More Pictures!

Guess Who?

My friends, Dee and John.  All around great folks and the best dive buddies EVER!!

John is an EXTREMELY laid back diver! ;-)

The boat dive sign-up board.  John, Dee, and I are signed on for the 8:30 2-tank dive and the 2:15 dive.

As usual, click on an image to see an enlarged version.  Enjoy!

Prettiest Dive Ever!!!

So, today was supposed to be a three tank dive day for me.  However, the first dive did not go as smoothly as the others I have done this week.  Yes, it was my first Nitrox dive - but that had nothing to do with it.  It turns out the current was extremely strong and in the process of swimming against it, I sucked up much more air than the other divers.  I don't know how or why, but I did.  I then felt that I didn't want to hold anybody back on the second dive of the boat trip so I decided to snorkel instead.  The snorkel was great.  I saw a lot of eels, a spotted drum in about 5 feet of water just hanging out outside his hidey-hole (very unusual) and a lot of baby fish.   I did get to see a small sea turtle on the dive which was quite nice.

After lunch I was debating whether I should dive or snorkel when I met up with my friends, John and Dee.  They were kind enough to invite me to be a buddy with them again.  They assured me that they had no problem getting me back to the boat if I used my air quickly.  They were o.k. with just hanging out near the boat until they ran out of air.  (And whatever calming effect they have on me I, once again, finished with much more air than others on the boat.)  I am SOOOO glad the convinced me to do this.  The dive, 'The Forest' off of Klein Bonaire, may be the single most beautiful place I have ever seen in life.  The coral was amazing!  The fish were gorgeous!  I can't even begin to describe it in a way that would give you any true impression of just how beautiful it was.  You're just going to have to get yourself here and see for yourself.  It would be worth it!!!

As for Nitrox and whether you are less tired after using it as opposed to air, hmmmmm - talk to me when the drink of the night isn't basically a raspberry milk shake.  Right now I'm absolutely exhausted, but my guess is that it has a lot to do with the large quantities of alcohol I ingested, and not with diving either Nitrox or air!!

SNAFU

Today I screwed up. Somehow, I recorded my Nitrox course as taking place at 9:00am but, unfortunately, the class started at 2:00pm.  By the time I found out, all of the morning boat dives were already full.  I, of course, had to take myself off of the 2:15 dive.  So instead of diving today, I did a lot of snorkeling.  I've decided that I like both activities equally well.  With diving you get a VERY close up view of a lot of really cool things, but you miss the big picture and you are limited on time based on air consumption.  I also find with diving that I have a fairly large number of brain cells thinking about safety that when snorkeling would be looking for sea life.  Also with snorkeling, you get a much wider view and see a lot more activity and you can snorkel as long as you'd like.  Today I took a two hour snorkel in the morning.  It was cloudy so the colors weren't as vibrant, but still it was nice.  Then, just before my 2:00pm class started, the sun came out and I couldn't resist heading back out for a short while to see the fish at their most resplendent.

As for the Nitrox course, I wasn't extremely pleased with the teacher.  The class started with her being upset with us for not having Nitrox dive computers.  When we all replied that the person who signed us up for the course said that all of the equipment we needed for the class would be provided, the instructor was still quite unhappy with both us and the situation.  She went on about it for several minutes, at which point, I interrupted her and said, "If you have an issue with this, you really need to educate the people signing students up for the course.  It is not our fault or problem that this has occurred."  She settled down a little bit and replied, "Well, I'm just telling you for future reference."  Ummmm, WHAT future reference?  The course is a one-shot deal.  We will never be in this position again.  Why do we need to be scolded for future reference?  After that comment, she lost all credibility in my view, and I was very happy to find that the bulk of the course was being 'taught' by a video.

