Diving photos and a wreck history

[Harry25]

I am currently on holiday in Barbados and thought theses photos might be of interest. The next set will be of Lanzarote of which BartW is interested in.

The last photo on this set is of the SS Stavronikita this was a Greek registered 4000 ton cargo ship bringing cement from the UK to Barbados in 1976. There was a fire on board six crewmen
were killed, and all power and communications were wiped out. The remaining crew painted on the side of the ship SOS in big white lettering and just drifted with the tidal stream. After four days the boat came near Barbados, and the crew were rescued. The ship was then towed to Bridgetown and the fire onboard was put out. The Greek shipowners were reluctant to repatriate the ship, and it stayed there for a couple of years until the Barbadian Government bought it for 30,000 dollars. It was then prepared to use as a dive wreck and sunk by Puerto Rico explosive experts. It sank in thirteen minutes.

 

[Pinnacle]

I am currently on holiday in Barbados and thought theses photos might be of interest. The next set will be of Lanzarote of which BartW is interested in.

The last photo on this set is of the SS Stavronikita this was a Greek registered 4000 ton cargo ship bringing cement from the UK to Barbados in 1976. There was a fire on board six crewmen
were killed, and all power and communications were wiped out. The remaining crew painted on the side of the ship SOS in big white lettering and just drifted with the tidal stream. After four days the boat came near Barbados, and the crew were rescued. The ship was then towed to Bridgetown and the fire onboard was put out. The Greek shipowners were reluctant to repatriate the ship, and it stayed there for a couple of years until the Barbadian Government bought it for 30,000 dollars. It was then prepared to use as a dive wreck and sunk by Puerto Rico explosive experts. It sank in thirteen minutes.

Fantastic pics!

I feel it is only fair to warn you that taking seahorses from Studland and then flying them to Barbados is going to be frowned upon by Steve Trewellawhats-his-name!

 

[BartW]

thanks for the pictures Harry, and for the info on the wreck.
Pics give a good impression of the sealive in carib.
no big stuff in that area ? Dolfins ? sharks ?....

we've been diving in Dominican republic, and Bonnaire,
apart from big Tarpons, similar underwaterlive like your foto's.
Bonnaire is famous for big soft corals and sponges

how is the diving organised in Barbados ?
shore or boat dives ? boat type? number of dives per day? any night dives ? max depth ?
I'm sure folks on here would like to see a picture of the dive boat(s)

 

[Bojangles]

Nice pictures, thanks for posting. I've always fancied diving but for some reason I've never tried it. It really is amazing the creatures that lurk below us when we cruise past

 

[Harry25]

Barbados

No sharks or dolphins although we never go far off shore maybe about 500 metres. Plenty of different kinds of turtles and also stingrays.

Lots of dive companies everyone uses boats so no shore dives. I dived with High Tide based in Holetown as dived with them on previous visits. Maximum depth I did was 31.1m on the day we dived Stavronikita visibility was poor but usually maximum depth on that dive is 40m. Number of dives is I did was two in the morning never did any in the afternoon. Got to keep SWMBO happy. For same reason never did any night dives. Water temp 27c Air temp 23c in the morning 31c in afternoon.

Not a very good picture of dive boat, but it is catamaran with steps that go down at front. I think 2x90hp. Good to get kitted up on.

 

[Harry25]

Picture of High Tide dive boat.

Picture wasn't attached first time.

 

[Bajansailor]

Here is the webpage for Hightide with some info about their Ali-cat :- http://www.divehightide.com/about.shtml

And here are a couple of photos of her ashore at the haul out yard here early last year.

She originally had much smaller outboard motors on the hull transoms.

Harry, how did she perform with 230 hp on the back?

 

[AndieMac]

Good pics Harry, sounds like a nice break from the northern winter with the temps you mentioned.

The pontoon boat looks to be a functional dive platform.

 

[Harry25]

Hightide dive boat

Here is the webpage for Hightide with some info about their Ali-cat :- http://www.divehightide.com/about.shtml

And here are a couple of photos of her ashore at the haul out yard here early last year.

She originally had much smaller outboard motors on the hull transoms.

Harry, how did she perform with 230 hp on the back?

It was a very smooth ride we did not go flat out took about 25 minutes to go from Holetown to cement factory

 

[Harry25]

Slight thread drift

Went to Drive in Movie last night, which is brilliant two latest movies for £5.00. I don't think that there are many left in the world.

 

[BartW]

did I miss the Lanzarote pics,
or do we have to wait until back home ?
enjoy the sunshine !

