Bonaire dive day 6 - last day of diving

Today the wind was down so we were able to do our scheduled east coast dives! It was the most calm day of the week. They had to cancel the Wednesday east coast trip in addition to our Tuesday one. 

Our first dive was at Funchi - the sloping reef on the outer barrier. We started out by seeing a bunch of turtles swim towards us. One of the first things we saw was a sleeping nurse shark. I think it was green tinged. I saw a small eel swimming between rocks but later we saw a huge green moray under a ledge. There were a couple lionfish. There was a huge sleeping Southern ray. At the end after the dive master called the end of the dive, a little eagle ray swam straight at me. So cute. And then it promptly reconsidered and turned away. Unfortunately I had already turned off my camera so didn't get that approaching shot. 

The second dive was in turtle City where we saw 30+ turtles. Almost too many ;)

We didn't want to end on that so we did our last dive at Something Special. It was amazing. There was a huge group of silver fish - many thousands! They way they moved was so cool and organic. I saw more than 4 balloonfish!! And even had a porcupine fish follow me around for a bit. It was such a great dive to end on!

Bonaire Dive Day 5

We headed out to Oil Slick for our first dive because it's a ladder entry and we figured that would be easier on my foot. My dive buddy brought my tank with BCD+reg to the ladder area and I got buckled in. However, when we turned on the air, the regulator house burst! It was super loud, right in my ear. We initially thought it was an O ring issue, but a hose rupture is just not recoverable. We we had to drive back to the drive shop to get another one. 

So we ended up doing our first dive at Bari's reef instead. It was beautiful and easy. We saw lion fish and a peacock flounder but still didn't find that octopus. 

We headed off to Oil Slick again for our second dive. This time, no equipment failures. They have a special art exhibit going on with a metal tuna that has traveled the Netherlands and now is in the water at oil slick for 2 weeks. You see the tuna right away as you descend but we decided to save it for the end. It was a pleasant dive with a sloping coral. Navigation was easy as you end with the tuna which was pretty fun to look at. It's tethered by a couple ropes but does move a little with the waves and looks like it's smiling at you.

Beautiful sunset

Dinner on our deck watching the sun set. 

Bonaire dive day 4

It's a windy day like yesterday. We asked the recommendation at the dive shop for whether we should head north or south with the winds and they recommended north for less winds. We headed to Oil Slick and Jeff Davis Memorial. We decided on Jeff Davis first because it's a little deeper. The entry looked a little challenging as there were some steps down to the beach on some makeshift coral steps. But the entry looked ok with a sandy channel. We debated skipping it but decided to give it a go. Jeff Davis Memorial We were the only divers there. We decided not to swim to the buoy as it was far and just descend in front of the entry point. There was a pretty strong current but nothing we couldn't handle. We saw lots of schools of fish and there were little crops of coral to poke around. Nothing super special though. Just beautiful schools of fish. I wonder if this is just the reef coming back from bleaching events and the coral virus - though it's still around. Or maybe it's just baby fish season. We found our way to the buoy so backtracked to where we entered. All was well, we found our entry point. However, there were some unexpected rocks hidden in the sandy exit and we took a stumble. I also had some fin issue - it didn't want to come loose from my boot. This caused all this confusion. Ultimately, I took a wrong step and ended up twisting my ankle. I thought it was ok but when realized it was definitely a sprain. This ended our dives for the day. So, uncharacteristically, I have edited some of my underwater pictures already - due to propping my foot up. Enjoy!

I'm a queen (anglefish), I'm so regal.

spotted Moray - what's for lunch?

cute little guy

soapfish, not playing dead for once

Parrotfish shenanigans 

Matching fish

Tarpon

just resting

I can fly!

Hey little guy, do you know where the other fish went?

Captain Don's flag

Flamingo tongue

(hiding its spots)

trunking along (trunkfish)

tang

drumfish

here I come!

baby turtle!

butterfly

scorpionfish

juvenile French anglefish

Such an adorable balloonfish

lizarding here

porcupine fish