drrich2
Contributor
I hope to post a better review of this dive in the future, with pics and what not, but I'm in Bonaire, it's my 1st dive day, it's late and I've got morning boat dives scheduled, so I'm going to quickly post this, drawing from an e-mail I sent my wife. Long story short, a friend & I dove Cai in the past, found it a hairy shore dive, and I've long wondered whether we missed something. Bas Tol with BasDiving.com does guided shore diving on the east coast; I've been in contact with him via internet, and we arranged a meet for me to try Cai with him.
Today he met me at Buddy Dive Resort at 1 p.m. and took me on a guided dive of Cai on the east coast by Lac Bay. Wonderful dive; possibly the best I've ever been on. Saw 5 green moray eels, more spiny lobster than I kept count of, a number of big cubera snapper, several tarpon, a big school of bone fish that must've had hundreds, a yellow sea horse, some fish called palomettas (we saw a lot of fish, and different kinds), so many sea anemones you could grow old trying to count them, some big conchs, an ocean triggerfish, a number of small creatures, and he killed a few invasive lionfish. He showed me this tiny fish called a black brotula; imagine a tiny black moray eel about 2 inches long undulating in the water up in the coral - turns out it's a type of cleaner fish. Speaking of which there were 2 banded coral shrimp working on green moray eel number 3.
There was a lot of variety in the bottom; from flat to sloped to near vertical wall, from sandy to lots of coral growth, and we didn't even have to go deep. On Bas' suggestion I asked for, and got, a larger than usual tank at Buddy Dive Resort; a 100 cf tank. Still, I got the longest dive of my life to date on this dive.
To top it off, we surface swam out to a drop off to start the dive, and Bas took advantage of the currents so we didn't do much current fighting. He gave a long, detailed dive briefing about the site; I think he knows it like the back of his hand. Overall, sticking close to him, the conditions were quite nice to dive. He told me about the underwater topography and the currents, and led the dive to avoid or take advantage of currents.
The stat.s:
1.) Dive Time: 1 hour & 43 minutes. Granted, there at the end, we looked around very shallow and I watched him nail some lionfish, and we were so shallow I could let my tank pressure get low, but still, that's one long dive.
2.) Maximum depth: 48 feet. Average depth: 28 feet.
3.) My SAC rate per Cobalt computer: 0.56 cfm (that's really good for me; the point is, I wasn't fighting currents and stressed).
He wrote on his slate to tell me what things were; I can't remember all of what we saw.
Had a great time. Highly recommend anybody interesting in Cai hook up with Bas. And it turned out to be an impressive dive site; I haven't seen such varied topography on any west coast dive.
Anyway, wanted to share while it was fresh on my mind.
Richard.
Today he met me at Buddy Dive Resort at 1 p.m. and took me on a guided dive of Cai on the east coast by Lac Bay. Wonderful dive; possibly the best I've ever been on. Saw 5 green moray eels, more spiny lobster than I kept count of, a number of big cubera snapper, several tarpon, a big school of bone fish that must've had hundreds, a yellow sea horse, some fish called palomettas (we saw a lot of fish, and different kinds), so many sea anemones you could grow old trying to count them, some big conchs, an ocean triggerfish, a number of small creatures, and he killed a few invasive lionfish. He showed me this tiny fish called a black brotula; imagine a tiny black moray eel about 2 inches long undulating in the water up in the coral - turns out it's a type of cleaner fish. Speaking of which there were 2 banded coral shrimp working on green moray eel number 3.
There was a lot of variety in the bottom; from flat to sloped to near vertical wall, from sandy to lots of coral growth, and we didn't even have to go deep. On Bas' suggestion I asked for, and got, a larger than usual tank at Buddy Dive Resort; a 100 cf tank. Still, I got the longest dive of my life to date on this dive.
To top it off, we surface swam out to a drop off to start the dive, and Bas took advantage of the currents so we didn't do much current fighting. He gave a long, detailed dive briefing about the site; I think he knows it like the back of his hand. Overall, sticking close to him, the conditions were quite nice to dive. He told me about the underwater topography and the currents, and led the dive to avoid or take advantage of currents.
The stat.s:
1.) Dive Time: 1 hour & 43 minutes. Granted, there at the end, we looked around very shallow and I watched him nail some lionfish, and we were so shallow I could let my tank pressure get low, but still, that's one long dive.
2.) Maximum depth: 48 feet. Average depth: 28 feet.
3.) My SAC rate per Cobalt computer: 0.56 cfm (that's really good for me; the point is, I wasn't fighting currents and stressed).
He wrote on his slate to tell me what things were; I can't remember all of what we saw.
Had a great time. Highly recommend anybody interesting in Cai hook up with Bas. And it turned out to be an impressive dive site; I haven't seen such varied topography on any west coast dive.
Anyway, wanted to share while it was fresh on my mind.
Richard.
