86 replies to this topic

[TexasDiver]

Video of The Big Monster Fish Rodney found today and no one came to see (after a lecture by Kamala at lunch on being sure to wait for other divers to come see your find!) is posted on YouTube.com here:

Instead of hunting up each individual link, simply go to YouTube.com and in the Search box type "down2biz" (without the quote marks) and a list of all my dive related videos will come up!

Edited by TexasDiver, 15 March 2010 - 09:42 PM.

[TexasDiver]

Video of the Lionfish Craig found today is posted here:

The Denver Post newspaper published the link to this video in its article "Where to dive without sinking a lot of money" in its 2010-03-13 edition!

World News Network published the link to this video in an update to an MSNBC article "Bonaire, a divers paradise" 2010-03-12!

This is a surprise to me because the video is raw and none too good, you can hardly see the lionfish, you might not see it at all if you don't know what to look for!

Instead of hunting up each individual link, simply go to YouTube.com and in the Search box type "down2biz" (without the quote marks) and a list of all my dive related videos will come up!

Edited by TexasDiver, 15 March 2010 - 09:43 PM.

[scubaski]

Video of the Lionfish Craig found today is posted here:

So, is there a bounty on thier fins in Bonaire?? Can you catch and kill??

[TexasDiver]

is there a bounty on thier fins in Bonaire?? Can you catch and kill??

Divers are asked to point out lionfish to the divemaster who makes note of the location and reports to a special task force of authorized "lionfish hunters."

[uwfan]

Would love to hear how the trip has gone...

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Hi all!

I'm home again and catching up on the site, and here's my Trip Report:

Many of us arrived early Sat. am, with the rest straggling in Sat & Sun. Most rooms were not ready yet, so bags were left in the lobby area & we went through the dive orientation 9:30-ish. Paid our Marine Park fees, got our weights, and many jumped in for our checkout dive. Water temps were a steady 81 degrees all week by my computer, so I wore my dive skin & my 3mm shorty and was comfortable. Water was cool enough to wake me up after the redeye flight, for sure! I went back out on the house reef (Calabas Reef) again after lunch with Clint (my dive buddy for the week), so he could get his checkout dive done. After that, my room was ready so I got settled in and headed for Club Chez Neal with my duty-free contribution.

The majority of us were on one boat, the Sunshine, all week. Sometimes divers would pack into their rental trucks and go shore diving elsewhere, which freed up some space on the boat for Bill R. and his students to join us. We had quite a few BIG camera rigs and a number of point & shoot cameras on the trip, so I expect plenty of pics to be posted soon! I'll look at mine and get some posted, hopefully today if the Gallery has been set up. Camera space was at a premium on the boat, and they added a second fresh water tub to the boat after the first day. After 3 boat dives each day, I did another dive on the house reef, so I spent plenty of time underwater. The boat gave us 60 minute bottom times all week, and didn't gripe if we went a bit over that.

The critters were varied and plentiful, and in all stages of maturity. When I scanned my pics, I noticed that I had 3 decent shots of the same fish, in juvenile, teenage & adult stages. The short list of critters I got shots of: french, gray & queen angels, spotted trunkfish, cowfish, anemones, spotted drums, ghost filefish, trumpet fish, great barracuda, scorpion fish, multiple species of eels, tarpon, seahorses, arrow crabs, bearded clams, turtles, peacock flounders, frog fish, multiple varieties of parrot fish, banded butterfly fish, octopus, sergeant majors everywhere, fairy basslets, damselfish galore, slipper lobster cleaner shrimp and banded coral fish, hard & soft corals & gorgonians. I saw some bleaching of the coral, but not too bad. It's good to see both staghorn & elkhorn corals coming back.

The two dive op staff on our boat took turns leading dives, and both need to learn not to drag stuff out into the open just for us to see. Unfortunately, they all know Americans tip so they try to give us what we came to see however they can.

There was a cruise ship in port almost every day we were there, so town was busier than I've ever seen it. Our resort was just south of the Town Pier area, so some of those monster ships seemed to loom over everything. Fortunately, the ships all left in the late afternoon, so they were gone by the time we went to town for a meal.

