Trip Report - Bonaire 03/2007

Overall, a very good trip. I really love Bonaire. My first trip
there was with a large dive shop group over New Year's, and I didn't
get out much. This time it was just the two of us, doing our own
thing, and I had a much better time.

THE FLIGHTS:

We took the Continental weekly red-eye out of Houston on Friday night,
getting there from LAX on an easy-to-catch 3 p.m. flight. 737s on
both legs each direction (-800s IAH-BON and -900s LAX-IAH) so carry-on
luggage wasn't a problem and we used miles to upgrade to the front, so
the red-eye wasn't as uncomfortable as it could have been. The
layover in Houston was just long enough for a leisurely dinner at
Pappadeaux and after-dinner drinks in the PC. I think I got a couple
hours of shut eye and then we touched down a little after 5 a.m., well
before dawn.

Nothing eventful on any of the legs. Buddy brought us back to the
airport way too early, but that wasn't so bad except for losing
sleep. Check-in in Bonaire was really slow, but we had plenty of time
to stand in line, plenty of time to eat breakfast, and plenty of time
to sit and wait after going through security. There's an air-
conditioned cafe that has a bar and a pretty decent menu that no one
seems to know about. Everyone else passes through security and then
sits in the crowded.waiting room with just a lousy snack bar, but I
got the tip from Bonaire Talk and we almost had the place to
ourselves.

Houston immigration was almost deserted when we arrived and we were
able to go immediately to an officer. Unfortunately we picked the
wrong one, a newbie moron. I travel out of the country a few times a
year, the time as recently as January, and I've never had a problem
except for that one time I came back from Cuba. This time, however,
he started grilling me about when I had reported my passport stolen.
I was traveling on a replacement passport, but I got it four years ago
and the original one never did turn up. I figured it had probably
gotten into Al-Qaeda hands, a terrorist was masquerading as me, and
I'd probably be sent to Guantanamo for indefinite confinement.

Fortunately before arresting me, he called over a supervisor, and the
supervisor immediately dismissed his concern. We got our passports
stamped and he waived us through after returning the customs
declaration with the number 1 circled on it. Now I always thought
that the number referred to the number of passengers, and they circle
other things like A for agriculture if they want to you to go through
secondary inspections. But who was I to question, and I just hoped
that the 1 wasn't really an I for Immediate-deport-to-Guantanamo or
for Invasively-inspect-all-cavities. We got our priority-tagged bags
delivered last as usual, then headed through the final customs
checkpoint. There I had to convince two people that we were really
traveling together and that the customs guy who wrote the 1 was a
friggin moron. They believed me, and we made it through into George
Bush Intercontinental Airport. God Bless America!

Janna just had time for a shower and me one of the fantastic "spicy"
PC bloody marys and a generous cup of Baileys to pour in my Starbucks
and we were ready to board through the gate conveniently next door. A
fine flight, except that when I got up to use the bathroom, I realized
that some previous passenger had left gum on my seat, and that some
ground crew cleaner had supposedly missed it, and now it was all over
my butt. Upon arrival, and this time our bags did come off fast, I
grabbed a clean pair of shorts and went to the mens' room to change.
Of course the only mens' room in the terminal 6 baggage claim area was
closed for cleaning. I pushed the cleaning cart away and got
immediately chewed out by a mean janitor lady. I swore loudly at her
and at LAX and went to search for a place to strip. Finally I found a
little unoccupied corner with a chair and a mop that was probably her
janitorial office and with no-one looking, I managed to get my shorts
off and replaced with clean ones before discovery. On my next flight
I'll remember to wear underwear just in case.

THE HOTEL:

My last trip had us staying in 2 BR apartments at Capt. Don's.
Everything was OK about the place, but doing my research this time, I
ended up choosing Buddy Dive next door. My main reason for doing this
was the drive-through tank station. My secondary reason was the
food. We ended up not using the drive-through more than once, for
reasons I'll detail below. We did eat a lot of lunches on the
premises, though, along with our inclused breakfasts, and I thought
the food far better than Capt. Don's.

Our Drive-Dive package at Buddy included airport transfers to the
resort. We were met at the airport and they sent us on a shared taxi
which dropped us off right at the room. Since the front desk wasn't
open that early, they left check-in forms and our key inside the
room.

