Bonaire ’02
– Going Dutch (well nearly) !
Bonaire is part of the Dutch Antilles
or the ABC Islands, the A and C being Aruba and Curacao.
I had dived in Aruba in 1992, so I had some idea as
to what to expect underwater.
There are no direct flights
from the UK; I had booked my holiday as a photographic
expedition, via Divequest, under the supervision of
the very capable underwater photographer Martin Edge.
I found myself a Stansted being charged £280
for excess baggage, not a good start to the trip.
I was a single traveller,
so I met up with the other members of the trip in
Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. It was not long before
we were airborne, next stop Bonaire.
The transit from the
Airport to Captain Dons Habitat was very quick and
efficient. The authorities in Bonaire have realised
both the ecological importance of their marine environment
and the benefit that this has on tourism from divers.
Each and every diver who plans to dive in Bonaire
Marine Park is required to undergo a lecture on reef
preservation and good diving technique before they
are issued with a permit to dive, this permit takes
the form of a plastic ID disk that must be attached
to your BC at all times.
Copyright 2002 – Habitat Dive Resorts
I was staying at Captain
Dons Habitat, a dive resort about 20 minutes drive
from the airport. Captain Dons has a policy called
‘diving freedom’, this means quite literally
what it says. Residents can collect cylinders and
weights and shore dive at anytime, with no further
charges. Our holiday package included 2 boat dives
a day, this coupled with the freedom to dive the house
reef at will, gave us all the time we could wish for
underwater.
After a check out dive
on the house reef, we found ourselves on a boat heading
for Salt Pier. Bonaire’s other important industry
is salt production and it is from Salt Pier that the
salt is exported all over the World. The pier is in
water deep enough to take ocean going bulk carriers,
the great many pier piles forming a spectacular man
made forest that plunges into depths exceeding 30
metres. Growing on these piles are some magnificent
corals, isolated in clear water, with excellent negative
space surrounding them.
When people hear about
diving in Bonaire, most say how fantastic the diving
at Town Pier is, and I fully concur. You need a special
permit to dive the pier, but it is well worth the
trouble. Via Captain Dons, who organised the permits
for us, we spent three days diving there, which for
a relatively small site demonstrates the sheer variety
and quantity of life there.
It is also ironic that
in one of the most highly acclaimed dive sites in
the World, there is also un-told pollution and rubbish
under the pier from old car tyres to car batteries.
Whilst this adds to the rustic charm of the site,
as there are now corals taking hold on the tyres,
I’m surprised the local dive community have
not got together to clear it. That said, it is still
a fully functioning pier serving the principal town
of Kralendijk.
The only wreck we dived,
was that of the Hilma Hooker, an impounded drug running
ship. When it was impounded it was found to contain
several tons of marijuana, which I understand from
the locals, was disposed of by the authorities by
burning (it must have been some bonfire!). The wreck
lies in some 40 metres of water, the currents can
be quite strong, so it needs to be dived during slack
water, and it was the only decompression dive we did
all trip and it was worth it, as we were only going
to get one chance to dive it.
The problem with only
having one dive on a site, is that you don’t
get a second chance if things don’t go as planned.
I had a problem with my strobe firing, and this carefully
set up shot should show the colour in the coral, as
if lit by the divers torch. Alas, these things happen
when you mix depth, electronics and a slightly narked
diver at 40 metres. I wish we had more chances to
dive the site, as it offered some excellent opportunities
and had great potential, but needed knowledge and
planning.
We had the benefit of
E6 processing on site, so each day we could put our
films in at the end of the final dive and that night
have our images returned for evaluation and critique
by Martin Edge. The benefit of this was fantastic
and being able, if required, to go out the following
day and try and re-capture the image was superb.
We only did one night
dive, this was on the house reef, which we were very
familiar with from our daytime diving. This enabled
us to feel very at ease with the geography of the
site and I discovered an inquisitive spotted moray.
I spent along time on this subject, as I had not seen
many during the rest of the trip.
Bonaire is one of those
diving locations that have both fantastic wide angle
and macro opportunities. With the right dive guides
and by using Captain Dons Habitat as a base, all the
elements fell into place. This makes for a relaxing
trip as well as a very productive photographic one.
The ratio of good quality images to total film used
was superb.
All Copyright – Steven Ball 2002, unless otherwise
shown.
