Smash, crash, shatter, break to smithereens, it doesn't matter on the verb describing what happened, the fact is, something was destroyed in a spectacular fashion when a wreck is involved. To say it's always been that way, is probably an understatement. Now, my dad would say that I did my fair share of wrecking things as a kid, mainly his radio equipment. Personally, I think I got blamed for the things he broke! I know I'm not alone when it comes to viewing carnage though, any time spent backed up on the expressway, it's almost always because people are rubber-necking an accident, so I'm not the only one.
This trip had the makings of a small train wreck in progress the way it started out. Who knew that an actual wreck would get the trip back on course though? For a mere $30 extra, we had the opportunity to take our boat over to the sister island of Cayman Brac to check out a sunken Soviet frigate, designated 356, but called the Tibbetts after the man who had her sunk. Diving purists I'm sure will scoff at the thought of diving a wreck sunk on purpose, but I don't care. Little Cayman is known for it's wall diving, Cayman Brac seems to be known for this wreck. The thought of accomplishing both types of dives on two different islands on the same trip was far too tempting, so Becca and I were the first ones to sign up for the trip.
The boat ride out was about forty-five minutes, which wasn't too bad. They did give us the more reliable boat, which meant it was almost twice as fast as the barge they stuck us on for the week. The seas were choppy that morning and I know Becca was happy to get in the water after bouncing across the waves (I think she was most concerned about also feeding the fish, and didn't want to take the title from me).
I have no idea what the rush was, but all the divers went rushing to the bow once in the water. That worked out perfect for Becca and I. We dropped down to the aft of the ship, swam along the starboard side nice and slow. By the time we got to the bow, everyone was gone, then we came up the port side and back to the aft again where we came up. Even though we had 15 to 18 people on the boat, the two of us were alone for almost the entire dive, which was awesome for pictures and video. I honestly don't care if that ship was sunk on purpose, it was frigg'n (frigging because it's a frigate) cool! When the Tibbetts was sunk, it's bow came to rest over a small shelf and a subsequent storm cracked the bow down the incline. Even though I know better, it looks like it struck a mine and suffered a horrible death. This development only adds to the wreck's personality.
This dive is one of my favorites to date. The ship was so easy to see with the visibility, it hasn't been on the bottom long, but has plenty of life around it already. With as serious as we take diving, it also provided us a chance to get pictures of us riding the guns and bow, so it had every element to make it a memorable dive (cool, yet give us an opportunity to goof off) and it was perfect timing to provide a change of pace to all the wall diving we had been doing.
Doesn't matter the circumstances with how it got that way, a good wreck always makes me smile! Officially, this was the turning point of the trip.
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