Tonight I am back at the former fish market, now the fruit market, on the waterfront. There is some kind of cultural festival taking place, with the stage and band set up, and loudspeakers that you can hear from a kilometre away. It is in the square right beside the Governor’s House. I am just far enough away that I can dictate my blog and still be understood.

(Photos here)

Having just wandered through the various booths, it is remarkable how easygoing and happy everyone seems to be. Like everywhere on Bonaire, liquor is sold openly, with no apparent restrictions. Nonetheless, no one seems to be drunk or creating a disturbance. Children run around on their own, without any fear. It’s just another example of the easygoing, friendly attitude the Bonairian people have.

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Friday was my last full day at work for the next two weeks. As I explained earlier, my Internet project has gone as far as it can until some changes are made by the IT Department in Cary. I got a firm quote today from The A Group to effect two changes to the software which I would most like to see. In particular, these requested changes would allow unique titles for each page to be created, and also introduce a dropdown menu so you can gain an overview of the entire site with a quick mouse-over, instead of clicking on each link.  We are awaiting approval from the IT Department to see whether or not these changes will be made.

(While I have been sitting here, several high-powered street bikes drove by, revving their engines to the max, creating so much noise that I had to stop dictating for a few minutes. I often hear the sound of revving motorcycles throughout the night. I much prefer hearing a donkey braying instead.)

Back to the office.

I was also able to meet with Brad Swanson, and had one of the most productive meetings to date. While I have not been able to work with Brad extensively, this past week, that changed. On Wednesday, he helped me identify the names of the people in the photos. Today I was able to teach him how to create a photo gallery for the new website. Brad is the photography guy on Bonaire, which is why you don’t often see him in photos, as he is the one behind the lens.

I had previously taken the photos of the 2007 Bonaire Alumni Reunion and organized them into folders. I walked Brad through the process as he uploaded the files and labelled each picture.

Next I had Brad help me rewrite the proposal document for live streaming audio. This has been my pet project since I arrived. Once we had it worded properly, we exported it from Google Docs into Word. Brad wisely suggested that it would not be productive to present this to decision-makers right now, as it would simply get lost in hundreds of other emails. A better timing would be to wait until right before the ministry team meetings where this item will be discussed.  So, that’s the plan!

I was also able to finalize the instructions for photo sorting. While this project remains incomplete, I got the hardest part of the work done by sorting a few thousand files from 2000 to 2007.

They are not pressed for time on the remaining projects related to Bonaire’s 2014 50th anniversary, as that event is still two years away. This was one of the reasons that Brandon made the decision to allow me to take the next two weeks off to be with my sister.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Eden Beach Dive:

Immediately at five o’clock, I grabbed my scuba gear and went to Eden Beach to service the Sea Monitoring sensors. Once again, I did a solo dive, but it was vastly different from the previous week. I was able to go straight to the wreck, and started at the flotation bottles at five metres. As I was vigorously scrubbing the algae and the beginnings of fire coral, I thought to myself, If I have to be doing cleaning, this is the best environment to do it in!

At five metres, the wreck is still far below, the shore is almost invisible, and it is just you and the work right in front of you, and deep blue water all around. I was completely relaxed, and really enjoyed the experience.

I then went down to the 12-metre level and serviced the three sensors there, and then down to the 20-metre level.

As I was cleaning the second-from-the-last sensor, my dive knife came loose from its housing and went twirling down to the wreck. I chased it down and retrieved it, which forced me to go to 26 metres. Not a big deal, but rather annoying.

I finished up the sensors, and headed to shore, and turned left to go north along the slope. I did this dive at about 15 metres, and was able to take my time. I took a good three-minute video of some very unafraid French angel fish, as well as a couple of cleaner shrimp. I’m not sure if the presence of only a single diver disturbs the marine life less, or if it was my slow pace, but I found all the marine life busily going about their own chores rather than swimming away from me. I find this type of diving where you are not so much just spotting the various forms of life, but rather observing their behaviour, a very pleasant change of pace.

I watched a trumpet fish shadowing a parrot fish in order to sneak up on its prey. It’s interesting to watch how they flank the parrot fish within less than an inch so that the other small fish can’t see them coming. Altogether, I was under water for almost an hour. I found this to be one of the most enjoyable dives I’ve been on.

I also came across a blue cow fish. It had exactly the same colouring as I noticed on a cow fish a couple of weeks before. I knew there had to be another male in the vicinity, but I wasn’t immediately able to spot it. But a couple minutes later, about 15 metres away, there it was, a rival male also coloured blue.

I’m fascinated by the great number of fish that can change their colour to blend in: The trumpet fish, the file fish, the sergeant fish, the jacks, and the octopi. They can all change their colour to suit their environment or activity. It seems to be a much more common ability under water than on land.

When I exited the water, I quickly stowed my gear went home for a quick shower, and headed over to the Pedersens’. Once again, they made me feel extremely welcome. Tonight was Episode IV, which was actually the first Star Wars released. I recall watching a DVD of this as a teen when I lived on Bonaire. I still think it is an all-time classic, although the acting wasn’t as good as on the other episodes. Nonetheless, this is what launched one of the most popular movie series of all time.

Dave also asked me to accompany him Saturday afternoon to a yacht that he is considering purchasing, so that I can dive underneath and take pictures for him of the condition of the hull.

I headed home and went straight to bed, as I hope to have an early dive Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to meeting my sister!

Tonight I am sitting by the seaside road.  In front of me and to my right, there are several yachts tied up.  Each one has a little light on its mast, so the masts tend to look a bit like street lights.  The catamaran in front of me has a large-screen TV on the go, and seems to be a pleasant home on the water.

(No photos today)

To the far south, I see the occasional flash of lightning, and I’m not sure but that it might be off the coast of Venezuela, South America.

Just like at home, people have a strip where they tend to drive their modified cars, with huge stereos blaring. Here, it is the seaside road where I’m sitting.

This morning I got to the studio a bit early in order to place a Skype call to Joanna.  She is attempting to book an earlier flight from Curaçao to Bonaire, but at this point, she hasn’t been able to complete that.  Hopefully she will get hold of an island telephone and give me a call if her plans change.  As it stands, I’ll be going to the airport at 3:30 to pick her up on Saturday.  We are both excited.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After devotions, I was able to talk to Brad and Brandon about how we might get the technical issues sorted out on the new website.  After a long discussion, we seem to have come up with a plan to get The A Group to make the changes.  However, this is pending the approval from headquarters, which won’t be forthcoming until next week.

I also decided to get a second opinion on my technical assessment of our website issues.  I called Gary Roebbelen, who is the Canadian webmaster for TWR Canada.  My question to him was, Should we delay the launch in order to get our technical issues sorted out, or go ahead and launch with them still malfunctioning?   His answer was very insightful.  He said the thing that is most important is to get the website actually launched.  He has dealt with other websites that have been continuously tweaked for sometimes years, and never do end up going live because they never will be perfect.  So I have consented to launching it within the next two weeks, regardless of whether everything is functioning to my satisfaction.  In the meantime, we intend to make our best effort to have the changes made by The A Group.

