A sixty-metre freighter lying on her starboard side in a sand channel between two reefs. The deck sits around eighteen metres, the sand at thirty. Short, deep and easy to overestimate: this is where most divers on Bonaire burn through their no-decompression time.
The Hilma Hooker is a sixty-metre wreck on her starboard side between two reefs: deck at eighteen metres, sand at thirty, a dive for experienced divers.
The hull is covered along its full length with sponges and coral growth, with tarpon and barracuda in the shadow of the wreck. Schools of grunts gather around the propeller and the bridge. The seaward reef is less visited and in better condition than the side by the entry.
As the first dive of the day, with a plan for depth and time. In moderate current it runs south to north, so start upstream.
Deep, dark and tempting to enter; the ship is not prepared for penetration. The entry crosses loose coral rubble. Parking is unpaved and full at three vans. No shade, no water, no toilet.
Decisions on diveability, technique and health belong with STINAPA, a dive school or a doctor. This page only describes the conditions.
The Hilma Hooker was detained in Kralendijk in 1984 with a cargo of marijuana behind a false bulkhead. The ship was not seaworthy, nobody claimed her, and she was sunk on this strip of sand. The court case and the reputation belong to the story of the eighties on the island.
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