Calabas Reef

Calabas Reef, Bonaire			N 12° 8.6', W 68° 16.6'
Dive Number 217		Buddies Rob, Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 59ft	Visibility great	Time 43m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1700psi
Notes:	We had heard from others that there were luminescent fish to be seen if you dived about half an hour after the sun went down. That would be cool to see, but even if we didn't see them, night dives are cool anyway! Our rep from the dive company was Rob Lowe (yes, his name is Rob Lowe), and he and Shawn and Philip and Bill and I all went for it. For me this was my fourth dive of the day; for Shawn his fifth! We descended as five, but functionally, Shawn and Bill hung back and Rob and Philip and I swam ahead. At the time I convinced myself I may have seen luminescence at the very start of the dive, but in hindsight I think it may have been the pier lights reflecting off some of the small fish close to the surface. We did see a lobster and a few large tarpon (but I would not get the full tarpon hunting experience until the following night). The highlight was seeing around fifteen of the sharptails all wriggling around in a clump together. Half of them were buried in the sand with only heads sticking out; I initially suspected that they might be newly hatched young, but the size of their heads were commensurate with those of the other eels swimming around (which measured 30 or 40 cm in length). I lingered long enough to make sure that Shawn and Bill got to see it. It was the highlight of the dive!