The "room" was what they call a 1 BR apartment. We had a bedroom,
with a safe in the closet, a bathroom, and a living room with a small
kitchen. The room was definitely in need of a makeover, mainly
cosmetic touches until I ended up stubbing my toe badly enough to draw
blood on loose section of moulding in the kitchen, which I somehow
kept running into the rest of the week. My poor toe looks terrible.

Another safety hazard was the leaky refrigerator. We constantly had
little puddle on the kitchen floor, but it was tricky enough to mutate
and change direction each time I would try to lay down a towel to sop
it up. Combine that with the sadistically slippery floors of the
typical mid-end Caribbean dive hotel, and it was an accident waiting
to happen. Fortunately for me, it happened to Janna instead. She
ended up doing something like an involuntary splits, but she's not the
gymnast she used to be many years ago in high school and her legs just
don't stretch that far. I heard the scream, found her on the floor in
tears, and checked that her leg was moving enough that it didn't seem
like she had done anything too severe. Some anti-inflammatories and
rest and a few stiff drinks that night and she was OK to limp around
the rest of the time, but the stairs and ladder climber were slow-
going and any tricky shore diving pretty much out of the question.
Fortunately our travel agent had managed to get us an 11 boat dive
package for the price of the normal 6 dives.

The kitchen was otherwise nicely equipped, even including a mini
dishwasher under the oven that we didn't discover until the last day
(figured it was a broiler or drawer), and dining and cookware that was
in much better shape than our room at Capt. Don's. We didn't do any
cooking, other than to warm up pizza in the microwave and make a bag
of popcorn. The only other piece of cookware that got use was the
bottle opener. But it's nice to know it was all there.

Bathroom just had a shower, no bath, and the water pressure was really
intermittent. Fortunately the temperature was regulated so while
you'd go from a blast to a trickle and back, at least there was no
scalding or freezing. Shower was a bit slippery as I'd hear a loud
"F----!" everyonce in a while from Janna as she reinjured her leg yet
again. I even almost slipped once and I have good traction on my
feet. The bathroom had very little ventilation, just a little
louvered air vent over the shower, and it was easily the hottest, most
humid, and most uncomfortable part of the room, turning every turn on
the toilet into a sweat in a sauna.

Bedroom was the only source of air conditioning in the room, something
we're not going to deal with on our next trip. The rest of the place
actually cooled down nicely with the ceiling fans going and the doors
open, especially at night, but unlike at Capt. Don's, they had no
screens and the biting bugs were rampant. We ended up keeping the
bedroom door shut at all times to preserve the cold and bug-free
environs, and used the bug spray liberally the rest of the time. The
a/c worked really well, but the mattress was horribly sagging and it
made my back ache the entire trip even when I was able to sleep on the
very edge. We'd end up rolling down toward the sag in the middle,
colliding with a bang. And they only had one little pillow each and I
really need two pillows for my much traumatized neck. We asked for
extra pillows the following night and were sent to the laundry. The
laundry looked and said she didn't have any. The next morning, with a
neck as stiff as Frankenstein's monster, I begged them for more
pillows. They promised to make it right, and indeed they had brought
us some by the time we got back from lunch.

The location was good, though. We were in room 102, which leads me to
believe that it was one of the first rooms there. I could walk from
our patio, which was nicely outfitted with hooks and hangars for
drying gear, right to one of the several pools on the premises, or a
few feet further to the poolbar, which doubled as the restaurant where
they served lunch. Our front door was really convenient to the steps
down to the dive operation and the steps up to the breakfast where
they served breakfast. The front desk was on the opposite end of the
place, a sweaty walk in the sun when I wanted to check my e-mail at
the terminal they have there, and parking wasn't so close either, but
we had the ability of driving up next to our room to quickly pick up
or drop off gear.

The hotel staff were very friendly. I'll cover the food in the food
section and the dive operation in the dive operation section, but the
front desk staff were helpful and the maid was extremely friendly,
albeit almost toothless, and we couldn't understand a word she was
saying with her strong accent as she happily greeted us each morning.
Internet access cost me $8.50/hour. It didn't work the first couple
times I tried it and then when I really had to get on to do some work-
related stuff, some retired guy was on it checking his e-mail for a
hour-and-a-half, followed by another lady for another half-hour.
Since my room wasn't so close, I had to hike over there in the hot sun
each time I went to check, which necessitated another beer each time I
returned to my room to wait again. Fortunately the Bonairean beers
are only 8 ounces each or I would have been too drunk to finally get
my work done.