I spent much of the morning and afternoon documenting everything that needed to be done, and also verifying some of the changes that had been made.  Several of the requested changes remain outstanding.  I guess I have to be thankful for the small steps that we did manage to make today.

Brandon invited the staff to a Monday luncheon to celebrate my contribution here.  Friday will actually be my last day in the office, as they want me to be able to spend time with my sister, for which I’m very thankful.  Basically, while waiting for the website changes to be completed, I have no other significant projects to work on, so Brandon made the decision to allow me to have the next two weeks off to spend with my sister. Having my sister present for this little celebration will be the icing on the cake!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After work, I stopped by a few different supermarkets looking for some flea powder, and finally found the last can at the Top Supermarket.  I also picked up some flea treatment for the back yard, and bought some rawhide chew sticks for the dogs to enjoy.  When I did get home, they were immensely grateful for their little presents.

Tonight I decided to take a break from diving and get the place cleaned up to some extent.  I did the stoop and scoop in the back yard for about half an hour.  Then I swept all the floors in the house.  It rather looks like you are sweeping the back yard, as there is so much dust on the floor.  It is different from the house dust in Canada, as here it is mostly very, very fine dirt that blows in off the landscape and through the open louvres.  It is amazing how much dust can collect in just one week. I could probably grow a plant with the dirt I’ve swept up since I’ve been here.

I then went out and picked up two more tanks of Nitrox for my dives on Saturday with Jay.  Tomorrow I will have to pick up my free tank from the Hamlet Dive Shop for when I do the sensor reading Friday evening.  I also hope to make contact again with the Canadian dive master from last night, as he is interested in becoming an ocean monitor.  I know Albert can use all the help he can get in keeping up with the underwater monitoring program.

Tonight is movie night at the Pedersen’s, and then I’m diving with Jay at 8:00 am on Saturday. Depending on when my sister arrives, I may not have time to put up a blog until perhaps Sunday. But I’ll do my best. I feel very fortunate to have had my mother transcribe all my audio blogs. Otherwise I most likely wouldn’t have been able to stay current for the last month. Thanks mom.

Here is an idea for missionary supporters back home. Ask your missionaries if they would benefit from having someone transcribe audio blogs sent to them in mp3. For me it takes about twenty minutes to dictate, and 10 minutes to review and post the next morning. If I have a lot of photos, that takes me about another 10 minutes to go through and delete the blurry ones. Then I just upload the entire series from that day. So total time out of my day to keep my supporters up to date: between 30 to 40 minutes. If I had to type it myself, I’d likely be at it for an hour and a half. Typing also requires a desk, where you can do dictation from anywhere. So if you are a typist, you may want to conisder a transcription ministry.

So, just two more sleeps until my sister arrives!

Tonight I’m blogging from the end of the dock of Dive & Adventure Bonaire.  This is the fourth dive shop that I’ve registered with, as I like to hunt for bargains and check out the various operations.  It is a full moon tonight, with calm seas and a gentle breeze.  In a word, perfect!

 Photos here

Today at work I was able to meet withBrandon, and we had some further discussions about getting our issues addressed on the software we are using for the twrbonaire.com website.

Brandon asked me if we should go ahead and launch with it not having all the features and functionality that I would like to see.  I said that I would prefer to address certain issues first – and then launch.  I originally expected to launch before this Friday, but this now seems unlikely.  The launch may be delayed for a week or two.  I am a bit frustrated by these delays, but I guess that’s ministry!  Please pray that God will give me patience, that He will work out the details and remove obstacles, and allow us to launch soon!

During the morning, I kept busy sorting the photos.  Then I took Donna, the lady who takes care of the finances, out for lunch to my new favourite restaurant, Between 2 Buns.  While there, Captain Don’s wife walked in, who Donna knew quite well.  Apparently they own a kunucu somewhere near the donkey sanctuary.  I had always envisioned Captain Don living on the seashore all his life, but apparently that is no longer the case.

After lunch, Brad came in, and we spent the majority of the afternoon going through probably a couple thousand different pictures, and he was able to identify a great many of the people in them.  We also came across a 2007 reunion where many of the former missionaries which my parents and I knew were pictured.  For Brad, it was a bit of an exercise in reminiscing, and I think he rather enjoyed it.  Brad is an easy-going guy to work with, and it made for an enjoyable afternoon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

After work, I tried to locate some more flea treatment for the yard, but was not able to find it.  I then had supper at a small Chinese restaurant in the downtown, which has been there for over 25 years.  Then it was time to pack up my gear and head for Dive Adventure Bonaire, which is just to the right of Eden Beach.

Dive: Barrie’s Reef

The dive master was a Canadian by the name of Sean from Calgary, who was a very likable fellow, and an excellent dive master.

The science behind blue light night diving is that coral lives in a symbiotic relationship with algae, which usually includes some type of natural phosphorescence.  The naked eye cannot perceive these wavelengths, and so we wear a set of yellow goggles in front of our scuba mask.  Our dive lights are actually blue lights, and so, in a way, you’re diving in the dark, similar to using black light.  The result is that about half the corals light up like a Christmas tree when you shine the blue light on them.  The predominant colour I see was bright yellow, but there was also a brown coral that has bright orange dots, almost like gold dust, all over it.  We found a sea serpent that looked to be glowing white and yellow.  Some of the sponges had a rich red glow, almost like they had an internal heat source.

On the way out, we encountered a few anemones, which were just spectacular in the blue light.  I had forgotten to bring an extra cover for my camera, and so didn’t get a picture of these.  Later in the dive, I decided to try it anyway, and but they turned out mostly blue.

We only went to about 15 or 18 metres, and cruised along.  For some strange reason, my sinuses were bothering me, and the first half of the dive wasn’t entirely comfortable.  Sean said this may have been due to the extra strap we were wearing for the goggles, as he had the same problem.

Before diving, I had mentioned to Sean about the Touch the Sea book I am just finishing reading, and he said he is quite happy to handle eels.  We did see several eels, as they are out of their holes and swimming around at night.  The first one was a sea serpent of some type, and he grabbed it, but it slithered away rather quickly.  Later on he tried to touch an eel, but the eel didn’t want to play.  While it looks amazing, I don’t think I’m ready to pet an eel just yet!!

As Sean had predicted, we were accompanied for a good part of the dive by a tarpon.  This is the large predator, about four to five feet long, that tries to hunt by our dive lights.  However, in this case, the blue light didn’t seem to immobilize the fish around us, and so he ended up being a disappointed hunter.  I didn’t notice him towards the second half of the dive.

On the way out, I also noticed three other night divers up in shallower waters.  We had also met two night divers coming in as we were heading out.  This is one of the new things on Bonaire that I have noticed.  You quite often meet other divers under water, which hardly ever occurred when I was a kid.

I also saw a couple of sea cucumbers on the way back, which are an 18” long by 5” wide caterpillar-shaped creatures, that move almost imperceptibly across the bottom.

Just as we were exiting, a little needle fish got extremely excited and attracted to Sean’s light, and came right up and started poking at it.  He actually jumped out of the water in pursuit of Sean’s light.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it!

