Here was the first dive we could really practice our surf-entrance skills. Called "The Lake", there's a lot of rock and coral along the shore, and small waves but with a good bit of power. We entered together, fins and masks carefully secured, took turns holding cameras and putting on fins, then did a pretty good surface swim. The wind was pushing us cross-wise from the marker buoy, so we had to work at it. Finally, we reached the buoy and descended.
The name for the site is immediately apparent. Instead of the usual flat, sandy area, extending either direction, this one is surrounded by coral. Voila - it looks like a "lake"! Looks like a bunch of lakes, in fact, one after another. Neat!
We had originally wanted to dive Punt Verkant, but it was fenced-off and inaccessible. We swam North from The Lake, which meant we did, in fact, do part of our dive at PV. [BLOG ON] But it really irritates me that more and more of the "Shore Dive Capital of the World" is being bought-up and developed, and made inaccessible to shore divers. Punt Verkant... Lighthouse Point... Something Special... Small Wall... Reef Scientifico... Buddy's Reef... Bari's Reef... Calabas Reef... Chez Hines... all these sites are either fenced-off, available only to patrons, or are unmarked. One day, Bonaire will only be accessible to boat divers... like nearly every other dive destination. [BLOG OFF]
From my log book: Tried to dive Punt Verkant but it was fenced off, another
lost shore-dive site. Free-Swimming Eel, Large Grouper, lots of Shrimp. Forgot to
turn on and check strobe so some pics will be blue. [They were all
blue, I tossed 'em out.] Lots of Snapper, Margate, Parrotfish. Long,
challenging swim back to shore, wind pushing against us. Got a good workout.
