Leonora's Reef, Bonaire			N 12° 10.1', W 68° 19.5'
Dive Number 214		Buddy Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 73ft	Visibility great	Time 57m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1100psi
Notes:	This morning's dives took place at the smaller island appropriately called Klein Bonaire. Every dive is good, but after a while, many dives start to feel like you've seen the same things over again - it's not that they're not great, but it just seems repetitive list off the same fish. I was swimming around and from time to time I would invert myself to get a close up view of the reef without having to worry that I would accidentally kick anything. I saw another adorable juvenile drum playing in an arch, and shortly afterwards, Becky started motioning excitedly to me by opening and closing her index and middle finger together and pointing. I imagined maybe she had seen a lobster and was excitedly indicating this to me with an unconventional sign, but still wasn't sure until she pointed at my BCD pocket and I eventually clued into the fact that she had seen my shears fall from the pocket of my BCD onto the reef while upside down. She and Candy and I swam back and one of the two of them found the shears and passed them back to me. I later realized that I had not alerted my buddy that I was doubling back [bad buddy!] Also Tom seemed put out that at least three of us were doubling back for a cheap pair of shears, but I think he was just concerned that in all the fracas it would have been easy for someone to hurt him- or herself or damage the reef. For my part, I kept a hand on my BCD pocket when inverting for the remainder of the trip!

Salt Pier, Bonaire			N 12° 5.0', W 68° 16.9'
Dive Number 213		Buddy Shawn	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 59ft	Visibility great	Time 62m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	Setting up this dive, I did a few things that I almost never do. In the staging area this morning before boarding the Sea Gypsy for the Invisibles and Punt Vierkant, I spoke to one of the divers from the other group and asked her about how her diving was going. Not a big deal for a normal human, but I am usually shy about talking to people and have to make an effort to not avoid making eye contact and appear distant or aloof like an idiot. My effort was rewarded - Jody was one of the organizers of the Aquarius group of divers from California which was at Divi Flamingo at the same time as us. She knew that some members of her group were planning an excursion to the Salt Pier at the Southern end of the West coast that afternoon, and I hinted at how I'd like an invite and she said come along! I asked Shawn if he'd like to come along so I would have a buddy who I knew and he was down so we hitched a ride from the resort with Jake and Claudia to the pier! The salt pier is interesting because of the superstructure of the factory and conveyor belts that appear to send freshly refined salt to ships for export. The pier has lots of wildlife and also there is industrial detritus everywhere that has become fish and marine habitat. There had been some discussion among our group about organizing an excursion here, but a time had not yet been chosen and who knew if it would actually happen. No boats are permitted to moor near the pier, and the entry would not be easy for divers who used chairs or who had mobility issues. This was the only dive where I saw turtles and they were also uncharacteristically tame. It's hard not to wonder if the prohibition of fishing or harming marine life has made the local fauna more docile. I also saw a queen angel - not a new species for me, but the first one I had seen on this trip. Also there was an adorable tiny drum! (we would go on to see more of these). We got to see another two turtles in the shallows before getting out and drying off as much in the Caribbean sun to avoid wetting the back of Jake's pickup. As we were leaving an alarm sounded on the pier - it looked like the conveyor was changing position and we learned later that a salk tanker was to arrive within the day where it would stay and prevent divers from visiting this site for the rest of the week - if I had not inquired, we would have missed this opportunity! Is it possible that I'm not as shy as I seem to think?

Punt Vierkant, Bonaire			N 12° 6.5', W 68° 17.5'
Dive Number 212		Buddy Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 62ft	Visibility great	Time 59m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	The second dive this morning was Punt Vierkant, named for the square shaped point on the sheltered West coast, just South of the Airport. Since Philip and I enter near the start of the group and are often waiting for a couple minutes before everyone else is in and ready to follow the leader, I was practicing buoyancy while holding my fins crosslegged or behind me. Shawn noticed this and had me pose for a yoga diver picture in lotus position (not the first such picture that exists - I think there is one from the original trip to BVI where Tom and Brenda and Phil and I all met). Also I found out how good it feels to extend at the hips and stretch out behind me while underwater - I get the impression that above and beyond the wildlife that this may be one of the big things that adaptive divers like - that they have such a different experience of their mobility underwater!

Invisibles, Bonaire			N 12° 3.8', W 68° 17.0'
Dive Number 211		Buddy Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 2800psi
Depth 73ft	Visibility great	Time 57m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 900psi
Notes:	By day two of boat dives, I was getting a feel for what things I could do to be helpful to other divers, and how the rhythm of the day might go. We were able to start a little earlier (since our group needs a little more time to prepare, they had us start loading after all other dive boats had gone on the previous day). In launch position two, Philip and I generally began our dives near the beginning of the herd, but managed to go through our air slowly enough to finish close to the end as well. Getting in early, we got to appreciate a field of unusually gregarious garden eels at the beginning of the dive - At least one of our divers had these on her wildlife wishlist - Alex? Becky? I can't recall. Dive success!

