Scuba Diving Bonaire
Diving Bonaire articles, reviews, and reports from Undercurrent
Diving Bonaire Overview
To many visitors, Bonaire's attraction is shore diving, not only in front of their hotels, but via rental car to one of a score of marked sites - but keep nothing in those cars as many get broken into while divers are underwater. Still, Bonaire is a diver's island par excellence, with diving that's especially well suited for easy divers and those who want to concentrate on photography.
Bonaire Seasonal Dive Planner
Bonaire is a desert island, with a terrain and climate something
like southern Arizona. Air temperatures are in the low to mid 70s at night, and
the high 80s or low 90s during the day. But with the trade winds and moderate
humidity, it rarely feels as hot as it is.
Rainfall is usually scant, consisting of a few brief showers
in the early morning, except during November and December, when occasionally
it is overcast and rainy for a day or more. Total annual rainfall is about 20
inches, but every eight to ten years there's a peak year, with total rainfall
of two to three times the normal amount. 1988 was one such peak year, with the
highest accumulations known since accurate record-keeping started over 200 years
ago.
Bonaire's protected western coast offers almost ideal conditions
365 days a year - calm, warm, and clear water with gentle currents. The sky
is usually dotted with puffy fair weather clouds that give a welcome respite
from a tropical sun which can get quite intense, especially in May, June, and
September. Winds are always from the east at a brisk 15-20 mph from January
through August. They slow the last four months of the year, with occasional
calm days that permit diving on the island's exposed eastern coast. This is
an experience not to be missed if the rare opportunity presents itself to see
the huge sponges, gorgonia, coral heads and fish of the northern and eastern
coasts.
The water temperature in Bonaire ranges from 78 to 81 degrees. About three years
out of every five, upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep Atlantic
spill into the Caribbean over the relatively shallow shelf that connects Trinidad
with the Grenadines, and then it circulates westward to Bonaire. When this happens
- usually during July - water temperature can drop into the low 70s and visibility
everywhere can fall to 30' or less. These conditions can last from one or two
days to a week or more.
Sometimes this cold upwelling water doesn't come all the way
to the surface but is only encountered at depth as a murky thermocline.
Featured Links
Interested in
having your link here?
|
| Roatan Charter
Western Caribbean dive travel specialists since 1981. Free dive catalog,
DVD's, reservation and contract airfare services.
| Wakatobi Dive Resort and Pelagian Dive Yacht
A multiple award-winning luxury eco resort with three staff for every guest
and unlimited diving on world's most pristine reefs.
| Den Laman Condominiums Bonaire
Den Laman offers fully equipped kitchens, living area with LCD-TV, balconies,
many boasting spectacular ocean views. |
| Sand Dollar Condominium Resort Bonaire
Spacious & comfortable studio, one, two & three bedroom ocean view
condominiums. Full size kitchens, dining and living areas with roomy porches
or balconies. | Bonaire Sea Side Apartments
Bonaire Sea Side Apartments offers elegance with all of the charm and
convenience you could want in a vacation retreat, just steps away from diving and more | Undercurrent Online: Instant access to the latest issues and all readers reports.