Security is a big concern in Bonaire, as the island is known for its
petty thieving, purportedly affecting not just rental trucks, but also
break-ins to hotels and condos. Capt. Don's had bars on the bathroom
window and the door locked just fine. At Buddy's however, only the
front door had a real lock. Our patio doors had push-in button locks
that I was easily able to pop open with a screwdriver from the
outside. That didn't inspire much confidence and I was glad I didn't
bring a laptop or u/w camera setup. I saw plenty of other people with
laptops around the hotel, though, so I guess they can't have too many
theft issues. The safe is big enough to hold a few valuables, even an
expensive SLR, but not big enough for a laptop. The hotel gates the
driveway at night, with a couple guards on duty, and the grounds are
surrounded by a cactus fence, but I prefer not to occupy and store my
belongings in a room you can easily open with a screwdriver or any
key.

We didn't notice any crawling bugs in the room, and only spotted one
dead roach around the resort, but biting bugs were definitely a
problem around dusk (and before dawn, as I was later to discover).
Screens on the doors would really help, but bug spray kept them at
bay.

The transfer back to the airport was a real PITA. We had to get our
luggage up to the front desk at the other end of the place, to be on
the bus to the airport by 4:30 a.m. They promised (in writing) to
have coffee ready by 4:15 a.m. Amazingly we got there ahead of time,
only to sit and wait for all the late stragglers while I found out
just how active mosquitoes can be when they haven't even had their
coffee yet. I didn't have my coffee either as it never materialized.
Instead, they gave us a snack box with a donut, granola bar, and
yogurt, and some room temperature mango nectar. Most everyone left
theirs unopened. Coffee would have been far more appreciated. We
finally got on the road at 5 a.m. for the 15 minute ride to the
airport. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 8:30 a.m. I'm all in
favor of getting to the airport early, but this was ridiculous. On my
next trip, I'll drive myself and leave the hotel at 6, with an hour-
and-a-half extra to sleep in.

Due to the condition of the mattress, the lack of a/c in the living
room and bathroom, and the ineffectual door locks, I doubt I'll be
staying at Buddy in the future even though I did like the facilities.
I'm going to look into BelMar, which shares the dive op, and Den
Laman. We're thinking about going back over New Year's.

THE CAR:

After we finally checked in on arrival, our car wasn't yet ready. I
did want to make a run to the store, but "no worries" as they say out
in the Caribbean. We instead had breakfast and then went to the
mandatory dive orientation before taking a long nap and then an
afternoon dive off the dock, before returning to claim our vehicle.
Normally I decline all the extra insurance, but this time I got the
works, at $18.50 a day. Still, it gave me peace of mind to know that
the very worst they could possibly stick me with, even if I drove the
car into the ocean, was a $100 deductible.

We followed the instructions of leaving windows rolled down and doors
unlocked and left nothing of value inside, except for a few guilder
coins in the ashtray that went unmolested. Truck was a sluggish stick-
shift Toyota double cab with tank rack in the bed and balding tires.
It managed to do the job just fine, however, even getting us around
the national park dirt road at a good pace without suffering a
blowout.

THE FOOD:

One of the best attributes of Bonaire, IMO, is the dining. Excellent
food at reasonable prices.

Our package included a daily breakfast buffet which included a decent
selection of fruit, breads, cheeses, meats, eggs (scrambled or made to
order), and potatoes, along with juices, strong coffee, and a
cappucino machine. The upstairs restaurant offers a beautiful ocean
view to help contemplate the day's upcoming diving. You had to keep a
watch on your plate, though, because the birds were ravenous and
quick. Bastards stole part of my eggs one morning while I got up for
a coffee refill, but the dining staff was attentive enough to notice
and cover my plate with a napkin before they could steal it all.
(Fortunately we were otherwise theft free - those eggs were the only
things stolen from us all week.)

We ate lunch every day at the pool bar restaurant. The burger was a
bit gamy, but everything else we ordered was wonderful, especially the
excellent chicken breasts that were served as sates with peanut sauce,
grilled in sandwiches, or fried in chicken strips with chili sauce.
Another day we had excellent pasta, my rich bowl of carbonara causing
plenty of indigestion on the afternoon dive, and Janna's bolognese
being better than the one at Capriccio. Good salads, interesting
soups (mustard soup ?!?), a decent fish sandwich and catch-of-the-day
plate, and my favorite: a curried chicken pita with garlic sauce to
pour over it. The only drawback is that the Dutch don't refill coffee
and tea as we Americans tend to do, so I didn't get the unlimited iced
tea that normally keeps me well hydrated on dive trips. They did
leave a pitcher of ice water on the table at every meal, however,
which was a real nice touch.

