Northwest Dive Club

Yes, it is true that Tom Nic and I are headed out for a 10-day guy's trip to Bonaire, leave February 25!!! To say we're excited is WAAAAAY beyond an understatement.

Something about 80 degree water and 150'+ vis is calling our names. We're just working on getting past the part of having to dive on Al80s! I guess the dives will be more frequent and not as long though I hear an Al80 goes MUCH further in Bonaire than it does in the PNW!!!

We will have a full report upon our return.


I heard a rumor that Grateful Diver had a cool dive trip coming up...

I also heard a rumor that Bassman was headed to colder waters sometime soon...

Bonaire is amazing!

I'm crazy for trying to post anything at all, just wanted to say Hi from Tom Nic and Sounder and post a very few pics...

This Says it All!



Our surface interval spot - The Golden Reef Inn





This little guys wants to grow up to be the next one!





I can hardly beleive the color of this sponge. It looks like it's plugged in!



This Tarpon was 4 to 5' long and has gotten huge hunting in the lights of divers doing night dives! He showed up on our night dive at Bari Reef, and he LOVED Sounder's 35 watt water boiler! This was our first sighting (we saw 10 more today on a day dive) and by far the largest one we've seen so far. Coming out of the darkness he will give you a bit of a start!




This octopus was also out hunting. We saw him envelop several small fish that were trying to hide. Loved watching him change colors!









Here's a few odds and ends shots to finish up the post.





Must... go... to... bed... I'll try to add a few here or there to my Flickr site. If you're curious you can hit the link below and check on the Bonaire Collection from time to time. :rr:

My apologies for posting the larger sizes.

I can't find an edit button to correct my post... help!

wow! great pics, tom! keep 'em coming.

glad you guys arrived safely and are settling in.

Nice, so did you learn how to count on the plane ride

CaptnJack wrote:Nice, so did you learn how to count on the plane ride

Yes he did... took all of about 30 seconds to learn even while exhausted from traveling.


We had a couple gear issues as we started our day today but finally around lunch-time we were able to get started. 4 long dives later we're back at our apartment and are getting ready for bed. I think 4 dives is a strong performance considering how we started the day.

Tomorrow will be awesome. Breakfast at 7am, and then we're off!!! We've ALREADY got great stories to tell... and they're just from day ONE!!!

That's why it's been so quiet around here! You guys have been missing!

Glad to hear you're having a good time, keep the awesome pics coming!

Jake

You'll see a few more pics from time to time at this link.

Nailer! Anyone! Help! I want my edit button back! Please!

Great stuff you lucky guys. Keep it coming!

Thank you for taking time to check in with us here. And don't worry about picture size. When they're this good we'll take 'em any size you've got. I'll be watching for ongoing reports.

-Ben

Good to hear you guys are just "diving into" the fun there!

Tom Nic wrote:You'll see a few more pics from time to time at this link.

Nailer! Anyone! Help! I want my edit button back! Please!

Should be fixed- sorry about that!

OK- The "edit" feature is restored, but.....*not* for posts made prior to the fix- Tom- would you like me to delete those pics so you can re-post them? Tell me how you want me to handle it, please.

Nailer99 wrote:OK- The "edit" feature is restored, but.....*not* for posts made prior to the fix- Tom- would you like me to delete those pics so you can re-post them? Tell me how you want me to handle it, please.

Thanks Nailer... yeah, why don't you go ahead and delete those and I'll repost some in a friendlier size. Thx!

Tom Nic wrote:

Nailer99 wrote:OK- The "edit" feature is restored, but.....*not* for posts made prior to the fix- Tom- would you like me to delete those pics so you can re-post them? Tell me how you want me to handle it, please.

Thanks Nailer... yeah, why don't you go ahead and delete those and I'll repost some in a friendlier size. Thx!

Done- but I hated to do it- they were some great pics- looks amazing down there! Sorry for the problems- please post some (slightly smaller) ones soon!

He'll re-post them as soon as we're done stuffing our faces - diving all day is hard work!! Makes a boy hungry!! Got to make sure we've got enough strength to do our night dives!!!

Sounder wrote:diving all day is hard work!!

