17 replies to this topic

[WreckWench]

Everyone is in now!

I need to find Gayl aka flscubagirl and I will have greeted everyone! She got in late last night and I had already fallen asleep.

I will find her this morning and get this show on the road!

Only 2 divers arrived without gear and that is inbound for at least 1 of them....otherwise everyone arrived safe and sound with luggage intact!

More later...

[WreckWench]

OK found Gayl and sadly she is missing her bag too!

But Dan aka ScubaTooth is going to help her get her bag as well since it seems to be the same reason for delay.

Our members are soooooooooo awesome!

[Jerrymxz]

Having a blast in Bonaire!!

Attached Files

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[uwfan]

Me too!!

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Despite the lost luggaage, I think a good time was had by all! We all chipped in with offers of our extra gear and helped get everybody into the water eventually.

My fun actually started in the Houston airport, waiting for the redeye flight on Friday night. I met up with Heidi, Neal, John & Lorraine at Ruby's Diner, and we chatted & started getting to know each other during our layover. I embibed enough to ensure I slept on the flight.......

The resort was very convenient to town, and had lots of amenities and beautiful grounds for a desert island. The dive op was professional but not rigid, and expanded their usual 45 minute dive times up to 60 minutes for us, since we're all such fabulous divers with great air consumption!! The crew of the Alice H (which all of us except those taking classes were on) were very good finding & pointing out the sea life, not to mention joining in with our fun on the boat. The boat could be exited from the front, rear & both sides, so getting into the water was easy. Strangely, when you come up the nice, lengthy ladder at the end of the dive, they make you sit on the transom while they disconnect your reg & take your tank (only!) off of you. I've never had a boat crew do this, so it took me by surprise. We had nice and easy slope diving with little or no current and no surge all week. Many of us agreed in advance to purchase a DVD, so we had a videographer on board one day on each boat, and at the end of the trip we all watched the movie in the beach bar. She did a great job, and it has both humorous elements from above water and excellent footage underwater, and I can't wait to get my copy! Only 15 bucks, and at least 45 minutes long, if not more.

Breakfast, lunch & 2 dinners were provided, and the food was buffet style, except for the eggs & pancakes which were cooked to order. I felt there were plenty of food choices, and your portions were only limited by your own good sense. We would hook up with others for the short walk into town the other 5 nights and find a restaurant, which was hit-or-miss in the food quality and service provided.

The island was not busy. No cruise ships were in port the entire week, and there were not a lot of trucks parked at the dive sites for shore entries. Very few dive boats to compete for the buoys at the greatest sites, either. And if you went shopping, you could actually shop without being shoulder-to-shoulder with other shoppers.

Water temps were consistently around 81F. Although you could see some damage from the hurricane last year, the reefs were in surprisingly good condition, but they could benefit from having volunteers wave sand off some of the corals. And the eels are making their comeback from the bacterial disaster that almost wiped out the entire population! Although there were no really big eels seen, there were at least 5 different species spotted over the week. No sharks were seen, but we did see quite a few turtles, the typical resident tarpon, a stray barracuda that has avoided being on somebody's menu, a couple types of rays, an occasional grouper, a midnight parrotfish, spiny lobster and slipper lobster, bearded clams, squid, octopus, seahorses, and all the usual reef fish in huge numbers. I actually had a picture of a juvenile, teenager and adult gray angelfish all in one shot, but lost many pictures in a memory card mishap. I did manage to post a couple of pictures that survived HERE in the Bonaire 2009 gallery.

Please, anybody who had a working camera, please post more pics! I'm going to buy a new uw camera for my birthday......

The costume contest was a great hit, not just with the SD members but many staff watched in amusement. Someone said that they could hear all our laughter all the way in town! If I had kept my mouth shut, nobody would have known who I was, but my voice gave me away. Our very own soldier with endless nerve, BeachJunkie, took top prize, and yes, there is a picture of him and "Ginger" in the gallery!

Neal & Gary started up Club Neal on Neal's lanai, and many evenings found a bunch of us there sitting in the breeze with an adult beverage in hand, making friends and talking about many things, including our dives that day. Neal, thanks for your hospitality!

Best of all, I got to introduce my friend from home, Cass aka Hammered Head to the wonderful world of diving! She brought her brand new C-card to Bonaire and after the Rent-A-Buddy program, she's leaving looking & diving like an advanced diver. Cass enjoyed every minute she spent underwater, and I'm afraid we now have a new member of our diving addicts club......

I just want to say that I made some great friends over the past week, and I hope to dive with all of you again sometime.

[ScubaPunk]

Thank you all for another great SD trip. Bonaire was just as beautiful as I remember it 5 years ago on my first SD trip. I am posting some above water photos in the Gallery. So check them out. Bonaire 2009 Gallery

Edited by ScubaPunk, 28 June 2009 - 08:30 PM.

[uwfan]

LLDN gave a great report on Bonaire and I’ve had to think a bit to decide what I can add. I was diving for all but a couple dives on the training boat, the Sunburst. After the briefing from the resort, I got in the first two dives of my side mount class on shore dives with Bill, learning how to set up my wing with a side mount adaptor and attach a tank to each side of my body. Once the adjustments were made it was amazing how stable the two tanks made my diving. It was also amazing to learn how easy it is to take one or both tanks off under water, hold them in front of you, and squeeze through a narrow space- I hope to post a picture of me doing exactly that in the gallery.

