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Published: November 15th 2013
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Luckily Thursday morning dawned bright and beautiful as we had an appointment with a "Hooker", the Hilma Hooker. The “Hooker”
is a 240' sunken freighter settled on its starboard side at a depth of 97'.The port side is a diver's first point of access at 60', and where thedive boat moors. The story is that back in the 80's the freighter came into the Bonaire port loaded with 25,000# of marijuana. It was boarded and seizedby the government but no one ever stepped forward to claim the"booty" or the ship. So after a few years of sitting in the harbor rotting away, the government asked one of the dive operations to pull it out to sea and sink it to make an artificial reef. They completed gutted the ship out and began towing it out to sea, initially planning to sink it at a
more southerly point on the island. However, it began taking on water faster than expected so its final resting point is only about 5-6 miles out of town accessible by diving from shore as well as by boat. In order to save on air use and a longer surface swim, we elected to dive the wreck from
a boat. It was a pleasant ride out to the dive site, as Jim and I got to see the island from the water side which is a rarity for us.
To really see the inside of the ship you must dive to a depth of nearly 100'. At that depth you breathe much more air than you do
at depths of 50 to 60 feet. Since we dive using nitrox we get about 10 minutes longer than those diving air, but it is still not a depth you want to stay any longer than a half hour. Sherman the dive master was very knowledgeable and guided us to a large green moray eel tucked into a hiding place on the ship. He also led several of the divers through openings into the interior of the ship, and brought Dave into a chamber on the ship that shout. I stopped exploring the inside of the ship after the second or third trip to Bonaire as it gave me the willies to be inside that old, rusty, dead ship. It was a great dive and just seemed to end way too soon.
I elected to sit out the second
boat dive of the day, (have I mentioned I don't like boats?) but Jim, Dave and Donna did it and were very glad they did. I believe the site was called Rock City and is where Jim got the great shots of the Peacock Flounder, Squid and Margates. After the deep dive on the Hooker, this dive was much shallower at only 35-50 feet. It was also one of the longest dives at right around 50 minutes.
Our last dive yesterday was bittersweet as it was “the last dive” of the trip for Donna and I. Dave and Jim went on to do a night dive at Cha Cha Cha Beach to say goodbye to the seahorse, but The Cliff dive in the afternoon would be our last this trip. There
was absolutely no current so it was a long, leisurely swim. I even took the camera from Jim and did a little picture taking myself. I’m not sure how he uses two cameras and still concentrates on diving but he does and does a great job. For most of the dives
on this trip, he took videos and stills with a GoPro, plus carried his Sony digital in
the underwater housing and snapped more stills. I carried the Sony for about 10 minutes, took about 25 pictures and managed to flood my mask during the process. I will leave the picture taking to him and will continue to be the navigator. As if someone had pre-planned the weather forus, we woke up this morning to pouring rain which is just fine as we can’t divetoday anyway. The storms seem to roll inand out, but the temperature stays about the same in the mid 80’s. So we’ll do a little shopping this afternoon, and then when our gear dries (hopefully) will pack up for our flight out tomorrow at 8:30. We hope Dave and Donna enjoyed their first Bonaire experience, and I know Jim and I will be back many more times in the years to come.
Bona Vida
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