Bonaire December 2023,
Over the course of one week (Monday to Monday) I was able to do 6 dives to 50m (165ft) and 7 shallower dives to 30m(100 ft), including two night dives. All of them shore dives alone.
Logistics:
Flight from Miami: The temperature is 85F in full sun once the door opens. Take hat, sunglasses and shorts on the plane because you will be walking outside to go through immigration. The $75 entry tax can be paid on the spot with additional wait time or online at: https://tourismtax.bonairegov.com/form/tax-form/step/1
There are a couple of scam websites that charge $95 and steal your data. The QR code needs to be shown at the immigration line.
Nature fee: Pay $40 nature fee for diving in the nature reserve. Bonaire Nature Fee | STINAPA - STINAPA
Rent a pickup: There are a ton of options. Your credit card insurance will likely not cover the unpaved roads and "Off-road" damage. Most of the dives from "Red Slave" in the south to "Karpata" in the north are accessed via paved road. The parking locations are not paved.
Petty theft: As others have said-leave your car open and don't take anything you can't afford to lose.
Diving to 50m:
Load up a twinset and Pony/stage/deco on the pickup, drive to a site and go diving. SMB are required.
The water temps are between 25-27C at depth. I dove the whole week in a 3mm shorty+hooded vest and never felt cold.
Dive 1 Te amo: Park here - https://www.google.com/maps/place/12°08'05.3"N+68°16'45.7"W/@12.134808,-68.2805817,248m/ you will see a double decker bus that serves as a food establishment. There are a couple of rocky steps down to the sand. Easy walk in sandy entry. Swim on your back about 150 meters and look down. The coral stops at about 40-45m so you get a sandy bottom. Lots to see on the way back up with unlimited visibility. Good for first dive because you can't overshoot the depth and there is nothing to break down there if you end up sucking. The whole shoreline in Bonaire is a boat traffic area for kayaks, windsurfers and snorkelers. Approach the surface with caution.
Dive 2 Karpata: Park next to the steps and enter on the right side of the concrete slab as it offers some protection from the waves coming from the south. I did several trips to get the gear down the stairs to the rocky beach. There are a couple of videos online for the shorediving entry. Don't be embarrassed if you fall over. I used the deco tank as a walking stick for stability. The payoff is worth it. A 50 meter swim takes you to the drop off with hard corals all the way from the surface to whatever depth you want. I could easily see down to 70 meters and it keeps going. My profiles were 20 minutes at 50m with 40-455 minutes of deco starting at 18m. there is no sandy spot for your 6m stop so you will be hovering over soft corals. there was no current at depth and very little in the shallows. I recommend swimming hard left when swimming on your back looking at the shore (North) on the surface and keep going north the whole way down. You will have plenty of time to swim back to the exit during your deco stop. The drive back is a one way that forces you to go back south through Rincon..
Dive 3 Red Slave: Park next to the entry markers and watch your step. Walking down to the rocky coral beach with twins and an AL80 in hand can be a bit clumsy. If you turtle, there will be plenty of tourists to get it on video. Sand at 50m. there are supposed to be some very large anchors there. All I saw was sand because I suck and went to the wrong place there. Get better directions than my YOLO stupidity.
Dive 4 The Lake: Park right next to the rocks and walk in. This entry is easy, even with three tanks. The second reef is about 150m swim out. You will see the sandy channel from the surface between the first and second reef. The corals continue at a sharp angle down to 50 meters. wonderful dive for this depth but not really worth it for deeper stuff.
Dive 5 and 6 Tolo: Get here early. The dive site is popular and busy. The entry is much easier than Karpata. there is a rocky step down to the coral gravel beach. Swim out to the drop off and try to get as far left(North) as possible. The more north you go the better it gets. it is a very easy descent to 50 meters. I liked this place so much I came here again the next day. It is not as deep as the endless wall of Karpata but good for what I wanted. I got there right after sunrise 7am and I was descending by 7:25.
Some gear details: Stainless backplate. Dive rite classic 60lb wing. no additional weights for the deep dives but I added 8 lbs for the shallower dives when the tanks got empty and floaty. Twin AL80 with isolation manifold at 23-24%Nitrox. Longhose and inflator on the right valve. Second regulator on necklace with the SPG on the left valve. AL80 Deco with 40-50% Nitrox. SMB with 7m finger spool, but I did not need to deploy it the whole week. Spare mask.
Computer: Suunto Eon steel with Suunto RGBM2 algo. Suunto Vytec with the older algo.
The vytec consistently gave me 10 additional minutes for the shallow deco compared to EON. EON consistently asked for deeper stops.
I went in with about 220BAR on the twinset and out with about 100-120BAR. The deco bottle was about the same.
The second dive of the day to was 30-25 meters on the residual of the three tanks. Ended with 20-30 BAR on the twins and tried to completely empty the deco bottle.
Technical diver = technically, you are a diver?
I am planning a return to Bonaire.
