|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Larry's LogTuesday I woke up early, around 6, and just stayed up and worked on my logs a bit. It was a very comfortable night, now that the breeze was up. During the day it was blowing pretty well, around 15 to 20, but at night it would calm down to 5 to 10. Since it was also late December, the temperature was getting down to the upper 70's at night so with the nice breeze, we were back to using a sheet to stay warm - how pleasant. Ray came over around 8:30 to start our Advanced Open Water Diver course. He came on board and we went over some of the quizzes that are given at the end of the sections for each dive we were going to do. After that, we went to Something Special, a close dive site, for our deep dive to 100 feet, one of the required ones for the course. Diane was a little nervous about it but she was fine. We did a simple problem on the boat (figuring out an end pressure group problem) and we did the same thing on the bottom at 100 feet, to see if we were getting nitrogen narcosis - it seems we were not. After that, we just took a swim around at that depth for a total of 19 minutes (the length of time allowed before a decompression stop is needed. On the way down, we saw a colony of Brown Garden Eels, a first for us, and they were really great - the sand bottom for about 100 square yards was full of little (6 inch), swaying eels poking up from burrows in the sand. As we approached, they would slowly recede and then pop out again as we past. After doing the problem, as we swam along, we spotted a huge Green Moray Eel. It must have been 7 to 8 feet long since his head (the only part we could see) was at least 2 feet (at least his mouth was that big) and his body was bigger around than I was! Ray later said it was the largest one he had ever seen. We continued along and also saw some small (1 inch) damselfish called Sunshinefish, found only at around 50 to 180 feet (but generally below 80). We made our way up slowly and stopped at 15 feet for our safety stop. It had been excellent. We then went to get our tanks refilled for the next dive. We went to WannaDive, where we rented the equipment for the first course, and signed up for their tank refills. It was a little more expensive but it was a better place for us, much more friendly and they had no problem with us using the shower. There was also a small resort next to it where we could buy a beer and relax a bit. They filled our tanks and we went back to the boat to do the navigation dive there. The second dive, also one of the required dives for the course, consisted of using a compass underwater and some other things. There was a current today so when we swam the square, meaning swimming in a square according to the compass and measuring 'kick cycles', we finished short of the start but it was very easy to account for it. After the dive, we all went back to the dive shop. They had just put in a nice dock and it was easier to get on and off so Diane and I both felt better being there. After rinsing the equipment and showering, we had some beers with Ray and then went back to the boat. We left the tanks there, since they would be safe and they would refill them by tomorrow for us. Ray left his tanks there all the time, so we felt OK about it also. We finally got back to the boat around 3:30 and ate lunch. While we were eating, Ray, Gail and Ashley stopped by with a Christmas present - Gail had made chili bread and gave us one, wrapped up very nicely with a ribbon. We thanked them very much and after they left to give out the rest, we tried it - very good with a little 'kick'. Later on we went to the fish ID slide show that Jesse Armacost presents every Tuesday at 6 and enjoyed it very much (I had did the fish survey dive with her on Sunday). As something a little different, she made up a poem based on reef fish - very cute. After a very full day, we got back to the boat around 7 and had a (for us) late dinner. I ran the engine for an hour after we got back since the wind had calmed down a bit, but the batteries were not too bad. When I recorded the operation in the engine log, I saw that the last time I had to run the engine was 9 days ago - not bad. Christmas Eve morning was a very busy one, each of us doing different things. Diane spent it cooking various dishes for tonight and the holiday and I went to the Internet place and then went to get gas at the gas station about a 15 minute walk away. I would not normally have walked so far to get gas but we did save over a dollar a gallon doing it, so I guess it was worth it. (I also bought a Christmas card (in English) and small present while in town.) I got back around 12:30 from my errands and Diane was almost done with her cooking so we ate lunch and decided to go to a dive site to the south where we hadn't been before, called Eighteenth Palm. We went to get the tanks