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Diving Bonaire Feature Articles and Reader Reports
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For Undercurrent Online Members |
Bonaire Dive Reviews
from our Travelin' Divers' Chapbooks |
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All Availble to Undercurrent Online
Members; Some Publicly Available as Indicated
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Diving Bonaire Articles - Land Based
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| Saipan, Statia, Lake Malawi, Key Largo..., reports from the back of beyond from “undercover” readers, 7/10 |
| Buddy Dive Resort, Bonaire, freedom for solo diving photographers, 5/10 |
| Bahamas, Canada, Caymans, Indonesia, 7/08 |
Available to the Public |
| Bruce Bowker’s Carib Inn, Bonaire, hard to book, but heaven for hardcore divers, 10/07 |
| Cuba, Bonaire, Belize... , and a clever thief in Curacao, 1/07 |
| Holbox Whale Sharks, Bonaire Wild Side, destinations to keep in mind, 2/06 |
| Thumbs Down: Plaza Resort Bonaire, 9/04 |
| Reports From Readers: Part I, Cozumel’s adult dive operators, Bonaire bummers, 8/04 |
| More on Theft in Bonaire, 4/04 |
| S.E. Aruba Fly n’ Dive, the Dutch Caribbean, dive in Bonaire, sleep in Aruba, 2/04 |
| Wild Side Diving in Bonaire, 5/03 |
| Thumbs Down, 10/02 |
| Missed Connections, 10/01 |
| Bonaire Buys Klein, 2/00 |
| Bonaire, 1/00 |
| Trouble Going to Bonaire or Curaçao , 7/99 |
| Captain Don's Habitat, 7/94 |
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Bonaire Dive Reviews
from our Travelin' Divers' Chapbooks |
Editor's Book Picks for Scuba Diving Bonaire
The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the
world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com;
just follow the links. -- BD
Diving Cozumel ... Cayman
Islands ... Belize
... Bahamas
... Bay
Islands ... Bonaire
... Bermuda
... British
Virgin Islands ... Hawaii
... Micronesia
by Speck, Garoutte, Middleton, Cancelmo, Strohofer,
Lewbel, Martin, Douglass, Verdure, Rosenberg, Hanauer...
No
matter where you are headed, the Aqua Quest Books covering your destination are
the only way to supplement Undercurrent's hardhitting critical information.
Each of these books describes specific dive sites, depths and location, shore
diving entries, the critters you'll see, local history and customs, places of
interests. Take one as you travel or buy one after you return for the memories.
Scores of excellent colorful pictures and maps supplement each of these 7x10 paperback
128 page books.
Paul Humann ID Books by
Paul Humann, Ned Deloach: The three set fish, creature
and coral ID books by Paul Humann are the unparalleled sources for information
on Caribbean sea life and identification. This month Paul and his partner
Ned deLoach released updated and expanded editions of each, with scores of new
critters, even better photos, and information unavailable anywhere else. Why,
the Reef Fish Identification book, at more than 500 pages, is
20 percent larger than the previous volume, which came out in 1994. Whenever
I travel to the Caribbean, I tote all three books and spend my down hours figuring
out what I saw and where to look to find rare creatures. Paul's splendid Reef
Creature book (420 pages), covers sponges, nudibranchs, octopus, crustaceans,
Christmas tree worms and plenty more. His Coral ID book (276 pages) helps
you identify all the hard and soft corals, spawning, and even the growth on
top of corals, as well as algae and other plant life. Beginners may want to
ID only fish, but I'd recommend that all three books be part of every diver's
library. And, if you have an old set, by all means replace it. You'll be delighted
at the additions and improvements. Each book normally retails for $40, but are
discounted when you order here. And the boxed
3-volume set is available now at a bigger discount, $81.60
(June, 2004). You'll get the best prices
Amazon.com has to offer, speedy delivery, and the knowledge that a large hunk
of our profit will go to preserve coral reefs. All are spiral bound, 6x9
Watching Fishes: Understanding Coral Reef Fish Behavior
by Roberta Wilson, James Q. Wilson.
Your buddies can probably name
the reef fish, but read this volume and you can explain what those critters are
actually doing -- and why. This fascinating book describes why and how fish change
color, how they smell and socialize, the difference between day and night behavior,
even how damsels cultivate algae patches -- which is why they attach you when
you fin by. Watching Fishes, Understanding Coral and Reef Fish Behavior is written
for divers, not scientists, by Roberta and James Q. Wilson. They describe in lively
nonfiction prose the behavior of basslets to blennies, clownfish to crinoids,
damsels to drumfish. Perfect for between-dive reference. Paperback, 6x9, 274 pages.
You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's
Book Picks section.
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