After her emotional explosion the course came off without a hitch.  I am now a certified Nitrox diver – though I will NEVER show anybody my Nitrox C-card with the photo the incompetent instructor took.  I’m not vain, but this is beyond bad.  Don’t even ask to see it.  I promise I will NOT show it to you.  Anyway, to make up for my lack of diving today, I have a two tank dive tomorrow morning at 8:30am and a one tank dive at 2:15pm.  I will be diving with Nitrox!  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Best Dive Ever

Today was a wonderful vacation day.  I spent the morning in a lounge chair, near the water, doing my homework for my Nitrox class tomorrow.  After lunch I met up with my friends John and Dee and went for my first Caribbean shore dive ever at a dive site called Andrea I.  The entry was fairly tough because there is a very narrow channel to navigate between coral heads and underwater boulders and the surf was almost to the point of making the dive too difficult to attempt. 

Although my friends are much more experienced scuba divers, and have done a LOT of diving in surf when they lived in Hawaii, I actually had an easier entry into the water.  When I had last been to Bonaire I had snorkeled this site several times with my daughter under similar conditions.  I knew the trick to just watch for the break in the surf, get down on your belly and start snorkeling in just inches of water, and kick like hell to get out of the danger zone before the next wave came.  Today I did the same except for, instead of a snorkel, I used a scuba regulator.  It wasn't very difficult at all.  My friends tried to walk in and had a much harder time.  After the dive John commented that they should have just done what I had done.

Anyway, the dive was wonderful.  John and Dee made perfect dive buddies.  They didn't swim too slow or too fast.  They were extremely observant and had the right gear to get a buddy's attention underwater to point out interesting things.  John pointed out a crab, a tiny shrimp, a spotted drum, and a couple of other really cool fish.  Unfortunately, I was too far away to hear when he spotted the Lion fish (an invasive species from the Pacific who are extremely destructive in the Caribbean, but very pretty to look at – oh and they’re poisonous, too.)  So, instead, the only view I got of the Lion Fish was when a solo diver passed by with a long skewer type spear with approximately 8-10 Lion Fish impaled upon it.  Normally, this would make me really unhappy, but in this situation it was a very good thing.  Lion Fish are prolific breeders with no natural predators in the Caribbean and they are destroying the natural balance and killing the natural species.  Anyway, the dive was the best I've ever done in life.  It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I was extremely relaxed on the dive, the fish life was good, and I was ecstatic when I returned to shore with more air left in my tank than the two more experienced divers.  Much happiness!!!

After the dive I had a drink (or several - I can't remember now . . . go figure) with John and Dee at the pool bar.  And when I say at the pool bar, I mean we were sitting in the pool, at the bar, having a drink.  None of us had ever done this before.  John and Dee were loving it.  I, of course, was freezing - which they found extremely amusing since they are originally from Texas and I am from Boston.  They were amused yet again when it came time to leave and they swam off to get out of the pool and I, instead, pleaded with Andrew, the bar tender, to let me climb over the bar into the work area so I didn't have to get my upper body wet again.  Andrew laughed and said, "This I've got to see!"  And he did!!   (Have I ever mentioned that I have very few inhibitions? ;-)

Photos as Promised! Part 3 - The Guest

Tropical Mockingbird in my kitchen!

So as I was on my balcony uploading the other images to the blog, this tropical mockingbird came and sat on the railing.  He was watching me intently - obviously looking for handouts.  If I had been grocery shopping I would have happily given him something, but I haven't had the need to shop yet so I didn't have anything appropriate to give him.  Although, in retrospect, I bet he would have loved the chocolate chip cookies I had for the plane ride.  However, that's not the best dietary choice for the bird - or for me, for that matter!

Anyway, he sat there watching me for quite some time until he got either completely fed up with my inability to understand what he was looking for or just extremely impatient and took matters into his own hands (or wings as would be more appropriate in this case.)  At which point, he flew into the kitchen to see if I really didn't have anything to give him or if I had the goods and was just holding out on him.  Alas, he was quite disappointed and flew out the door to find a more well-stocked kitchen.

(Sorry for the blurry photo.  He was hopping around quite a bit.)

Photos as Promised! Part 2 - The Room

Balcony

Living Room

Kitchen

Bedroom

NOTE:  Click on any of the images above to see them enlarged.

Photos as Promised! Part 1 - The View

The view to the left.

The view straight ahead.

The view to the right.  (Yes, that is a volleyball court!)

NOTE:  Click on any of the images above to see them enlarged.