and got all the way there, tied to the mooring and started setting up the gear when we realized that Diane's regulator was missing. She had probably left it in the rinse tank at the dive shop yesterday. So, we got everything together and went the 20 minutes back to the dive shop and luckily it was there and she got it back without any problems. (They were about to use it - it was mounted on a tank when she got there.) It was too late to go back south at that point so we went to a nearby site we had been to already, Small Wall. We did the dive and I noticed the water was getting much cooler; it had been about 84 a few weeks ago but was only about 81 now. Three degrees doesn't seem significant but it is when you're in the water for about an hour. I hadn't been wearing a wet suit but I may need to soon. Diane had been using hers constantly. After the dive we agreed it was just OK, went back to the dive shop, dropped off the tanks, rinsed the gear and us and went back to the boat, relaxing for the rest of the evening. Later that night, we heard caroling outside - friends from Precocious Gale, Nightwinds and Natural Selection were in a large dinghy and were going around to all the boats - very nice. Merry Christmas to you also! Thursday, December 25 - Merry Christmas to all! After exchanging gifts (the nicest was the rest of the 4 volume set of books on the Caribbean reef - its creatures, corals and fish behavior), we ran some errands - we dinghied around to our friends and gave them some brownies that Diane had made as small presents. We then went to town so Diane could call her parents and Aunt Mary. By the time we came back, it was noon so we ate and went diving. We picked up the tanks and the girl who works there, an instructor, said that there were some frogfish and a seahorse nearby so we decided to try there rather than going to the southern site we had thought about. Well, we didn't find the seahorse or the frogfish, although we followed her directions. We continued along and saw nothing special until the end of the dive when I saw a new species, a very pretty little angelfish called a Cherubfish. I didn't see it for long but I definitely identified it since it's very distinctively and brightly colored. We also saw a large Scorpionfish but nothing else very interesting. We went back to the dive shop, rinsed off the gear and ourselves and had a beer at the small beach bar nearby. We then went back to the boat where we had a very nice dinner of lomito (filet mignon) and brownies and strawberry torts for dessert. It was a quiet Christmas but a nice one. That night was very pleasant sleeping even though the wind was down considerably. The forecast was for 15 to 20 but in the lee of the island it was more light 5 to 10 and then it was even less in the early morning hours. Since it was calm that day, we decided to go to Klein Bonaire to dive - we went to pick up the tanks but they hadn't been filled yet but the owner (one of them) said to use 2 of their tanks. So we started out around 11:30. Once we got to the site we wanted though, we found it occupied by one of the large dive boats, so we went to one near it, called Hands Off. We had a nice dive; the coral was beautiful but didn't see anything new, except that the small worms I saw I could now identify; called Fireworms. I was glad I never touched one since they can give you a nasty sting, based on information in the new book Santa brought. Coming back, we went around the other side of the island since it was in the lee and the smooth water was easier to handle - we planed almost the entire way back. We could also now say that we had circumnavigated Klein Bonaire. We brought in the equipment, rinsed everything and ourselves and went back to the boat. By the time we got back, it was 2:30 and Diane was starving so we just had peanut butter as a late lunch and relaxed the rest of the day. I did have to run the engine to charge the batteries; and by night, the wind died completely. Since there was no wind overnight, it was hot (not so hot as a few weeks ago though) and we got mosquitoes again. We also did a 360-degree turn when the current changed from the tide. I had to straighten out the lines in the morning so they wouldn't chafe each other. We went for a dive to a fairly distant site in the morning, Barcadera. We had tried to go there before but wound up at the one before it. Anyway, after getting the tanks, we went over and it was a very nice dive although after we got there, a large dive boat came over and asked if they could go on the mooring also. Since they have the right to ask us to leave, we said sure and although it was a little rough, we had no problems. We saw a few new species and some things we hadn't seen very much before. It was a good site because the coral was very pretty but also because there was a relatively shallow area where we could look for the small