Saturday, May 3, 2008

Wreck Dive Chikuzen

A 246 ft refrigeration vessel originally built in Shimizu, Japan, she was part of the fishing fleet in St Maarten. The propeller of the Chikuzen had been damaged in a storm 2 years prior and so she was moored at the fishing fleet dock, apparently causing quite a bit of damage to the dock.

The owners were afraid that she might cause further damage or break free and drift up onto the beach (a vessel of this size would be very expensive to re-float). She was intentionally set ablaze off the docks in St Maarten, but this stubborn vessel refused to sink, eventually reaching the BVI, threatening to beach itself on the small island of Marina Cay. She was taken under tow and eventually sank without threatening any further coastlines !

Anyways, it turned out not to be an interesting dive as there was little to see by way of Marine life and visibility was piss poor.

1 comment:

La delirante said...

Wow! Those pictures are fantastic!!