A Love Affair with Water

Bon dia! Thanks for taking time out of your day and dropping by to check up on us in our virtual slice of the world. We’re excited to share some videos and photos

in this blog post that represent the underwater component of our time spent here in Bonaire.

The water in Bonaire is unlike anywhere else we’ve been in the Caribbean; and, despite our limited experience, we hear the same sentiment from really experienced cruisers. The water is crystal clear, and it’s the perfect place for snorkelers, freedivers, and scuba divers alike. There is quite a large dropoff after the protected area of the Marine Park - about 40-60 meters - where the sea floor drops to 500-1000 meters +! But, there is tons of accessibility for snorkelers around 1m-5m, and for freedivers from 5m-40m+. For scuba divers (both recreational and technical), the possibilities and dive sites are almost endless.

Image: Google Search

Paul is an active member of the freediving community here in Bonaire. Twice a week he’ll meet up with members of a freediving club, and dive using a proper platform that descends down to 40 meters. He recently achieved his personal best depth – 39.9 meters! Any deeper than that and he’d need to start digging a hole in the sand. So now it’s time to find a deeper location and continue practicing! For myself, I try to make sure that I snorkel and swim every day unless we are already scuba diving. I have a route that I like to take through the mooring field of boats that comes out to about 2.5 km round-trip. My

favorite critters to visit are two resident Frogfish in front of a catamaran, and two resident seahorses behind a monohull. I never fail to see an abundance of sea critters, and my favorites are the French Angelfish, Stoplight Parrotfish, Scorpionfish, and Trunkfish.

We’ve had the pleasure of visiting about a dozen of the dive sites here on Bonaire

and Klein [Little] Bonaire. There’s always oodles to see, and we’re never disappointed on our dives! The sheer volume of hard and soft corals is breathtaking, and anywhere we dive we see the happiest ecosystems absolutely thriving. Some highlights that we’ve seen on our dives are Eagle Rays, Hawksbill Turtles, Green Sea Turtles, and Caribbean Reef Squid. Two of

my favorite moments involved a few of these critters: one was during a dive at “Margate’s Bay,” where Paul followed (at a distance) a large Green Sea Turtle for a short while, where it ended up settling down snuggling within soft corals and

drifted off to sleep. I’ve never seen a turtle snoozing before, and it was a really neat experience!

The second was during a dive at “Munk’s Haven” on Klein Bonaire; there were two Caribbean Reef Squid who seemed quite curious of us. One was male, and another female. The female was very curious, and came quite honestly within inches of me; the male very territorial and aggressive! Anytime the female would get close enough to me, the male would start to pulse and move in aggravated patterns, and he would change colors. Paul and I were very surprised as well to see the male “courting” the female, starting in a pulsating type of dance and ending in… well, a happy ending! The evidence of which floated towards us in the current!! It was quite the experience, and I don’t think we’ll ever see that again.

Paul and I have also had the opportunity to enjoy a few night dives. On one evening about five days after the full moon, we went snorkeling with another group of cruisers whom we’ve gotten to know quite well (SV Por Que No – Antonia, Daniel, and Max). We went in just as the sun was setting. About 45 minutes after sunset, a (for lack of a better word) MAGICAL experience happened! We were able to see these incredibly small – around 1mm – creatures called ostracods; they are a large family of many different species (akin to plankton). Ostracods react to the light of our dive lights, and the results are incredible. This phenomenon only occurs a few days after the full moon, specifically 45 minutes after sunset, and happens for only about 20 minutes. The ostracods rise from the deep waters to the reef in large numbers to mate.

From “Dive Guide Bonaire”:

The kind of ostracod which makes this night dive on Bonaire spectacular, is the Ostracod Cypridinid. The special thing about these ostracods is that they have glands that can expel two substances. When these two substances mix with each other and the oxygen in the water, light [bioluminescence] is created… To attract females, [males] will move [very] fast, only to come to an abrupt halt and expel the luminous materials. Doing this in a repetitive rhythm attracts the female ostracods.”

Snorkeling with the ostracods was a spectacular experience. It’s hard to provide a good description of how the light performs; it starts with a sudden burst of small light, quickly followed by rapid flashing that ascends upwards in a spiral. Swimming through these ostracods is like swimming through stardust or fireflies. Then, surfacing from a freedive down with the ostracods, we had a gorgeous starry night sky with the milky way above us. We were south enough that there was no light pollution from central Bonaire to interfere. Stars below, stars above… It was amazing!

There are some absolutely incredible photographers here on Bonaire. We know of a few divers who have camera set-ups worth upwards of $15,000 USD – almost our full yearly budget! – and they are able to take astounding photographs. Here are some of those photographs below, with full credit to our friend Wayne on SV Hope. [There's also a select few added from our anonymous friends on Google & Facebook.] These photos represent sea critters that Paul and I have been fortunate to see on our dives & snorkel adventures.

Frogfish

Chainlink Moray, Spotted Moray, Green Moray

Blennies

Scorpionfish

French Angelfish

Seahorses

Fireworm, Trunkfish, Peacock Flounder, Flamingo Tongue Cowrie, Lionfish, Scrawled Filefish, Yellow Arrow Crab, Hermit Crab, Cleaner Shrimp

Reef Details

That’s it from us for now! We’ll continue enjoying the waters of Bonaire for our last month here before we take off back up North. We hope you are all well in your part of the world! Sending lots of love from us to you.

Cheers,

Toni & Paul