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Jan. 31st, 2020 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dchenesBecause today is Friday, and because I would really rather be thinking about other things than the things I am thinking about, I'm going to catch up with the things I haven't written about Bonaire yet.
Right north of the dock at our resort is the cruise ship dock for Kralendijk. Cruise ships are BIG, and when they came in and the comparatively tiny people were coming ashore, all I could do was be glad I wasn't involved with any of that (what I said was "well, they can have it, I'm going diving.") But because of the ships' size and proximity, we had to take certain precautions. We weren't allowed to go diving in that direction when they were there, lest we be mistaken for terrorists with limpet mines. We could go south on the reef, but not north.
When our group finally got collectively brave enough for night dives, they did it on a night when one of the cruise ships was leaving. Night divers are pretty visible if you're looking at the water, because they've all got lights. However, the cruise ships maneuver in and out of their moorings with thrusters, which create current, which that side of Bonaire doesn't otherwise have. For those of us on shore, it was a little hairy too, watching the ship go out and hoping the divers could keep out of its way. Nobody got hurt, but it wasn't an ideal situation and the night divers now have a story to tell.
The dock had one set of stairs on each side (north and south), which is how you get out of the water for shore dives. They've been there for long enough to grow algae, which makes them slippery, but also makes them edible as far as algae-eating fish are concerned. And the fish don't care at all about divers in their vicinity, so I came upon a stoplight parrotfish once and a school of midnight damselfish once, snacking on the stairs.
One of our group went out one morning in a tuxedo-printed rash guard. Think tuxedo t-shirt, only all over, including hood (which he could apparently see through, but had to cut a hole in to accommodate the regulator). Apparently it's actually a Halloween costume, not real diving gear, so it only lasted one dive. But it was very funny.
Our room had an in-wall air conditioner, because we didn't actually have any windows, just doors (more on that in a minute). Unfortunately the way the room was laid out, the air conditioner was over the broom closet, which was right at the end of my bed. And because it was 85 and humid and the room instructions said "Don't turn off the A/C, ever", we didn't, and I got blown at all night. Fortunately I was generally tired enough to sleep pretty well, but between the air conditioner at the foot of the bed and the refrigerator right on the other side of the bed (there was at least a screen between bed and fridge, but the fridge went CLUNK every time it turned on), I would wake up a couple of times a night either being cold or wondering what the hell was that noise? Oh. Right. Fridge.
The way the room was laid out, there was a door in the front to come in by, and a sliding door in the back that went out to a screened-in porch with a table, four chairs, and a chaise. I think maybe one or two of the chairs got actually sat in, because we used most of them and the chaise to spread out wet bathing suits, rash guards, etc. to dry. Unfortunately the porch was at right angles to the prevailing breeze, so there was a lot of putting on damp bathing suits. There were other rooms that were at the appropriate angle for the breeze, and yet other rooms that had more-or-less drying rack setups, but we made do with what there was.
About the first thing that happened on the first dive day was that every room got assigned a locker on the dock and were told that Gear Goes There, Not In The Rooms. The lockers are all wooden, and since they're on the dock, they drain pretty well, but they don't have solid roofs either. So when it rained, anything in the locker got rinsed, which was nice, but it also got wet, which was not ideal (especially if I forgot to turn my boots upside down or at least sideways). There were also lockers under the roof at the end of the dock, but we didn't get those; they were pretty much reserved for the Eels.
We were there at the same time as the Eels on Wheels, which is a group based in Austin, TX for paraplegic and otherwise disabled divers. A lot of them are ex-military, but there was at least one woman who has cystic fibrosis. They wouldn't take wheelchairs on the dive boats (of which they had three, because there were a lot of them and they had to go down with two able-bodied divers per disabled diver), so pretty much every day there was at least one wheelchair on the dock waiting for its occupant to get back. And every morning at breakfast there were at least three or four people in wheelchairs. They seemed to be having a good time, and I looked up their web site (eels.org) and they do a lot of group trips to warm places. Good for them!
Cantina is a really good restaurant and brewery in Kralendijk, but it exemplifies island time, because a four-course tasting menu takes three hours. Fortunately we didn't care. The tasting menu was yahoo ceviche (we swapped the beef carpaccio for that, because one of us got talking about how their microbiologist friend said eating raw meat was a Very Bad Idea), shrimp with radish, whole roasted quail with vegetables, and something that had guava in it for dessert (with passionfruit ice cream). Really good food, pretty good beer, very dim lighting, and a good time was had by all anyway.