Over the course of one week (Monday to Monday) I was able to do 6 dives to 50m (165ft) and 7 shallower dives to 30m(100 ft), including two night dives. All of them shore dives alone.
Logistics:
Flight from Miami: The temperature is 85F in full sun once the door opens. Take hat, sunglasses and shorts on the plane because you will be walking outside to go through immigration. The $75 entry tax can be paid on the spot with additional wait time or online at: https://tourismtax.bonairegov.com/form/tax-form/step/1
There are a couple of scam websites that charge $95 and steal your data. The QR code needs to be shown at the immigration line.
Nature fee: Pay $40 nature fee for diving in the nature reserve. Bonaire Nature Fee | STINAPA - STINAPA
Rent a pickup: There are a ton of options. Your credit card insurance will likely not cover the unpaved roads and "Off-road" damage. Most of the dives from "Red Slave" in the south to "Karpata" in the north are accessed via paved road. The parking locations are not paved.
Petty theft: As others have said-leave your car open and don't take anything you can't afford to lose.
Diving to 50m:
Load up a twinset and Pony/stage/deco on the pickup, drive to a site and go diving. SMB are required.
The water temps are between 25-27C at depth. I dove the whole week in a 3mm shorty+hooded vest and never felt cold.
Dive 1 Te amo: Park here - https://www.google.com/maps/place/12°08'05.3"N+68°16'45.7"W/@12.134808,-68.2805817,248m/ you will see a double decker bus that serves as a food establishment. There are a couple of rocky steps down to the sand. Easy walk in sandy entry. Swim on your back about 150 meters and look down. The coral stops at about 40-45m so you get a sandy bottom. Lots to see on the way back up with unlimited visibility. Good for first dive because you can't overshoot the depth and there is nothing to break down there if you end up sucking. The whole shoreline in Bonaire is a boat traffic area for kayaks, windsurfers and snorkelers. Approach the surface with caution.
Dive 2 Karpata: Park next to the steps and enter on the right side of the concrete slab as it offers some protection from the waves coming from the south. I did several trips to get the gear down the stairs to the rocky beach. There are a couple of videos online for the shorediving entry. Don't be embarrassed if you fall over. I used the deco tank as a walking stick for stability. The payoff is worth it. A 50 meter swim takes you to the drop off with hard corals all the way from the surface to whatever depth you want. I could easily see down to 70 meters and it keeps going. My profiles were 20 minutes at 50m with 40-455 minutes of deco starting at 18m. there is no sandy spot for your 6m stop so you will be hovering over soft corals. there was no current at depth and very little in the shallows. I recommend swimming hard left when swimming on your back looking at the shore (North) on the surface and keep going north the whole way down. You will have plenty of time to swim back to the exit during your deco stop. The drive back is a one way that forces you to go back south through Rincon..
Dive 3 Red Slave: Park next to the entry markers and watch your step. Walking down to the rocky coral beach with twins and an AL80 in hand can be a bit clumsy. If you turtle, there will be plenty of tourists to get it on video. Sand at 50m. there are supposed to be some very large anchors there. All I saw was sand because I suck and went to the wrong place there. Get better directions than my YOLO stupidity.
Dive 4 The Lake: Park right next to the rocks and walk in. This entry is easy, even with three tanks. The second reef is about 150m swim out. You will see the sandy channel from the surface between the first and second reef. The corals continue at a sharp angle down to 50 meters. wonderful dive for this depth but not really worth it for deeper stuff.
Dive 5 and 6 Tolo: Get here early. The dive site is popular and busy. The entry is much easier than Karpata. there is a rocky step down to the coral gravel beach. Swim out to the drop off and try to get as far left(North) as possible. The more north you go the better it gets. it is a very easy descent to 50 meters. I liked this place so much I came here again the next day. It is not as deep as the endless wall of Karpata but good for what I wanted. I got there right after sunrise 7am and I was descending by 7:25.
Some gear details: Stainless backplate. Dive rite classic 60lb wing. no additional weights for the deep dives but I added 8 lbs for the shallower dives when the tanks got empty and floaty. Twin AL80 with isolation manifold at 23-24%Nitrox. Longhose and inflator on the right valve. Second regulator on necklace with the SPG on the left valve. AL80 Deco with 40-50% Nitrox. SMB with 7m finger spool, but I did not need to deploy it the whole week. Spare mask.
Computer: Suunto Eon steel with Suunto RGBM2 algo. Suunto Vytec with the older algo.
The vytec consistently gave me 10 additional minutes for the shallow deco compared to EON. EON consistently asked for deeper stops.
I went in with about 220BAR on the twinset and out with about 100-120BAR. The deco bottle was about the same.
The second dive of the day to was 30-25 meters on the residual of the three tanks. Ended with 20-30 BAR on the twins and tried to completely empty the deco bottle.
Technical diver = technically, you are a diver?
I am planning a return to Bonaire.