After we had rinsed our gear, Sean said he couldn’t locate the extra visor that he had loaned me for my camera.  In the confusion, I’m not sure where I left it, but Sean said they will sort that out in the morning.  I guess there were too many new things going on tonight.  Nonetheless, this was a spectacular new adventure that I hope I can share with my sister.  However, I would recommend that people get comfortable first with night diving with the regular white light before they attempt blue light night diving.

So, another day, another new experience.  A dive is the best way to end any day, in my books!

Tonight I’m blogging from a small pier between the public pier and the Divi Flamingo.  It is a typical balmy night, and the sea is very calm.  We have a three-quarter moon out, which allows me to see down to the bottom, ten feet below me, like I’m looking into glass.  As I was driving home tonight along the seaside road, the driving was very slow, which I never seem to mind.  I noticed quite a few Bonairians sitting and chatting along the seashore.

This morning, the south end of the island experienced a power outage.  My power went off around 6:30.  I decided to leave the refrigerator closed and eat out for breakfast, so I quickly fed the dogs, and went up to my favourite lunch spot near the studio.

The transmitter site also lost power, which meant about two hours of programming was not able to be broadcast.  Please pray that TWR-Bonaire will have reliable power so that the broadcasts can continue uninterrupted.

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This morning I met with Brandon, and we went over the final layout of the website.  The good news is that the goal is in sight, and pending the furloughing director’s approval, we will be going live on Friday, August 31^st.  I felt I was able to communicate well with Brandon, and we came to an agreement about the priorities.

Partway through our meeting, Jay Silverstein dropped by on a surprise visit.  He wanted to go diving tonight, which, of course, I agreed to.  I’ll give him the full tour of the studio at a later date, as I had to return to my meeting with Brandon.

The majority of today involved sorting photos.

During the noon hour, I was able to convince Ivan to have his lunch with me in my office, and help me identify the people in the photos.  He was able to identify 80 or 90% of everyone he saw, which was just amazing.  So far, I am up to the year 2006 in the photo sorting.  The goal is to finish before my sister arrives on Saturday.

After further discussion with Brandon, he expressed his concern that any additional projects beyond the website setup and the photo sorting would jeopardize my time with my sister.  He feels that the value of some other miscellaneous projects does not outweigh the importance of my relationship with my sister.  So the goal now is to try to wrap up my work by this Friday, and take most of the next two weeks off to get reacquainted with my sister.

Do pray that her visit will go well, as we have very little contact with each other back home due to the long-distance drive it takes to reach her in Kingston.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dive:  Weber’s Joy

Right at five o’clock, I got changed and headed across the street to Jay’s house where I found him loading his pickup truck with his dive gear.  Within a couple of minutes, we were on the road north to dive Weber’s Joy.  This is just before the road becomes a one-way.

Weber’s Reef is also one of the sensor sites that Jay services, so I asked him if he wouldn’t mind pointing it out to me.  We didn’t go particularly deep, only about 25 metres.  Jay managed to snag two lion fish, one of which was a juvenile.

I did notice a significant amount of red algae on the bottom.  I am also finding that either I am becoming more familiar with the reef, or there wasn’t anything new here.  I’m not taking as many photos as I used to.

The current was fairly strong, and as we were swimming towards the sensor which was with the current, we ended up going right past it.  When we did turn around and go into the shallows, Jay wasn’t sure exactly how far he had to go, so after about ten minutes, we decided to surface.  Sure enough, we had gone quite a distance past.  By this time, Jay was running low on air, so he decided to swim backwards on the surface.

Since there are never any surface markers, these sensor buoys can be particularly difficult to find.  In this case, there was a large tree right on the edge of a small cliff on the water’s edge that marks the spot.  From here you go out about 100 metres and look for an old pillar from a previous dock mooring that is resting on the bottom at a slight angle to the shore.  Making note of the way it’s lying, you follow that direction out about another 100 metres, until you are out in approximately 40 metres of water, and the bottom has disappeared.  Then you see the three Coke bottles materialize about five metres down.  Jay said they were attached to the mooring column that had broken off years ago some 30 metres down.  All the sensors are attached to artificial objects rather than the reef itself, in order to minimize damage.  I could not see what it was attached to, so I decided to submerge, and went down to about 18 metres where I could finally see the top of the pillar that it was attached to.  Jay has to replace all these sensors on Thursday, as for some mysterious reason, they have all malfunctioned.

We then headed back to shore, and, as usual, clambered awkwardly out of the water.  I always find the exit onto these coral-strewn shores somewhat difficult, but it sure beats the price of a boat.

On the way home, I picked up a new tank at Wannadive, and got back around 7:30, fed the dogs, and ran a load of laundry.

Tonight I dropped by one of the busiest restaurants on the waterfront called At Sea.  I decided to try the yellowtail snapper again, and it was very good.  However, it seems a little too upscale for me, if that makes any sense.

Tonight the stars are out, although there is some cloud cover, and, as usual, I see the yellow lights of a tanker on the horizon.  While I’ve been blogging, there have been at least three airplanes land and take off at the airport.

And so ends another pleasant day on Bonaire.

Tonight I got chased out of my favourite blogging spot, which is always somewhere by the seaside, as it started to rain.  I got home and checked my GPS, and, yes, I’m still on Bonaire!  I guess this is the beginning of the rainy season, so I am dictating this from my couch, with the fans going full blast.

 Photos from Aug. 26 & 27 here

After breakfast, I went on the hunt for my scuba mask, but the scuba shop where I thought I left it didn’t open until eight o’clock, so I returned there just after devotions at the studio.  Thank goodness, they had put my mask in the lost and found.

This is a new dive shop called Bonaire Dive & Adventures, which is the closest one to the studio.  I asked André Nahr, the owner, if they had any night dives.  He said, yes, they had a specialty dive called blue light night diving.  Apparently this is diving with special orange goggles on and blue light, which highlights some of the marine life that is not normally visible to the naked eye.  Apparently it is becoming quite popular, so I will book that in the morning.  I plan to go Wednesday night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This morning I had a conversation with Brandon about what would become of the web pages that will not be made public right away.  We decided that we should document what our reasoning was regarding these dormant pages, and if there were any tasks or technical support that would be needed in order to have a page become active in the future.

Once again I went through the entire site, and made notes on each page, jotting down what I thought the action items might be down the road, perhaps after I leave.

I also took my Jeep into the shop for a tune-up, as apparently it was due.  I picked the Jeep up just after 1:30 when they reopened after siesta.  Most places take siesta from 12:00 noon to 1:30.

In speaking with Dick in the morning, it appears that the local school children start school at 7:30 in the morning, and are off at 12:30, so he generally comes into work a bit early each day, after he drops off the kids.  One of his sons has a part-time job at the new Dutch supermarket.

In the afternoon, I again went at the photo sorting, but will have to get some help identifying the people.  Brad Swanson agreed to sit down with me to help me with the faces.

Please pray as I meet Tuesday morning with Brandon about the future development of the website past the launch date.