 

[Harry25]

Lanzarotte

Sorry it took so long I had to join photobucket. Dived only from Puerto Del Carmen all shore dives. Very safe gradual decline no need for safety stops on return. A few wrecks not that exciting. Lots of angel sharks which we had fun waking up. Maxium dive I made was 38.4m water temp in January was between 19c and22c. Felix the large grouper was taken by a Swedish dive buddy I met there Tero Nykanen.

 

[Harry25]

Diving Photos

BartW or for that matter anyone else if you want me to post other photos of dive live I have dived Scotland, Turkey, Gozo, Egypt, Crete, Maldives and Barrier reef.

 

[AndieMac]

BartW or for that matter anyone else if you want me to post other photos of dive live I have dived Scotland, Turkey, Gozo, Egypt, Crete, Maldives and Barrier reef.

Go for it Harry....

 

[BartW]

Dived only from Puerto Del Carmen all shore dives. Very safe gradual decline no need for safety stops on return.

waw that's very nice and interesting Harry,
different from what we have seen so far,

Interesting destination for our dive club, will defo put it on the list for next year.
The gradual decline is nice for beginners (as you know), and vis. seems very good.
I wasn't aware you can find groupers in that area.
The Angelshark I've seen in Tenerife.

do they have tides over there ?
what temp. was the water ?

thanks a lot for posting !

 

[Bajansailor]

I haven't got any nice photos of reefs or fishies to post, and if I did, they would be very inferior to those excellent photos posted above by Harry.

But I thought that forumites might like to see some photos of the Stavronikita being sunk - I think it was about early December 1978 when this happened.
We skived off from skool - my Mum had been talking on the Transatlantic ham radio net to a lovely 42' long keel American ketch called Holger Danske (designed by Aage Nielsen) sailing across the Atlantic (they took 18 days from the Canaries, pretty good going), and they invited my skool geography class out on HD to watch the proceedings.
Very grainy photos, sorry, taken with a cheap instamatic, and no zoom - the police boat was keeping everybody far away, so these photos have been cropped a fair bit to enlarge them.

It was very spectacular, with loud explosions and big plumes of water and smoke heading skywards - however these explosions did also kill thousands of nearby fish which floated to the surface soon after (a few fishing boats had a field day scooping them up).
I suppose that the Puerto Ricans, being American, wanted to really show the world what they were capable of - it did look as if the poor ship had been torpedoed.

However instead of sinking uniformly on an even keel, she flooded more rapidly at the stern and despite having both anchors deployed she sank at an angle and glided west, ending up in much deeper water than planned.
Subsequent shipwrecks (there are at least 6 other deliberately sunk wrecks here for diving on) were sunk here by Willie's Marine Services, who simply opened up seacocks carefully and waited patiently..... not as dramatic, but they did sink the ships pretty much horizontally, in the intended positions.......

The boat in the foreground of the photo below was an old timber pinnace, used in the harbour as a personnel transfer launch. I think this was just after the first underwater explosion.

The O/B motor on this one is easy, but any guesses as to what make of speedboat?

Stern explosion :

I don't know if they had remote control detonators then (?) - if aye, then maybe this next explosion was an attempt to bring her back on an even keel?
Going....

Going.....

Almost gone.....

 

[AndieMac]

Thanks Martin, very interesting photo's and story.

Not sure about the runabout, Chris Craft??
By the look of the rego. number it must have been early days.

 

[Bajansailor]

Andie, re the number on the speedboat, this is a local registration number - although I doubt that there were 200 odd speedboats in Barbados then.
I think they are now up to 600 odd, but am sure that many have been scrapped along the way.....
I was wondering if the boat might be a Glastron without the wind screen?

 

[AndieMac]

I was wondering if the boat might be a Glastron without the wind screen?

yeah, you could be right, they have been around for years and the shape looks right, besides the Chris Craft were mostly/all inboards.

 

[Harry25]

waw that's very nice and interesting Harry,
different from what we have seen so far,

Interesting destination for our dive club, will defo put it on the list for next year.
The gradual decline is nice for beginners (as you know), and vis. seems very good.
I wasn't aware you can find groupers in that area.
The Angelshark I've seen in Tenerife.

do they have tides over there ?
what temp. was the water ?

thanks a lot for posting !

No tides in Lanzarote. Temp of water was 21c in January. I dived with Manta Diving. Highly recommended and dived last wreck dive with Alberto one of the divemasters just the two of us. They don't dive sundays so I asked him what he did and he said he dived with friends to 80/90 metres so you could speak to him if you are interested in deep dives Bart. Below is a photo of Tero taking his picture of the grouper which indicates the size of it.