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Dive Review of WannaDive/Yacht Club Apartments in
Bonaire

WannaDive/Yacht Club Apartments, Aug, 2003,

by Sandra Tullis, ca, usa (Reviewer Reviewer 3 reports). Report 612.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 5 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments We took Air Jamaica this time and avoided ALM/DCA nightmares we experienced last trip. AJ has packed in some more seats in the LA to Montego flight so leg room is more cramped than usual. The food was rather poor and my luggage arrived damaged, but all the flights were on time. Jamaica boarding for connections is a cattle call and you cannot understand the intercom, so stay alert for your connections.
Yacht Club apartments was very close to the dive op and the 1 bedroom we rented was roomy and comfortable and had a safe and cable TV. We saved money on food by preparing out own breakfasts and lunches in the kitchen. The A/C is only in the bedroom so the other rooms can get stuffy. There is a locked place to rinse and store gear near the office, but it is not well ventilated so wetsuits do not dry. They reeked by the end of the week. Linens were changed twice during the week we were there.
We were certified with WannaDive two years ago and it was great to go back as a more advanced diver this time. They set us up with Nitrox for the week. Wannadive does not pump it there but the owner, Bart, very good about getting the fills for us at 33% and having a tanks available for drive through pickup whenever we wanted. The testing for the tanks was done for us by Bonaire Dive Adventures where the Nitrox was pumped, because Wannadive's O2 tester was not working well.
We did a dive on the East side with DM Paul, and saw a school of huge Tarpon, a 2 foot long parrot fish and an eagle ray. There was some current on that dive, but nothing that made us uneasy and Paul did a great dive briefing. We also did some dive sites to the south that Paul told us about that were not on the map. The fish life was amazing, and we noted hundreds of grunts and chromis. We saw more eels than any other place we have been. There is some old coral damage from Lenny, but the formations were still impressive at most sites. There was a recent fishing trawler wreck near the Harbor View Marina that we were able to access via a short swim from WannaDive's Eden beach location. It sits in 50ft of water and looks like it is waiting for passengers to board, except for the huge hole where they dropped a crane through the deck and sank the boat! The currents along that part of the shore are strong in the afternoon so there was some hard swimming involved in this dive.
We are vegetarians and had no problem finding plenty of good things to eat at local restaurants, including City Cafe, Garden City, Donna & Georgio, Pasa bon Pizza and Old Inn. Most dinners run between 40 and 60$ for two including drinks, appetizer, entree and a shared dessert. Service is at a more relaxed pace, so be prepared to have time for more than one pre-dinner cocktail!
We rented a double cab pickup from Total Car rental and had no problems, other than a very slow onsite rental process. They need to organize/reduce their paperwork for those with advanced reservations.
Bonaire is a great place to dive no matter what your certification level!

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Did a liveaboard in Belize and other land based trips to Hawaii and Bonaire
Live and dive in Monterey
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm
Water Temp 81-83°F / 27-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 0
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions only restriction was a 45min time limit on Town Pier dive and 1 hour time limit on boat dives. We did mostly unguided shore dives and had many dive times over one hour.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 1 stars
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments We rented a DX3000 digital camera from Fisheye photo at the Sand Dollar resort, on the recommendation of WannaDive. Their service was excellent. They switched the cards and batteries out daily after 80 pictures and cleaned up the camera. This was important as we were doing unguided shore dives so we did not have the luxury of rinsing after every dive. At the end of the trip they burned 300 pics onto a CD rom for us and saved the pics for 5 more days in case we had a problem with the CD when we got home.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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