Warm blue water with a ton of marine life to me is a great hook to go visit an island. In early July 2022 we sailed around St. Martin and got in a pedestrian 8 dives in a week. Nevertheless, we still saw a good variety of reef live. Some of my favorites were the turtles. All were green sea turtles but there were quite a few of them. Most were eating on the reef. Only one was swimming apparently looking for a meal.
A turtle at rest
But we also saw a variety of fish. Some were the usual pretty grunts that would show up in relatively large schools.
Ceasar grunts and goat fish swimming through a wreck
But the colors on the reef were not limited to browns and yellows. Instead there were also reds and other colors.
Black bar soldier fish beneath soft corals
And of course, often on the edge of visibility there were grey reef sharks patrolling around the divers.
The RMS Rhône dive is an iconic dive. It has a lot of history. It has an interesting story, and for a wreck that has been down for over 150 years it still has quite a bit of structure to see and photograph.
The first time I dove the Rhône, the weather was poor and getting in and out of the dingy was a real challenge. But once we got down below 15 feet the water was clear and the wreck was a lot of fun to explore. The wheel house was still intact and it still had a world class lobster living in it. Between 2010 and 2018 a hurricane went through BVI and damaged the wheelhouse and made it unsafe to enter, and did further damage to the rest of the remains of the wreck.
The last time I dove the Rhône, we had pretty good weather but the visibility was not quite as good, but still at least in the 80 foot range.
Part of the remains of the structure of the wreck
The remains of the wheelhouse, are not safe to go inside of today, but there are more schools of fish around the wreck site because no fishing was allowed in 2018.
Twisted ribs of the Rhone
If you were wondering how powerful the hurricane was that hit BVI, consider this this part of the Rhone was in about 90 feet of water. Twist iron ribs in 90 feet of water, that seems to me to be a lot of force.
The remnants of the checker board flooring with red rope sponges.
Grunts and snappers swimming around the condenser.
I’m hopeful to get back to the Rhone wreck again in 2022. If I could get enough dives on the wreck, I might even consider doing one of the dives as a macro dive because there do appear to be quite a few small critter that have taken up residence.
In north Texas it is hard to get excited about getting all geared up with scuba gear and an underwater camera to take pictures underwater when the water is in the 50s and the visibility is in the teens. Sure you can swim around and find a fish or two, but it seems like an awful lot of work, particularly for someone like me who is basically lazy. So as I was wracking my brain for ideas for what to shoot at this time of year underwater I came up with the thought of why not create a wreck or two out of legos and see what it looks like underwater?
Well the first problem that had to be overcome was how do you get legos to sink? What occurred to me was maybe some water proof glue with some big washers or bolts glued to the bottom of a legos 10 X 10 sheet would work.
As I found out, four large washers will sink a standard 10 X 10 lego sheet. And, I figured out that with just a few attachment points the legos figures I was able to build would actually adhere to the 10 X 10 lego sheet.
The next challenge was how much do I want to spend on legos and mini-figures to create these submersible platforms. I found much to my amazement Legos really seem to hold their value. I was quite surprised that used mini-figures go for $5 bucks or more a piece at the local used lego store. I made a comment at the local used legos store about the mini figures holding their value, and the owner looked at me like: well duh! what planet did you come from.
I looked at eBay and found that here and there there were a few mini figures that would cost about $2 a figure, but that still seemed pretty pricey for something that might or might not work.
So it was back to the legos resell shop and buy an assortment of bricks and see if I could build a wreck or two out of the assortment of legos. It was a bit interesting to see what came in an assortment package. With some creativity I came up with a few ideas of how to put together a few figures that looked like they might be the remainder of a wreck.
I have a few more mini figures on order so we will see if they arrive in time to be added before the next class.
The only wreck dive in the Phukett area of Thailand, is near the Phi Phi islands. The MS King Cruiser was a car ferry. On May 4, 1997 it sank off the West Coast of Southern Thailand. The ferry was operating between Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands in southern Thailand when she hit a submerged collection of rocky pinnacles at Anemone Reef, 10 miles off Phi Phi Island. The impact tore a large hole in the hull, and the vessel sank within two and a half hours. Nevertheless all of the passengers were rescued.
The ferry was on a regular crossing in normal conditions, and the Anemone Reef was charted and well known by captains in the area. This has led to various unproven theories as to why the accident occurred. Theories include insurance fraud due to the owners experiencing financial difficulties on the unprofitable route, and also that local dive companies paid the captain to sink the vessel as, up until that time, there were no wreck dives around Phuket. The captain was found to be negligent.
