Trip Report Bonaire Trip Report - August 18-25 @ Buddy Dive

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flyingDiver75

Contributor
Messages
125
Reaction score
80
Location
Fort Walton Beach, FL
# of dives
200 - 499
1st Trip to Bonaire. We stayed at Buddy Dive and did 20 shore dives and a 2-tank trip with East Coast Diving on the wild side.

My overall favorites were Karpata, Boca Bartol, 1000 Steps, Salt Pier, Alice in Wonderland, and the Wild Side dives.

Going back, I might try snorkeling a few times to break up diving - loved the coral formations in the shallows swimming back in from the reefs in many spots. I'd probably try to dive the wild side twice if possible next time - East Coast Diving did a great job on our 2 tank trip.

DSCI6857.JPG DSCI6192.jpg DSCI6378.jpg

Divesite Highlights w/links to best photos from each:
1. Checkout at Buddy Reef - Sat PM, easy access, healthy reef with good chances at most Bonaire critters, tarpon
2. Salt Pier - Sun AM, we had great viz for this AM dive. Lots of eels (chain, spotted, goldentail), a giant shovelnose lobster, pompano, tarpon, and our 1st turtle
3. Aquarius - Sun AM, spotted cleaner shrimp, big terminal phase rainbow parrotfish
4. Checkout Dive 2 @ Buddy Reef - Sun PM for our late arriving 4th diver. Broke out the macro lens for something different. Shrimp, blennies, fire worms, gobies
5. Ciff - Sun PM, Peacock flounder
6. Karpata - Mon AM, lobsters, lettuce sea slugs, big sponges
7. Hilma Hooker - Mon AM, giant lobster and green moray, tarpon, exploring the ship
8. Webers Joy - Mon PM, spotted eagle ray, midnight parrotfish, flamingo tongues
9. Front Porch - Mon PM, eels of all kinds, spotted trunkfish, big lobster in the little shipwreck
10. Boka Bartol - Tues AM, big schools of black durgon, seahorse
11. Playa Funchi - Tues PM, eels, durgon, lettuce sea slugs
12. 1000 Steps - Wed AM, tutles, lobster, big parrotfish
13. Salt Pier - Wed AM, red banded lobster, barracuda, scorpionfish
14. Tolo - Wed PM, midnight parrotfish
15. Alice in Wonderland - Wed PM, green morays, spotted eagle ray, clinging crab
16. Buddy Reef - Thurs Night / Sunrise, fun to watch the reef wake up
17. Red Slave - Thurs AM, yellowmouth (?) grouper, flounder, sharpnose eel
18. Margate Bay - Thurs AM, baby lionfish, goldentail eels, really nice coral formations in the shallows full of brown chromis and baby reef fish
19. Andrea I - Thurs PM, squid, scrawled filefish, eels
20. Hilma Hooker - Thurs PM, viz was poor compared to the 1st visit on Monday, did some swim-throughs with the video camera.
21. Funchi Reef, Wild Side, Friday AM, a tiger grouper followed us the entire dive stopping at multiple cleaning stations, 2 eagle rays, 2 nurse sharks, and plenty more
22. White/Blue Hole & Turtle City - Friday AM, the best for last, I could repeat this dive over and over. Inside the 'hole' we had 50-100 tarpon chilling out with a ray, turle, and conch. From there a short swim over a sea fan forest led us to turtle city and 40 minutes of almost non-stop encounters with green turtles, eels, and squid. A big school of bermuda chub swam by during the safety stop to cap off the dive.
 
Thanks for the report. You covered a lot of sites for one trip. Sounds like you enjoyed it.
 
Welcome to the wonderful shore-diving freedom that is Bonaire! Glad you got to experience so much your week, including a trip on the wild side!

Richard.
 
Loved your pictures! Thanks for sharing. We're going for the first time in October. Really appreciated seeing some pic's of the entry and exits.
 
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