Curacao then Bonaire: What to do?

[RJP]

Not that anyone will feel sorry for my "plight" here, but due to a combination of carryover vacation days and an excessive amount of Marriott points it seems I will be going to Curacao for a week with my family in March.

The "plight" part of the story is that the Curacao trip will be two weeks before I go to Bonaire for a week with my buddy for our annual "guys dive vacation."

The reason we do the dive vacation each year is that neither of our wives/kids dive, so the idea is we dive on dive vacations and don't dive on family vacations. I think I'm pretty lucky in that respect - and my wife doesn't give me too much grief about diving here in NJ almost every weekend - but how on Earth can I go to Curacao for a week and not dive?

So help me figure out what dives I "must" do, as I think I can convince my wife to let me sneak off for at least one half-day dedicated to diving. I'm supposing something involving the Superior Producer as a "must dive site" would make sense.

My wife's issue is not how much time I end up spending "underwater" but rather how much time I spend "away" from the family, so I'm looking for strategies to be as time-efficient as possible. Are there any dive ops that do three-tank trips? If I'm gonna be gone "half the day" I'm in no more trouble if that means 8am-Noon or 8am-1:00pm

Secondly, is the shore diving right at the Marriott any good? I'm guessing I would be "allowed" to do a handful of 45-min dives if I was right there on the beach with the wife and kids without being gone for half the day. Figure at minimum one day dive and one night dive.

Anyone know if the dive op at the Marriott will allow solo* diving on the house reef? I suppose I could find a buddy or rent a DM, but what will help me out the most is having ultimate flexibility in when/how long I dive. Want to be able to be sitting on a lounge chair at the beach with the family and say "Hey honey, I'm gonna jump in the water for a quick dive. Want me to grab you a pina colada on the way back?"

Similarly, any decent diving/ops located at any of the "must visit" beaches on Curacao? Assuming I could pull off the same strategy as at the Marriott beach.

I don't want to drag all my gear from NJ to Curacao for just one or two dives, especially if they won't be decent ones. Assuming the diving will all be "decent" help me formulate a plan to get in about 6 or so dives over the 8 days I'll be there.


*No need for discussion of whether or not solo diving is a good idea in general, but I would like to know about any specific conditions/concerns at this specific site. I regularly do solo diving here in NJ due to the nature of the conditions (in 5' viz you are solo if your buddy is 6' away) the goals of many of the dives (Ill go this way to get lobster, you go that way to shoot fish) and my role as a crew member on a dive boat (setting the hook, pulling the hook, doing your dive while everyone else is on their SI.)

 

[DeputyDan]

How ols is the family? If old enough what about them or some of them snoreling above you while yo shore dive. This actually worked for me but just for one morning - I didn't try to push it for multiple days.

Also if you arrange activities for parts of the family you can dive during those time slots. Examples woould be horseback riding or parasailing

 

[ronbeau]

Not that anyone will feel sorry for my "plight" here, but due to a combination of carryover vacation days and an excessive amount of Marriott points it seems I will be going to Curacao for a week with my family in March.

The "plight" part of the story is that the Curacao trip will be two weeks before I go to Bonaire for a week with my buddy for our annual "guys dive vacation."

The reason we do the dive vacation each year is that neither of our wives/kids dive, so the idea is we dive on dive vacations and don't dive on family vacations. I think I'm pretty lucky in that respect - and my wife doesn't give me too much grief about diving here in NJ almost every weekend - but how on Earth can I go to Curacao for a week and not dive?

So help me figure out what dives I "must" do, as I think I can convince my wife to let me sneak off for at least one half-day dedicated to diving. I'm supposing something involving the Superior Producer as a "must dive site" would make sense.

My wife's issue is not how much time I end up spending "underwater" but rather how much time I spend "away" from the family, so I'm looking for strategies to be as time-efficient as possible. Are there any dive ops that do three-tank trips? If I'm gonna be gone "half the day" I'm in no more trouble if that means 8am-Noon or 8am-1:00pm

Secondly, is the shore diving right at the Marriott any good? I'm guessing I would be "allowed" to do a handful of 45-min dives if I was right there on the beach with the wife and kids without being gone for half the day. Figure at minimum one day dive and one night dive.