The vessel sits upright on a sandy bottom in around 30 meters of water. Originally the shallowest part of the wreck rose to ~10 meters, but today most of the superstructure is collapsed making the shallowest part of the wreck currently deeper than 18 meters. The wreck remains largely in one piece, although all of the upper deck has collapsed.
When we dove the King Cruiser we had a calm day, with very small surface waves. Although we were diving the wreck at slack high tide, the current around the wreck was moving. Getting to the mooring ball with my camera was a chore. We all descended on the mooring line which ties to the wheelhouse. Once we got to the wreck, the wreck for the most part blocked the current. The thing that struck me was that the first school of fish we was a school of giant porcupine fish. Now in the past I have seen a couple of porcupine fish swimming together but I’ve never seen a school of several hundred swimming together. Now here was the disappointing problem, besides the current moving pretty quickly where the porcupine fish were swimming, viz was maybe 20 feet. Instead of burning my air to try to get a picture that would at best have been difficult to see the school, I opted to follow individuals around as they swam around the boat.
As we dropped down over the leeward side of the wreck it was pretty obvious that the hull was covered in oyster shells and other mollusks. I could see an enormous number of sea urchins. That was reason enough to be careful not to touch anything. But there were also other reasons like lion fish and stone fish on the hull. If you look closely beneath the lionfish in the middle of the screen you can see the tail of a stone fish who is right next to a sea urchin.
Soon we were in the mist of an enormous school of big eyed snappers. The schools of fish were crazy and the were everywhere.
As we made our way around the wreck we found the ship’s propeller which is at about 93 feet.
The current near the bottom was not nearly as strong as it was towards the top of the wreck so I stayed near the bottom, but had to watch my deco time. I stayed over 20 minutes at 90+ feet and then had to move up once I got back to the leeward side of the ship.
stern railing
Where there were once windows in the ship there were large cutout where you could look in and see some of the schools of fish.
When I reached the stern of the wreck again it was time to start the ascent. No I didn’t go into deco, but I did have to do three stops to avoid doing so. This was a very good dive to be diving a shearwater dive computer since it made determining the end and stops on the way back up very easy.
All in all the King Cruiser was an interesting dive. I was really wanting the rebreather so I could have extended my bottom time and not had to rush through certain parts of the dive.
In the British Virgin Islands, in my mind there are two iconic dives. The dive site known as the “Indians” is near a three rocky outcroppings that bear the name the Indians. The aquatic life is about as close to an aquarium as I can remember diving. Great variety and abundance of underwater life.
But, the iconic dive in the BVI is the dive of the RMS Rhone. When the ship sank only one porthole remained intact.
The magic port hole
Nevertheless, the rest of the ship which has been submerged for more than a century is still in relatively good shape. Here is a link to what I wrote about the dive of the Rhone several years ago.
http://www.campbelljournal.com/rhone.html
I hope I get to go back to dive the Rhone again in the near future.
Sea Star wreck with railing and sun ballThe last time I dove on the wreck known as the Sea Star off the coast of Grand Bahama, the ship was intact and it was relatively easy to circumnavigate around the exterior of the ship. The ship may have had a small list to one side but it seemed to be otherwise upright and easy to tell that it was formerly a ship.
In December 2016 a hurricane went through Grand Bahama and did quite a bit of damage on the island, but also changed several of the dive sites that are just off shore from the island. The Sea Star went from looking like a ship to being torn in about half and left in the shape of an “L”. It certainly opened up the cargo hold.
And, while many parts of the ship were almost unrecognizable, towards what was the stern of the ship there were still parts that looked similar to what we had seen of the stern in our previous visit. And, some of the sponge life was undisturbed by the storm.
The new “foot print” of the Sea Star does give some interesting views that previously either didn’t exist or were not as recognizable.
It will be interesting to see if the sea life that previously grew on the Sea Star re-establishes itself in the coming years.
I was thinking about the dives we did in Nassau and it occurred to me that it was some of the most diverse, and productive diving I have had a chance to do. Day 1 we spent a fair amount of time diving with gray reef sharks. Even before the feeding began the sharks were remarkably cooperative in positioning themselves so that they made interesting models.
