Our Bonaire Plan | Five and No Moss

Right after French Polynesia we get a few days at home, and then on January 2, 2027 we are off again for ten days, this time to Bonaire. Two very different islands in two oceans, back to back. This post is the plan as it stands today, so think of it as what we hope to do.

Split view of a rocky shoreline above and a coral reef with striped fish below the waterline — The kind of reef we hope to see, just off the beach. (AI-generated illustration, not our photo.)

Why Bonaire

Bonaire is in the southern Caribbean and is part of the Caribbean Netherlands. It is known for shore diving: you drive to a marked site, gear up, and walk in from the beach to the reef. Its reefs are protected as a marine park, which dates from 1979 and is one of the oldest in the Caribbean.

How we plan to dive

We will have a pickup truck, the classic Bonaire shore-diving rig, with tanks in the back. We will drive to the yellow-painted site markers, and we will stay in a rented house instead of on a boat.

We plan to start with guided dives and a dive orientation, then shore dive on our own once we know the sites. Abbey, David and Jonathan are Open Water certified divers and will stay within Open Water limits. Caleb will try a Bubblemaker, a kids' first-breaths-on-scuba program, and snorkel. Whoever isn't diving snorkels.

Our list of sites

These are the places on our list. The map positions are approximate.

Plan map of Bonaire and Klein Bonaire with approximate dive sites marked along the west coast — Our shore-dive list, on the leeward (west) coast. Coastline from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); markers are approximate. Plan only, not for navigation.

Bari Reef
Andrea I and II
1000 Steps
Karpata
Oil Slick Leap
Salt Pier
Klein Bonaire, the small uninhabited island just offshore, which we would reach by boat

A white sand beach on a low, scrubby island with turquoise water in the foreground — Klein Bonaire, the way we picture it from a boat. (AI-generated illustration, not our photo.)

Abbey's reef project

The trip is also Abbey's January-term independent study for school. Her topic is how human activity and invasive species harm reefs. She plans to try two hands-on fixes, replanting coral and removing lionfish, and to look at whether they help protect Bonaire's reefs. This is what she is hoping to do.

Lionfish are an invasive predator in the Caribbean. Reef restoration grows coral in underwater nurseries and then replants it on the reef. Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire runs the coral restoration program on the island.

Abbey plans to take a reef restoration diver course of about two days and three dives, working in the coral nurseries. She is also hoping to take a one-day, two-dive lionfish hunter course, using a special handheld tool called the ELF that Bonaire's program uses. Before we go she is doing background reading and a coral restoration online course, and afterward she will put together a final project.

Coral fragments hanging from a pipe frame underwater, with small fish nearby — A coral nursery, where small pieces of coral are grown before they are replanted. (AI-generated illustration, not our photo.)

A lionfish with long striped fins hovering above a reef — A lionfish, an invasive predator in the Caribbean. (AI-generated illustration, not our photo.)

Above the water

Bonaire has flamingos, wild donkeys, and Lac Bay on the windward side. We hope to see all three.

Three flamingos wading in shallow water in front of piles of white salt — Flamingos, which we hope to see. (AI-generated illustration, not our photo.)

Shallow turquoise water in a bay edged with green mangroves — The calm, shallow water we picture at Lac Bay. (AI-generated illustration, not our photo.)

Not like the Pacific

French Polynesia is a week on a boat over Christmas. Bonaire is the opposite: a home base on land, and driving to dive sites. We like having both.

Following along

We will post as we go, and write recaps after we are home.