It was good to see a good variety of life underwater in spite of the damage the area has sustained from the recent weather. I enjoyed seeing the turtles, eels, and wide variety of fish in the water. Above the water, we had a great time on the training boat, sharing accomplishments and generally cracking jokes. We also had a few extras on the boat, in particular a group of lovely ladies, two of whom were snorkelers. With a quick instruction session before our dive, Bill was able to take one of the ladies down on scuba at the end of our dive, and give her a taste of what we all love to do – the look on her face after the dive was wonderful!

I have to give huge kudos to two members in particular for saving some of my dives this trip. Murphy, as in Murphy’s law, showed up on the trip for me. I finished the second dive of the day as we were in our last days of the trip. I sat down, put my mask in my lap, started to do something else and my mask fell to the floor of the boat. No big deal, it’s happened before… when I looked at my mask though, I realized it was a big deal…the glass was shattered – no more diving with it. Thankfully, Cmdr Clownfish aka Scott and ScubaPunk aka Sandy were WONDERFUL dive buddies who shared their spare masks and I learned I really can dive with contacts! Needless to say, I’ve been scrambling since I returned to get a prescription mask ordered and find a spare mask so next time Murphy comes around I will be prepared. Thanks to everyone on the trip, it was great meeting and diving with you all!!

[ASDmike]

...the glass was shattered – no more diving with it.
...
... since I returned to get a prescription mask ordered and find a spare mask so next time Murphy comes around I will be prepared.
...

Sorry to hear of this mishap, that was one of my fears before LASIK. Did you save the mask or inserts? You should be able to re-use them. You can put them in that spare -- think crazy glue

[uwfan]

...the glass was shattered – no more diving with it.
...
... since I returned to get a prescription mask ordered and find a spare mask so next time Murphy comes around I will be prepared.
...

Sorry to hear of this mishap, that was one of my fears before LASIK. Did you save the mask or inserts? You should be able to re-use them. You can put them in that spare -- think crazy glue

The prescription was bonded onto a single piece of glass (it was 13+ years old) - no reusing the prescription, though I might be able to get a new piece of glass for the mask and use with contacts at some point.

[OTWdiver]

Trying to post my trip report. Having errors so asked admins to replace this post with the correct text and pictures. Thank you!

Edited by OTWdiver, 08 July 2009 - 08:37 PM.

[OTWdiver]

OK, started in the Miami, layover, we were decompressing and finishing in SC.

The dives this week were indescribable and the students on the trip did fabulous. The classes started day one with uwfan and her Side-Mount class. She is a natural diver and merged into the new configuration like a pro. To see her in just her third dive is beyond words so I have attached a photo. Words just can't describe how great she did in this picture.

The new kids on the block were not to be outdone either. Panamadiver and Beach Junkie came on strong with Nitrox and their Advanced Open Water classes and celebrated with a great dive on a Hooker.. I mean "The Hooker", The Hilma Hooker is in 98 feet next to a beautiful reef. The other newbie, JerryMXZ did 10 class dives and completed his extended range class with our favorite boy scout Scubatooth doing dives from 100 to 180 feet over the five days in Bonaire. Our other student FollowLiz completed her advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures all in her side-mount configuration. The crew was not sure what the side-mount was about. They did not know whether to treat us as recreational or technical divers but one thing was for sure, they were happy it was not 5 sets of doubles to deal with. The confusion was soon cleared and the divers and crew were happy to only be shuffling single 80's. The only student left was Cmdr. Clownfish leading the night dives to finish his night diver specialty he began back on the New Year's trip to Grenada.

To all who juggled their relaxing time, dive time and meal time for classes, I thank you. You were all great in the water as well as during the out of class times we spent together. It was a blast having you all give me every excuse I could need to jump into the beautiful waters of Bonaire. Congratulations to all of you and I know you will stand out in the crowd wherever you are diving. I look forward to diving with each of you again! - Bill aka OTWdiver

[Jerrymxz]

GREAT TRIP REPORT OTWDiver!!
I for one had a great time. I was challanged at times and frustrated a time or two as well. but I learned a bunch, about diving and some about myself. again..I want to thank all of you that went alone for an absolutly spectacular trip.

And WW I don't know how you did it, but the dolphin escort to the last boat dive site put it over the top.

Thanks

jerry

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Is there any news on the Bonaire trip video??

[scubaski]

Is there any news on the Bonaire trip video??

There's a sign up sheet that's proctected by password for your address. Let me see if I can find it. I heard/saw that some were ready for shipment.

[scubamama78]

Hi all So sorry I haven't been in touch but as usual I've been swamped with work and my daughter's upcoming wedding. I gota couple of good pics in Bonaire but I don't know how to reduce them to send to you I've been keeping a bit in touch through my neighbor who is coming on the trip tomorrow. LLDN: you did a great Bonaire summary. Sorry about your picture card.  Email me with how to send some pics and I'll try to get some on the site in a few weeks (when things are calmer????). Scubaski, thanks for all your help on the trip, before and after. UWFan (I hope I have this right - you were a great roomy!). WreckWench - if the Bonaire video is ready and it's not too late, you could give my neighbor one of the copies to bring back for me so you can save the postage. I'm hoping to come again on a trip - see you then - don't know which one yet. Loved making all of you as new friends!

Scubamama78