John Kurre's Dive Log

Site is right next to paved road. Parking is limited but adequate. There are no facilities. There is a small cliff - 10 feet high and a small stone beach all very close to the road. Once you get your gear down the cliff, it is easy. The dive is a wall dive and the top of the wall is about 15' from the beach. Top of wall is 10' below surface and goes straight down to deep blue. Coral, Sponges, Sea fans and other plant life are all very healthy. Fish tend to be more of the larger variety as there is no shallow area for smaller tropical types. This is my favorite dive on Bonaire. I would caution all divers however to be careful about going too deep and then coming up to fast. It is easy to forget that the top of the reef is only 10 or 15' deep and only a few feet from the beach. There is a lot to see and the dive almost lures you down to deeper water.

It is a long drive ( 2 hours ) on rough road through the park to reach this site. You need to leave out early and have a full tank of gas and lots of water to drink. There are no facilities at this site. There is a small beach with no crowds and it is sandy and flat and makes for an easy entry. The swim out is short maybe 100 yards and there is coral and small tropical fish in the shallows; this would also be a good snorkeling location. The reef is a wall that starts at maybe 40' from surface and goes down to deep blue. Lots of brain and other coral, lots of sponges including long pink tubes are all around. We saw plenty of colorful tropical fish and a couple of maybe 6 foot green morays. Also saw a big turtle and several rays. Everything looked healthy as far as coral and plants. The dive was easy with only a very slight current the day we were there. Visibility was 100' or there about. The swim out and back were easy and there was a lot of stuff to see in the shallows with brain coral, sea fans and a good variety and quantity of fish. The beach is small and in a cove so you need to watch the current and time your swim so you come back to the same spot you started from for your swim back to the beach.

Slightly out of the way site - you need to rent a car. Beautiful beach is in a small cove. Local people come to bring their kids and go swimming and maybe snorkeling and tourists come to scuba dive. Site is a short swim out -maybe 100 yards - to nice wall type dive. Water was clear ( 100' visibility ) with very little current. Top of wall was about 40' from surface and ran down to deep blue. Healthy variety of coral, sponges and other plant life. Good variety of tropical fish and also few turtles, barracuda, and big fish cruising the wall. The wall was nice and the shallows on way out and back also had brain coral, parrot fish, flounder and smaller fish. It was also a nice place to relax after dive. Myself and dive buddy made it a point to dive this location twice in the week we were there and when I make it back to Curacao I will dive this site again. Curacao has a good number of similar sites ideal for shore diving with a cove type beach and easy access to fringing reef/wall. This is just one of the best examples of this type of site.

Paved road next to site. Short 150 yard swim out to Wreck. The wreck was a German ocean freighter and was completely stripped before being intentionally sunk to create man made reef. Therefore no oil leaking from wreck and not a lot of cables or ropes or nets etc. to get snagged up into. Big open hull makes easy swim through. Not a dangerous wreck to swim into, not in real deep water like some wrecks. Dive can be made without lights, string line, spare air or other such wreck diving gear. Wreck is near fringing reef not far from other good reef dives. Good visibility and not a lot of current. A good dive for beginner diver who can find a buddy with more experience. The wreck is in the middle of other good South Bonaire reef/wall dives and thus there is stuff to see around wreck and on swim out to wreck and the swim back to shore.

Cane bay has easy access via a paved road next to the beach. There is only a small town about 1 mile away so the beach is not crowded. There are apartments you can rent nearby within walking distance of beach. The beach at cane bay is nice. It has a wide beach area ( 30 yd. ) that runs about 500 yd along the side of road. Nice open air beach bar/restaurant across the street with dive shop. The facilities are about as good as you can get. The swim out is not long maybe 100 yd. to the top of the reef. Drop down 50' to top of reef which runs parallel to beach. The dive is really more of a wall type dive running from a depth of 50' to deep blue. The wall is covered with coral, tube sponges and plant life. There is a good variety of tropical fish. You also can see larger fish cruising the wall looking for smaller fish. Visibility was about 75' there was little if any current. The swim out and back was nice because there were fish and coral in the shallows. Myself and my dive buddy spent most of the week we were in St. Croix diving this same site because it was a nice place to be at the beach and rather than drive around and look for different sites we chose to stay and do the same dive. It was nice and we saw no reason to look elsewhere.

Nice beach next to road. Light pink sand made up of the white and red coral in shallows near the beach. Easy, short swim out to reef. There are two reefs running parallel to the beach. One starts about 40' down and goes to about 100' then there is a sandy valley bottom between reefs. 30' swim over and a second reef running parallel to first reef and starting at about 60' at top of reef and going down to well below 130' diving limit. Lots to see including healthy reef, plant life and tropical fish. Good visibility 100' or so and little or no current. Easy navigation, just swim along the reef and return to where you started to swim back to shore. Lots to see in shallows on swim out and back.

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.

Paved road near site. Turn into small gravel parking area next to site. Easy 50 yard swim out of marina area into open water. Reef is very near mouth out of marina. Reef runs parallel to shore. Reef is about 30' deep at top to 85' at bottom. Visibility 35', good plant life, coral is ok but watch out for fire coral, fish life is good. There is very slight current. Nothing is spectacular, but overall it is an easy worthwhile shore dive.

Good access road near site. Climb down ladder to wood platform to enter water. Swim out through shallow sandy/rocky bottom area about 200 yards. Lots of fire coral. Reef was ok not spectacular. Mild current. 35' visibility. Overall only an average dive not as good as Bonaire or Curacao.