As I was walking out the door, Dave Pedersen asked me if I had any plans.  This was the one night when I didn’t have any dive scheduled, so he invited me over for supper.

After I fed and dusted the dogs with flea powder, I headed over to my home away from home at the Pedersens’.  The children were still working on a few of their chores, with the older girl doing her exercises.  She didn’t seem particularly enthused about her workout, so I offered her my blue tooth stereo headset, and tuned in her favourite Internet radio station.  Then the problem was getting her to stop exercising, as that meant the headsets would come off!  The other two kids competed for my iPad and Android cell phone.

Dave’s wife, Mari, wanted to know about Joanna, so I filled her in on my sister’s exploits.  I must say, it is easy to brag about my very cool sister.

Supper was Dagwood-style hamburgers, which were a challenge to get my jaws around, but I managed.  After supper, the older girl helped her father do the dishes, while the other kids went back to their video games.  The younger girl wanted to see my daughter Rebekah’s photo album from Disneyworld in Florida that I had taken five years ago.

After the chores were done, the kids wanted to see my scuba gear, which I had with me in the car.  With their help, I attached the BC to the tank, and then hooked up the regulator.  I let the kids do all the work, with careful supervision.  Then I gave them the spare regulator to try breathing with, and they thought it was very cool.  Next, they had to wear the scuba mask and breathe out of the regulator.  Then the older girl had to try on my wet suit and the mask and the regulator!  Not satisfied with that, she wanted to put the tank on her back, and see if she could manage.  At this point, I got Dave’s help, as the weight was almost more than she could hold.  She pretended she was swimming, as she stumbled around with the tank on her back.

My goal had been to inspire the kids to one day take up scuba diving.  I think we may have made some headway in that area.  Particularly their son, with his difficulty in walking, would greatly benefit from the weightless environment of scuba diving.  Dave is seriously considering getting him into this type of thing down the road.

As the older girl is only eleven, I told her she should wait until she is at least fourteen.

Finally, it was 8:30, and I decided it was time to clear out and allow Dave to put them to bed.  Mari had left to visit a widow friend of hers whose husband used to be the interim pastor for the International Bible Church.  I feel very fortunate to have connected with this loving family.

The beach I am dictating this blog from is called Bachelor’s Beach, although I think that may be a bit of a misnomer.  I figured it would be appropriate for me to come here, being a bachelor, but I’m still looking for the beach!  I’m sitting on a rock cliff about ten feet above the water, and the coastline is slightly undercut, with the waves thudding in beneath me.  While there is a bit of sand when the waves wash out, it is basically all under water.

To my right, I can see all the lights of Kralendijk, as my location is around the corner of the island.  Tonight it is hazy and overcast, with a half moon, so the stars are not that remarkable.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This morning I woke up just after six, despite not having turned the alarm on.  I decided to try to get up to one of the dive shops to book an afternoon boat dive, so headed out in good time.  First, I wanted to grab some breakfast at my new favourite breakfast spot, but by the time that was finished, I had to postpone my trip to the dive shop.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Today’s Sunday service was led by Brandon Neal, my boss, who is actually an ordained minister.  He led the singing, and Pastor Toto gave the sermon.  I told everyone that my sister was coming this Saturday, and they all seemed very excited for me.  I must admit, the closer Joanna’s visit gets, the more I’m looking forward to it.

After the service, we had time for cookies and drinks, and then the adult Sunday School began.  Brad Swanson was going to launch a DVD series on apologetics by the Ravi Zacharias group.  Unfortunately, the DVD player decided to die, so Brad ran home to get his own DVD player.  Then we couldn’t get the DVD out of the old player, so we actually had to get a screwdriver and take it out manually.  Unfortunately, this resulted in a scratch on the DVD, and the presentation ended five minutes before it was supposed to.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the service, I drove up to Buddy Dive, which is just before Captain Don’s Habitat.  My impression was that it is a large American-run outfit with a fast-paced, expensive dive operation.  They were asking $55 for a boat dive compared to Bruce Bowker’s $35.  I said Thanks anyway, and drove off to Bruce’s.  Luckily, he still had room on his 1:30 boat ride, and so I signed up.  I went home for a quick lunch, grabbed my gear, and headed out.  However, it appears I have misplaced my mask, so I had to rent one from Bruce.

Dive spot:  Knife (Klein Bonaire)

Our dive master was an American lady by the name of Linda, who seemed to be a lot of fun, and rather outspoken.  The problem was that she doesn’t seem to have read Dee Scar’s book Touch the Sea.  I have been reading a chapter every lunch hour, and have begun to experiment with some of her ideas.  I saw a colourful nudibranch worm on one of the corals, and picked it up, as Jay had showed me to do.  Before I knew it, Linda tapped me on the shoulder, and wagged her finger at me.  Of course I couldn’t explain that I was being very gentle and not harming it, but she didn’t seem to get the point underwater.  I carefully put it back where I had found it, and waited for it to grab onto the rock.

By the time we had surfaced, I forgot to suggest to her that “Do not touch” is a quick way for divers to get burned out, and stop appreciating the reef.

Dee Scar’s idea is to, with great care and patience, engage the sea creatures and interact with them.  She will pick up a sea urchin and place it on her hand where its tiny suction feet will hold on, and she can actually turn it upside down.  She has learned to pet eagle rays, and stroke moray eels.  These last two are beyond what I’m prepared to do.  But a little inch-long nudibranch worm, I can handle, but apparently not while diving with Linda.

I greatly enjoyed the boat ride, and even though it was far more expensive than shore diving, it gave me an opportunity to see Klein Bonaire.  The place we dove was called KNIFE, but I didn’t find any of the sea horses that I have been looking for since I arrived.  What we did find was a frog fish that was completely disguised, sitting in the middle of a yellow tube sponge.  It was exactly the same yellow colour as the tube sponge, and I would have swum right by it, if she didn’t point it out.  It was only about five inches long, and didn’t move a muscle, even though there were six divers hovering around it.

This was my 40^th dive since re-certification last year, and my 27^th since I arrived on Bonaire.  I seem to be averaging about one dive a day, which is just the way I like it!

On the way back, we had to avoid some kite surfers.  Apparently, a few of these kite surfers have the habit of surfing right into the shore, almost up to the sand, before they turn around and head back to sea at high speed.  The problem is that a surfacing diver could get his head taken off by these surf boards, as there is no warning without there being a motor.  Nonetheless, their spectacular moves and agility still impress me.

There were also a number of Sunfish Sailing Boats out on the water, as well as the water taxi which takes people over to Klein Bonaire.

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After the dive, I took time to relax at the beach front, and then headed down to where I thought I might have dropped my mask yesterday.  It was nowhere to be found, so I will have to look elsewhere.  Then it was over to Wannadive to grab a new tank, and head home for a shower

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Tonight I decided to try one of the oldest restaurants on the island called Zee Zicht.  They actually had conch on the menu.  Even though it was way too expensive, I decided to try it.  It wasn’t bad, although I found it a bit rubbery.