Anyone know if the dive op at the Marriott will allow solo* diving on the house reef? I suppose I could find a buddy or rent a DM, but what will help me out the most is having ultimate flexibility in when/how long I dive. Want to be able to be sitting on a lounge chair at the beach with the family and say "Hey honey, I'm gonna jump in the water for a quick dive. Want me to grab you a pina colada on the way back?"

Similarly, any decent diving/ops located at any of the "must visit" beaches on Curacao? Assuming I could pull off the same strategy as at the Marriott beach.

I don't want to drag all my gear from NJ to Curacao for just one or two dives, especially if they won't be decent ones. Assuming the diving will all be "decent" help me formulate a plan to get in about 6 or so dives over the 8 days I'll be there.


*No need for discussion of whether or not solo diving is a good idea in general, but I would like to know about any specific conditions/concerns at this specific site. I regularly do solo diving here in NJ due to the nature of the conditions (in 5' viz you are solo if your buddy is 6' away) the goals of many of the dives (Ill go this way to get lobster, you go that way to shoot fish) and my role as a crew member on a dive boat (setting the hook, pulling the hook, doing your dive while everyone else is on their SI.)

I would suggest the following:

Rent a car

Take the family to Caracas Bay

There is a full dive shop (Downtown Diving). The owner is very friendly and helpful and the price for renting tanks and weights was reasonable. We had all of our own equipment so I don't what the price were to rent BCs etc. I walked around the shop The BCs people were wearing looked to be relatively new and in good shape. I forget what brand of regulators they were renting.

Down Town Diving

There are also bathrooms, outdoor and indoor showers, and a food concession there.

Your family could snorkel above the tugboat which is only in about 17 FT (Max) of water and has tons of fish all around it.

There is a two-tired-reef that drops-off well below 60 feet which is very nice.

You could then do an extended safety stop at the tug boat and actually be diving right where you family is snorkeling. So in a sense you would be diving "with" them.

There is also a pier you could dive under. It is supposed to be very good but I did not get a chance to dive under it when I was there.

Another option would be Porto Mari.

Curaçao Actief

Playa PortoMari, Curacao N.A. - Underwater

The Dive Bus - Porto Mari

There is a dive shop on-site and they rent snorkel equipment. I did not use this dive shop since I was there with Mark from the Dive Bus so I cannot comment on the equipment or personnel.

Porto Mari has a double reef system along with a full restaurant, bar and rinse facility for divers. There is a nice beach that your wife and kids could enjoy in addition to snorkeling.

Depending who is visiting the beach on a given day there might even be some scenery for you during the surface interval if some Europeans are visiting the beach.

Mark (from Dive Bus) and I noticed this during the surface interval. My wife and daughter were looking in the other direction at the time.

The beach is definitely a family beach. It just so happens that some Europeans are a little less reserved than many Americans. This one gal was the only one and it was only for 30 seconds or a minute at the most.

There are some other dive sites like Watamula & the Mushroom Forest but they would not fit your time table and there would be little if anything for you family to do. Both Porto Mari and Caracas Bay

As far as other place to see in Curacao I would recommend the following:

Ostrich Farm - There is also a restaurant there which is pretty decent.

There also seemed to be pretty decent prices in Punda and Otrabanda (two sections of Wilemstad separated by a scenic pontoon bridge). The deals from the street vendors seemed to be better when the cruise ship was in town since there were more vendors.

I bought some pull-over collared polo shirts from a store in Wilemstad for $8 a piece. They were of excellent quality and I wear them to the office during the summer.

The Blue Curacao distillery tour was interesting. You even get to sample the products as you take the tour.

That is all I can think of so far.

CheddarChick has been to Curacao several times so I am sure she can supplement what I have mentioned here.