The pier restaurant - can't remember the name, is now forever on my "don't go" list. The service was nearly non-existant -- I had to flag someone down and ask if we could get another beer while we waited - and waited - and waited for our meals to arrive. There were very few customers so not very busy, but they basically ignored us after taking our order. About an hour & 15 minutes later, we left. I had an ice cream cone for dinner that night. YUM!

Many hung out after the dive day at Club Chez Neal. Neal & Gary, thank you for opening up your patios and mini-fridges for the cause. Much discussion, laughter, music, and general getting to know each other better took place, along with a little dancing by a few. Next time, everybody hit duty-free and bring a contribution! I know for a fact that a few people kept the place stocked, and they deserve HUGE thanks.

The costume contest was on Thursday night after the group dinner, and as usual the laughter could be heard far & wide. The theme was "professions", and the imaginations & creativity was great. I'm sure pics will be posted. I came as a professional wrestler with the persona of "Seahorse Wrangler". I knew I could get more use out of that old wrestling singlet I had! The cape, however, was new.

Quite a few stayed an extra night, so if anything exciting happened on Saturday they'll have to add to the report.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable week. I got to catch up with some old friends, and I made some new ones, and oh yeah, the DIVING was easy & memorable. It's why I go back year after year.

[dive_sail_etc]

Tam for another great trip report!

WW should simply stick you on every trip gratis as her designated reporter. Your thoughts?


Also thanks to Craig for his video clips, especially given they were posted near real-time. Bravo!

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Was that the restaurant at Divi? They had horrible service last year also.

Nooo, no complaints on the resort restaurant. This is the one on the pier right across from the Harborside shopping area in town. I think it's called Karel's, or something like that. Maybe someone else who was in our group of 7 will remember the name....

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Tam for another great trip report!
WW should simply stick you on every trip gratis as her designated reporter. Your thoughts?

Well now, I wouldn't complain about that! The day job might, though......

[Greg@ihpil]

Tammy,DITTO Great detail,almost felt as I was there.

[ramon1969]

Hi Tammy,

Thanks for the report, I'll cut- and paste it into my diary, saving time

You didn't miss much on Saturday - as we all found out, there's nothing to do on the island, so everybody just killed time.. I went snorkeling, some people got another car for a salt-seeing tour, and there was one final happy hour - sadly and weirdly not at Chez Neil's, but a very happy and reflective wrap-up nonetheless.

Very memorable trip, and I send you all many thanks for welcoming a rookie diver. I haven't dared step on the scale yet though - those cakes were sinful.

Ray aka "boy toy" (I wish).

[TexasDiver]

Video of school supplies donation uploaded here: Select High Definition for best viewing!

Instead of hunting up each individual link, simply go to YouTube.com and in the Search box type "down2biz" (without the quote marks) and a list of all my dive related videos will come up!

Edited by TexasDiver, 15 March 2010 - 09:43 PM.

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

I clicked on the school supplies video link, and got a Sign In page.....but I don't get that when clicking on the previous two posted links earlier in this thread. ??????

I'm not giving YouTube any personal info!! I'll start getting all kinds of junk mail & marketing spyware!

[WreckWench]

Hello from GSP!!!

Yes we made it but barely and even more amazingly our bags made it. All flights from Bonaire were delayed extensively. We landed in Houton with exactly 50 minutes to get off the plane, get our bags, get thru customs, recheck thru security and reach the plane. As we arrived they had just given our seats away and had to call the 2 standby passengers back from the jetway to allow us to take a seat. WHEW!!! Another minute or 2 and it would have been too late.

But we not only made the flight but our bags made it too. Complements to CO and I'm not even status with them. They even served breafast and lunch on the plane and that was on the DOMESTIC flights. WOW! Who serves food anymore? And they only changed for the second bag. KUDOS!!!

In any event...we are almost home...still have a couple of hours of driving and we are tired but happy!

More later...and yes I'll even post some of the pics I took on my new and newly flooded camera as well as a few I took on Ray aka boy toy's camera!!!

Thanks to EVERYONE for a wonderful trip! I really let my hair down and relaxed...you all were great! kamala