Linda, other divers on boat

West Side Scuba Centre
westsidescuba.com

Dense school of squirrelfish Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Smallmouth grunts Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Preparing to enter a wreck Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Atlantic spadefish Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Inside the Bajan Queen Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Grunts parallel to the gunwale of a wreck Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Glasseye snapper Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Last minute phone call Photo by Rich in Barbados 2012

Dive Journal: After the lens trouble last dive, I hesitantly opened up the camera housing to give my camera a manual tweak. Always hate to do that when it's dripping wet, aboard a bouncing boat.

We spun back north and up into Carlisle Bay. Our divemaster had possibly noticed Linda's shrug of displeasure last dive about the short dive duration, and promised that this second dive would permit all the bottom time we wanted.

We could tell right away it was a very popular dive sight. A dozen or more dive and snorkel boats were all parked here and the waters were dotted with swimmers. A look downwards revealed why. Wrecks! Six of them. Sunk in 25 to 50 feet of nice clear water. What's not to like?

We followed our divemaster on a pattern to cover all six wrecks. The place is so inviting that old cannons and pylons are even arranged on the sand floor in the shape of arrows that point from one wreck to the next.

All six of them are quite covered by corals and sponges, and very definitely by clouds of fish. Many of the fish species group up, a hundred grunts, sixty squirrelfish, fifty spadefish. Two of the wrecks are fully penetrable, the Eillon and the Bajan Queen. Inside the Eillon, I approached a pocket of air inside, but decided not to actually go up into it and breathe. (I'd tried this before at a wreck and got quite a nasty taste from it.)

One of the coolest swims was through the interior of the Bajan Queen. Inside the main "party" room, one enters a salon full of fish, and then swims up around a spiral staircase to emerge out a topside door (or one can also emerge directly up and out). This part of the dive was fun and unusual.

I copied an online description of each of the wrecks here, for the record.

Berwyn: Carlisle Bay ~ 20ft ~ A 70 ft long World War I French Tug Boat sunk in 1919 by her own crew. The Berwyn sits between 7 and 10 feet below the surface depending on the tide. As a result of the calm water in the bay and the age of this wreck the Berwyn is covered in marine life including healthy hard and soft coral growth and their associated reef creatures.

Ce-Trek: Carlisle Bay ~ 45ft ~ The Ce-Trek, a derelict boat constructed of cement was sunk in January 1986. This shipwreck sits in deeper water on the northern edge of the park and is home to nice coral, soft coral and sponge growth.

Eillon: Carlisle Bay ~ 55ft ~ This 110ft drug boat was tied up for ~6 years in the Bridgetown careenage before it was sunk on 8th June 1996 in Carlisle Bay Marine Park. The wreck is easily accessqible for penetration and has an air pocket in the bow big enough to a conversation at 25' under.

Bajan Queen: Carlisle Bay ~ 35ft ~ She was Barbados’ first tugboat named the “Pelican” when the Bridgetown Harbour was being constructed in the 1960’s. A decade later, as more modern tugboats were purchased; the Pelican was then converted to a party boat called “Bajan Queen”. The Bajan Queen holds many memories for thousands of Barbadians and visitors alike. After years of operation as the party spot the Bajan Queen was donated to the Coastal Zone Management Unit. From there with the assistance of our very own Andre Miller the Bajan Queen was cleaned up and sunk on 19th May 2002 in Carlisle Bay Marine Park. She now sits only a few feet below the surface and is accumulating some excellent fish life and good coral diversity.

Cornwallis: Carlisle Bay ~15ft ~ A Canadian freighter sunk by a torpedo from a German U-Boat during World War II. This wreck was relocated from a very high boat traffic region of the bay to this Marine Reserve on 22nd October 2003.

Barge: Carlisle Bay ~ 12ft ~ A Naval Landing Barge found in Carlisle Bay. This wreck is now home to numerous reef fish including the puffer’s bigger cousin the porcupine fish.

An excellent dive. We lingered for about an hour. The wrecks were great but I especially liked all the fishlife on them.

Check out the rest of this day on Barbados, and if you want, read further about the whole trip.

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