We ate two dinners at the resort. One on the Saturday we arrived, at
"Steak Night" where we both got "free" T-shirts for chowing down the
18-oz prime T-bone. The beef was excellent and the veggies fresh.
The other was Tuesday Lobster Night at the Lion's Den restaurant where
we had some of the most succulent and tender Caribbean spiny I've
every tasted, preceded by am excellent lobster bisque, and followed by
the best key lime pie we had on the island. When I went to charge it
to the room, however, I was soon informed that I had missed reading
the fine print on the folio in the room that said that the Lion's Den
was really an independent restaurant that didn't allow room charges.
So I had to run to the room to get my credit card. Then I noticed
that, unlike the pool bar, the restaurant imposed a "service charge".
There, and Richard's, were the only places where I noticed this tacked
on, but I may have accidentally missed it on other bills. It's a lot
less confusing when service charges are consistently imposed, as they
are in Europe, or not imposed at all like in the Latin Caribbean and
the U.S. In Bonaire it's wise to check the bill carefully before
tipping.

Sunday we did Capriccio for Italian food. A good carpaccio and steak
gorgonzola, and an excellent lasagne bolognese, and very authentic
tasting tiramisu for dessert, with copious house wine. We elected to
sit in their air-conditioned room, but the a/c was so weak that the
room was stuffy and we would have been better off sitting outside with
the breeze.

The breeze is a constant in Bonaire and it makes dining and drinking
outside very pleasant. Sunday was the day that Janna hurt her leg, so
we bar-hopped that afternoon a bit to anesthesize her ASAP, with a
happy hour special at Karel's on the pier followed by 2-for-1 drinks
at a sidewalk table at City Cafe. That was our only night out we did
anything besides dining, since we ended up having to wake up early for
the morning boat dives in order to get our money's worth from our 11-
dive package, but Buddy Dive had their weekly party on Friday with
free rum punch from 5:30-6:30 and live music, and we indulged a bit
there before and after dinner, even though we had to get out at 4:30
the next morning.

Monday was Cactus Blue. I had heard mixed reports about the place on
Bonaire Talk, but opted to go anyway because the menu sounded great
and we were not disappointed by anything. An excellent cocktail menu,
with drinks served in large canning jars, crab meatballs for an
appetizer, sliced seared tuna with wasabi mayo and coconut rice as one
incredible entree, and a shrimp surf & turf with the best piece of
beef we consumed there, an incredibly tender chunk of Argentine
tenderloin. Great key lime pie, a nice visit with the owner, and we
left extremely satisifed and ready to return.

Wednesday we ended up doing a late night dive at the town pier, so we
only had time to make it to Pasa Bon Pizza before closing. The pizza
was very tasty, and I had a huge garden salad with it, but they need
to offer a decent house wine. They only had one red, a low-priced
Gato Negro Cab that was OK with the pizza, but there's no reason they
couldn't offer something else. Still, they were open, friendly, and
had a cat for Janna to play with.

(Unlike Capt. Don's, while Buddy Dive had several cats around, they
didn't frequent the restaurant. The dog, Puck, did, and he'd accept
handouts snapping at fingers like a greedy moray. Janna also had
plenty of pigeons and a few iguanas to feed, plus there was a cat
feeding station that took care of any leftovers and occasionally a cat
snoozing on one of our patio chairs, so she barely missed our pets
stuck at home)

Thursday we tried Bambu. I was expected something more exotic from
its name and its description as "Caribbean" and the decor was
something straight out of Bali, but the menu was basically French with
a slight Caribbean influence except for a couple of treats like the
traditional Antillean stuffed cheese that was excellent, though not
too authentic. They too had excellent house wine in several varietals
and we managed to sample them all. Tuna tartare was good, but a bit
bland. Janna's grouper and my peppersteak were excellent and the
owner sat down to chat with us for about a half-hour before we left.
We had a great time there. Our experience was further enhanced by the
spectacle of the Princess cruiseship docked at the Industrial Pier
just across the street finally leaving town, the tallest and
definitely most brightly-lit building on the island motoring off into
the black night. As soon as they left, the barge pulled in, and we
were treated to the show of the two trucks on the island unloading,
reloading, driving away, and soon returning for more. With the
Caribbean breeze and otherwise quiet setting, it was actually more
exciting than it sounds.

