Diving with Rollins Group in Bonaire. May 5 - 12, 2007
I traveled with the Paul Rollins sponsored group to Bonaire for a week of boat diving. We stayed at the Divi Flamingo resort very near the town of Kralendijk. It was only a 10 minute walk from the resort to downtown.
The group consisted of 14 divers. It was organized by Rollins Scuba Associates of South Portland, ME (www.rollinsscuba.com). We were issued our own boat (The Sea Gypsy) for 3 boat dives a day. Two in the morning and one in the afternoon. The dive crew consisted of Laurel (native if Canada) and Enrique (native of Bonaire). Paul dictated the dive profiles. Enrique and Laurel alternated between boat captain and dive master. Both were excellent pointing out interesting highlights of the various dives. The divers were a mix of new and experienced, and the leaders did an excellent job keeping everyone happy.
We traveled from Portland to Boston by Mermaid Transportation (2 vans), then flew American Airlines from Boston to Bonaire via San Juan, PR. The layover in San Juan was fairly long, so it was an all day event traveling down and traveling back. There were no traveling gliches, and everyone got there will their full compliment of luggage.
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The accomodations at the Divi Flamingo were fantastic. All of the group had water front rooms that were in excellent condition. Meals provided included breakfast and supper. At supper we had a choice of an appetizer, the meal, and a dessert. Everyone had plenty to eat.
The weather was overcast some of the time. As a result, I didn't burn like I might normally have done. Water was warm - about 80 degrees F.
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I traveled to Bonaire once before (Buddy Dive in 2005), and this was a better trip and experience. I liked the closeness of the Divi to downtown Kralendijk. We could walk downtown for lunch and shopping and make it back to the boat in time for the afternoon dive.
There was also unlimited shore diving, and some members of the group made good use of this.
Submitted by Fred Sargent on 5/13/07.
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Letter from Pat Irish to Club Members
Hi from Australia,
After 14 days in Papua New Guinea in the most remote part of the world that I have ever been, I am back on land in Cairns, Australia.
Most of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is uninhabited land and volcanic islands that are predominantly rainforest. One of the largest volcanic mountains on the coast (called the Father) is continually steaming and smoking.
New Britain, an island off the northeast coast of PNG is where we began the diving expedition. The majority of the diving is off sea mounts which are mountains rising from the ocean floor topped with coral reefs usually 40-60 feet below the surface of the water. The walls of the reef drop endlessly to the bottom of the ocean.
The diversity of fish, coral, nudibranches, cephalopods, and crustaceans is like nowhere else in the world. The reefs here are a thick soup of life. On one dive alone, I saw more species than all dives in other reefs before. The fish are not accustomed to seeing divers; therefore they are unafraid of them.
I had my first real amazing encounters with octopus, cuttlefish, and sharks. Many people seem to think that sharks are the most dangerous animals in the ocean but I found that it was coralimorphs (a poisonous coral) and triton triggerfish. Most of the divers on the expedition got into coralimorph at one time or another, including me. It leaves a nasty burn where you touch it or even get too close to it (it goes through wet suits). I got too close while trying to stay still on the bottom, taking video during a shark dive.
On a shark dive, I noticed a large fish that was mixing it up with the sharks and held its own. Later, I found it was a triton triggerfish. This type of triggerfish is an enormous (about 3 feet) that is incredibly vicious if you get near its nest with eggs. On the last dive, I must have been in its territory, and it came after me head on like a vicious watchdog. When I realized that it was actually after me, I was able to bat it away with my camera housing. I then turned and swam away, but it proceeded to come back at me three more times before I was able to get out of its territory. On returning to the boat, I asked a dive master if others had been bothered by this type of fish in the past and it turns out that she put 114 stitches in a diver’s shoulder three weeks ago from an angry triton and another one person was attacked in the head.
It is funny how all of the organisms that we are raised to fear like sharks and octopus were among the most shy. I swam in large schools of barracuda and jacks without incident and got some great video. A dive master was able to get an octopus out of its hole to play with us by wiggling her fingers. What an amazing animal.
I got to see many of my favorite symbiotic coral reef relationships such as the goby and commensal shrimp, hundreds of cleaning stations, tiny shrimp and crabs in anemones, many sea anemone fish in enormous anemones, remoras on sharks,(some tried to attach on us) , almost microscopic pygmy seahorses on sea fans and many others..
The people on the coast were friendly and living in a different time. Many days when we were near islands, they would row crude dugout canoes out to trade fresh fruits and vegetables for things we had on the boat like rice. One day a group of children in canoes came out to play with us. They jumped, laughing and splashing out of their canoes while we jumped off the top deck of the boat. Even young children came out in canoes to explore. The locals call them sinkers because they don’t know how to swim yet.
Hope all is well with everyone. I leave tomorrow for the Great Barrier Reef so will be out of touch again for 5-6 day.
G’day mate,
Patti
Submitted by Patti Irish on 11/11/04.