Grey reef shark swimming overhead
The first day we did two shark divers at shark junction with the Stuart Cove dive shop. Dive one was pretty mellow and while there were quite a few sharks, the 18 divers on the boat never got particularly close to the sharks since they were curious, but at best aloof. The second dive was a shark feed and it was interesting to watch the sharks come in and be fed. There was quite a bit of bumping and jostling for position by the sharks. The divers were all pretty well out of the line of swimming, except for the shark feeder and the photographers who had chain mail suits.
Here is a brief video from the shark feed.
And did I mention the wrecks? There are lots of them and many of them have appeared in one or more movies.
And some of the wrecks are just interesting because their structure has an amazing amount of growth that has accumulated on them.
Imagine this: clear blue warm water. Loads of fish, and a wreck or two to explore. Sounds great, it is.
We sailed a catamaran into Anguilla and tied off in a small bay waiting to go diving the next day. Where we moored was near a small mini wall so we got out of the boat with our snorkels and explored the mini-wall. There were a lot of fish, mostly sergeant majors, but some puffer fish and few grunts. I was feeling lazy so I didn’t take the camera. I figured I would wait until the next day to rig it and used it for the dives we would do the next day.
In Anguilla they require that you use a local dive shop to lead the dives. They say that it is required in order to make sure the divers don’t abuse the reef. I suspect it is really more about keeping the local economy working.
Nevertheless, we the following morning our dive guide arrived and we then went diving on the MV Commerce. The Commerce had been sunk about 20 years before as a purposefully sunk ship. It was a cargo ship before its sinking. It was in relatively good shape for having been down as long as it had, but there were places where the hull had rusted away and there were many places where sponges and coral had grown over the hull. As we were diving I noticed a turtle swimming over head and he appeared to be swimming to the bow of the wreck.
I wasn’t quite sure where he went after he crested the top of the ship so I keep exploring the wreck slowly making my way towards the bow of the ship.
After rounding the bow, I began swimming down the port side of the hull. It was there I found the same turtle. He looked like he was about the take a nap. So as not to disturb him, I made sure that my approach was down below the top of the hull. I estimated about how far down the hull I would have to swim and then I popped over the hull with my camera and took his picture.
I got off only one picture before he swam away. Sometimes it pays to be stealthy.
I like to dive wrecks. Some wrecks are interesting because of their place in history. For instance, the RMS Rhone sank in a hurricane around the time of the civil war, yet large portions of the ship remain intact or at least visible to divers who dive the Rhone. Other wrecks are interesting because of the services they performed while they were in service. For instance, the Kittiwake was a submarine tender and while only recently being purposefully sunk, still has a number of features that existed from her working days– the re-compression chambers are still on board. The mirrors are still in the bathroom which is something I had not seen in a wreck before.
The Tibbetts is different because it was a Russian destroyer that was purposefully sunk off the coast of Cayman Brac in 1996. It has some sponge and coral life on it, but not as much as I had expected because it has been underwater about 20 years. It is one of the few Russian destroyer wrecks that exist in the western hemisphere. In its sinking, the hull of the ship was apparently cracked. After several hurricanes blew through Cayman Brac, it appears the storms applied enough torque to the ship so that the bow was twisted from sitting upright to sitting at a 45 degree angle. The mid-section blew out and became a debris field and the stern of the ship is sitting at about a 75 degree angle.
Our dive of the Tibbetts was with Liesel from the Scuba Shack dive shop. We came through a swim through to see the wreck unfold before us. It was quite an impressive view. The Tibbetts is sitting on white sand and its contrast with the blue water makes an impressive sight. The forward guns are interesting because sponges have grown out of them.
When we were there we saw quite a bit of fish life. A barracuda of over 5 feet in length was the highlight, but we also saw schools of goat fish an other reef fish living on the Tibbetts. Towards the aft of the ship, and after the debris field, the super structure of the ship is intact and leads to the wheel house.
At the back of the ship are the rear guns. In many ways I thought there were the most interesting because they are still easily recognizable as guns
We swam around the wreck for about 40 minutes before some of our group started to run low on air, so we made our safety stop and ascended to the surface. As soon as I can I would like to go back and spend more time diving on the Tibbetts to see more of the details of its remains. Maybe next year.
Like many places in the Caribbean there have been at times ships that have on their face appeared to be normal cargo ships, while at the same time also being used to smuggle illegal drugs. One such ship was the Sea Star which was eventually apprehended in Bahamian waters. When the ship was sold through a forfeiture sale, it sold for a dollar and was eventually sunk as a purposefully sunk wreck. It is the second largest wreck in Grand Bahama. The person who purchased the Sea Star died in an automobile accident shortly before the sinking of the Sea Star. If you circumnavigate the wreck a plaque with the owners name is towards the ship’s stern, near an external staircase.
