Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · sea · Bonaire National Marine Park

🇧🇶 Cai (east coast)

Kralendijk, Bonaire, Bonaire

The windward side of the island, at the mouth of Lac Bay — diveable only on the rare days the trade wind drops.

Dives here
1
Deepest
29.2 m
Water
salt
First · last
2012

Revision 1 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Lac barrier reefLac entrance channel, sand 20-30 mSteep slope into the channelBeach entry by the conch-shell pilesGiant anemones 8-20 m↓12 mTarpon in the sand channel↓25 mStrong current, changes direction; downwellingsLac Bay lagoon, shallowN50 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Hazard
  • Point of interest
  • Marker
  • Shoreline
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Coral / reef
  • Sand
  • Depth
Site map · 2 objects · max 25 m

Cai at the mouth of Lac Bay: the beach entry by the conch-shell piles, the steep slope into the Lac entrance channel within 20-30 m of the shore, the sand channel to 25-30 m where tarpon gather, giant anemones and hard coral between 8 and 20 m, and the barrier reef on the far side (bonaire.com Cai page). The channel outline is approximate; the anemone and tarpon spots are placed by assumption, and no route is drawn because the current decides it: start against it and let it carry you back. Coastline and reef outline © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

Cai is at the mouth of Lac Bay, on Bonaire's east coast. That side of the island faces the trade winds and the open Atlantic swell, and it is not diveable most of the year. On the few flat days it is, operators run trips over, and what you get is a reef nothing like the leeward coast: heavier coral structure built to take the surf, more surge, and fewer people than anywhere else in the Caribbean.

Lac Bay itself is a shallow lagoon behind a barrier reef, ringed with mangroves — a Ramsar wetland and the nursery for a large fraction of the fish on the rest of the island.

Dived 21 August 2012 to 29.2 m — the deepest Bonaire dive in the log.

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

1 dive at Cai (east coast)

  1. 21 Aug 2012 with Kim boat date21 Aug 2012 depth29.2 m time67 min water—

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)