Tarpon Entry -- Surf Exit

Today we went to the windward or east side of Bonaire, to dive the barrier reef beyond Lac Cai, the popular wind surfing lagoon.  This dive requires experience with the route in and out of the bay and how to handle the currents.  We engaged Div'Ocean dive instructor Willem, from the shop located in the Caribbean Court where we are staying to lead us on this exciting dive. 

Willem could pass for a young Matt Damon.

The trip was worth it for the drive there alone as we observed flocks of pink flamingos feeding in the mangrove swamp and a pair of hunting osprey. 

Bonaire is the home to one of the largest flamingo flocks in the caribbean.

Inside the lagoon, the barrier reef creates the perfect wind-surf setting with little chop despite stiff on-shore winds.  All that water blown into the lagoon finds its outlet through a narrow channel, creating a stong rip current and a fast drift ride once you submerge into the fifteen foot deep channel.

We waded into the Lac past mounds of conch shells, stepped into the channel while letting air out of our BCs and let the rip pull us out to sea. 

Along the way we wizzed by schooling snappers, grunts, chubs and oddly shaped palometas with their silvery bodies and super-long dorsal and annal fins.

Odd looking palometa could be cousin to fresh water paranha.

The strength of the outgoing rip has hollowed out a basin at the mouth of the channel aptly named the tarpon pit, where dozens of three to five foot tarpons hover in the current, waiting for food to be delivered to their waiting mouths. 

View a short video of the tarpon hole.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXtjy8MBus0&feature=related 

This was a good dive for the variety of very healthy soft corals and abundant large fish.  We also saw our first lobster of the trip, a nice three pound spiny lobster hiding in his day time safe house.  We haven't seen any lobster until now, we were told, because they have been largely fished out on the west side.



I have to keep reminding myself I am a vegetarian.

The return trip was enlivened by encounters with three hawksbill turtles. One came directly over the reef drop-off and close enough to me to get a good mug shot (my little underwater camera doesn't do well with anything beyond ten feet or so.)  The fact this turtle came so close to us and our noisy bubbles was a bit unusal, but I guess he was used to humans.

Watching a turtle swim in mid-water is akin to watching birds soar -- so graceful and effortless.

The final thrill awaited us as we worked our way back to the exit point.  We kicked hard to cross the out-flowing rip at the mouth of the lagoon and slowly worked our way along the periphery of the current, an exhausting and air-consuming effort.  Willem had pointed out the exit strategy in our pre-dive brief and emphasized we needed to get far enough inside the lagoon or we would experience the twin joys of combatting the incoming surf and access to the beach blocked by large boulders.

Of course, I messed up.  In fighting the surge, I found it easier to pull myself along the bottom on the in-bound surge which gained me a lot of forward momentum, but also got me separated from Willem and Susan.  When I realized I had gotten too far ahead (lost visual contact) I surfaced to look for them, to find they were a bit behind me, bobbing in three/four foot waves.

The area where we exited Lac Cai.  (Photo courtesy of Google Images)

It was a challenge getting into shallow water, keeping your footing while removing fins and timing jumps over in-coming waves.  One bloody knee later, I was hugging firm ground and thanking all the weight training I've been doing this year.