When asked, "Would I ?", I immediately answered "YES!". A chance to go down on Helma Hooker. Who could pass that up? It was 9AM and we were ready. About 16 of us decided to take a crack at her. She was plenty big enough to accommodate us all, and then some. We had to simply board the boat and take a short 15 minute ride over. When we arrived, we were just off the Southwest shore of Bonaire, in the Netherland Antilles. People come here from all over the world. That kind of makes Helma Hooker an international celebrity. Her residence was marked with three yellow moorings. We tied up to the middle one. It didn’t take us long to get ready. And of course we dressed for the occasion. Once ready, we jumped in.

We descended the mooring line in groups of two. At about 20 feet down, we saw our first glimpse of her. She is a 235 foot long steel-hulled freighter. She rests in about 100 feet of water on her starboard side, inviting divers to partake in her offerings, which include a large simple wreck dive surrounded by a double reef system. She rests on a sandy bottom between two reef systems. About 10 years ago, she docked at Bonaire’s Town Pier in need of emergency repairs. While docked, a suspicious customs official discovered a large quantity of marijuana. The ship was seized and the cargo destroyed. It seems that for some unknown reason, no one claimed the ship. The dive operators on Bonaire decided to scuttle her and let her become a great dive site.

Although she was sunk 10 years ago, there is not much growth, mostly sponges and a small quantity of coral. The tube sponges that were growing were rather interesting because of the variety of colors. There were at least 4 different colors, many side by side. She rests against the first reef and her mast reaches over to the outer reef. Her highest part is at about 60 feet below the surface.

After we entered the water, we descended to the sandy bottom at about 100 feet. Here we posed for some pictures. She is definitely a great wreck for some nice clean wide angle shots. The water was a cool 80 degrees, while the air temperature was 85 degrees. Visibility was well over 200 feet. We were able to see her entire mass from either end. The large cargo holds are wide and open, just inviting divers to enter. They were very easy to look into. We then worked our way towards the stern of the ship and up to the propeller. From there, we worked our way up the side to her name plate. The upper most part, the port side, was rather bare, not much growing at all. We worked our way along the side to the fore portion of the ship. Having enough wreck for one day, and over 1200 psi of air, we worked our way up the inner reef. We saw a great deal of fish and coral there, even a lobster.