Boca Slagbaai North

A sandy beach makes this an ideal entry point This entry of Boca Slagbaai allows easy access to the Northern wall and coral. Parking is only meters from the shore line.

We had no trouble with enter or exit even with new divers. The wind was from the south so waves were not bad at all the long swim to the buoy is over sand and scattered corals to there is a lot of look at as you swim to the line we took a heading with the compass and found the buoy line at 15ft with out any trouble at all. the life on the reef was excellent.

Best dive of the island on our trip. Easy beach entry. Lots of fish. Calm waters. Spent 55 mins in the serene waters.

We started out at the parking lot. It's about a 100 yard surface swim to the edge of the reef but it was an easy surface swim. We ran into a Lyon Fish around 60FSW. Not good. A school of Blue Tangs came in from the north above us and then dropped right through us. They continued down about another twenty feet and turned around and came back up through us again and headed off toward the north. Cool as fish go, there weren't as many fish as other reefs on the island. However, lots of coral. We saw lobsters, ells, Parrot Fish and lots of little fish. Since this site is in Washington Park, get an early start because it will take two to three hours to get there. Bring a lunch because the restaurant isn't always open.

We dove Slagbaii after Bartol and an appropriate surface interval. This site is part of Bonaire's Washington Park, and is accessible for shore diving ONLY after a very tough drive over heavily rutted roads. If you want to dive the National Park, you may as well make it a 2 or 3 tank day, otherwise the drive is not worth it. With this in mind, this is a fine dive but is not up to the quality we came to expect in Bonaire. The entry was very easy, but the reef was not as spectacular as most Bonaire sites. An almost religious encounter with a young Hawksbill turtle made this dive great for us, but one cannot count on something like that. This particular turtle displayed an open curiosity... he hovered inches from my mask, then surfaced to breathe (we watched him the whole way), only to come back down and repeat the encounter again, swimming figure eights around my wife while she gently stroked the turtle's carapace. Plenty of larger critters; a green moray, huge shoals of creole wrasse, and others. This would be a good first shore dive due to the easy entry and somewhat protected bay.

Long and difficult drive through park - 3 hours - to reach this site. Short swim ( 100 yards )out through calm water to reach reef. Very little current - clear water ( a good 100' visibility ). Reef runs parallel to beach. Starts at 40' and goes straight down to deep blue. Beautiful reef, including large pink tube sponges, big barrel sponges, and large variety coral and other plants. Very healthy and 'old looking' coral and plant life. Lots of your colorful tropical fish ( French and queen angelfish, parrot fish, etc.). Not an easy drive to reach this site but well worth it if you really love shore diving.