Copyright: Jurgen Brauer, Augusta, Georgia, USA

Bonaire lies about 50 miles north off the coast of Venezuela. Hereunder are the three Brauer kids (Jonathan, Anne, and Leon) on the wreck of the Hilma Hooker. She lies on her starboard (right) side at between 60 to 100 feet deep. We did a surface swim to the north buoy and went down the buoy line which leads to the boat's stern where the propeller and rudder are still in good shape. Then we explored the ship, slowly making our way to the bow against decent current and came up the line at the south buoy. A couple days later we went back for another exploration where this picture was taken.

We had rented an apartment at Buddy Dive Resort. The rental includes a vehicle. From the drive-through scuba-tank fill-up station, one loads up the vehicle with tanks and gear (below) and explores the island's dive sites. (Picture taken in the late afternoon at the Karpata site.)

A close-up of Jonathan.

A close-up of Leon.

Women consume less air diving than men do (smaller bodies need less air to function), but it is a scandal just how little air Anne uses as compared to my air use. So, as a gag I breathed off Anne's spare regulator (it's easy to see why it's called an "octopus").

Good divers are well-hydrated divers. So, as another gag, I brought a bottle of fresh water on a dive, and Jonathan, Leon, and I each had a swig. The real joke, though, was that we then let the bottle fill with seawater and mixed it in with our other bottles on land. A few days later, Mom Brauer picked the wrong bottle to drink from ... 

Another wreck (below). This one is La Machaca . It's easily found. At Capt. Don's Habitat Resort there are two docks, a big one ("Papa Dock") and a little one ("Baby Dock"). Tied to Baby Dock is a rope. Follow it to a depth of 40 feet, look to your left (south), swim about 20 feet or so, and you will bang right into the wreck. It's an old fishing boat, turned upside down. Usually there are some interesting critters around. We found a six foot green moray eel, hiding underneath the boat on the south side. By the way, if you follow the rope all the way to the bottom at 130 feet and swim 20 feet to your right (north), you will find another wreck. 

Speaking of wrecks, here is another look at the Hilma Hooker. With a length of 235 feet, it is a fairly big cargo ship and still very much intact as far as wrecks go. Penetration is not advised except for the big open cargo bays in which plenty of huge tarpons were swiminng around. The picture below was taken through an opening, without entering the ship. 

Fishlife in Bonaire is abundant. The Peacock Flounder rarely ceases to amaze us. Hereunder a good picture showing the mouth and gill clearly, as well as the two very well-developed eyes. The peacock feather, located right behind the gill, is up, and the fish is about to take off.

Another amazing creature is the octopus. During a night dive, Leon discovered one who was out hunting. We followed him for several minutes as he continued his hunt fairly unconcerned. In the picture below he is enfolding a rock, stirring up with the tips of his arms whatever will move. And once it does, it's easy prey.

With every dive, it seems, I am practising getting closer to the Sand Diver. They lie motionless on the ocean floor but are very wary. A sudden movement, and they are gone. This time I got close enough for the picture to show the Sand Diver's teeth.

I probably should know, but don't, what these fellows are. They swam in a big school, and I caught them on camera when I "accidentally" drifted into the school and it opened up and closed back in all around me.

A Black Margate is pictured hereunder, taking a rest underneath some soft coral.

A Spanish Hogfish. Quick-moving and always active, they are tough to photograph with my digital camera (because of shutter-delay). In this case, though, Jonathan had picked up some coral debris, and all sorts of fish came swarming around him to nip at it and some algae growing on and underneath the debris. This gave me time to shoot several pictures until one was decently focused and showed the fish's colors well.

Speaking of colors: I have photographed the French Angelfish many times but have never been satisfied with the color capture. But this time, even though I didn't get the whole fish on camera, I did get the colors (at least when your screen colors are properly adjusted). The French Angelfish is one of my favored fish.

Hereunder a fish I have never seen, let alone photographed, before. It's a Frogfish, hiding next to similarly colored coral at the Kralendijk town pier. On a night dive, the divemaster gestured excitedly. I didn't see a thing but dutifully photographed what he pointed at. Only back in the apartment, when I loaded the pictures to my laptop and examined them, did I realize what the fuss was all about. I wish I had been more alert underwater -- I surely would have taken many more photographs of this rare find.

A Stoplight Parrotfish, caught sleeping during a night dive. The fish goes through a juvenile, an initial, and an adult phase of development. The photograph is of the initial phase. Night dives are fascinating because the reef life changes so dramatically. Many day fish sleep, like this one, and night fish (like the octopus) come out. It's important not to disturb the fish and to let them sleep, and I did.

Another interesting fish is the poisonous Spotted Scorpionfish in the photograph below. A wag has it that there are two kinds of fish, those that swim away and those that don't. Those that swim away, you can't catch and those that stay you don't want to catch! The scorpionfish is one of those. It sits among the corals, usually blending in with near perfection, and lets photographers come very close to take pictures.

A frontal view of another Spotted Scorpionfish. It is an ambush feeder, lying completely motionless until suitable prey happens to pass by which is snapped up lightning fast.

The aptly-named Trumpetfish (below) also has interesting feeding habits. One sees it either hanging vertically in the branches of soft coral where prey cannot distinguish it from the coral branches or, as here, it swims horizontally alongside another fish, such as a parrotfish, and snaps up the predator's prey.

Corals! Hereunder a nice view of Sea Whip coral. This is a soft coral that sways with the current. On this particular dive, at the White Slave site off southwestern Bonaire, the current was ripping south to north.  From the horizontal position of the Sea Whip you can see that this was very strong current. In fact, in the sandy areas we experienced a veritable oceanic "sand storm" as I never had seen before. 

In the picture below we get an "inside" look at a Tube Sponge.

Orange Cup Coral (below) are one of the famous features of the Kralendijk town pier night dive. The feeding polyps come out only at night, and there are millions of them at this particular site.

A Flamingo Tongue is a colorfully, pleasingly patterned underwater snail that feeds on corals. On the right-hand side of the picture you can see the very end of the snail's foot.

A aptly, but uninspiringly named Black and White Crinoid is pictured below. These are echinoderms (spiny skins), i.e., animals like sea stars and brittle stars.

Hereunder a detail of a Symmetric Brain Coral.

A Sea Pearl (below) is an algae, a marine plant. I had never seen it before.  It has the looks and size of an ordinary household lightbulb but is a single-cell plant!

An Arrowhead Crab is pictured below.

Another crab whose species I don't know. I photographed it last year, and this year again, on the Kralendijk town pier night dive.

A Reef Urchin, another echinoderm animal.

An oyster, caught feeding on a night dive. It looks a bit eery, like a set of false teeth opening and closing.

A sea anemone (below) curling up its tentacles to hide from the divers' night-dive lights.

On the last day, we explored the island a bit. Diving takes place on the wind-protected west side. On the east side, the wind blows hard and living conditions are rough. Nonetheless, we found this blooming cactus.

Below, the Customs House in Kralendijk, photographed from the Governor's Mansion.

Typical color and architecture in Kralendijk. The entire island has a population of only about 12,000 people.

The southern quarter or so of the island is devoted to salt-extraction from the ocean. Huge salt mountains line the street.

In the old days, slave workers lived in huts such as those pictured below. With a floor space of perhaps 4 by 6 feet, and barely four feet high, they have two openings, a "door" and a "window," and, by today's standards, might sleep two people.

Back on the eastside, a look at Washikemba Lagoon. Here, the wind whips up waves and slams them into the exposed coral wall, generating sprays 25 feet high.