Best of Mike #48

When there are so many great options, it's really hard to pick a favorite.

But French Angelfish would have to be contender for mine.

We see them with some regularity and they seem more than ready to interact with divers.

About the size and shape of a dinner plate, they are a striking fish with their black bodies and yellow trimmed scales.

Back in the days when I didn't really have the equipment to "stop the action" or deal with challenging lighting conditions, this guy was kind enough to let me get in close and make a good pixture with what I had.

Best of Mike #47

Dive boats come in all shapes and sizes.

Live-a-boards are often built expressly for diving. They are in the neighborhood of 100+ feet and are capable of accommodating a crew of 5 or 6, plus 20-24 guests. All of whom live onboard that vessel for a week or more.

At the other end of the spectrum, boats are adapted to (vs built for) diving.

The smallest, particularly popular in Cozumel, would be open boats that hold just 6 divers. They are very fast and are always the 1st to arrive at the dive site.

The one pictured here is a day boat. It probably holds 12-16 divers and a crew of 3.

In Cozumel the boats tend to be in the small and medium categories, because it is drift diving.

That means that once the divers are in the water, they ride the current (which in Cozumel is always significant) for their dive. While the boat follows the bubbles of their group of divers.

At dive's end, we just surface and climb back on the boat, without having to ever swim against those stiff currents.

Most of our trips to Cozumel have been with groups from the dive shop. I kind of like boats of this size for those trips as we can all be together on the rides to and from the dive sites. That can be almost as much fun as the dives themselves.

One of my favorite Cozumel sites is Palancar Caves. It is a nice enough dive but what makes it the most fun for me is what we do on the boat before we get there.

Some time ago I made up a whole story, that I like to tell on the ride out, about Mayan ghosts who haunt that site.

Lots of fun to see a boat full of divers, kids and adults, with face paints, making their dive buddy safe against the evil spirits.

In fact, every time we have done it, there have been people on the boat who were not part of our group. We have invited them to get in on the fun ..... no one has ever said no, including the local dive masters.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pixtures of the "painted faces". But I know there are people reading this blog who have been there and who do.

Perhaps one of them will post a comment and pixture from one of those trips.

Best of Mike #46

I am always captivated by water.

When you think about it, the water in this pixture really doesn't have much to do with the what makes the composition good. But without it, I don't think this pixture would really work.

This particular water is the kind of water that I like to to dive and play in. But the truth be told pretty much any water - river, lake, ocean, stream or puddle, gets my attention.

Well I guess not any water. I really don't care for the kind that falls from the sky, at least while it's falling.

Best of Mike #45

Well that's it for Bonaire, at least for 2001 and we are off to Cozumel. This was a group trip that I led for Giant Stride.

My dive log tells me we were certifying new divers on this trip and my photo log doesn't have many pixtures in it. Especially, underwater pixtures.

When I was teaching it wasn't my habit to have my camera and students in the water at the same time. Too many people to watch and too many things that could require me to have both hands available.

When we are in Cozumel, we often rent scooters and take a tour around the island.

Just as the road turns onto the windward side of the island, there is a great little beach bar.

With your toes in the sand and a cold cerveza, you can watch the waves break against the rocks.

Best of Mike #44

Like most places Bonaire has more than one claim to fame. Even more than one sporting claim to fame.

On the windward side of the island there is a a shallow, sheltered bay ..... Lac Bay. It's here that the windsurfers hangout and do their thing.

On the last day of each trip, we don't dive ..... for a number of reasons. It helps with the off-gassing of the nitrogen that has built up in our bodies, it gives us time to wash and dry our scuba gear, before packing and it gives us some time to sightsee above the water line.

Lac Bay has a little beach bar and it's always fun to hang out there for a beer or two and watch the windsurfers doing there thing in the bay. It is pure coincidence that right next door there is a nudist colony.

I have never seen the fully unclothed on the beach here. But topless is something that many of the European women who visit Bonaire are comfortable with, especially on the beach at Lac Bay ..... even someone's Grandma is likely to be seen topless here.

Come to think of it, we haven't been back to that bar since. Probably wasn't the trauma of seeing a topless grandma.

It's probably just that "kite boarders" have come to Bonaire. They use a different beach and are more exciting to watch ..... than windsurfers.

Best of Mike #43

By 1837 Bonaire was a thriving center of salt production.

The government, who by then controlled the industry, built four obelisks, each painted a different color, red, white blue and orange (the colors of the Dutch Flag and the Royal House of Orange).

They were erected strategically near areas of the salt lake. The idea was to signal ships where to pick up their cargoes of salt.

A flag of the corresponding color was raised atop a flagpole to signal the ship's captain where to drop anchor.

At each of the obelisks there were huts, where the slaves who loaded the ships lived.

Some of those huts have been preserved at the sites of the Red and White obelisks. These are the huts at Red Slave.

Sitting on the beach very near the water's edge. They are perhaps as wide as two people if they were to lay side by side, almost long enough to accommodate an adult and only about 3 ft from floor to ceiling at it's highest point. The floors are cement and the walls look very much like plaster. \There are openings for window and door.... but nothing to close them to the weather.

Something much less than rudimentary living conditions.

Best of Mike #42

I have heard a "professional photographer" described as someone who gets a good pixture every time they try.... because they have the knowledge to use their tools well under all conditions.

By the same token an "amateur photographer" will get good pixtures.... often but not every time.

When it comes to sunsets, I definitely shoot like an amateur.

Not because I don't know how to set the camera. But because I like the color surprises I get if I just put the camera in one of it's auto modes (I prefer Aperture) compose and shoot.

The colors that the camera sees are not the same as what your eye sees. 

So, check the screen after each shot. If you like it, keep it. If not, delete and shoot again.

Sunsets are always action packed.... the quality of the light and the colors that go with it are changing literally every few seconds.

Best of Mike #41

Here's the other reason we like Bonaire so much, it's the tropics.

Located just 11 degrees (69 miles) north of the equator, the weather there is very consistent and not anywhere near as hot as you might think.

Year round average temperature is 85 degrees.

With the almost constant presence of the Tradewinds, a very pleasant 85 at that.

Bonaire gets only about 11 inches of rain a year, most of which comes in the fall. And if it doesn't, it's really nothing to sit on the tailgate of your truck, in your wetsuit, and wait for the shower to pass.

Bonaire is a desert.... but with just a little irrigation plant life can grow very quickly to be very lush.

There are plenty of cacti too.

When we first started traveling there, it was common to see fences made of cactus. The local people would cut the arms off the cactus creating stalks 4 or 5 feet long and then weave them between strands of barbed wire. Creating something that looked a little like a picket fence ..... but with a lot more "keep out value".

I am certain that in a previous life I was an island boy ..... and hopefully in a future life too.