excerpts from the August 2018 edition of Undercurrent:
.....Due to its unlimited shore diving and location below the hurricane belt, the Dutch island of Bonaire is a diver’s paradise. Were all my dives here magical? I tried to find them, reader, but it gets harder every time. .....
Once at the wall, I determined the direction of the current so we could return with it. Along the top of the wall, at 30 feet, were many sea fans, caramel-colored instead of vivid purple. The star and brain coral were also dull in color; even the sponges were tan. So if your favorite color is brown, you will enjoy Bonaire’s reefs.
We chose the long route through Washington Slagbaai National Park. It’s a two-and-a-half hour drive to the first dive site, making diving there a full-day commitment. We reached Playa Funchi, parked in a shady spot, and assembled our gear at a covered picnic table. I walked out into the water, surface-swam to the site buoy, then descended for a dive down the wall to the south. The reef was a disappointment -- lots of red algae growth, and the fish life was minimal. I swam back in poor visibility over shallow, algae-covered rubble.
... but in my two weeks of diving, I didn’t see any grouper, and few yellow-tail snapper. Most reefs were in bad shape - lots of broken coral, algae, a good deal of disease on corals and on many fish. Visibility was 30 feet or less in the shallows, maybe 60 feet deeper down the walls.
-------Shore Diving Is Not for Everyone-------
After our plane landed, I overheard some mis-conceptions about Bonaire’s diving at baggage claim. One woman told a gentleman there are no currents in Bonaire. In another conversation, the divers seemed to think the shoreline was all gently sloping sand. In truth, there are currents, so dives must be planned accordingly. Also, most of the marked sites are not at sandy beaches. The majority of Bonaire’s coast is jagged limestone, called “ironshore.” And as I witnessed several times, it can make for tough shore entries.
Because it’s a nice break from the typical wall dives, the reef at Angel City is a favorite with Bonaire divers. But it’s a devil of a dive at the beginning. The shore, however, has a few levels of sharp rocks to step over to get into and out of the water.I saw some divers crawling on hands and knees to get out and others got knocked down by waves and couldn’t get up. They were wearing shorties, so I know their legs had to have been cut up from the rough limestone rocks. On another occasion, I saw a group who got separated during their dive; they were popping up all over the place. A couple of them had very long swims to get back to their exit point. Two women in the group made it to the beach, but got so tossed around, they could not get up. They had to get out of the BCs and leave them for someone else to carry. So pack some thick-soled dive booties for your Bonaire trip –-- they’re a must for ensuring the island’s shore entries don’t leave you on your hands and knees, begging for mercy.