Friday we had a sunset dinner on the water at Richard's with more
excellent steak, shrimp, and pasta. Nothing very exciting on the menu
there, but an excellent homemade cocktail sauce on the shrimp
appetizer made up for the bland and thin Bernaise served with the
entrees. Seafood and meat quality was very good, though we had better
at the other restaurants. The location was sublime, with the sound of
the surf crashing below and a view out to the horizon unobstructed by
Klein Bonaire.

For our next trip, we for sure plan to try Papaya Moon, which we heard
lots of good things about, Guernica, the other restaurant run by the
lady who owns Bambu, and Donna & Giorgios. We also want to eat at
Mona Lisa, which I've heard described by many as the best on the
island. We had reservations there on Wednesday night, but had to
cancel when we decided to do the Town Pier dive.

THE DIVE OPERATION:

This was very convenient, being a few steps down from the breakfast
restaurant right to the nitrox tank storage with two conveniently
rigged analyzer stations. Grab two tanks, analyze them lickety-split,
then grab dive gear out of the gear room, throw it in dive bag, and
take to end of dock to wait for boat. Alternatively, take to end of
dock to stride off dock and do house reef, taking one of two slippery
sets of stairs back out.

Not only did Janna mess up her leg, but she got enough of a cold on
the trip over that her ears were plugged at the beginning of the
trip. By the time she could dive, we barely had enough time to use up
our boat dives and didn't get the benefit of the other tank station at
Buddy Dive, but I'll describe it anyway. For shore diving, instead of
having to drive down and lug tanks up from the oceanfront dive
operation like at Capt. Don's, Buddy has a separate drive-thru station
right off the driveway into the resort. We only used it on the Monday
we took the class next door, but it's very user friendly. The only
drawback is that they lock up the station at 5 p.m. They lock up the
oceanfront one too, but they showed us where they kept the key. You
simply drive up, grab air or nitrox tanks, analyze them, and drive
off. They had lockable gear lockers for those who wanted to keep
their gear there, and rinse tanks and a hose for gear cleaning. A
very efficient operation.

At the oceanfront dive op, there were no lockers, just an open gear
storage room. We left most of our gear and our suits there overnight
and during our boat diving days without having anything stolen, but I
took the regs back to the room with us each night just in case. Too
much honor system on a island known for rampant theft to appease my
paranoia - plus, there's absolutely nothing to stop a klepto fellow
diver from taking anything in the gear room since they show everyone
where they "hide" the key.

They have 5 boats, but we only had a choice on one day: a two-tank
trip to a more remote site versus a one-tank to the Hilma Hooker. We
choose the latter since I didn't get to dive the Hooker on my previous
trip. I had heard reports of the boats filling up too fast, and
indeed they did fill up, but we always signed up as soon as they
posted them to ensure we got our spots.

They cram up to 16 cattle on each boat, though we had a few morning
and afternoon trips with fewer. The middle 11:15 boat seemed to be
the most crowded, with late risers and afternoon shore divers ensuring
lighter loads on the 8:30 and 2:30 boats. The boats were definitely
spacious enough even when full, as everyone gets plenty of space to
gear up and boat rides are very short, but putting 16 divers at once
onto a dive site makes it rather crowded. We would let the horde
follow the DM at the typical fast pace while we lingered and did a
much slower paced dive to ensure we saw more fish and far fewer
divers. While the guides would give profile limits during the
briefing and occasionally mention the requirement for a buddy, they
didn't give a whit that we did our own thing once we hit the water and
that I'd send Janna up when she ran low at the end of the dive and do
my own thing solo for the remainder of the hour. Dives were limited
to an hour, but that's OK with three a day and short boat rides and
unlimited shore diving.

THE DIVES:

The viz wasn't as nice as I had seen on my previous trip, probably
because there was more wind. It started up in the 60-80' range, but
declined to 40-60' at most by the end of the trip. As bullshark
complained in one of the most recent Bonaire r.s reports, the coral
isn't in the greatest shape everywhere, with lots of disease and algae
growth present, but there's still some nice coral formations and
sponge growth and plenty of color. Water temps were 79-80 degrees at
all depths and there was usually a very light current. All dives were
done on nitrox, a no-brainer with the decently priced unlimited nitrox
package and we had no desire to dive deeper than our MODs.

