Karpata, Dive #10 - 9 June 2004

Beth, Nitrox & Camera	Blackbar Soldierfish	Foureye Butterflyfish	Martin from Toucan Diving
Yellowtail Snapper	Smallmouth Grunt

Karpata is a great dive site, often cited as one of the best on the island. However, the shore-entrance is very challenging, with a lone concrete pier and usually large waves beating up on the divers as they enter and exit. In 2001 we tried several times, but the waves were always too high, and the entrance would have been very difficult.

So when the boat captain and Divemaster asked where we wanted to go, we said "Karpata". It was a long boat ride - 45 minutes - but worth it. The waves were at our back on the way out, making for a generally smooth ride.

We saw a turtle on the surface; tons of Yellowtail Damselfish, literally one on every coral head. We saw the huge anchor buried in the coral, and now fully encrusted itself. And we saw a Turtle swimming on the surface.

Before we left the dock, a woman and man boarded our boat. They were from Vizion TV, filming a scuba dive. They interviewed several of the divers, and she did a broadcast which was taped. Then her cameraman joined her on the dive, taking video during the whole dive - but we were enjoying the dive too much to notice. . We also had a diver, Martin, from Toucan Divers, who videotaped our dive in case anyone wanted to buy a copy of the video later.

(Check out my picture of Martin above. You can see the tiny bubbles trapped under his black mask; his dive computer mounted on his camera arm; the little "T.D." on his tank neck, indicating ownership by Toucan Divers; even the tiny letters on the corners of his mask. Neat photo!)

The ride back was into the waves and a bit rough, wet and full of diesel fumes. Ugh.

From my logbook: Our first real "wall" dive [in Bonaire] -- reminded me of Santa Rosa Wall [Cozumel] except for the "bays" every so often.