Something Special

2nd dive of the day

In 13:50 out 14:27 207 Bar - 57 Bar

Did the dive site two days ago and the camera is definitely there. Lots of fish and fish activity, saw some eels, a lobster and a bunch of lion fish.

The camera is gone :-) Easy dive, my wife and I were able to reach our 100th together here, it is 'Something Special' for us. We parked next to the houses right across from the beach access.

This is a very easy to find site as it is the last possible entrance on the beach road. If you come from the direction of Kralendijk (which you are not allowed to) coming from the main road from Kralendijk go left almost opposite (a little further on) the Bistro the Paris. This is paved road. Park your car on the corner of this road and the beach road, get your gear on and dive! Normally you will see a catamaran on a buoy. Swim to the catamaran and go right. No problems now with the harbor entrance. Follow the reef until you see dead coral and turn around. Going left will give you an easy dive as well with nice life to see. Did the dive many times and have never been disappointed. Perfect for a night dive as well! And look for the underwater camera. Beautiful site and very easy for a night dive.

Many of the people I dove with enjoyed this dive. I didn't like it at all because the dive started literally at the manmade mouth of the harbor. As such it had obvious markings from where it had previously been dredged. At the beginning of the dive there are lots of old tires that have fallen off of utility boats and other obvious boats buoys. It is called Something Special because they found whiskey bottles that had contained 'something special'. Again a garbage dump. There were various pieces of pipe laying around as well as an underwater web cam with its concrete and cabling running across the coral. Broken reefs, sailboats and sailboat moorings are all around and above. The structure of the reef is just unmemorable; straight down the line and straight back. Nothing to really grasp the eye. Did see two eagle rays here.

This one was hard for us to find. We were using Jessie Armacost's guide book (excellent btw) and it said that this spot was a marked site, but we never found the yellow stone for it. I don't believe it has one, but perhaps it once did. Anyway, the first time we tried to dive it we found ourselves parked in an empty lot/field off the main road about 50 yards from the water. We had to walk down a dirt road next to private homes that had signs claiming they were private property on the water's edge. We weren't sure if this was the entrance, so we didn't try it the first time. Also, boats were "parked" in the water (nobody around though) and we just weren't sure about entering here. But just down the road from Pasa Bon Pizza, the entrance is on the street along the main water front. We confirmed that we were in the right spot with the Buddy Dive staff and went back another day. Pretty much the same as all the other southern sites, as we swam over sand to drop off in 25 fsw then to a gradual slope to 100 fsw+ to the bottom. Lots of the usual suspects. There were reports of a 10+ foot hammerhead hanging out here from the Buddy Dive staff and many other divers. We never saw it but we did see some recent photos of it. Easy entry to a sandy beach with a small mound of coral rubble to slowly walk over.

A super easy entry and exit. We dove it about 5 times during our week long vacation in Bonaire. We dove 3 times during the day and twice during night dives. We saw many many moray eels and tons of macro critters. This site was really convenient because we only had to walk about 1 block with our gear on from our rental unit. A very nice site even though it is kind of in the harbor.

Located on the South side of the jetty leading into Plaza Resort harbor. Parking area available, but it's a 150'+ hike to the beach. Closest beach entry has some rocky ledges close to shore, tricky footing. Snorkel out across an open sand channel. Some isolated coral heads in this area. Sand bottom eventually slopes down to 120' or more. Top of the wall starts at 25' and 100' offshore on your left as you descend, and follows contour of the sand channel. Macro heaven, lots of corals and sponges, small fish along the wall. Located two frogfish close together on some sponges, great photos. Swimming into a slight current as you go out, but can drift on the way back in. Coral heads in the sand slope above the wall are a good place for a deco stop. Visibility lower due to the current.