Crazy Bonaire Dive Adventures.

Our good friend Dominique prepares his famous Red Lion for a dive adventure to the fringing reef of Lac Caille. Dominique learned to paint in France and was Jacques Cousteau's illustrator, having some of his work displayed in the Louvre. He is a man of the sea and he has managed to keep Red Lion afloat using conventional and unconventional means, such as making her unsinkable by filling her with foam. She enables exploration freedom. My new friend John and Dominique are ready for adventure. People look at Red Lion with raised eyebrows. In fact, she did have issues, but together we always get her home. That said, Red Lion is always full of surprises. That is part of the adventure, is it not? Let's go diving. This is the story of two divers that left the corporate world to move to Bonaire to live a diver's life by the sea. Many only dream about this life. Our hope is to inspire you through our experiences and stories so that you can live the dream too. This is A Diver's Life. After days of high winds, a boulder star coral appears out of the suspended silt. The water temperature is still at a cool 26 Celsius, despite recent bleaching events and reef is recovering. Bonaire's east coast is richer in pelagic light than the west. A school of three spotted eagle rays enters from the left. They easily stay ahead while I push unsuccessfully to get a view out in front. Out of the abyss, a beautiful spotted eagle ray swims up the wall. It majestically pivots slowly to the north leaving us with an image of beauty imprinted in our memory. Every spot is clearly visible and the entire length of its tail can be seen. Magic in motion. Durable marine life like sea fans are prominent on Bonaire's wild east coast. I finish my safety stop above the drop off. Heading up we see the sun streaming down through sapphire blue waters. Our next adventure takes us deep off of Klein Bonaire. Objective to swim to the deeper reef between Monk's Haven and Sharon Serenity. Bigger fish find peace in areas undisturbed by divers. At the base of the wall, a small southern ray lifts off in a trail of sand. I follow to experience its beauty. A green moray swims below. At 40 meters a large tiger grouper and black grouper. At this depth, bigger fish are more relaxed around divers. It's time to head up. We will return here for our next dive. As I descend down to this deep reef a large green moray heads my way. This happens when divers feed them. He stays with me. Trunk fish often aggregate like this to mate so I take the opportunity to film. With one eye on the camera and the other looking for that big green moray, my buddy did not disappoint. I was able to approach this large tiger grouper with my lights off. Adventure is not limited to the deep or the wilder east coast. It is often found in the shallows passed over by divers. A sharknose goby waits below this porcupine fish. Cleaning stations are a great place to observe marine life behavior. A hawksbill turtle finds something good to eat while a French angelfish looks for scraps. This healthy group brain coral provides an excellent cleaning station. Cleaning fish wait on it and hop off to service their appreciative clients as they arrive. This tilefish is hard at work cleaning its burrow. They use these burrows to sleep, shelter themselves from predators like sharks and ambush prey. Grabbing a piece of dead coral it carries it away. To dig out the sand it uses its pectoral fins and body to shovel it out. It removes another that is shaped like a cigar. It proceeds to remove another obstacle. Our next adventure takes us to a most unlikely place. Downtown Kryland Ike. A school of very large big eye scad heads our way. While filming here they would go out and come back in like clouds passing over us. A male frogfish is perched on the top of a tube sponge. I got lucky enough to see this one do a walk up the side of the sponge. It wedges itself between two tubes. The males are smaller than the female. A much larger yellow green female sits on a nearby sponge. A tiger tail stretches out from below this anemone. It forges for algae and detritus. Banded butterflyfish appear a boring black and white from a distance. However with a macro lens there are far more colors and patterns to meet the eye. Doreen spotted this young queen conch moving. Its highly developed eyes protruded on eye stalks from the shell. Its green long tube like proboscis is its mouth. The eyes are capable of independent movement. The foot is thick brown and claw like. It uses it to leap forward propelling it across the body. A pair of French angelfish juveniles. This passive big-eyed scad carpets the bottom heading south. While another passes the sun as it slowly heads for the horizon. We find a banded coral shrimp sitting inside a mooring block. Bristles on their legs detect movement. This spotted moray lays flat and opens its mouth to get clean. A red-lipped blenny leaves this tiny sand diver. The sand diver was only two and a half centimeters long. An adorable juvenile smooth trunk fish. Blenny head blennies can turn white for camouflage or when stressed. A tarpon makes a pass at the school. Often a school decides it needs to move quickly and the rush can be deafening. As we head towards the exit we see palmetto and bonefish. While making this video Dominic made a beautiful painting for me. It depicts my time filming in the mangroves. Long time friends of Doreen and I diving together has never been boring. Here the carburetor had flooded and needed to clear. Grinning, knowing this is just another red lion adventure, I go check the mooring line while we wait. With newly found free time, Dominic, a man of the sea, removes his hat, unfazes, he casually walks to the side of red lion and plunges into the sea. If you like this video, please hit the subscribe button and the bell. 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