Dive #27 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log
© Copyright 2010 Rich Torkington Mesa, Arizona

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Bottom Time to Date:

19h
52m


Dive Info:

Dive Start:
1:00PM

Bottom Time:
51 minutes

Maximum Depth:
98 feet

Safety Stop:
3 minutes

Beginning Air:
3000 psi

Ending Air:
1000 psi

Weather Conditions:
Sunny 85°F

Surface Conditions:
Calm

Surface Water Temperature:
80°F

Bottom Water Temperature:
78°F

Visibility:
60 feet
27
TITLE
* * *
July 9,
1998
18th PALM
BONAIRE, N.A.
SHORE DIVE
 
Linda, Mercedes, and Myron (buddies)
Rich
Beautiful corals on the Bonairean reef
Photo by Myron Johnson in Bonaire 1998 
Dive Journal: Another serious day of diving is ahead, no two ways about it. Our morning activities include loading up the van with eight air tanks and all the dive gear. We also take a few minutes to cancel our Town Pier boat dive reservations with the Sand Dollar and we instead decide to go on a privately escorted dive with divemaster Joao tomorrow night.

Piling into the van, we travel north on an exploratory trip, seeking out potential shore dive sites. As a target, we've got a dive site called "Witches Hut / Karpata" in mind. It's raining steadily, and often the rain turns into a downpour. We stop at several sites, including "1000 Steps" and "Rappel". The pathways to the beach are passable but the rocky entries appear to be moderately difficult. We continue north, but unfortunately the road makes a strange transformation into a one-way road, heading south only. We necessarily head inland, and soon find ourselves driving through the town of Rincon on an uncertain course.

We change our plans and decide to head south. It's a long drive, but we make the trip from Rincon down through Kralendijk and finally to "18th Palm," the beautiful beach site where we had lunch on Tuesday. It's already 1PM, and so we suit up and get negative in a hurry.

It's another idyllic Bonaire shore dive, an easy shore entry with a sandy bottom plus a few large submerged rocks. At 18th Palm, we see a number of Flamingo Tongues again - very strange critters. There is also a plentiful garden of elephant ears at lower depths. As we descend over the reef slope, I notice that Linda and Mercedes take off in a particular vector downwards, and so Myron and I stop short a bit watching them. Linda comes back up from the bottom holding up her computer and grinning - an official 1st 100 foot dive for her!

On this dive, we decide to do some clowning around with various acrobatics stunts underwater, including space flips and various other zero-g "positions." We then explore the reef nooks and crannies, and I especially enjoy the clouds of blue and brown chromis that engulf us. We also spy several excellent spotted scorpionfish, which can be difficult to pick out among the reef rocks. We're in the water almost an hour here.

More
Dive
Info:
Fins:
Mares Avanti Quattro
Computer:
U S Divers Matrix
Tank:
80 ft3 Al
BCD:
SeaQuest Spectrum 4
Dive Type:
SHORE
Body of Water:
Caribbean
Mask:
U S Divers
Protection:
3mm shorty
Regulator:
SeaQuest
Spectrum XR2
plus Oceanic
Slimline octopus
Weight:
8 lb
Water Type:
Salt
Video Equipment:
None