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I had originally thought about sitting at the downtown waterfront to do my blog, but it seems the seaside road has become a cruising strip for all the guys and their boom-box type cars.  I’m glad I moved to a more secluded spot where I can collect my thoughts a little more easily.

Time to head back to my hot spot at home and get this uploaded.

I am writing the blog a day later, while sitting at Bachelor’s Beach on a ten-foot ledge above the water.  There are stairs that go down to the water.  Quite a few waves are washing in.  I can see the lights of the town to my right, as I’m around the bend in the island.

 Photo here

The weekend has been too filled with activity to be able to spare even a moment to blog.  I was up late both Friday and Saturday, but tonight, things are more relaxed.

Saturday began with dropping off the reader to Yellow Submarine just after eight o’clock when they opened.  Then I went next door to drop off my empty tank and pick up two more from Wannadive.  While I was in that end of town, I stopped by the new breakfast spot that Dave Pedersen had suggested, called Between 2 Buns, and found it to be quite good.  Then I had to hustle off home to meet Jay at 9:30.  He actually got there a bit later, but Saturdays I run on Bonaire time.

First Dive:  South of Red Slave

Jay likes to try to head as far south as the waves will permit, as there tend to be more lion fish in these more remote dive sites.  After checking the wave action in a few spots, we decided that we could enter just between the lighthouse and the radar tower, which was the most southerly point I have dived yet.  The entry wasn’t too bad, although the exit was considerably more difficult.

The dive itself was spectacular!  Dave went straight down to 30 metres where the reef meets the sand, and immediately found a few large lion fish.  Further on, he found a little rock outcropping in the sand, and was able to bag three from that location alone.  We ended up with seven lion fish, five of which were a good eating size.  Because we were fairly deep, the dive lasted only 35 minutes.

Across from the dive site were some flamingos feeding right near the road, and I was able to get a few decent shots.  I didn’t have my full-size camera with me, and I wished I had.  Jay was looking for a way to keep the fish fresh, so we drove back to my place and put them in a bag inside my crisper.

The rule of thumb is to take at least an hour off between dives.

Second Dive:  Tori’s Reef

We headed back south and stopped at Tory’s Reef.  This dive site is next to the run-off stream from the salt pans.  This entry was the most difficult of all, and we almost turned around to find a different site, but eventually did make it in.  While not as spectacular as the first dive, it was very nice.  I was able to get a video of a turtle up close.  From what I learned the other night at the turtle conservation lecture, this was a Hawksbill turtle.  Apparently they feed mostly on sponges, so their flesh can be toxic if eaten.

He is continuing to experiment with his spear, and, unfortunately, about half the lion fish do get away.  One of the lion fish didn’t get away, but we were not able to take it home!  Some greedy yellow-tailed snappers grabbed it right off of Jay’s spear.  Jay had turned it over, and they were able to hit the belly of the lion fish, and within seconds, two of them had torn it to pieces.  One made a huge gulp and swallowed the whole thing.  I don’t understand how they can wolf it down without being hit by the venomous spines.  Jay gave me the thumbs up, indicating that that was a good way after all to dispose of an under-sized lion fish.

One of the things Jay does between dives, which I have to catch onto, is we have some granola bars to keep up our energy.

After the dive, we stopped in at Port Bonaire and rinsed our equipment.  By this time, it was nearly three-thirty, and we had to meet the boat for our evening cruise at 4:40.

Jay pointed out another tank that was a good foot-and-a-half taller than the ones we were diving.  This was a 120 cubic foot aluminum tank that Jay’s friend, Walt Bensen, dives.  Jay is very interesting in getting a similar tank, as he breathes a lot more air when he is hunting, as opposed to just sightseeing.  I’ve heard these things cost well over $500.  That may be prohibitive, but it would solve Jay’s problem of air consumption during a hunt.

Just as we left the dive shop, Jay realized that he had a flat.  We jacked the car up, and he put the spare on, and as I was letting the car back down, we realized the tire had no air.  Doesn’t it seem that these things always happen when you’re in a hurry?

Just then, one of Jay’s friends from the Dive Friends Dive Shop stopped by and asked if we needed help.  I said, “Yes, I should go get my car and bring it back to pick up Jay.”  He was a friendly Dutch fellow who took me back to my place, where I jumped in my car and headed back.  I was halfway back when Jay flagged me down, going the other way.  Apparently he had found his pump, and was able to pump the tire up.

By this time, it was four o’clock, and we had skipped lunch.  Jay said, “Come on over to my place, and my girlfriend will give us lunch in a big hurry.”  So that is what we did, and we were able to wolf down a proper chicken dinner in ten minutes!  Jay and his girlfriend have been the most hospitable people I have met here on the island, next to the Pedersens.

Third Dive: Sharon’s Serenity (Klein Bonaire)          

We arrived at the yacht harbour just in time, and discovered that there were only four of us on the cruise.  The outing was billed as a “Lion Fish Cull,” although myself and the other lady were not armed with spears, but only our cameras.  It was a fairly large diesel-powered boat, and I was surprised that we still went out with only four people.  The operator’s name was Menno, who operates another dive shop called La Tina Divers.

We headed to the north-west side of Klein Bonaire, and tethered at the yellow mooring buoy that always indicate a dive site.  The other couple were Italians that have been travelling for the last seven years.  The way the husband put it, he could smell the recession coming away back then, and decided to get out before things got really bad.  They have spent time working as freelance videographers, as well as doing other work related to the marine environment.  He is actually a marine biologist, and his wife seems to be a qualified videographer.  The camera she was using had two lights mounted on it, and ran video.

The dive was very nice, and Jay and the Italian couple were able to bag about four more lion fish each.  Our group went one way up the shore, while the owner of the boat, Menno, decided to go deep and look for lion fish down close to 40 metres.  He was breathing a reduced Nitrox mixture of only 27% in order to avoid oxygen toxicity at that depth.  (Other than Bruce’s shop, all the dive shops use more Nitrox than air these days.  I myself dive exclusively Nitrox now that I’ve found a cheap source at Wannadive.)

After we came up, he had a hot shower available on the boat to rinse the salt out of our hair, and were offered some hot tea, cup cakes and other snacks.  The idea was to wait for at least an hour for it to get dark before hitting the water for our night dive.

It was interesting when I commented about the tanker that was on the horizon, that Menno said you can’t take a sunset photo any more without getting a tanker in the shot.  As I’m writing this blog, I see two tankers out at sea, as well as another jet approaching the airport. No boats are allowed to drop anchor on Bonaire, so the ships just sit a few miles off of the coast until the pier is open.

Fourth Dive:  Southwest Corner (Klein Bonaire)

The night dive was a bit of a treat for me, and I found my flashlight more than adequate.  Jay had a helmet-mounted light as well as three other lights.  At night, you see things that are not out during the day, such as moray eels completely out of their holes, on the prowl.  In one situation, Jay backed off targeting a lion fish because there was a moray eel right next to it.  The Italian gentleman didn’t notice the eel, and came in and got the kill.

