For our second dive of the day, we drove the car back north from Red Slave to Vista Blue.
Oh, did we not mention the car? We got a great deal on a rental car for the month, which is how we managed to do these shore dives.We nicknamed it Carcycle, because it’s roughly the size and durability of two bicycles bolted together. It’s a Suzuki Alto, and it’s just barely big enough to fit both of us, our dive gear, and four scuba tanks. Which is all we need! Gearing up and keeping the car dry is a little more complicated than with a pickup truck, but we made it work.
As if to make up for cutting our last dive short, Bonaire yielded loads of fish practically from the water’s edge. Barracuda! And a slender filefish, skulking in some coral.
This was an especially good dive for sponges. Brown and purple tubes, vases, elephant ear…
The fish were out as well. In order, honeycomb cowfish, creole wrasses, a tiger grouper, and a juvenile lionfish.
Here’s a black margate, spotted goatfish, and a poorly camouflaged scorpionfish.
The overall scene here is just really pleasant, whether along the wall…
or in the back reef. (Chromis everywhere!)
The french angelfish were also out to play.
A couple other favorites on the way out of the water. First, this scorpionfish hiding in the sand for a change, and a couple of stoplight parrotfish. (Yes, these are the same type! Crazy how they change color as they age.)
And finally, a scrawled filefish doing a squid impression, a coney, and a banded butterflyfish.