Fish life is good as well, with a better variety than many Caribbean
islands. Not very many angelfish, I noticed, nor many butterflies or
groupers, but lots of wrasses and parrots and damsels and a few
hamlets. I saw one yellow-tail hamlet, which was a nice find. Plenty
of trunkfish, including a couple ping pong juveniles, a couple white
spotted and a scrawled filefish and I spotted a couple slenders
hanging on a soft coral. Trumpetfish, lots of blennies and gobies,
but only a few jawfish. Plenty of peacock flounder about, adult and
juvie drums on most every drive, lots of cleaner and coral and anemone
shrimp, a Spanish lobster that let me pick him up, but then gave me a
start as he took off like a shot and smashed into the reef, and a
curious jolthead porgy that followed us around a while. Tarpon at
night under the town pier and in the shade of the Hilma Hooker.

We saw spotted morays on every dive, plenty of little goldentails, a
couple sharptail eels, and a couple huge greens. No rays at all. One
turtle. No sharks at all. There were two seahorses spotted on the
Town Pier dive and another two at Knife on Klein Bonaire. Also two
itty-bitty frogfish fortunately pointed out by the guide who knew
where to find them, one green and one yellow. We waited patiently
while the horde had their turn and left, so we could spend quality
time with the seahorses at Knife and with the froggies. One of the
seahorses was pregnant. Both were a good size and very handsome. The
frogfish were quite handsome as well, and as soon as the horde left,
they dropped their mime act and started to swim around to our great
delight. Frogfish are much more exciting to watch when they actually
do something other than pretend to be sponges or coral.

While the diving lacked the variety of the Indo-Pacific or the healthy
reefs and big animal life of other Caribbean spots, it's still a good
mix for the Caribbean and there's enough variety IMO to keep one
interested even when jaded by the other popular dive locales.

I hit my 500th on this trip, which means that in addition to my new
Solo Diver card, I'll be able to get the SSI Century Gold 500 card.
The depressing thought is that it took me almost 8 years to get 500
dives in, which means another 8 years until I hit 1,000. No time to
waste!

This is what we did:

3/17/07

#488 - mandatory "check out" dive at Buddy Dive house reef. 112' for
49 min. This is when Janna started to notice ear problems.

3/18/07

#489 - We tried another dive on the house reef. Janna woke up
congested and couldn't clear. I sent her back to the dock and did the
dive solo. 107' for 32 min.

#490 - Likewise solo as her ears weren't getting any better from
Sudafed. 109' for 31 min. A few lunch cocktails and after-lunch
beers made the dive more interesting.

3/19/07

#491 - This was my first dive for the Solo Diver cert. at Capt. Don's
house reef. More info posted on rec.scuba. 64' for 47 min.

#492 - Dive two for the Solo cert. 80' for 27 min. I went the other
way down the reef, ascending to 40' at the La Machaca wreck, but I
didn't see the big resident moray there. Kept dive short since Janna
was waiting.

3/20/07

#493 - Hilma Hooker wreck. We did the exact opposite of the profile
led by the DM to give Janna a chance to finally get her ears cleared
in the shallower portion of the wreck, then penetrated a bit and hit
the sand at exactly 100' (when I stuck my wrist in a depression). A
good dive. I'd like to do it again. 100' for 36 min.

#494 - Munk's Haven, 83' for 53 min.
#495 - Bonaventura, 65' for 58 min.

3/21/07

#496 - Southwest Corner, 81' for 51 min.
#497 - Knife, 87' for 61 min.
#498 - Jeff Davis Memorial, 73' for 48 min.

3/22/07

#499 - Hands Off, 71' for 62 min.
#500 - Kalli's Reef, 102' for 61 min.
#501 - Country Garden, 69' for 60 min.

#502 - Town Pier night dive. This was an hour of multilevel diving
between 15' and the surface. While Janna's ears had cleared up, I had
woken up that morning with a bad sore throat and started to get
congested by the afternoon. By night it was turning into a full-blown
cold and even 7 beers couldn't make it better. Pain and a little
vertigo from all the up and down, plus the normal CF of the town pier
trying to keep following your guide when multiple groups intersect, is
a real PITA. I hated that dive, but there is cool stuff to see down
there and Janna had to do it once. I'll try the Salt Pier on the next
trip, but I'm done with the town pier. After four dives that day and
feeling like crap after, the Pasa Bon pizza and beer and wine went
down real well.

And that's all. Next scheduled dive: Maui Ocean Center shark tank,
4/13/07.