Small Wall

No one has updated this site for many years so I will. You can access the site from the road by a path down past the gate at the north end of Hato about halfway to the turn where the shoreline road turns inland around Sabadeco. About 25 minutes easy swim gets you to the wall. Lots of nice hard corals and some soft corals along the drop off. No nurse shark in the cave today, but many barracuda around. If you are not staying at Black Durgon but would like to try this spot from the shore, it is easy enough and an enjoyable dive.

Easiest access to this site is to stay at the Black Durgon - very affordable and clean and comes with breakfast. Doris's pancakes are the best and the staff is very accommodating. You can then dive Small Wall from the private pier anytime you want in the day and the night and this is a GREAT dive for both. Large Tarpon, eels, seen eagle rays at the sand bottom. Going north from the pier on Black Durgon Reef is AWESOME too - and a lot less traffic. My friend only snorkels and the fish life here is some of the best.

Small Wall is at the boat moorings off Black Durgon's pier with depths from 15 feet in front of the pier, down to 120 feet, and the wall ranges from 20 to 70 feet with opportunities to find seahorses and frogfish near the top of the wall. It's good for macro photo here. There is also an anchor on top of the reef. From an imaginary line extended off the pier, to the north is a slow sloping reef. Going south, there's a small 10 to 15 foot cavern at 60 feet at the base wall, a hangout for a nurse shark or a big green moray eel, with black brotulas slithering nearby perhaps waiting to clean. The cavern is only about 10 to 12 feet into the wall. On night dives we use to see Charlie, a large resident tarpon, that would stay near your light beam and snap up a meal highlighted by your beams, and also large lobsters in the 20 to 40 foot deep sandy area between the Black Durgon pier and the wall. Another idea, you can go straight out from the pier down to 120 feet in the sand and at night see eyeballs everywhere, eels, lobsters, and critters galore. There are 2 ways to do this as a shore dive. First, you can stay at the humble-but-loveable 10-room Black Durgon Inn and Al will let you dive from the pier which is only about 50 feet from the wall. Second choice, park just north of Hato, the little community next to this wall, and swim south for 15 to 20 minutes. This is considered a site suitable for novice divers, the conditions are typically mild here, so the swim might make for a good snorkel tour to and from the dive in the shallows, away from boat traffic. This is a popular boat-dive often busy from 8 or 9am until noon, or later, so try to do it very early, or time it between boat groups, or try spending more time north of the wall because most of the boaters dive the cavern and main verticals near the moorings, and of course, you should also dive it at night.

Capt Dons has the best people. I want to move to Bonaire! Dive master Chris, you are the man!