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Larry's LogThe next morning, the breeze came up just a bit before light and we slept well, finally. Of course, the boat had done lots of turns during the night and had twisted the mooring lines again so I had to straighten them out. We were pretty busy after that; I went to buy another gasoline jerry jug and filled it on the way back (a long walk with 5 gallons of gasoline) while Diane defrosted the freezer. We then met Ray for the fourth dive in our advanced course, the Peak Buoyancy Control. Gail was with us but she did a fish ID survey. Our dive started off by taking a significant amount of weight off and seeing how we floated with a full tank. Diane and I both 'lost' 2 pounds and had no problem hovering. We practiced a bit and afterward Gail showed us a Sailfin Blenny she had found nearby - very nice except he wouldn't extend his dorsal fin for us - maybe next time. After seeing him, we went for a swim down to about 75 feet for a while and then came back and saw how our buoyancy was with relatively empty tanks. Diane, with a total of 12 pounds, was doing pretty well. I was doing OK but might add a pound - I'll dive with the 9 pounds I had today and see how well I do. Of course, if I start using my wet suit, I'll have to add more weight. We went back to the shop to get our tanks refilled since we were scheduled to do the last dive of the course, the night dive, tonight. We had to wait a while to get them refilled since they were very busy but we finally got back to the boat around 1:30, had lunch and relaxed until Ray came over. Ray and Gail came over a little early, about 5:30; we had just finished our dinner (just soup after so late a lunch) but we got ready and got in the dinghy to get the gear ready. We were going to do the dive just off the boat. About 6:15 we got in the water, donned the gear and finally went down (I had some problems with the BCD but nothing serious). It was still a little light when we went down but about midway through the dive, it was pitch black. We all had lights and backups, as well as a little tank light that Ray had lent us. He also suspended a light from the dinghy to mark the way back. We had a very nice dive although I started to get a little cold and from the excitement, started to rise toward the end of the dive, when the tank got lighter. We saw lots of fish, many Glasseye Snappers and Cardinalfish, and I saw my first Flamefish as well as several species we had glimpsed before while they hid under coral and rocks. We also saw lots of 'sleeping' parrotfish; it seems they really do 'bed down' for the night. Most interesting though was the Regal Slipper Lobster we found, very pretty and just out in the open. When we got back to the area where the boat was, there was no light - it had gone out but we found the dinghies fairly easily anyway. I used more air than Diane because of the excitement and the fact that I wasn't used to the slight current coming back. I was swimming too fast and had to slow down by turning around. Anyway, we finished the dive and the advanced course, and had thoroughly enjoyed it all. Back on the boat - we didn't go back to the shop to drop off the tanks or rinse the gear; we figured one night wouldn't hurt it - we just got on the boat and showered (with some hot water left from the last time I ran the engine) and made hot chocolate; we were both cold. The next morning was a very busy one - first Ray came over to go over the last of the paperwork for the advanced course, then we went to the dive shop to drop off the tanks and rinse the equipment from last night. There was a bad swell from the north and the dock was very tricky but we managed to get everything off and then back on again. We dropped off the equipment and tanks at the boat and then went back to the marina to get water (we hadn't been able to run the watermaker for any length of time for a while) and also found out that the DHL package we were expecting (from last Tuesday) was finally in Bonaire and would be in this afternoon. Then, after bringing the water jerry jugs back to the boat, we brought back the dive lights we had borrowed for last night's dive to Precocious Gale. By the time we finished everything, it was noon so we ate lunch and I put the water we got into the tank. The port tank was empty and the 18 gallons filled it to about one-quarter. We were both pretty tired and since we wanted to go to the fish slide show tonight, we decided to skip diving for today. Diane took a nap and did some work on her PC while I read most of the afternoon. We called the marina around 4 to see of the package had actually arrived yet - not today. We left to see Jesse's fish slide show around 5:30, after a quick dinner. The show was, as usual, very good. Wednesday morning was a little busy for us. MS Word had refused to start in the morning when I wanted to write my logs so I worked on that while Diane went in to do some shopping. After she came back, we went back to the marina to get more water (the wind was up during the day but gusty and it still died down at night so we didn't have enough power to run the watermaker very much) and to pick up the DHL package that had finally arrived - only 2 weeks late. It was my new ATM card and Citibank had refused to send it Fedex as we requested, (I had gotten a FedEx package pretty quickly here) but at least I got it. Back at the boat, after a quick lunch, we got the dive gear ready and went out. We went to the site near the Plaza Resort, Eighteenth Palm, but it was occupied so we went to the next one south, called Windsock Leap, named because the windsock for the airport is there. It was a nice dive although I didn't think so at first. We saw two new species, a Bandtail Puffer and a Sharknose Goby. These weren't spectacular finds but it's always nice to add to the list. The water was pretty chilly and I may have to start wearing my wetsuit; the visibility was also not nearly as good as it had been - only 50-60 feet. We went back to the shop, got the tanks refilled since they wouldn't open until 2 tomorrow, rinsed the gear and took showers. We then went back to the boat to relax and have a light dinner. I also finally fixed the PC so everything was working again. We then just relaxed