My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “The Sound of the Sea”
In 1944, the USNS Gen. Harry Taylor served as a troop transport ship. In 1958 it was decommissioned.
In 1963, the USAFS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg served as a missile range instrumentation ship. It was retired in 1983.
In 1996 the Akademic Vladislav Volkov did double duty as a Russian science ship and love nest for electrical aliens. It was dropped faster than Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland’s Oscar dreams. <1999 movie VIRUS>
So goes the history of a single floating steel structure, just over 522 feet long, 71 ½ feet wide and 10 stories tall. But her story doesn’t end there. Once again claiming the proud name of the General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, she began her final service assignment.
May 27, 2009 the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg became the second largest artificial reef in the world when her bow touched sand 130fsw just 6 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida.
Now affectionately referred to as the Vandy….. she has begun her final transformation on the ocean floor to ocean habitat, sea life sanctuary, fishie nursery, coral and algae magnet and dive site…. A little bit of fish pokey heaven in my book.
There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship. ~Author Unknown…. Bill and Cindy are my ships and I count myself lucky. They are just winding up a dream vacation and spending the last few days of it diving and shopping with me. I won’t bore you with the shopping part, although I did get a great little picture for my hall but did not get to hold the one eyed chicken. Stories for another day, but will say that I arrived in Key West mid evening and after a short stroll we settled in a small Cuban restaurant with mojitos and the Cuban version of nachos to catch up on news and goings on.
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “The Sound of the Sea”
In 1944, the USNS Gen. Harry Taylor served as a troop transport ship. In 1958 it was decommissioned.
In 1963, the USAFS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg served as a missile range instrumentation ship. It was retired in 1983.
In 1996 the Akademic Vladislav Volkov did double duty as a Russian science ship and love nest for electrical aliens. It was dropped faster than Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland’s Oscar dreams. <1999 movie VIRUS>
So goes the history of a single floating steel structure, just over 522 feet long, 71 ½ feet wide and 10 stories tall. But her story doesn’t end there. Once again claiming the proud name of the General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, she began her final service assignment.
May 27, 2009 the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg became the second largest artificial reef in the world when her bow touched sand 130fsw just 6 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida.
Now affectionately referred to as the Vandy….. she has begun her final transformation on the ocean floor to ocean habitat, sea life sanctuary, fishie nursery, coral and algae magnet and dive site…. A little bit of fish pokey heaven in my book.
There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship. ~Author Unknown…. Bill and Cindy are my ships and I count myself lucky. They are just winding up a dream vacation and spending the last few days of it diving and shopping with me. I won’t bore you with the shopping part, although I did get a great little picture for my hall but did not get to hold the one eyed chicken. Stories for another day, but will say that I arrived in Key West mid evening and after a short stroll we settled in a small Cuban restaurant with mojitos and the Cuban version of nachos to catch up on news and goings on.
The next morning we head out on the Sea Eagle with Captains Corner and as we load onboard, the mate remembers me from my last trip with them…… not sure if this is a good thing or not….we will see.
Bill and I dove the Vandenberg in October, just a few short months after her sinking, and I am excited to return and see how things have progressed.
We are lucky to hit a small window of diving before the arrival of Hurricane Earl in just a few short days. The seas are choppy and we are thoroughly drenched when we arrive at the mooring ball. There is a brisk current from surface to sand and while the water registers at 89F the visibility is just 60 to 80 feet.
We drop down on the stern and as we descend the line we pass some of the largest barracuda I have ever seen. They slowly circle as drop on down and spend the remainder of our dive just out of reach with one unblinking eye on us at all times. A thickening coating of growth envelopes the ship and we set off on a grand tour. The current seems to run both sides of the ship and we do not get to the bow this dive. I head over the rail and while the impending storm has stirred up the waters I can just make out the anchor chain stretching out into the sand. We enter the first set of cutouts to get out of the current and check out the changes below. The carpet of silt on the ships interior is deepening quite quickly and we pass an array of disabled machinery before heading back out. We pass the radar antennae and dish which are also deteriorating much faster than I expected. You can easily spot small cross pieces already fallen away. We look down the gun turrets and in and out of doorways, drop back over the sides and again traverse the ships interior using the large cutouts in the ships sides. The Coast Guard flag still flies proudly flapping in the current and just below it is a new addition, a sign post from Duvall Street and we stop to pose and take pictures with it.
Noting the time, we head back up with just short of an hour’s dive. Our SI is very short as is our next dive as the captain plans to pull anchor in an hour. We regroup and plan a short dive to finish the day.
Cindy hits the water first and drops down to wait for us. As we begin to make our way down the line with me leading and pulling hard through the current down the line. Before I reach the mooring line Cindy has gone back up due to an O ring which had suddenly began leaking and Bill and I continue on. We enter through a doorway on deck and move through a passage heading down and passing by abandoned bunks, off kilter shelving and slender rooms filled with surprisingly still white porcelain. There are narrow oval openings with ladders spaced throughout the deck leading to decks below but I question squeezing my doubles down them and move onto larger openings.
We again exit near the radar dish and as we hover above it a tap on the shoulder scares the bejesus out of me. Here is Cindy back with us. As she hit the ladder and explained her dilemma, the mate in one swift move reached down and plucked her out of the water, gear tank and all, placed her on the dive platform, switched her tank out and pushed her back in in record time. Oh to be young again……
We continued on peeking and poking and as you can imagine….the poking does live on…. Did you know parrot fish have teeth?
We end our afternoon with burgers and drinks and back to our rooms to change before some wine, shopping, and a Key West sunset. And I swear….. I will not play tricks on Bill anymore…… the “great dive bootie incident” will be my last…. I am pretty sure…. I think….. kinda….. yea.