Feel free to ask any questions I might not have answered.


We did not go to the Seaquarium but other said they enjoyed it.

 

[jeepguy]

Not that anyone will feel sorry for my "plight" here,

Yeah RJP, Too bad you have to Cur. Really liked the Superior Producer, Porto Marie and Versenbaii are great dives and like Ronbeau said, if kids and wife can snorkel, the Tugboat wreck is awesome being only in 17fsw. Topside with family we really enjoyed the "jeep" (suzuki samerai) tours and the dune buggie tours. Well worth it to see the back country, caves and wild goats. The Aquarium is also a good spot for kids, as was the Bounty trip. Mark and Suzy at The Dive Bus always have room for single diver and they pick you up @ Marriot. They also take non-diving family on the shore dive trips so they get to spend time on great beaches while you dive right there, then they provide picnic during SI. Still have 7 months before we go back. Have a great time.:14:
Tom & Isabelle

 

[RJP]

...like Ronbeau said, if kids and wife can snorkel, the Tugboat wreck is awesome being only in 17fsw...

Unfortunately, kids are 9 and 3. And the 3yr old is the only one brave enough to snorkle, and he can't swim yet.

:11:

 

[Tennessee Slim]

RJP, my hunch is the Marriott won’t be too keen on the solo diving. My impression is that the places here that don’t do diving as their primary business are more wrapped around the axle about diverging from their standard program than standalone dive shops. I’m leaving in about an hour to go to Sunset Divers. One of Lynn’s DMs worked 4 ½ years at the Marriott so he should have a pretty good feel. If he’s in today (and he does usually work Sundays), I’ll ask him.

But there are other shore dives in the neighborhood and I see no need to ‘volunteer’ to the Marriott’s shop that you’re solo diving.

IMO, the most flexible operation in Piscadera is Hook's Diving. They usually have 2 DMs on duty and, with a little advance notice, it should be no problem getting one of them to ‘chaperone’ you on a shore dive. The Marriott, the Hilton and Hook’s restaurant/dive shop all stand shoulder-to-shoulder. The reef has seen better days (construction barge damage from a less eco-sensitive era) but the marine life has made a remarkable recovery. Last Sunday, beach diving from Hook’s, I saw two octopus (or is it pi?) and a frogfish. In daylight!! And there’s another frogfish that lives there but I didn’t get around to looking him up. [the voice of experience] But don’t even think about mentioning solo diving to their staff [/the voice of experience].

Have you heard about the Klein Curacao trip? You book through OE East or Atlantis Diving, …maybe others. Trips are Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The morning of the trip, you drive to Caracasbaai ~7 a.m. and board The Mermaid (Sundays you can easily drive there from the Marriott in 30 minutes). The dive shop you booked through will have a DM on board with your tanks. But you have to pick up your own weights the day previous.

The Mermaid is slow but very seaworthy; and she moors off Klein ~0900. The beach is gorgeous and sheltered. The shady areas are chockablock with lizards and hermit crabs (take a few home; no one will even know) so kids can find plenty to entertain themselves.

You’ll start your first dive almost immediately. Non-divers (which outnumber divers by a large margin) head straight for the beach. After, you rejoin the family for lunch at the big cabana. It’s a very impressive spread, grilled chicken and pork chops and all the fixin’s. You’ll get a good two hour surface interval, then start the afternoon dive. Re-board Mermaid ~1600 for the run back to Curacao. There’ll be tons of food left and offered up again on the return trip. Arrive Curacao ~1800.

The Mermaid is slow and the sea is almost guaranteed to be fairly rough. She pitches heavily all the way out and, because the waves are faster than her, she rolls all the way back. Unless you devise a two-hour distraction, the boat ride could be the most unpleasant part of the trip for the little ones.

