The action is from 3:00-9:00 at Jon Monticelli and Bonnie Baclawski's place. 264 Grand View Rd, Sebastopol. 823-9231.
Directions: Take Highway 12 (Bodega Highway) through Sebastopol, past Pleasant Hill Road about 2 ˝ miles you will see the landmarks of Mary's Café and Rose and Thorn. Take the next right-Grandview. Look for the happy divers.
The club THANKS John and Bonnie for their generous hospitality!
Ahh Bonaire, 85 degrees, blazing sun, fleeting clouds, occasional cloudbursts, tradewinds blowing. The beautiful blue ocean, aquamarine in the depths and turquoise in the shallows. Little chirping yellow birds, scurrying bright green lizards and soaring giant Frigate birds. The sounds of Dutch, Spanish and Papiamentu from extremely tanned people. Flocks of Flamingos flying in fabulous fleeting formation. 78 degrees in the water, swimming with schools of jacks and baitfish, drifting along with angels, eels, turtles, shrimps, damsels, parrots, lobsters, urchins, bristleworms, wrasses, puffers, boxs, cows, trumpets, crabs, tarpons, scorpions, and a phenomenal assortment of hard and soft corals.
We spent 8 days at the Divi Flamingo Beach timeshare section of the hotel. Diving 2 or 3 times a day, spending happy hour watching for the green flash. Diving off the boat at Klein Bonaire with 100+ visibility. The diving is almost too easy since you don't have to wrestle with a thick wetsuit and a heavy weightbelt. Night snorkeling and diving was awesome when the coral polyps are out feeding, the heart urchins are exposed, the crustaceans are out roaming around and the parrotfish are sleeping soundly. Sitting under a palm tree opening coconuts, watching the iguanas climbing trees. Luckily the clouds were around enough to prevent serious sunburn, since Bonaire is only 13 degrees north of the equator. The vacation itself was wonderful. The traveling to get there and back was a nightmare with changed flight schedules, delayed flights, missed connections and lost baggage, but we try to bury that memory as deep as possible so as not to overshadow the wonderful time we had.
For pictures of our trip please visit our website at: http://www.webperception.com/jdouglas/bonaire.html
Your $40 covers the campouts, as well as turkey, ham and other good stuff at the Christmas and St. Patrick's day parties. Cheap at the price!
Kim Douglas and Molly Gibson then passed a hat among the attending members. The following members made donations: Bob Simpton, Bonnie Baclawski, Clay Vaughn, Gary Baumoel, Jed & Kim Douglas, Jock Doss, Michael Mendoza, Paul Damgaard, and Rich Gibson.
The total amount raised was $90. The Dive Club account is used to purchase campsites, raffle prizes and the main courses for our St. Patty's and Christmas parties. If you are interested in making a contribution to the club please see our Treasurer Bob Simpton. We will be having several fund raising events this year so you will have plenty of fun opportunities to donate money in the future.
Our goal is to raise $1000 for the club so a donation of approximately $500 can be made to an organization in need. The prizes will consist of three items worth a total of $250. Two big ticket items worth $100 dollars each will be awarded and will include a 4-hour sail on San Francisco Bay aboard a historic schooner built in the 1800s, and a dinner for two at Fisherman's wharf (restaurant to be decided later). $50 will be for one to three sculptures with ocean themes.
It is proposed that each member or family in the club must sell 10 raffle tickets at 5 dollars each. The raffle is anticipated to start in June with the drawing and prizes awarded at the September meeting. Any comments or suggestions from the club are greatly appreciated.
If the club is agreeable to this proposal, it will be determined how much to charge and how many people will be allowed to participate. People who elect not to participate in the eating of ribs are still welcome to come to the meeting at no cost. This issue will be discussed at the next two general meetings.
Stony Point Roundtable Pizza
2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa
Jed Douglas RED WEB: http://www.webperception.com/jdouglas
Rocky's Home Page: http://www.sonic.net/~rocky
(with great tips on Abalone!)
CA Dept of Fish & Game: http://www.dfg.ca.gov
California Coastal Buoy Map: http://www.oceanweather.com/~oceanwx/data/cal.html
Marine Radio - Michael Mendoza
O2 Kit - Jed Douglas
Fish & Ab Log - Jed Douglas
Picnic Supplies - Dave Batt
Contact these members for use of the equipment.
Michael Mendoza - Vice President
Jed Douglas - Secretary
Bob Simpton - Treasurer
Rich Gibson - Newsletter Editor
RED Events Calendar 2002 March 3/7 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 3/9 Stillwater Sat 3/16 St Paddy's Day Blast! 3/21 Business Meeting Location TBD April - Abalone! 4/4 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 4/6 Salt Point/Kruse Ranch 4/18 Business Meeting Location TBD Date TBD Member Dive Timber Cove with Jon and Bon May 5/2 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 5/4 - Pt Arena/Arena Rock 5/16 - Business Meeting Location TBD Memorial Day - Charles' Big Weekend at Ocean Cove June 6/6 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 6/7-9 Campout Doran Beach. 6/20 - Business Meeting Location TBD July 7/11 General Meeting 6:00 pm Pot Luck at Findley Park! 7/12-7/14 - Monterey! 7/18 - Business Meeting Location TBD 7/20 or 7/27 - Member Dive Jock Split Rock/Tomales August 8/1 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 8/2-4 Doran Beach 8/15 - Business Meeting Location TBD Mike Mendoza in Catalina for a week. Looking for Sea Bass and Yellow Tail! Bob Simpton on a houseboat water skiing September 9/5 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 9/6-8 - Van Damme or Russian Gulch 9/19 - Business Meeting Location TBD Date TBD Member Dive: Jock, Halibut! October 10/3 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 10/5 Tomales, Halibut! 10/13-15 (or so) Member Dive: Gary: Peace lobster dive 10/17 - Subject to change Business Meeting Location TBD November 11/7 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 11/9 - Anchor Bay 11/21 - Business Meeting Location TBD December 12/5 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 12/7 - Stillwater 12/14 Christmas Party!