One of the most unique things of this dive was that a large tarpon, which is almost the size of a tuna, started circling us, and began ‘fishing’ by our dive lights.  It is a completely silver fish, and can open its mouth really large when grabbing its prey.  He has learned that our dive lights sometimes stun the little bait fish that are always around us, and they temporarily lose their way.  He flashes in and gobbles up these fish.  He stayed with us for a good 20 minutes.  At first, it was a bit unnerving, having this hunter grabbing fish not ten feet away from us, but then I began to get a kick out of it.  It wasn’t until after we surfaced, that the lady videographer said that he had struck her camera, which is right between the two lights, thinking it was a fish.  She didn’t seem very upset, but did say it startled her.  I would have been more frightened than that.

On this dive, we only went to about 20 metres, as it was our fourth dive of the day, and we were carrying a significant nitrogen load.

Another fascinating thing about night dives is how certain corals extend their polyps far out into the water.  One in particular, a yellow type of coral, had little multi-fingered hand-like orange projections from the reef, a good inch into the water.  I’ve been trying to figure out what it looks like during the daytime, but can’t make the connection.  About a third of the corals blossom at night, while the others seem to be more or less the same as they are during the daytime.

Another interesting feature was a sea star type of creature that resembles a bundle of tentacle-like branches that all seem to be quivering and moving at once.  It’s like a living knot.  During the day, you see them bunched up on the fern-type corals, but tonight, I saw them feeding on some of the tube sponges.  It was an almost alien-like creature to see in action.

On the way back, the captain had turned on the light underneath the boat so we could spot our exit point.

The tarpon was basically with us the entire second half of the dive, and was probably sad to see us exit the water.  Menno seemed to dislike the tarpon’s presence.  In fact, he had instructed us on the way out that even if we speared a small lion fish that wasn’t worth keeping, that we were to take it with us so that the sea life doesn’t start to associate divers with food sources.  Apparently a few weeks ago, a moray eel that had been fed once too often approached a diver “looking for a meal,” and scared him halfway out of his wits.

On the way back to port, I marvelled at the beauty of being out on a boat in these warm Caribbean waters.  I’d say diving all day is the life for me!

Good news this morning! Not a pest in sight! I think I may have done a bit of overkill in fogging the house with pesticide yesterday, but I’m not sorry. There is no indication of any unwelcome critters anywhere in my house. The dogs also seem to be benefitting from the flea-powder treatment, as well as the treatment of the yard. As Brandon put it, things rarely go according to schedule on Bonaire, or anytime in ministry for that matter. I’m hoping that this distraction from our normal work schedule is now over.

 Photos here

At work, I read a little devotion that my Dad had written up for me the previous day, which was about the opportunity that tribulation can afford. I think Dad is right. One has to completely change your perspective when problems arise. There is often a hidden opportunity that comes with the problems. For example, I was able to get to know the Swansons a bit better, which wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. I also had a bit of fun with my Darth Vader impression, as I fogged my house in scuba gear.

Even the loss of my cell phone allowed me to gift the mission with a better phone that future volunteer missionaries will be able to use. So thanks, Dad, for those words of wisdom gleaned from the pages of scripture.

Most of my time this morning was spent doing an overview of the website and doing various edits that Brandon and I had come up with. We still plan to launch the website very soon. Brandon has made the executive decision, which I agree with, that we will launch with a limited number of pages. These web pages are the ones that are not currently under construction or still have challenges to overcome. As it looks now, we will have over a dozen pages that will most likely go live, with probably just as many pages still pending. Please pray that we can continue working and hit the target!

During lunch hour, I drove up to the Hamlet Dive Shop and picked up a free tank of air for my evening Sea Monitor dive. This satellite station of the Dive Friends Bonaire is still under construction, so everything is new. They close at 4:30, so I had to get the tank during my noon hour.

Then I dropped by Bon Photo and picked up a Sea Turtle Conservation T-shirt, which gives them a donation at the same time. It is a rather nice green cotton shirt, which I am wearing as I dictate this blog. LeAnne was the clerk who I met on my first week at the International Bible Church. She is a very friendly American girl. I was impressed with the operation at Bon Photo. They seem to be into all kinds of endeavours, almost all related to conservation efforts on the island. They have some YouTube footage as well, which is quite interesting.

In the afternoon, I continued the photo sorting, and am getting a little quicker at it. Some of the newer photo albums appear to have already been sorted but not tagged.

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Front Porch Dive

After work, I went to the Front Porch dive site, which is only a block away from the studio. I decided that it was time I tried a solo dive. Some dive spots frown on diving alone, but it is becoming an increasingly common practise in the dive industry. The trick to a solo dive is not to go deeper than you can safely surface from, which I determined to be 20 metres maximum.

As I entered the water and headed down the slope towards the ship, I found that the water was very murky. This dive site often has a lot of either sediment or plant material in the water, limiting visibility to only about 100 feet. As I descended the slope, I could not spot the tug on which the sensors were moored. I had already got to 25 metres, and still no ship.

I turned left, ascended to 20 metres, and swam along, scanning down the slope for the sunken tug. After a few minutes, I still couldn’t find the tug. I must admit at this point, being disoriented while on a solo dive was somewhat disconcerting. I debated whether to carry on or turn around and go back. I decided to go back, and headed north along the slope. Then I saw a large shape loom out of the mist, and thought I had found it, but this was just a large anchor point for another mooring spot.

So I carried on further along the slope. All of a sudden, the tug materialized out of the haze, and I saw the mooring line. Since I was already at 20 metres, I started on the bottom sensors.

My first task was to attach a new sensor to replace the one that had malfunctioned during my training dive last week. Albert had already cut it off, but he had left part of the zip tie inside the rope so that I would know exactly where  to attach it. The mooring line is a three-strand nylon rope, and the idea is to attach the sensor to one strand. Care must be taken that the sensor ends up sticking out horizontally from the rope, right side up. The bottom of the sensor has a groove so that you cannot put the reader on upside down. After a bit of a struggle, I got the new twist-tie in the rope, and then pulled out the old one. Then I cinched it up to just the right length, and got my new scissors out and cut off the excess. I put the scrap in my BC pocket. As an environmentalist, I don’t intend to pollute here.

I got out my Scotchguard rag and scrubbed the bottom sensor vigorously, and then pulled out my reader, snapped it on, and pressed the trigger. The middle yellow light began flashing, indicating the data transfer had begun. The sensor is attached to the shoulder strap of my BC with a flexible cord, so I was able to let go of it and begin cleaning the top sensor. About ten seconds later, the indicator light had turned to green “OK,” and I pulled it off and turned the reader off.

Next, it was up to the sensor I had just replaced, took another reading, and resumed cleaning the algae off the rope, and then the top sensor, and on up to the 12-metre level.

I was amazed at the amount of algae growth that had taken place during the week since we had been to this site. While I also cleaned the rope, it was impossible to get all the algae off, so I just gave it a scrubbing on the way up.

With the mid-level sensors done, I carried on to the top single sensor at about the six or seven-metre range. This one had the most algae growth. As I ascended each level, I adjusted my buoyancy as the air inside my BC expands as my depth decreases.

