Our Dive Navigation booklet was sitting on the coffee table, so I picked it up and started to read. Glad I did!
We will be shore diving on Bonaire, which means diving on our own with no local dive master to guide us. Scary thought! But reading the booklet has given me confidence. I also took down some notes to review before we do our first shore dive.
From what we have read, Bonaire has very well laid out shore diving. Dive sites are labeled with a number on shore, and a buoy in the water has the same number. Before we go for our first one, I am sure we will ask the folks at the Carib Inn a zillion questions. There are also a number of free and for purchase books on Bonaire all about shore diving.
Murray also read the booklet and we discussed doing shore dives. We determined that we should have a compass, which we do, and something to write on underwater. Fortunately, our compass has a small tablet that can be written on with a golf pencil. This tablet is to make notes of buoy numbers, depth, natural landmarks etc. We thought this note taking was a good idea if doing multiple shore dives, as they all start to run together after a few days.
We also talked about how important it is to make a dive plan for each dive, and to make sure everyone in the group knows the plan and all the hand signals. When with a group, Murray is going to take on the role of leader and do the pre dive briefing.
I read on a website to make sure we take it slow as we enter and exit the water. We don’t want to exhaust ourselves just getting in the water and be too tired to dive. I think once we do a couple of shore dives, we will get used to the entry (like how to get our fins on in shallow water with equipment on) and it will become easier.
I think we are ready for this adventure into shore diving!