Right north of the dock at our resort is the cruise ship dock for Kralendijk. Cruise ships are BIG, and when they came in and the comparatively tiny people were coming ashore, all I could do was be glad I wasn't involved with any of that (what I said was "well, they can have it, I'm going diving.") But because of the ships' size and proximity, we had to take certain precautions. We weren't allowed to go diving in that direction when they were there, lest we be mistaken for terrorists with limpet mines. We could go south on the reef, but not north.
When our group finally got collectively brave enough for night dives, they did it on a night when one of the cruise ships was leaving. Night divers are pretty visible if you're looking at the water, because they've all got lights. However, the cruise ships maneuver in and out of their moorings with thrusters, which create current, which that side of Bonaire doesn't otherwise have. For those of us on shore, it was a little hairy too, watching the ship go out and hoping the divers could keep out of its way. Nobody got hurt, but it wasn't an ideal situation and the night divers now have a story to tell.
The dock had one set of stairs on each side (north and south), which is how you get out of the water for shore dives. They've been there for long enough to grow algae, which makes them slippery, but also makes them edible as far as algae-eating fish are concerned. And the fish don't care at all about divers in their vicinity, so I came upon a stoplight parrotfish once and a school of midnight damselfish once, snacking on the stairs.
One of our group went out one morning in a tuxedo-printed rash guard. Think tuxedo t-shirt, only all over, including hood (which he could apparently see through, but had to cut a hole in to accommodate the regulator). Apparently it's actually a Halloween costume, not real diving gear, so it only lasted one dive. But it was very funny.
Our room had an in-wall air conditioner, because we didn't actually have any windows, just doors (more on that in a minute). Unfortunately the way the room was laid out, the air conditioner was over the broom closet, which was right at the end of my bed. And because it was 85 and humid and the room instructions said "Don't turn off the A/C, ever", we didn't, and I got blown at all night. Fortunately I was generally tired enough to sleep pretty well, but between the air conditioner at the foot of the bed and the refrigerator right on the other side of the bed (there was at least a screen between bed and fridge, but the fridge went CLUNK every time it turned on), I would wake up a couple of times a night either being cold or wondering what the hell was that noise? Oh. Right. Fridge.
The way the room was laid out, there was a door in the front to come in by, and a sliding door in the back that went out to a screened-in porch with a table, four chairs, and a chaise. I think maybe one or two of the chairs got actually sat in, because we used most of them and the chaise to spread out wet bathing suits, rash guards, etc. to dry. Unfortunately the porch was at right angles to the prevailing breeze, so there was a lot of putting on damp bathing suits. There were other rooms that were at the appropriate angle for the breeze, and yet other rooms that had more-or-less drying rack setups, but we made do with what there was.
About the first thing that happened on the first dive day was that every room got assigned a locker on the dock and were told that Gear Goes There, Not In The Rooms. The lockers are all wooden, and since they're on the dock, they drain pretty well, but they don't have solid roofs either. So when it rained, anything in the locker got rinsed, which was nice, but it also got wet, which was not ideal (especially if I forgot to turn my boots upside down or at least sideways). There were also lockers under the roof at the end of the dock, but we didn't get those; they were pretty much reserved for the Eels.
We were there at the same time as the Eels on Wheels, which is a group based in Austin, TX for paraplegic and otherwise disabled divers. A lot of them are ex-military, but there was at least one woman who has cystic fibrosis. They wouldn't take wheelchairs on the dive boats (of which they had three, because there were a lot of them and they had to go down with two able-bodied divers per disabled diver), so pretty much every day there was at least one wheelchair on the dock waiting for its occupant to get back. And every morning at breakfast there were at least three or four people in wheelchairs. They seemed to be having a good time, and I looked up their web site (eels.org) and they do a lot of group trips to warm places. Good for them!
Cantina is a really good restaurant and brewery in Kralendijk, but it exemplifies island time, because a four-course tasting menu takes three hours. Fortunately we didn't care. The tasting menu was yahoo ceviche (we swapped the beef carpaccio for that, because one of us got talking about how their microbiologist friend said eating raw meat was a Very Bad Idea), shrimp with radish, whole roasted quail with vegetables, and something that had guava in it for dessert (with passionfruit ice cream). Really good food, pretty good beer, very dim lighting, and a good time was had by all anyway.
