Brent Houchens's Dive Log

Mostly a lot of man made junk (tires, concrete blocks) filled marine life you can find everywhere else on the island in a pristine environment. We went on the night with the harbor master's permission (and crowd) only to have both tugboats start up and run about 15 minutes into our dive (you cannot imagine the noise, and they didn't leave so there was obviously no emergency). Added to my dislike for this site was the fact that my rented light flooded, and I had to go off my buddies. Seeing a tugboat prop, which I estimated to be 5 feet in diameter, spinning a mere column away with no light (there is enough ambient light near the edges of the pier to see the surface) all the while going deaf from the noise and vibration is a bit unsettling. We rode to the site with two guys from England who weren't at all bothered by the tugboats, but had some choice words for the "friend" who had told them this was a must see site. Not a single person had anything nice to say about the dive. I'm afraid this one is all hype and with so many great dive sites, who really wants to see an eel swimming around an old tire?

This is a pretty healthy site even after Lenny and with a lot of diver traffic. Go toward Capt. Don's and look in the hull of the "wreck". When we were there, it was rumored to be the home of a huge eel. The best thing about this reef is the resort attached to it. We stayed here, and while the food, dive shop, and lodgings are just average, the drive and dive station where you can pull up your truck and load tanks is second to none for serious shore divers. We did some boat dives, but next time we will just drive because the boats go to shore dives more often than not (Klien Bonaire is the exception, and we had some great boat dives there).