Boo-hoo. We want pictures! Get back to work.
(JK)

-Ben

airsix wrote:

Sounder wrote:diving all day is hard work!!

Boo-hoo. We want pictures! Get back to work.
(JK)

-Ben

if that's work, where do i send my resumé?

airsix wrote:

Sounder wrote:diving all day is hard work!!

Boo-hoo. We want pictures! Get back to work.
(JK)

-Ben

Sheeesh! You guys are slave drivers! Not to mention REALLY bored... (I just finished reading the "Crickets" thread... Wow...

Here's a few shots from our Salt Pier Dive to appease... enjoy!



Swam the whole pier along the top of the reef. A GREAT dive!! Tons of fish hanging out on the pilings...







The Dinner Bell was ringing, and these guys were on the menu!



And here's what was hunting them!



We counted 10 Tarpon on this dive, none as big as the one we saw last night!





OK... that's it! I quit! Check out this link for a few more. I'll update as I'm able.

Wahoo!! That means we're headed out to go dive again!!!

Let's see - it's about 3:30pm in Seattle and we've already done 4 dives today... and we're headed out for some more now!!!

Sounder wrote:Wahoo!! That means we're headed out to go dive again!!!

Let's see - it's about 3:30pm in Seattle and we've already done 4 dives today... and we're headed out for some more now!!!

UNSUBSCRIBE

Tom, Doug,

Sure wish I was there with you! Did a dive @ Redoned tonight with Cardiver - great dive - but still warm water diving is totaly different. Maybe next trip!

spatman wrote:UNSUBSCRIBE

...what's funny is you'll be reading this later tonight or tomorrow morning anyway!

We did our final night dive (for today) and I figured Spatman would enjoy reading about it. The surge was fairly strong and when surge is added to an already challenging bottom of broken coral, coral heads (big and small), fire coral , coral rubble... and being at night, the entry and exit were challenging. Most of the sites around here are moderately challenging entries and exits, but when you're doing them at night, it adds a whole new spin to it.

After our entry, where we demonstrated all our amazing "entry" talent ](*,) , we trotted out to about 25fsw where the fairly flat sandy and coraly (I know "coraly" probably isn't a word, but it is in Bonaire) bottom drops off into a true wall. An AMAZING night dive. This site is appropriately named "The Cliff." On the wall we enjoyed just about every Bonairian critter you can imagine. As usual and as we're coming to expect, the tarpon steal the show. The only way I can descripe them is a highly entertaining HUGE (estimated 5-6' long) creepy, sleek, fast, silent, phantom of the underwater underworld... and they REALLY like dive lights... and they really REALLY like HIDs!! These fish stay with us the whole dive, once they find us, zigging and zagging all over the place, giving you multiple fly-bys less than 12 inches from you (like Top Gun, only really startling and a tad creepy), and chasing fish as best they can. The most fun was in the shallows, our tarpon ended up face-to-face with a barracuda. Chomp... then chomp again. Tarpon bites cuda, cuda bites back... tarpon lets go of cuda and bails like a run-away bride! That must have hurt... but in 30 seconds our tarpon was back on the prowl and flying-by again.

Tom and I witnessed this whole incident from start to finish. It's funny, up here you can talk through your regulator - Tom and I both let out a huge "WHOA!!" when we saw the bites. Good stuff.

An hour into the dive we were above water again. This was an amazing site - one that I enjoyed taking pictures on so much (yeah, ME... taking PICTURES - good ones too!! ) that I might have to start carrying my camera full-time.

I think that's all to say about that for now. I'm pretty tired and am headed for bed but wanted to ensure that if Spatman is reading this, that he gets a big-'ol !!!

Unsubscribe my - you're hooked on this site just as much as the rest of us!!!

Thanks for keeping us up to date. It's really fun to hear the stories and see the pictures. Glad you're having so much fun.
-Ben

Another day... navigating the "new" site is a bit of a challenge when you dont' have time to familiarize yourself with it.

I'm not going to try and post more pics until I figure out why the ones above aren't showing... I'm sure the reason is somewhere on the board, I just don't have time to find it. If anyone cares enough to take the time to enlighten me I'll be grateful!

...OK, where's my sunscreen... ](*,)