until the party tonight on Nightwinds. We got to the party around 8 and had a great time. They (Brian and Michael) had invited everyone on the anchorage. Not everyone came but enough did to make it a really special occasion. Everyone brought a dish to share and a bottle of what ever they might want to drink and we had an excellent time. The boat, a 63-foot Cheoy Lee motorsailer was really big and held the 45 or so people easily - there were at least 20 dinghies trailing behind the boat. It had rained before the party but fortunately stopped in time. A little before midnight, Brian dressed as Baby New Year - he had on nothing but a diaper. It was really hilarious, especially with his nipple rings. Sometime later, one of the drunker women ripped the diaper off - good thing he had on a bikini bathing suit under it. At midnight, the island lit up with fireworks from up and down the coast and we had great seats for it. We were all impressed with the amount and quality of the displays and it went on for almost an hour. Of course, people had been firing things all day (indeed, for the last 10 days) but the resorts all put on a nice show and we all benefited. It started to rain again but fortunately, well after 12:30. We got back to the boat around 1:30am and collapsed. Even the residual fireworks still being fired didn't keep us up. Thursday, January 01, 2004 - Happy New Year! We woke up late although just before it started to rain again. There was a cold front that had been coming down for a few days from up north that was causing all the strange weather and high, gusty winds. Since we planned to leave to return to PLC soon, we would have to watch the weather carefully. We just took it easy in the morning since we were both pretty tired. At one point, we heard some noise outside and when we looked, saw our friends from Its Good and Viaggio in a dinghy, going by in skimpy costumes with 2 0 0 4, written with a number on each butt. It was really funny and Diane waved them over so I could get a picture. We spoke to Vicky, from Halliday Girl, and she gave us directions to see a seahorse and a frogfish that were very close to Skyus. We decided to try to find them later. We went over to Skyus around 1 and dove down trying to find the seahorse first. We found the spot that I thought Vicky described but couldn't find the seahorse. We then went to try to find the frogfish and Diane spotted him. He was only about 3-4 inches long but bright yellow, just sitting on a piece of coral. We watched him for a while and then went looking for other things. I did see a Hawkfish and we finally went to turn around and found the frogfish one more time. We looked again for the seahorse but still couldn't find it. About that time Peter, Vicky and Bruce from Skyus dove down to look also. I was running out of air so we had to surface but as we left our dive shop, after rinsing the gear, we saw Vicky at the other shop and she called us over to say they had seen the seahorse again in the spot where we were looking, but really far down in the tangle of the gorgonian branches - oh well, maybe we'd try again. The next day we ran several errands in town early. I went on the Internet and Diane did some shopping. We then looked at some dive computers at stores in town and then went over to the Carib Inn, where we bought most of our equipment to see what kind of spares we might need. He really couldn't suggest anything specific except tank O-rings that he didn't have so we just got some little things and talked to him about dive computers also. We got back to the boat in time for lunch. In the afternoon, we went diving again at Andrea 1, although we wanted to try the next one up, Andrea 2, there was a boat on it already and he didn't want to share. It was a good dive though and we saw interesting fish, and I believe I saw a Bluestriped Lizardfish, a rare one in the Caribbean. (It's different from the Sand Diver by the lack of any gold stripes, somewhat smaller and swims differently) so that was quite a find. The board at the shop where we picked up our tanks said there was a sighting of a Whale Shark further north but they typically don't stay around one place so we didn't try chasing it up there. There was also a Manta Ray swimming around the island but we hadn't been lucky enough to see that either. We dropped off the tanks, went back to the boat around 4:30 and just read and relaxed the rest of the evening. We were tentatively planning to leave Bonaire early next week since the wind was predicted to be down to a reasonable velocity, but we'll see. We had talked to our good friends Tom and Steph, on Mima, who were still in Puerto La Cruz; they had finished almost all their boat projects and were also preparing to leave but they were going north. We hoped we would get there before they left. We wanted to get in 2 dives the next day and we managed it. In the morning, while Diane prepared dinner so she could just cook it later, I went to get more gasoline at the gas station. When I got back, we got our tanks and went to a nearby site, Small Wall. It was a nice dive and we saw 3 species of moray and a new species of blenny, a Spinyhead Blenny. To understand what that means, you must know that these fish are only about 1 ½ inches long and live inside holes in either coral or limestone rock and usually you can only see their heads. They are supposed to be pretty common here but I started taking a small magnifying glass to see them better. Anyway, we came back from that dive and the shop kindly filled our tanks right away and we took them with us. After we ate lunch back on the boat, we went back to Skyus and tied on there to go see the frogfish again and try to find the seahorse that we hoped was still there. We were successful in finding both this time - we finally got a good view of a seahorse and we found the frogfish again. We even showed it to other divers that happened by. I also saw a beautifully colored purple Cleaner Shrimp - it was actually trying to scare me away by clicking it claws - incredible since the animal is only about 2 inches long. It was really a great way to end the day. We went back to the shop, dropped off the tanks, rinsed the gear and ourselves and saw some dolphins chasing fish about 100 yards beyond the beach. |