Monthly Archives: April 2017

Bahamas, wide angle, wreaks

Have you seen the Sea Star after the hurricane?

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sea star wreck with railng
Sea Star wreck with railing and sun ball
The 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.  

Uncategorized

Have you been to the Simi wreck near Freeport Bahamas

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Simi wreck with discent line
Simi wreck with descent line

I had a chance to dive the Simi wreck off the coast of Grand Bahama near Port Lacaya in March 2017.   Before we dove I had paired up with a new buddy who happens to be a very talented wild life artist.  Richard Bramble from the UK was on the boat and we talked a bit and since neither of us had a buddy we paired up for the dive.

Richard Bramble hovering over the cargo hold
Richard Bramble hovering over the cargo hold

As quite often happens because it is hard to be inconspicuous when you are lugging 35 pounds of camera gear around, I received several requests for pictures.  My rule is if you are on the dive boat with me, I am happy to share pictures with you.  If you ask I will try to make sure I include you in an image or two.  I do ask that everyone who makes a request provide me a the end of the dives for the day their email address so it makes it easy for me to share images with them.  

The Simi was purposefully sunk just after a hurricane that blew through the Bahamas in December 2016.  So when we dove it in March 2017, it has not been down long. Nevertheless you can see where sea life is beginning to grow on it and there are quite a few fish who seem to already call it home.  I thought the bow of the ship was pretty interesting because of its shape and the fact that it still had its anchor in place looking as if it had just sailed into port. 

Bow with anchor
Bow with anchor

The Simi sits in about 85 feet of water.  In the image at the top and just above, you can see part of  cables that attached  the mast to the top of the ship.  The mast had to be cut off once she was sunk, otherwise the mast could have created a hazard because it came within 15 feet of the surface.  Okay you do the math, (85 feet -15 feet) = 70 feet of boat and mast which should give you a sense of how tall the ship was before it was sunk.  

Now the wheelhouse is still intact and the wheel is still in place so anyone who wants to try to “drive the boat” can still give it a whirl.   

You do have to be a little bit careful of the wires which were not all removed before sinking.  Nonetheless, the Simi is a very interesting wreck to dive, and will probably become more interesting over time as more sea creatures decide to make it their new home.   

Bahamas, Sharks, Uncategorized, wide angle

Turtles

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Some days I think about all the types of certain critters I have seen and then think that I will probably not see something new on the next trip.  It sure is nice to be wrong.  During the last trip to Grand Bahama it was awesome to see a loggerhead turtle up close. 

I had only seen a loggerhead turtle one other time and that was from a boat deck.  The last time I saw one it was only for a brief second because he popped his head up only a few meters ahead of our catamaran and then ducked down again as he saw we were sailing right towards him.  I don’t think I have ever seen a turtle move so fast.  Now he was never in danger because he would have passed between the two pontoons of the boat without any problem.  Nevertheless, because I was close to the front of the boat I could see just how enormous he was.  Most turtles I have seen have been maybe a few feet across the bottom of their shell.  The fellow who swam under the boat was easily 2 meets across the bottom of his shell.  If I had to guess he must have weighed several hundred pounds.  

The loggerhead turtle I saw in the Bahamas raced through the dive site, right past a bunch of divers.  He was huge — well over 500 pounds. 

At first I did not see any reason for why this turtle seemed quite determined to “motor” through the site.  It was only after I took the first shot that I saw why.   Maybe having a grey reef shark following you is no big deal for a turtle that weighs several hundred pounds.  

But then again, maybe having a large shark following you is just an annoyance.  I really don’t know, but even if I had a hard shell, I don’t think I would mess around with those teeth.  So maybe swimming through the circle of divers was the idea after all.  We were the bait. 

 

Oh yeah, the turtle took a right angle after passing me, and the shark just kept swimming straight.  Who says turtles are slow.  

Bahamas

Mixed emotions about storms

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Underwater Librarian

Yes I understand that storms that go through dive sites are just part of the natural process that exists.   But, I sometimes have mixed emotions when I see just how powerful some storms are and the damage they do.  

Recently I dove a site off Grand Bahama that I dove a couple of years ago called the Chamber.   The chamber is an old recompression chamber that was sunk after it failed inspection. I wrote about the dive a couple of years ago particularly  since it was close to shark junction which is one of my favorite sites because of all the grey reef sharks.  

The last time I saw the chamber it was sitting on the side of the site that was closest to shore.   This time it was on the opposite side of the site.  I am told that the chamber was found after the storm about a half mile away from where it had been originally.  The dive shop Unesco used lift bags to pick up the chamber and move it back on to the site it had been on before.  The chamber is probably close to 20 feet long and 6 to 8 feet across.  I couldn’t guess how much it weighs  but we would be talking about tonnage not pounds or kilograms.  

The chamber after the storm
The chamber was moved over half mile from its prior position by the December 2016 hurricane

To me it is hard to imagine moving such an object, let alone moving it hundreds of meters underwater.  

The more interesting changes occurred with what is often referred to as the Papa Doc wreck.  Two years ago the hull of the wreck was still pretty much intact and even at the stern you could see places where fish hid inside crawl spaces in the hull. 

gray angel fish and papa doc wreck
Gray angel fish swimming off the stern of the Papa doc wreck

Now the sea life that was growing on the wreck looks like it had been sand blasted off the wreck and the stern of the ship is largely demolished.  

papa doc stern
papa doc stern

Not surprisingly, even the wheel house took a pretty good beating.   

Wheel house of the papa doc wreck
Wheel house of the papa doc wreck

The sand surrounding the wreck is probably two feet deeper than before the storm.   So I can only imaging what the swirl of sand must have looked like when the hurricane came through in December 2016.