Bonaire

[matt t.]

As always, your photos look great!

[dfreeman]

Back in October, the DivePoint gang went to Bonaire and had a great time diving and a little partying.  Plenty of diving, many of us had over 20 dives.  There were 7:00 a.m. dives, night dives, dives to the far north of the island (Karpata) and dives to the far south (Willenstoren Lighthouse), shallow and deep.  A grand time.  Here are a few examples of the lay of the, underwater of course, and my favorite anemone's.  Love them because they look like an octopus but do not move.

[dfreeman]

There are plenty of creatures to see on Bonaire.  The number of sea turtles have steadily increased and it is common to see them on a dive.  We had some great encounters and could swim close to the turtles without them getting spooked.  My daughter Megan really loves to swim with them whenever we encounter them.  Here is a nice close-up.

Bonaire is famous fr sea horses.  I have a hard time spotting them but they are there and make for nice pictures.  You can get a feel for how hard it can be to see them from these pictures.  Love to see them.

[dfreeman]

There are plenty of neat fish on Bonaire.  Not always easy to see.  There have been plenty of times that I have been taking a picture of one fish and come to find that I am inches away from a scorpionfish.  There are a lot of them in Bonaire and I have seen 4 within 10 feet.  They are fun to photograph because they hold still.  Here you get a feel for how close you can get.

The peacock flounders in Bonaire are fun to watch.  They can also hide pretty well.  These guys are fun to watch because they swim so funny.

[dfreeman]

We saw plenty of octopus at night.  They put a real show on for us and I had a great time taking picturs of these creatures and I love to take pictures of them.  Unfortunately they move and it can be hard to get the quality you want since it is night, in a current, avoiding the reef, Other divers all over the place watching the show under the largest light in the pool, and the octopus keeps moving.  But I still got some good pictures.  I had a hard time picking just 4 pictures.  I picked these because of the eyes and completely differnt shapes.

[dfreeman]

The sergeant majors on Bonaire are great and very active.  It is hard to get good pictures of them as they are always moving and fast.  Here I catch a male guarding his nest on the sucken boat in front of Captain Don's Habitat. 

I can not resist taking picturs of parrotfish.  I have so many it is very hard to pick.  Here are some more unusual examples.

[dfreeman]

There is plenty of good pictures above water also.  I have always enjoyed taking picturs of the sunsets in Bonaire.  Here are a set that gives you a feel of why.

[dfreeman]

Hope that you enjoyed this set of pictures. 

I have a few more but having trouble uploading.

Doug

[jasondbaker]

Awesome pics Doug.  I'm heading there in five weeks and staying at Buddy.  Really looking forward to it.

[dfreeman]

Here is my son who just got out of the Navy.  Those Navy guys are crazy.