Calabas Reef, Bonaire			N 12° 8.6', W 68° 16.6'
Dive Number 210		Buddies Chad, Bill, Candy	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 38ft	Visibility great	Time 51m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	Bill and Candy were going out for an afternoon dive after lunch and didn't seem to mind if Chad and I joined them, so long as I didn't mind their relaxed pace! They both all proficient divers and also are couple cool people so I was happy to tag along! We stayed relatively shallow and went south from the pier. The slower pace allowed us to notice some more subtle marine life. In addition to the usual collection of fish, I saw a centipede thing on one of the corals, which I haven't yet identified (maybe a fireworm?) and on a post in the sand, Bill was observant to notice millimeter scale fish in some of the dimples of the post! Cool!

Bachelor's Beach, Bonaire			N 12° 7.5', W 68° 17.2'
Dive Number 209		Buddy Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 73ft	Visibility great	Time 32m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	For our second boat dive, we kept the same buddies and the same entry order; Aaron and Shawn first (Aaron is the biggest guy who uses a chair and benefits from most able helpers on board when he enters the water), then it's Philip and me. Philip gets a little assistance at the back of the boat while I backroll off one of the side gunnels. Our divemaster was Alvin who remained either divemaster or captain for the remainder of the week. In addition to the usual fish, I spied a large lobster under a small reef outcropping, and at one point someone pointed to the open water in the deeper water behind me. I turned around and saw a bait ball so large the end of it could not be appreciated; the ball was swimming South past us just a little deeper than where I was swimming, and split such that part of the ball swam more shallow than me and enveloped me inside - Alvin reported later that he could no longer see me in the centre! I had been hoping to see the baitball and being swarmed in the centre of the fish was one of my highlights of the trip (and maybe ever!)

Andrea I, Bonaire			N 12° 8.6', W 68° 16.6'
Dive Number 208		Buddy Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 73ft	Visibility great	Time 44m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1400psi
Notes:	This was the first dive on the boat with my Bonaire roommate and default dive buddy Philip! The boat experience before diving includes helping hoist a few adaptive divers on board in their chairs, helping people suit up who need it, and helping with harnesses that can be used to assist divers from chairs into water at the beginning of the dive, or back to chairs afterwards. Our divemaster was Malin; The wildlife on the dive was similar to what we'd seen already - I didn't record any new species, but the reef was healthy and diversely populated. When we arrived back on board and went to change the tanks for the second dive, I realized that I had used a Nitrox tank by mistake. Fortunately the dive had not been too deep, and the air setting I had used on my computer was just fine!

Calabas Reef, Bonaire			N 12° 8.6', W 68° 16.6'
Dive Number 207		Buddy Tom	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 50ft	Visibility great	Time 54m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	One of the great things about diving at a dive resort like Divi Flamingo is that if you feel like taking another dive, you just grab another tank! After the two tryout dives, Tom was preparing to dive again and I asked if he'd like company - it took a couple asks before he really picked up on the fact that I wanted to join him - He has hundreds of dives (maybe more than a thousand?) and would have happily gone on his own, but we eventually got in and headed North to the cruise ship pier north of our resort. We saw more of the same fish we had seen, but this was my first sighting of a light grey eel that looked a lot like a snake that I'd never seen before. It was a sharptail eel, something we'd see lots more of on the week. Tom has mad diving skills, which doesn't mean I don't feel like being a good buddy, but does mean that I feel confident I don't need to keep him under constant watch! I'm glad I convinced him to let me come - it was the only time all week he and I buddied up!

Calabas Reef, Bonaire			N 12° 8.6', W 68° 16.6'
Dive Number 206		Buddies Chad, Philip	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 2400psi
Depth 73ft	Visibility great	Time 35m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1000psi
Notes:	Buddies are ready to dive! I dove with Philip (my Bonaire roommate) and Chad (another new friend), and we realized shortly after getting buddied up that Chad didn't have the correct amount of weight for the dive, so I hustled out and got him a couple more pounds of lead from the pier. It's unconventional for me to have two new buddies at the same time, and I was keen to be mindful and safe with new folks I didn't yet know well, but we all managed fine - both Chad and Philip were comfortable in the water. We swam out onto the reef and got our first glimpse of some of the local life! I was told to expect that there would be few large animals under the water and that we'd get treated to abundant small life - there are trumptetfish, filefish, cowfish, trunkfish, and of course lots and lots of parrotfish and little fishies that I don't know what they're all called. Great first dive with some new buddies!

Calabas Reef, Bonaire			N 12° 8.6', W 68° 16.6'
Dive Number 205		Buddy Rick	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 2700psi
Depth 34ft	Visibility great	Time 10m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 2400psi
Notes:	When Tom Cornell asked on his Christmas card whether I'd consider joining him and Brenda [and Phil] in Bonaire in May 2019 with their Adaptive dive group from Minneapolis, I was excited to dive and excited to see them and meet some new people and experience something new! We arrived at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort and came out on the afternoon after we settled in to try out the reef and get our adaptive divers in the water. This short dive was a chance for us to get in the water while our adaptive buddies suited up and prepared. It was only a few minutes and we didn't really venture out onto the reef, but since we came up again before the next dive, I'm counting it!