I stowed the reader, and began to clean the three two-litre Coke bottles that were attached to the top of the mooring line. They required quite a bit of work, but after a total of about 15 or 20 minutes, the job was done. Success! I am now officially a Sea Monitor!

I then intended to head to the shore, but suddenly realized I could see nothing except dark blue water all around me. Even the wreck, 20 metres below me, had disappeared. I felt I knew which way to go, but without a compass, I couldn’t be sure. Note to self: Buy a compass.

I debated what to do, and again, the disconcerting feeling of being alone crept back. One, I could descend to the tug, from which I knew I could see the slope, but that was below my 20-metre personal limit. Or I could strike out for what I thought to be the shore, and end up swimming halfway to Klein Bonaire! Typically, divers don’t like surfacing, but, in this case, I decided that was my best course of action. It turned out I was correct on the direction of the shoreline, so I re-submerged to make the swimming easier, and headed out into the blue, again losing sight of anything but the murky water in front of me. A minute later, I caught sight of the shoreline.

I then decided to take some very good landmarks, and found a cable running down the length of the slope towards the wreck. There was also a large jumble of discarded beams, presumably from the old Hotel Bonaire, that were strewn across the sea floor at about the eight-metre level. It turned out that I should have gone slightly more to the right than I did when I first entered the water. Next time, I won’t have any trouble with the navigation.

Now I wanted to try out something that you can’t do while diving with a buddy. I’ve been reading the book called “Touch The Sea,” and one of the things that Dee Scar said was if you stay still, the reef life that you have just disturbed by your presence, will soon settle back into their routines. I wanted to observe the actual behaviour rather than just the shape and colour of the various creatures on the reef. In buddy diving, you seem to be always in a rush to keep up with your buddy, which does not allow time to just hover and observe.

Good fortune had it that I soon spotted a queen angel fish feeding on some dead coral, like the parrot fish do. I figured out that although smaller, the beak of the queen angel fish has much the same function as that of the parrot fish, which is to chew off the algae that covers all dead coral. He was busily bouncing up and down on the coral, a bite at a time. I got within maybe four metres, and then stopped. Although my camera operates better within two metres, I didn’t want to spook the little fellow. Sure enough, he turned around and spotted me, but then realized I wasn’t moving any closer, and resumed his supper. I was able to get a good minute or minute-and-a-half video of this little fish going about his daily routine undisturbed. I think I’m on to something here in being able to observe behaviours by making no sudden movements!

While I stayed around the 10-metre level for the remainder of the dive, my tank pressure soon approached 50 bar, and so I returned to the shore. As I exited the water, I felt a great sense of accomplishment, that not only had I successfully completed my Sea Monitor duties, but I had also made my first solo dive, which, for me, in a strange sort of way, is a kind of coming of age exercise. I have become very confident and relaxed in my scuba diving skills, which was why I decided to make this dive solo. At the same time, I also realized that I definitely prefer diving with a buddy, as I am much more relaxed that way. I doubt I’ll do that many solo dives in the future.

I then returned my scuba tank to the Yellow Submarine Shop on the waterfront, as they don’t care which of the Dive Friends Shops that you return your tank to. This also gave me the opportunity to rinse my gear out in their fresh-water tanks.

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Then it was home for a quick shower.

(As I’m recording this from my front porch, six parakeets just flew by!)

Next I hurried off to the Pedersens for pizza and movie night.

The Pedersens had some Spanish guests over that they knew from the International Church. Tonight was Episode III of Star Wars where Anikin goes to the dark side. The scene was a little bit darker compared to the other episodes, and the children thought it looked a bit too real. Sometimes it’s hard for kids to determine the difference between made-up movie scenes and real life.

The guests also had an iPhone, and we were able to hook up on the Zello network. This allowed us to use our cell phones as walkie-talkies, regardless of how far apart we are in the world. The only requirement is that you have to be online, which, in the case of Bonaire, means in a hot spot – or subscribed to the local phone company’s 4G network… but that doesn’t make much sense for just a few weeks.

By the time I got home, it was well after ten, so I didn’t actually dictate this blog until Sunday morning. My apologies if people have been checking the site without seeing any updates. But a fellow must have priorities, and mine is to be doing things whenever possible rather than always blogging at the expense of the doing. I hope you guys will understand.

Tonight I’m sitting once more on the waterfront, but this time I’m between the two public piers.  There is a nice cobblestone public walkway that goes most of the distance between the two. 

  Photos here

(My dive buddy Jay Silverstein’s photo gallery is here)

In front of me are two low-lying container barges, with the superstructure at only one end of the vessel.  They would be maybe 300 feet long at the most.  The one closest to me holds three containers lengthwise, by four wide, for a total of twelve containers.

To my right it looks something like a garbage barge, but I’m not sure what it is.  It is intermittently banging on the dock as the waves come in and out.

Further to my right, also on the public dock, is the Dutch warship that arrived three days ago.  It looks like an ultra-modern surveillance-type of vessel with scopes and antennas and ball-like radar stations on the superstructure.  It has only one offensive weapon that I can see, which is a canon on the front bow.  I’m guessing it is no more than five or ten years old.

Overhead, we are getting a bit of a light show, with sheet lightning flashing across the southern sky.  The wind has changed direction, and is now coming from the west or northwest, which is most unusual.  Hurricane Isaac is stirring in the northern Caribbean.

The boats at anchor have floated closer to shore on their moorings due to the change of the wind direction, which again is most remarkable.  I noticed a lot of smaller vessels heading to harbour this afternoon while we were diving.

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This morning I got up bright and early. It had donned on me overnight that I needed to retrieve the SIM card in my submerged cell phone.  The SIM card is basically a computer chip that is virtually indestructible, and contains the identity of my phone, and therefore the minutes I had purchased, and the phone number.

(As I am speaking, one of the container ships has revved up, and is pulling away from the dock. My guess is that it is heading toward Curaçao.  It is belching out a great deal of diesel smoke as it pulls away.  Its structure reminds me of a flatbed truck.)

While I was getting prepared, I noticed that one flea had survived yesterday’s onslaught with the flea powder.  These critters are amazingly hardy.

I arrived at Captain Don’s about quarter after seven, and went down to the dock where I had dropped the cell phone from.  There was no ladder there, so I went to the dock next to it where I could climb up the ladder to exit the water afterward.  In a short swim around the dock, looking at the bottom, sure enough, about ten feet down, was my cell phone, exactly where I had dropped it.  After I had retrieved it, I swam back to the swimming dock where some divers were just entering the water.  I held my soggy cell phone to my ear and said, “Hello!  Hello!” and then complained loudly that these stupid cell phones never seem to work!

After a shower, I stopped by Captain Don’s buffet restaurant for a quick breakfast, and then hurried off to work.

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Today most of the staff was off on different duties, and so there were only four of us at devotions.

I was able to talk with Brad later on, and he said that he would not be over to spray the back yard as it was threatening rain.  He did agree with my plan to go buy a whole lot of Baygon spray bottles and fumigate the house again.  We also agreed that I should replace my phone as soon as possible, so I left work and headed for the cell phone store.

