60 replies to this topic

[Blublood]

Ohhh ya!!! Lets not forget another new member from the trip...Bass (SP LOL) Our divemaster who took us to the wild side (east side)!!!!! When we were leaving we stoped by the dive shop and he was there. He gave me twenty five dollars and said to give it to Kamala to sign him up for a year!!!! He and a lady friend of his, Ava, who dove with us came to the B-B-Q......We must be doing something right!!!!!

[Marvel]

Ohhh ya!!! Lets not forget another new member from the trip...Bass (SP LOL) Our divemaster who took us to the wild side (east side)!!!!! When we were leaving we stoped by the dive shop and he was there. He gave me twenty five dollars and said to give it to Kamala to sign him up for a year!!!! He and a lady friend of his, Ava, who dove with us came to the B-B-Q......We must be doing something right!!!!!

Hey Gar- Guess who signed up- BAS!!! (now we know how to spell it!!) Gotta PM him & bug him to post.....

BTW- you guys are all slackers, real slackers- REAL trip reports & pictures!!!!

[nextariel]

No dirt to report Jill! What happened in Bonaire stays in Bonaire....

Oh darn! Margaritas for you at the next HH and we will see if there was dirt! No dirt on my trip either. I tried flirting with the photographer - I'm a failure.

Edited by nextariel, 21 June 2004 - 06:52 PM.

[Blublood]

I kept trying to tell CM he was mounting his tank on the wrong side of his BC. To no avail.

Attached Images

• 

[WreckWench]

A few of us had this same problem! ZD is setting up a new photo ablum for us to post all our pics in!!! That will be great!! Give him a few hours to get to it! Thanks, -ww

[WreckWench]

OK OK....I'm working on my addings to Marvel's report....it will be posted soon....so PLEASE don't call me a slacker...someone's gotta get these other trips ready to post we are doing too!!! LOL!!! -ww

P.S. ZD is setting up a special gallery for pics from this trip as well as a new one that will be the best of the best destination shots! Stay tuned and hold those shots for us until he can set up the new albums. Then I'll pick some of them to put into the trip report!!!

[mischievous]

for cyclingmike’s 100th logged hour, our group descended on the hilma hooker en masse. geared up on shore and did about an 1/8 mile surface swim out to the buoy that marked the stern. yogaboy (marc) and i were extremely excited because it was our second time to the dive location and we knew what to expect. after we descended to 10’, CM (our official group leader) checked our group’s status (robert, marc, bobby k, and of course me) and then it was time to start my favorite part of our conservative profile. we all inverted and started finning like mad in our race to the wreck. i remembered CT’s tip on anticipating the bottom and started to add air to my bc at 78’ of so that i wouldn’t smack the sand and ruin the vis with my silt. checking my gemini’s graph yesterday showed that i stayed well within the maximum descent rate of 75’/min. about 74.5’ in 1:04! sweet!

looking at my first real wreck, i was amazed at the sheer grandeur of something that had only been sunk in 1984. huge amounts of coral were encrusted on the ship and the wreck itself lay within a double reef system. michael led us into the cargo hold, through a small diagonal cutout, and into the second one where a huge school of tarpon was hanging out. we flashed our primaries on them and chased some out of hiding. i left the cargo hold and looked down to see a huge 5’-6’ tarpon underneath me and sank down to 90’ to chill beside him to get a good look. fish was definitely bigger than me. as I was checking out Ol’ Silver, marc got a good look at a 6’ barracuda chilling underneath the boat and decided that a snapshot from 20’ away was good enough for him. i’m going to go back to my texas lakes tell my “killer piranha” perch that they’ve got nothing on my giant buddies back in the ocean.

we finned up to the top of the wreck, carefully watching our various Cochrans to assure that we weren’t ascending too fast and swam along the port of HH watching our bubbles from inside the cargo hold escape out of minute holes in the ship. we had a little photo op session and watched the clock tick away to michael’s 100th hour and to do a safety stop at half our max depth and then continued exploring the reef in a series of swimming safety stops at various depths (NP would be so proud!). average depth was around 24’, SAC for me was 15 psi/min. water was a glorious 81 degrees and our bottom time was about 50 minutes. all of us came up safely and grinning like mad as a testament to CM’s amazing dive leadership skills. props to michael and congrats to your milestone!

as for the trip overall, amazing! series of first for me. first time to: go on a diving vacation, being in the ocean, seeing underwater life bigger and smaller than me, enjoying a night dive, cutting open my knee to steal salt from a mound of rock salt bigger than my house, diving without my 5 mil henderson gold core and loving the delicious sensations of having nothing between me and the water, having an awesome experience with a curious sea turtle that checked us out underwater and kept an eye on its humans while he blew bubbles on the surface above us, chasing flounder to watch them turn turquoise, swimming above a 5’ long trumpet fish, leaving the nest so that marc and i could go on a shore diving excursion by ourselves and coming back safely, aborting a dive that was way too difficult for our skill level after we observed the blair witch monuments to unfortunate past divers that the locals made with spare driftwood, ownerless sandals, and torn pieces of neoprene, having small jellyfish sting my face, seeing brilliant flamingos, enjoying delicious rum-based beverages while relaxing with my dive buddies after an amazing night dive where i helped feed the tarpon and tried to be stealthy while entering and exiting a dive site that were we were the unauthorized persons, feeling extreme bouts of motion sickness while our small dive boat got rocked by the waves, seeing huge puffer fish go through a mating dance, realizing that i need to start bringing spares just in case my equipment fails like it did this trip (good thing i was diving a spare computer and CM brings enough gear to outfit another person), and enjoying an amazing trip with sd.com where i finally got my AOW certification and met so many fabulous people that helped me with my quest for an umbrella (thanks to marvelicious & everyone else that kept the drinks pouring), and coming home beaten by the ocean wondering if i should have scheduled a vacation so i could recuperate from my bonairean diving boot camp!

[ddierolf]

Fantastic description! Almost felt as I was there! Sounds like a wonderful experience! Congrats!

Dennis

[Marvel]

You captured it so well, 'Chie!! BTW- the adoption offer is still open

[drbill]

Gee Marvel I'd adopt Chie in a heartbeat, too!

Enjoy reading about the dives all of you made in Bonaire and just wish I'd been able to do them with you.

One comment- finning straight down to the bottom head-down does have some potential risk vs a head-up or horizontal descent. If there is any debris in your tank, it can cause it to enter the debris tube in your tank valve and stop all air flow to your regs (main and octo). I know, I had it happen to me. Just another potential problem to think about.

Guess based on all the fun everyone had, Bonaire will have to be placed back on my hot list of future dive sites.

Doc

[Mishelle]

WOW! Great description! Glad you all had a wonderful dive!

[zendiver]

Awesome reports ladies....makes me feel as if I was REALLY there.

[Blublood]

Didn't see that one but I did see this one.....

Attached Images

• 

[Blublood]

I also saw these.....I don't know about French....But angels all the same.....

Attached Images

• 

[TheSassyRabbit]

I KNOW cyclingmike must have a camera full of pics hiding out somewhere!