As of 2015 the Sea Star has been down since 2002 or about 13 years. It has a fair amount of coral and sponge growth upon it. Much of the hull is in pretty good condition. However, the stern was twisted at a right angle from the rest of the ship when a hurricane came through the Bahamas a few years ago. Given that the Sea Star is over 30 feet wide and its hull was made of steel it must have taken a tremendous amount of force to twist the stern as the hurricane did.
From the cargo bay looking towards the bot
The Sea Star has become home to a significant number of reef fish. Towards the stern there was a sizeable school of blue striped grunts. In the holds there were a number of arrow crabs. I also found an enormous black grouper who was well ensconced in part of the hold.
The day we dove the Sea Star there was a current. Towards the end of the dive we ascended up the stern line up to our boat. The current was quick enough that if you held on to the line the current would hold your body out at a right angle so we all looked like flags blowing in the wind.
For divers who like to dive wrecks the Sea Star is a wreck worth diving. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Not far off shore from Grand Bahama lie the remnants of an old transport vessel that some would be militia thought they would sail over to Haiti to lend support to the rebels in the Hatian revolution of 1968. Well to say they did not get very far would be an understatement. Now they left port in a storm, but they only made it less than a few miles before the ship foundered and sank. For a while the Papa Doc wreck was a site that divers could easily visit since it sat in about 50 feet of water. Years underwater were not kind to the Papa Doc which dissintegrated over time. All that remains today of the Papa Doc are a couple of engines and other small remnants that are largely buried under the sand. Occassionally the sea gives back a rare find such as a bayonnet, but that is infrequent. The engines, however, remain and are worth inspecting. On our dives we found small pederson shrimp and even a flamingos tongue on the engines. Both the shrimp and the flamigos tongue were relatively well hidden in the engines so it took some time to spot them.
Eventually a local dive shop Unexso, sank a tug boat on the site where the Papa Doc had previously sunk. (A word about Unexso, they are an awesome shop. They have an experienced and knowledgeable staff that is very concerned that the divers who dive with them, have a safe and enjoyable trip. As an older diver, I always want to dive nitrox, oxygen enriched air, because on repetitive dive days over the course of a week I always feel better on nitrox than I do on just good old air. No there is no scientific proof that nitrox will make you feel better on repetitive dives, but my antidotal experience is that it is a huge help for me. Regardless, when I asked for nitrox at Unexso, it was available and we tested it and the volume of gas in the tanks to make sure each tank was exactly what I wanted.)
Eventually in the place of the Papa Doc, Unexso sank the Badger tugboat on the site of the Papa Doc. The Badger tugboat is largely still intact. The wheelhouse is in relatively good shape and has become a haven for snappers and black margot. Coral and some sea fans are starting to grow on the wreck. Fish such as squirrel fish hide in the recesses in the wreck. I played “peak a boo” with couple of squirrel fish for bettter part of 3 minutes just trying to coax them out to take their picture.
It took a while to get both squirrel fish to venture into the image
Around the tugboat there are some patch reefs and some large expanses of sand and broken coral. Spend sometime looking at the sponges on the patch reef because there often are spinny sea stars and a few golden crinoids are present. Often times near the sponges there are arrow crabs which are also interesting to watch. Underneath some of the coral heads are fairey bassetts which are a beautiful purple and gold fish.
In the sand you may find a significant number of blennies and some jaw fish who have dug holds in the sand and quickly retreat into the sand.
This blenny was one of several hundred that make their home near the Papa Doc
I looked for quite some time for a jawfish with eggs in its mouth, but did not find a single one. I guess I will have to go back again and re-explore the site.
Ever notice when you are diving that certain songs go through your head? Sometimes when I’m diving certain songs go through my head depending on the type of dive. For instance on wreck dives:
I like big wrecks and I can not lie
You other divers can’t deny
That when ship sails in with an itty bitty hold
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung
Wanna pull up tough
’cause you notice that wreck was stuffed
Deep in the sand she wearing
I’m hooked and I can’t stop staring
Oh, baby I wanna get with ya
And take your picture
My homeboys tried to warn me
But that wreck you got
Make Me so happy
Ooh, hull of smooth skin
You say you wanna get in my benz
Well use me use me ’cause you aint that average groupy
I got off only one picture before he swam away. Sometimes it pays to be stealthy. 