It’s such a large investment of time, I don’t usually recommend the Klein trip but, under your special circumstances, you might want to consider it. The best part is that it lets you get in a 2-tanker and leaves the Missus thinking it was a family outing. ;-)

If you can only get away for one morning, my recommendation is that you hit Cas Abou and Porto Mari. Superior and Watamula actually are my favorite dives here but Watamula is WAY out west and not shore-diveable (unless you’re Mike Nelson) and there are wrecks most everywhere. Plus, Superior is deep (100’+) and presents repetitive dive problems. I think you’d be left with a better impression of Curacao diving if you were to see some of her natural attractions instead.

Porto Mari is less than 25 km from the Marriott. Porto Mari and Cas Abou are close enough to each other that you’ll just get in your surface interval in the length of time it takes to load up, drive the short distance between them and gear up again. And they’re distinct enough that you’re not likely to be unable to remember which was which. If you can’t find a buddy, don’t offer that you’re solo diving when you rent your gear; there are no “dive police” at either beach. For that matter, unless I’m under the weather or can’t make bail, I dive all day every Saturday and Sunday. I’d dive three weeknights, too, if I could find a dive buddy so, worst case, holler at me.

The Dive Bus is also a good possible solution. They can be extremely flexible with their schedule and dive just about everywhere on the island you’d want to go. And I guarantee you’ll have a good time if Mark leads the dive. I have flooded my mask from laughter every time I’ve dived with him, maybe five or six dives now (no, I’m not kidding).

This was slung together really hurriedly but I gotta run else I’ll miss the 9:00 boat at Sunset.

 

[diversteve]

Couple of options out west to consider:

Sunset Waters has a nice beach with a really shallow protected cove for the kids to play in. I don't think it's more than 4-5' deep out to the breakwater. (but bring boots for them there's a lot of hard/sharp stuff) You'll enter/exit through an opening in the breakwater if you shore dive there so they might get a thrill out of that.

It's part of the resort's larger beach with umbrellas, restrooms and a snack bar, I don't know what it's like offshore but the beach is wide and flat. There is a small beach use fee ($5.00 group?) if you're not a guest.

If you could get away for a morning dive while there Mushroom Forest is a short boat ride away with Sunset Divers. They're one of the better diveops we found. About 20-30mins. drive from the Marriott.

Varsenbaai is a slightly closer option. It's a locals beach with a big covered pavilion/snack bar off to one side. However Sanitation was an issue when we were there - the bathrooms reeked. I think I'd bring my own air also. You'll have to pay a small use fee but I don't thnk they care if you're solo, I saw several while we were there.

If you can get the older kid in the water, there's turtles out to the left in about 6' of water. They pop to the surface occasionally and were eating the seagrass about 100' offshore or so. There were several small kids - less than 10 yrs. old - snorkeling nearby, they swam over to watch the turtles when they saw me filming. I stood there on my fins while I talked to them - I'm 6'2".

Ask the operator about the Seahorses if you dive there. They're off a mooring ball in about 40'. It's a nice dive also, there's a pontoon boat wreck perched off the reef at about 80' to the east - someone told me it was the boat used to bring the cars to the Carpile site. It's an easy drift (low-current) back towards the beach. The reef is covered solid with stuff. My friends did 148' there 100 yds out or so - so more depth than other sites we dove.

I solo'd twice on Curacao. At Habitat. No one cared. I'm just OW. But don't take the wife/kids, they'll be bored there quick, there's no beach and the resort is up the cliff.

hth,

 

[Tennessee Slim]

I spoke to my guy at Sunset yesterday. He says there’s no way the Marriott will support you solo diving. Sunset doesn’t formally encourage it but they have people regularly solo diving their house reef. It’s a mild amusement but hardly a substitute for Radio City or Pelican Beach. Or Sint Mari (house reef at Habitat).

If you take the 0900 boat at Sunset, you won’t be back on dry land before 1230, possibly 1330. And they don’t decide where they’re going diving each morning until the resort’s guests get on the boat (based on weather and where the folks on the boat have/haven’t been). About the only exception is they do run a boat to Watamula every Tuesday afternoon. The boat leaves at 1400 and might not be back until 1800 (and it’s a 1-tank dive).