Bonaire, not rebreather friendly

[Simon TW]

Well I finally got to dive my Evo today in Bonaire. I have had a lot of trouble with getting the right sorb and with O2. however It's all sorted now.

I checked out Bonaire when I was planning the trip. I sent emails and received response's. I was in Contact with Walt De-Suza and he told me that he had asked Captain Dons Habitat to get in touch. I received an email from the manager of Captain Don's confirming that they had sorb and plenty of it. He even stated what grade and the prices. O2 was going to be difficult as nobody had a booster so I purchased my own and took it with me (a nice bit of kit I must say).

I went to Captain Don's and purchased a 20k tub of 797 grade. Of course it's not called that here as it not metric so it was a 110 pound tub of 408 grade. When I opened the tub it was big chuncks of lime so I didn't want to dive it.

I phoned and the guy at Habitat said it was ok but I contacted England and was advised against it. I phoned Walt and he came with the correct stuff, Its not called 797 its known as 812 but it's the right stuff.


The guy's at Wannadive Bonaire have really put themselves out with regard to giving me air fills and O2. They got a J for me but the connections would not mate up, again it's the metric and imperial problem. They called in their compressor guy and he set to work, eventually it was all sorted. The compressor guy had to turn an adaptor with metric on one side and imperial on the other.

I did my first dive on the Evo this afternoon, it was more a check out dive and to get the weighting correct but all seems fine.

I managed to pick up a small pony, it's ally and about 2 litres but it will surfice for my duration here. On the check out dive it had a leaking valve but that sorted now.

Other than spending a day sorting all the kit Bonaire looks fine, I'll start an ongoing report soon.