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I was able to pick up an older model of a Samsung Smart Phone for a fairly reasonable price.  At the store next door, I  purchased a phone holder that you strap onto your belt  as well as a small Micro SD card.  I topped up the card with another $20 out of my own pocket (this is a TWR phone).  It costs 26 cents per minute to use a cell phone here. The SIM card worked just fine.

Next I went to the old supermarket where we used to shop when I lived here.  It is now called Top Supermarket, but doesn’t seem to be as modern as the new Dutch store I have been used to frequenting since arriving.  They only had two cans of Baygon, but a whole shelf full of some other type of insect killer.  I purchased five cans, 600 ml each, and went home.

I stripped off the bed linen and hid it in the closet, closed all the windows, and donned my scuba gear once more.  This time, I hit them with both barrels, and filled the entire house with a thick layer of toxic fog!  I emptied all five bottles in the house, and then quickly exited, and shut the door.  By that time, I was sweating so much inside my mask that sweat was beginning to collect around my nose.

Since I needed a shower by that point, I went across the road and dove into the ocean to get cleaned off.  When I looked at my feet, lo and behold, I was wearing flippers!  So, I decided to make the most of it, and did a bit of snorkelling.  I was able to get down to about seven or eight metres.  I used to be able to dive to 20 metres when I was a teenager.

After drying off, I changed in their washroom, and had lunch there.

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Back at work once more, I continued to work on website issues, and handled a few website requests from Brandon. I was able to implement some of them right away, but the others took some additional work.

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After my pest-shortened workday, I headed out immediately at five o’clock to meet Albert at the Yellow Submarine Dive Shop where he works part-time.  He had a young Dutch fellow with him whose mother is stationed here as a KLM stewardess.  As usual, he was geared up for lion-fish hunting.  We drove about three blocks further down the street, and parked in the Venezuelan Embassy parking lot, right by the ocean.

We snorkelled out to the drop off, and then dropped straight to 30 metres, which is where Albert likes to hunt for lion fish.  Instead of 200 bar, I started with 178 bar, as I had used some air this morning in the war with the bugs.

Albert and his young helper were each armed with lion-hunting spears, and were fairly successful, catching about six of them.  It does seem, though, that the lion fish are becoming more wary of their vulnerability with humans.  I am optimistic that the vigour with which the diving population is attacking these invaders may actually be able to save Bonaire’s reef.  I also used my newly acquired diving scissors to cut away some fishing line.  Since this was a deep dive, we only stayed down for about half an hour before we headed back to the surface.

On the swim through the shallow end, we spotted a green moray eel in about six feet of water.  Our Dutch friend almost ran into him.  I vigorously shook my noise maker to alert him.  I was able to get a half decent video.

I then picked up two new tanks from Wannadive for my dives on Saturday.  This dive shop also has a key-lock system, which is extremely convenient.

Then I headed home, opened up all the windows, turned on all the fans, and fed the dogs.  The smell of the Baygon was still strong in the house, so I left to eat out.
I found a very nice restaurant just across from the secondary pier.  They had barracuda on the menu, which I had never had before, so I gave it a try. It tastes like a typical white fish, and was very well prepared.  I must admit, I’m getting a little spoiled here.

Hopefully tomorrow, there won’t be any distractions, and I’ll be able to get a full work day in.

Tonight I’m sitting on the dock of Captain Don’s Habitat.  Overlooking the water is a beautiful restaurant with a great number of people in it, some of whom are part of the Wounded Warriors’ Project who have been here for a week or so now.  These are mostly U.S. soldiers wounded in battle.

(No photos today)

The restaurant is built on undercut rock so that the waves create a thudding sound as they hit underneath, and often spray back.  There are lots of lights around here, so the star-viewing is not the best, but the reason I came is for the Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire presentation that happens twice monthly.

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Today the battle against the fleas continued.  I got ready in good time, and spread special flea powder all around the house to rid the fabrics, such as the sofa and bed, of fleas that the dogs had brought in with them last week.  I used a can and-a-half, and sprinkled it on mattresses and carpets, couches and chairs, and on the floor.  I left it sit during the day, and went to work.  I hadn’t imagined I would be doing this on my holidays.

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At work, I spent a fair bit of time reviewing listener prayer letters, and was able to select a favorite from the ones sent from RTM Brazil.  I also did some work on the website.

In the afternoon, Brad Swanson dropped by around two o’clock, and said that he had found a chemical spray to kill the fleas in the dirt in the back yard, and asked me to accompany him back home.  We got there around three o’clock, and Brad and his wife, Sandra, pitched in to help me fight these pests.  Brad mixed up the solution in a hand-pump sprayer, and spent over an hour spraying the yard bit by bit.  He eventually ran out of solution, and so we will have to go back at it tomorrow to complete the job.

Sandra treated the animals with powder outside before bringing them into the house to keep them out of the way of Brad’s spraying operation.  She then continued to spread a bit more powder on them inside, and then brushed them out.  You can tell that Sandra loves dogs, and has a special way with them.  I spent the time sweeping up the flea powder, and vacuuming off the couches and beds.  I was also doing the laundry to clean all the bedding as well.  It was after five by the time they left, and I was very grateful for their having come to my rescue.

For supper, I drove just a short ways down to the Casa Blanca Hotel where they were serving yellow snapper.  It was the melt-in-your-mouth kind of fish, and was very good.  The young man who was the waiter was interested in my new Android Cell Phone, the Samsung Gallaxy S3.  Apparently it is not yet available here, much to his chagrin.  While I was showing him my iPad, the calendar function sounded the alarm for the turtle event coming up at eight o’clock.  This was very fortunate, as I had rather forgotten about this.

On the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (bonaireturtles.org) makes a presentation here at Captain Don’s Habitat.  When I arrived at ten to eight, the doors were still locked, but the speaker did manage to show up just before eight o’clock.  Leo was a Dutch fellow, who gave a great presentation in English.  You could tell that he was very passionate about what he does, and went into great detail.

The five types of sea turtles sighted here are now all protected on Bonaire.  It seems this foundation is very active in cleaning the beaches up before nesting season, as well as running various educational and monitoring services.  Not only do they count turtles, but they tag them, and sometimes even place transmitters on them to track their migration around theCaribbean.  Some turtles migrate up to 3500 kilometres away. But when their matting season comes, usually every three years, the return to exactly the same spot where they hatched, often to within 50 metres of the exact spot.

One of the main things people can do to assist is to remove fishing line from the reef, which can trap turtles under the water.  In fact, yesterday, I was able to pick up a pair of scissors for just that purpose.  I hope to spend much of my last four weeks here helping to clean up the reef. I’m also going to pick up a sea turtle t-shirt at BonPhoto next door, where Leo works, to help them raise funds for the turtle research.

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Just before I started to record this, I made an amazing discovery. Cell phones can’t swim! I had just sat down on the dock, and while taking my Android cell phone out of my pocket, managed to dislodge the other local cell phone. It made a rather distinctive “plooop” as it splashed into the water under the dock.  I’ll have to replace that tomorrow.

It’s getting late, so it is time to drive down the coastline towards my own habitat!