Our first full day in Bonaire started off bright and sunshiney early at 0700, with a buffet breakfast at the resort’s restaurant, the Tipsy Seagull.  The food was satisfying and the view was INCREDIBLE!  We planned to do our first set of boat dives Sunday morning and the boat was scheduled to leave the dock at 1000.  After breakfast, we headed to pick up our weights and get our gear together, pretty excited to find out what diving in Bonaire would be like.

We boarded one of the dive boats and headed a bit north.  The water was beautifully blue and clear and the boat ride was smooth, steady and quite refreshing!

Our first dive in Bonaire was a spot called Sharon’s Serenity.  The water was surprisingly warm and didn’t take my breath away when I got in.  We were amazed at the amount of life we saw  underwater!

We saw blue trumpetfish, stoplight parrotfish, a moray eel, a TON of creole wrasse, red squirrelfish and a variety of corals.  The amount of underwater life was absolutely amazing and a whole lot more than we had ever expected!  We had only planned on going to a maximum depth of 40 feet, so I took my waterproof-to-50-feet camera.  When I turned my camera on a few minutes into the dive, the display screen had a bunch of lines across the screen.  A quick check of my depth gauge confirmed we had gone beyond the capacity of my camera and were at 54 feet.  OOPS!  Thankfully, I was still able to grab a few photos underwater.

Our second dive site was called Small Wall and was only a short boat ride from Sharon’s Serenity.  Because Small Wall is located in front of the Black Durgon Inn (a privately owned property), diving Small Wall from the boat was a great opportunity!

At Small Wall, we saw a moray eel, barracuda, large tarpon, a midnight parrotfish, a TON of rainbow parrotfish, black fish with white stripes near fins, black durgon and a sunken an anchor.  This was the first dive that felt GOOD for me…everything was just right and I beat Josh on air consumption!

We got back to the resort around 1500 and had missed the lunch buffet.  So, we grabbed some lunch at the resort’s open-air, always-has-food bar called the Scubar.  After lunch, Josh headed to dive Salt Pier with some others and I headed back to the room to get a shower and relax a bit before dinner.

We had another great dinner at the resort’s restaurant and Josh took full advantage of Bonaire’s plentiful diving and beautiful weather and went for a night dive.  Sound sleep came easy again after a day full of sunshine and warm water.