fish that inhabit sand and coral rubble. After we got back, we had a beer at the little resort bar near the dive shop and then went back to the boat to eat. Diane went into town later while I stayed on the boat to run the engine and some other little chores. The wind was really crazy in the afternoon - it was light but came from the southwest and west for a quite a while and then from the north during the evening. The moored boats were all going on the same direction but, of course, the mooring lines (since they have double lines at each mooring) got twisted again. The night was quite noisy (for some reason there was some fireworks and music) but eventually we got to sleep, even with the mosquitoes. At least it was a few degrees cooler than it had been. The sound of the boat banging against the mooring buoys woke me up at around 6. The wind was obviously still almost non-existent but at least we had been able to sleep. We continued with our Advanced Open Water Diver course today with Ray. We had spoken to him over the last few days (he had done another course for someone who was leaving and so had to finish it quickly) and we scheduled our wreck dive for this morning. It was a good day for it since the wreck site was about 3 miles away, near the Angel City site we had been to, and the wind was predicted to be light. The Hilma Hooker (the name of the wreck) was down in about 80-100 feet and would be a good introduction to this kind of diving for us. Ray came over about 9:30 and asked if we still wanted to go since the weather was looking unsettled. It rained a bit and the sky looked threatening but I felt it wasn't going to blow hard (at least not today) so I said we would do it. Ray went back to get Gale and Ashley and collect their gear (we had all of ours already) we closed the hatches and went. The trip was very easy because of the flat water and we got there and waited for Ray a few minutes to catch up. Since the current was flowing south, we went on the south mooring and after Ray explained a bit about the wreck and getting our gear on, went straight down to 95 feet where the bow of the ship was. It was very exciting diving on a wreck for the first time and we looked through a lot of the ship - the holds were the most interesting for me since we could enter those (they were completely open) and look around. There was a passageway you could go through but we didn't do that since it was beyond the scope of dive. We saw the engine room and the steering station. Naturally there were lots of fish around and I saw some new species, a Whitestar Cardinalfish, a school of Glassy Sweeper and a Tarpon with a Sharksucker on it (we had seen Tarpon before but not the remora-type fish). We stayed on the wreck about 30 minutes before we had to surface but we did go over the entire hull. It was really fascinating. We all went back to the shop and had some drinks at the bar and asked that they refill our tanks since we wanted to go out again that day. The tanks were filled as we had our drinks and as Ray and his family went to their dinghy, we went to ours. Unfortunately, as we were relaxing, the wind had shifted and put our dinghy on the side of the dock where there was no wood over the metal. There was a kind of tar on the iron and some of it got on the dinghy cover and the handles. What a mess. We got back to the boat and while Diane made lunch I tried cleaning the cover with Simple Green. It took some of the stains off but there are still black spots that I think will remain. We went back out after lunch and went to a site fairly close that we had been to several times, Small Wall. I got my gear together and we were putting Diane's regulator on when we saw that the tank wasn't filled. Great! I got my equipment back in the boat and we went back to the shop. Both Diane and I had seen them fill the tanks so we didn't understand what happened. When we got back, one of the owners came over and said he would look at it for us and loaned us one of their tanks. By then, it was getting late so we just went to Something Special, very close, where we had first snorkeled on coming to Bonaire. Although it was late, we had a very nice dive and saw another 2 new species, small ones, in the coral rubble in the shallows near the mooring block. We were getting pretty good on air consumption - although we were at 60 feet for about 25 minutes we spent some time in 20 feet also but the dive lasted 62 minutes, a new record for us (I had 500 PSI left and Diane had the same). When we got back to the shop and they hadn't looked at our tank yet but we told them we would need it for tomorrow - no problem. After rinsing everything, we went back to the boat, pretty tired after 2 dives and the running back and forth. The wind was really crazy again that day - it boxed the compass although it was generally under 10 knots. I had to run the engine again - se la vie. |