Hilma Hooker (43) — Attraction in Bonaire

This was an awesome dive! As someone who only has their open water, I was very apprehensive about the depth.

You walk in from the shore, surface swim about 200 yards out, and then the shipwreck is directly beneath your feet.

It's very easy to access, very easy to navigate even for a novice diver.

Of course I'm never going to recommend someone to go below their rated depth, but we went down the full 95 ft to the bottom and it was beautiful. The tarpon are awesome. They're just sitting quietly under the hold on the east side. You circle the wreck, come back up to the bow and then come up to Coral Reef right beside it and head dead west back to the beach.

The only thing I would say to look out for it all is the fire coral when you're entering and exiting. There is a good amount of it but if you scout out behavior first there are plenty of...

Magnificent Dive site. Great visibility and and warm waters. Big tarpons. Despite of calm waters, please be advice to get a dive buddy, unless you are a self-reliant diver. Penetration is possible but again, do it with caution avoiding entanglements. Manage and watch your air and bottom time so you can dive the entire wreck and take some awesome pictures and videos. A little tip, start with the Bow (south mooring), descend to the bottom and advance along the ship to the stern, then ascend and go back following the edge of the Port toward the bow, turn around and navigate the keel heading the stern towards the propeller. Bottom time and air permitting, go right ahead and explore the reef on your way back. You won't forget this...

Great wreck dive. When you stand at the parking lot, you'll see three buoys. The two farthest ones are the front and back of the wreck.

What we did was surface swam out to the nearest (centre) buoy and started our dive, aiming for the back of the boat and circling to the front. The "top" of the boat is facing away from the shore, and that's where all the interesting stuff is including the swim-throughs and such. The "bottom" of the boat is nestled up against the coral wall which is pretty cool on its own.

Take around 15-20 min swimming around the wreck itself, and finish your dive...