in a bout 30' of water. There are bouy markers at most sites for boats to tie up to. You can use these as a start and finish points. Just swim against the current along the reef for the first half of the dive and return to the bouy on the second half. Be careful up by 1000 steps. There isn't much shoreline and you can come up looking at ledge instead of beach. My wife and I had to swim a ways to get back to exit area when we over shot at Witchs Hut last year. You should have a great time.

 

[H2Andy]

bonaire's reefs parallel the shore about 100 to 200 yards out.

you can see it clearly in this picture:

many sites will have a mooring ball or marker. navigation is as simple as swimming out to the marker, swimming along the reef (against the current, if any), swimming back to the marker, and then swimming back to shore.

remember at what depth the marker is anchored, and swim back close to that depth. you can't miss the marker.

i dove a lot of shore dive sites in Bonaire without a compass, just using visual navigation, and had a blast. it helps that the visibility is AMAZING!

 

[DiveTyme]

Navigation in Bonaire is a piece of cake. A typical dive goes something like this: Take a compass heading away from shore. Swim (underwater of course) to the reef. When neutraly bouyant, hang for a few seconds to see which way the current is going. Just before heading into the current, look back for landmark (and know its depth) so you will know where your truck is parked. We pretty much swim out along the reef at a predetermined depth (50'-80') til we hit 1600psi, turn around and ascend to 40'-20'. Swimming back at the shallower depth extends air time and bottom time (with computer). When we come back to the landmark (usally with 1000 to 800 psi) we do a looooong safety stop. Take recip compass heading and swim back to you truck.
We will be there Feb 3rd for our 6th trip. Good diving!
Tim

 

[txdano]

Lots of good advice posted above, I think you will find it suprisingly easy to navigate just based on the natural underwater features and topography. Most of all relax and have fun, if you have to swim back a little bit to get to a specific exit point it is not a big deal. You will be suprised at what you can find in the shallows anyway! One bit of advice, try not to surface until your are very close to the shore, especially at some of the southern sites. Last month I came up in about 4 feet of water, looking all around as you are taught, and still almost got tagged by a kite boarder. Those guys move fast. Have a great time, we will be back down there the week right before your trip.

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

We were in Bonaire in November. Just like they said - navigation is easy. Make sure you know what depth the mooring buoy is at and swim back at that depth. Before you go down if you take a compass reading on your truck you will be able to swim right back to your entry point underwater.

 

[diversteve]

You can rent a DM really cheap($20-25 pp/dive) for a couple of dives first. But it's really not necessary although they may point out things you'd miss, a lot of Bonaire diving is small stuff like seahorses etc.

If you do either of the Piers, you'll have to go with a DM, it's required.

Everything north of Bloodlet would be considered an intermediate dive. All the sites in Slagbaai park are considered advanced. All the sites south from Red Beryl south to Lighthouse are also intermediate or advanced, most due to strong currents in the area.

So that leaves you just 45 other divesites to choose from...

You can also see the ironshore just offshore in Andy's picture. So bring treaded thick boots.

 

[herman]

The real keys to navigation on Bonaire are pretty simple. Here is how I do it.
Take a compass heading before leaving shore. Use a bouy if one is near or just straight out from shore if there is nothing visible.

Travel UW on that heading until you get to around 25ft deep. The distance varies greatly, from 30 feet north of town to several hundred south of town. At that dept, I find something that I can recognize. An odd coral head or similar object. I prefer ones that are several feet off the bottom. On occasion I will drop a marker bouy.
REMEMBERING THE DEPTH is important.

Determine the current direction and proceed on out to the reef drop off which will be a short distance out from the 25ft depth zone. The dropoff is very obvious and will start at about 35ft deep. Head up current at your choosen depth.

At you turn pressure/time, note your bottom time and accend up to the breakpoint of the reef. Follow the reef about 1/3 of the time back then start easing your way to the depth of your entry/exit marker. Remember you have went up current so IT WILL take less time than you expect to return to your exit point. The greater the current, the less the time will be.

Once you reach the deth of your marker, start looking for it. The reef slope on Bonaire is pretty predictable so if your close to the correct depth you will pass close by your exit marker.

Once you find your marker, take the recripical compass heading back to shore. If there is much current I fudge a little up current on the heading.

That's it. It is pretty simple. While in the shallows between 25ft and the shore go slow and take your time. It makes a great place to make a looooong safety stop and there is a lot to see in the coral rubble if you go slow and look. We found an octopus holding a tin can in 15 ft of water last July. Some of my best photographs come from 10 ft or less.

 

[diverbob]

I used the natural navigation. I'd swim out to the reef underwater, and look for a coral formation that I would be able to recognize on the way back. Sometimes it was one of the mooring lines, other times it was a unique coral head. Made it back to the truck every time.