If you could only do.....

[Reidkon]

We arrive on Bonaire on Saturday for a three week stay, and our second visit. Next Wednesday a good friend who is on a cruise will be making a stop on Bonaire and I am picking him up in town to take him for some dives. He docks at 8:00 am and has to be back to the ship by 5:00 pm. Since we are diving with Dive Friends In Hamlet he will do his checkout and first dive at Cliff, so my question is, if you could only do two shore dives, which would you do? Please factor in travel distance to the cruise ship pier because we obviously can't dive Karpata at 3:30 and get him back to the boat by 5:00.
He has mentioned that he would not mind diving the Hooker but I am not sure it would be my first or second pick.

 

[KeithG]

How about doing cliff several times? Like 4 times? Least amount time wasted on travel. First dive go north, second dive go south. third dive stay a little more shallow so you need zero SI for the fourth dive...maybe if you stay shallow enough you can combine dives 3 & 4 into 1 very long dive?

Sitting in a truck driving to another dive site is a waste of available bottom time.

As a small critter person, I always work on the basis that you can not "see" a complete dive site in 1 dive. We recently dove the same site 13 times in a week and did not cover all of it. We did Cliff during our trip (nice site - oh look, a mini wall!) and had to travel north because that is the way the dive guide wanted to go (it was an afternoon boat dive). Spotted a few wire coral shrimp and saw our only crinoid of the week. The site was good for at least 3 or 4 more dives...

---------- Post added March 18th, 2015 at 10:43 PM ----------

Or alternatively you could plan the "last" dive to be very close to the cruise ship dock so that your friend can pull a "dive and dash" while you take care of the gear afterwards.

That would put you on the dive friends dock or the divi dock just south of the cruise ship. You would have to travel south since they get a little snooty about diving under the cruise ships.

The topology there is not very inspiring, but there is lots of fish life. North of divi dock towards dive friends is rubble shallows, south is sand shallows with some junk (a bulldozer?) that has a cloud of juvenile fish. The drop off in that area starts at around 25 feet and gently slopes down to below 100 feet.

Not sure what type of "fee" would be charged to use these sites.

 

[drrich2]

Bari Reef is famous for species diversity, very popular, not far from the Cliff, and a fine site. One of the signature Bonaire sites.

For lushness, Sweet Dreams down south is indeed sweet, but it's way down there, and that far south you could potentially run into some current.

Richard.

 

[herman]

I think I would go Margate Bay (way down south) first, then the hooker if he wants to see it. IMO, Margate Bay is one of the prettiest sites on the island and has easy entries to boot.

 

[BDSC]

If you decide to stay in one area, say the southern sites, I would include the salt pier. Easy entry and last time there we saw several scorpion fish and two octopus as well as the usual. But my favorite site is, in fact, Karpata. I have always liked the northern dive sites more than the southern sites. Not sure why you couldn't do those sites before lunch if the boat gets in at 8:00am, have a late lunch, then maybe hit a site close to the dock after.

 

[soccerrefjason]

Are you sure you want to do this at all??? Everything I've read here indicates that cruise ship divers are dangerous!


lol enjoy your trip and your friends company.

 

[uncfnp]

You will have to start at Cliff for the checkout dive so that pretty much limits your two dives to that area but there are still great choices.

At Cliff, dive south at about 45 to 50 feet or so then come back at the reef's edge. This will give you the best coverage of the reef and maximize your friends dive time. Go slow and look! There is a lot to see.

With travel, check-in and the dive, you are probably looking at lunch now. Lots of options in that area. Then head to Bari Reef. Head south again right along the shore. There is an old foundation there. Lots to see. Take a small dive light, look up under the fallen slabs. From the foundation there is a cable. Follow this till you hit the reef. Make sure you look for things along the cable. Then at the reef, go down to about 40 to 50 feet, and continue south. Don't know how deep you like to go but at about 90 feet near the end of out usual dive, there is an overturned boat surrounded by garden eels. If you go down, again shine your light under the boat. Then head up to the top of the reef and make your way back either until your see the cable again or better yet, a pipe just a short way futher. Follow that back to shore. And don't forget to look under the pier there.

If your gas use is high, take 2 tanks to Bari for two shorter dives there. Head north on the second dive.

 

[Doctorfish]

If I had a 2 dive limit with time constraints like this, I would go to Bari Reef and then head south to the Salt Pier.
There is no real traffic on Bonaire to worry about.

 

[Kharon]

I would skip the Hooker. For me it was a real yawn - but I'm not big on wrecks. Personally, I'd dive cliff at least twice and then one more at Bari.

 

[deedeediver]

Oil Slick leap is only a 5 min truck drive North from Cliff and its very fun and Andrea I as well.