Bonne Terre Mine 2009

Now I really think I missed something since I remember telling everyone about our trip to Bonne Terre Mine in 2009. Since is was about a month ago that we went, and I have had two trips since, the details of the trip are a little fuzzy but I know it was awesome. I especially liked getting to know some new people on the trip that I didnt know well beforehand. I really enjoyed that barbecue place we all went to Friday night. It was great to catch up with long lost friends and a little dissapointed that other friends didnt make it out to the mine that weekend.

I have posted a lot of pictures on the website at the past trip reports section. But here are a few of my favorites. This trip was a great time getting to trail seven. Four and seven and the lake room are so far my favorites... can't wait to go back again next year.

Bonaire 2009

I am a little late in getting this post out... I really wanted to do a play by play by dive by day but the internet connection at the resort was so painstakingly slow.... lets just say I could have smoke signaled it faster. In any case, better late than never so here goes.

This trip to Bonaire took me and 16 others to a fantastic resort known as Buddy Dive. Augusto, Carlos, German and the rest of the dive gang there really took care of us and made us feel welcome. The diving was fantastic, as always, and every dive was more memorable than the last. Like I typed above, I really would have loved to do a dive report on each dive but I recently misplaced my log book (it is being mailed Back to me) and now I am limited to my memory where every dive is just as cool as another and the memory of the week is pretty much a memory of just one long super cool dive.

Some things to note for the past traveler to Bonaire. The last hurricane did its damage and it is apparant on many of the reefs. It seems to be rebounding well though.. the outer edges of Klein showed it the most. And the town pier and the salt pier were sandblasted clean.. .like new concrete, there is nothing there worth seeing and the damaged parts of the pier make diving a little more hazardous than Augusto would like us to be. So no diving there for a while.

We did dive the rubble pile at the north end of Windsock on a night dive and saw a bunch of octopi.... that was cool and there was a dive on a house reef where we saw a yellow frogfish... dived it off of a boat... and the seahorses and frogfish and tarpon always make for a fantastic diving experience.

If you are interested we are going back the first week of MAY in 2010. I am really looking forward to going back. I love it there.

Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

Needless to say for those that know me well I have been really busy lately. I have not been a good blogger and I am going to do my best to make sure that I blog my diving adventures and anything else that I think you may be interested in. Want me to write about something specific? Just let me know and I will do my best to oblige.

This past Memorial Day Weekend I had an opportunity to dive with some very cool people, meet others that I had not known well before and really enjoyed the company of some good friends. The diving in Morehead at its worst is still some of the best in the world and I really enjoyed the bottom time of this trip.

The weather was fantastic on shore but offshore the waves were big and frequent. Our first day hiatus to the U352 turned out to be a rough ride out to the SPAR which had many people looking green around the gills and ready to hit the water for some calmer times. The vis was a little less spectacular than last year but it allowed for some good explorations and good navigations. It also allowed my new PADI Deep Divers an opportunity to dive a little deeper than they had been on their previous dives. The underwater life never ceases to amaze me.

The second dive of the first day turned out to be more incredible than I could have hoped for. The dive on the INDRA was a shell collectors dream. Next year I think it will be my primary mission on that dive. There were hundreds of cool collectables just below the sand.

Day two was inshore to spare us the tossing and rolling... the weather never cooperated the whole weekend. We did a dive on the INDRA and this time Jill and I took along bigger Goodie Bags. The second dive was on the Titan and many divers saw sharks and other fish that made the shallower dive more fun than hoped for.

I hope the people who joined us for this year make another attempt next year. I would love to be able to show them the U352 and the sharks of the PAPOOSE. Memorial Day weekend in 2010 if you are interested... I know thats where I will be.