Dive Review of Captain Don's Habitat in
Bonaire

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Captain Don's Habitat, Mar, 2010, by Roberto Labrador, NY, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 5407.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Captain Don’s Habitat March 2010 This was my second time on Bonaire and to tell the truth, the dive operation I went with the first time was a lot better. This was to be a seven day dive trip with a new dive buddy. I had been told about Captain Don’s and how it has been around for about a thousand years with the very same Captain at the helm. Well someone ought to tell about the leaky boat he’s running. Firstly I must say that the only reason I stayed at Captain Don’s was because the place I wanted to say and dive with was booked solid. That would be Buddy’s Dive Center right next door. The difference between the two operations, as I was to discover, is like night and day. Had I known that I could have bought a dive package with Buddy dive and stayed anywhere else, I would have done so rather than stay and dive with The Captain. Let me state my observations; Room: (second floor) A little moldy but nice, cozy with a great terrace. What wasn’t so good was the service; I had to ask five different people over the course of four days just to get the shampoo and soap dispenser refilled… Not a big deal I agree, but that was indicative of the attitude I found here. Dive Op’s; Things only get going when the “Big Boss” (Capt Don was nowhere to be found during my entire stay) get’s there in the morning. The boss is a seemingly unapproachable and rather unpleasant woman who had a perpetual scowl on her face; not once did she have a friendly gesture towards me. Please don’t think that I’m doing a hatchet-job due to some altercation, I had no cross words with anyone my entire week stay here. More than once the Boss, whose name I did not get was late getting to the shop in the morning forcing everything to be put on hold till her arrival and her subsequent unlocking of the gear room, office, dive shop and the cage where the Nitrox is kept (which is locked at 5:00 pm). For an 8:30 am dive we were kept waiting until 9:40 to get off the dock. At that time without a word we were told that the boat was ready to go. So of course, the time between the first dive and the next was squeezed (all boat dives are one tank dives) due to, and I quote a member of the dive staff “I don’t want to work all day, so we are leaving”. Rinse tanks; large concrete dunk tanks all with the same greenish scummy water and scale buildup on the walls. The water had not been changed in those tanks for quite a while it seemed to us. I must admit to finding the drain valve and late one night I drained all the tanks. The next morning I passed by a divemaster scrubbing the tank walls and muttering expletives. There was a nice film floating on the top the camera rinse buckets. Here’s a great one, try and beat this; all the camera rinse buckets look the same. They are all the same, about 18” to 24” deep and 4’ in diameter. There is one of these camera buckets on each of the two dive boats (no other on-board rinse buckets are provided) and two ashore. I came in after a shore dive at the house reef in the afternoon and saw one of these black buckets on the dock. I had just placed my camera system in the bucket when I noticed that my camera had disappeared completely under the “water” I heard shouts from the dive staff to pull out my rig: it seemed that the maintenance crew working on one of the boat’s engines the previous night had filled the tub with engine de-greaser! What’s more amazing is that it was still there the next afternoon, in the middle of the dock with no sign or indication of any kind… Just waiting for me to come along I guess. My buddy took the Advanced Open Water course and complained about the instructor being curt and unfriendly. She also had a bad experience choosing her 3 specialty dives. She was interested in the night diving specialty but was told that the staff was not paid overtime so the instructor wouldn’t be too excited about teaching the night dive course. She is afraid of diving at night and doing it under supervision would have helped her overcome this fear but the opportunity for this was lost since she had to choose a specialty that was covered during regular hours to accommodate the divemaster’s schedule. I close with this; I found the staff for the most part to be surly with the exception of Divemasters Leo, Netto and Max. They were very helpful and friendly. The rest of them wouldn’t rate a day’s pay with me. In all fairness, the food in the restaurant was great and the servers were the friendliest staff in the place. The “House Reef is very pretty with lots of life. However, I would not stay or dive here again.
Websites	Captain Don's Habitat
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	you name it...
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	currents, no currents
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Not really
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Here’s a great one, try and beat this; all the camera rinse buckets look the same. They are all the same, about 18” to 24” deep and 4’ in diameter. There is one of these marked,camera buckets on each of the two dive boats (no other on-board rinse buckets are provided) and two ashore. I came in after a shore dive at the house reef in the afternoon and saw one of these black buckets on the dock. I had just placed my camera system in the bucket when I noticed that my camera had disappeared completely under the “water” I heard shouts from the dive staff to pull out my rig: it seemed that the maintenance crew working on one of the boat’s engines the previous night had filled the tub with engine de-greaser! What’s more amazing is that it was still there the next afternoon, in the middle of the dock with no sign or indication of any kind… Just waiting for me to come along I guess.

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Dive Review of Captain Don's Habitat in Bonaire

Captain Don's Habitat, Mar, 2010,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Captain Don's Habitat in
Bonaire