mattmexico
Contributor
Havana Harbor Wreck Diving
By Andreas W. Matthes
Thinking about Cuba mostly tropical islands with lots of music and rhythm comes to my mind, the struggle of the lone Fidel Castro, Mojitos, fine cigars plus cave diving.
On previous trips to Cuba I did participate in the exploration of virgin caves in the bay of pigs area, helping with the training of close to a dozen cave divers in the year 2000 as a response to fatal cave diving accidents in the islands numerous caves, as the island consist of 80 % limestone and caves are almost everywhere.
On my last visit to the island in march 2005 I had done one of my most unique dives in my personal diving history as we were planning to dive to a garden of ancient anchors left over from centuries of treasure fleets coming and passing through Havana before they set sail to Spain. Due to a bad cold on my part and not feeling to good Beto, Miguel and me could not do the proposed dive since it would have involved as fast descent, so off we went to plan B.
Our diving vehicle of choice was a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere in good shape converted to a diesel engine. The dive gear from the three of us easy fitted into the spacious trunk. My dive partners just smiled at me when they did see my bewildered look.
The drive took us into Havana downtown, the Malicon to be precise. The Malicon is the waterfront boulevard that is on every post card from or article about Cuba. We stopped at the heart of Havana downtown, the Castillo or Morro, which is the harbor fortifications in clear sight, right at the entrance of the port of Havana were my dive partners started unloading the dive gear right onto the boulevard. I just thought I am in a movie of some sort but started unloading as well, carrying the dive gear to the waterfront were we suited up for the dive.
The dive briefing was short, max depth somewhat 74 feet, we all had EAN 36 in our 95 steel tanks, we were going to see two wrecks right in the port entrance. We were not to worry about ship traffic since the harbor captain told us the day before that only 15 ships are in port and traffic was not to be expected. If we would hear a ship coming just stay down since they have no more draft then 60 feet and we would be at 74 feet, nothing to worry, and in we jumped into the water drifting along the Malicon toward the fort and harbor entrance. I had a huge smile on my face at this part, if this was plan B I would like to come back and see plan A.
The surface water was a little turbid but at 65 feet we came upon the first wreck with remaining cargo of floor tiles can still clearly be seen. The wrecks are not in very good shape since Cuba is laying in the middle of the Hurricane belt and frequent storm during the last 120 years have taken their toll on the shallow wreck.
With the help of a compass and my competent guide Beto we continued our dive toward the second wreck located in the middle of the port channel at 74 feet. The Spanish warship Sánchez Barcaíztegui sunk due to collision in the year 1895. The Spanish warship was one of the first steam-powered warships in the Caribbean. The wreck is broken up badly but the knife like bow and the large boiler are still clearly identified. Artifacts are littering the ocean floor ranging from ancient bottles, glasses, rigging, port holes, ceramics, rifle cartridges and so on. Again we passed by some very old anchors lost at some point in time by some unfortunate vessel.
Besides coming of these two wrecks I suspect that this massive amount of artifacts is coming from a variety of ships passing by cleaning up ship as they sail into or out of port.
After close to an hour of bottom time and nowhere close to decompression we heading back to the shore and surface after passing by even more ancient anchors. If this is not the garden of anchors form plan A I need to come back for sure to see that garden of anchors.
Coming back to the surface we drift along the Malicon again, right under the port fortifications and the uniqueness of this dive is coming back to me. Dripping wet we disassemble our gear at the waterside boulevard until our 57 Belvedere is showing up again. Loading takes minutes and off we go half in wet suits, no t-shirts on, sunglasses on our faces and some huge smiles on our faces. What a nice dive.
Andreas W. Matthes
ProTec Advanced Training Facility
Calle, Avenida 25 y 30
77710 Playa del Carmen
Q.Roo, Mexico
( 984 ) 80-31168
matt@protecdiving.com
www.protecdiving.com
By Andreas W. Matthes
Thinking about Cuba mostly tropical islands with lots of music and rhythm comes to my mind, the struggle of the lone Fidel Castro, Mojitos, fine cigars plus cave diving.
On previous trips to Cuba I did participate in the exploration of virgin caves in the bay of pigs area, helping with the training of close to a dozen cave divers in the year 2000 as a response to fatal cave diving accidents in the islands numerous caves, as the island consist of 80 % limestone and caves are almost everywhere.
On my last visit to the island in march 2005 I had done one of my most unique dives in my personal diving history as we were planning to dive to a garden of ancient anchors left over from centuries of treasure fleets coming and passing through Havana before they set sail to Spain. Due to a bad cold on my part and not feeling to good Beto, Miguel and me could not do the proposed dive since it would have involved as fast descent, so off we went to plan B.
Our diving vehicle of choice was a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere in good shape converted to a diesel engine. The dive gear from the three of us easy fitted into the spacious trunk. My dive partners just smiled at me when they did see my bewildered look.
The drive took us into Havana downtown, the Malicon to be precise. The Malicon is the waterfront boulevard that is on every post card from or article about Cuba. We stopped at the heart of Havana downtown, the Castillo or Morro, which is the harbor fortifications in clear sight, right at the entrance of the port of Havana were my dive partners started unloading the dive gear right onto the boulevard. I just thought I am in a movie of some sort but started unloading as well, carrying the dive gear to the waterfront were we suited up for the dive.
The dive briefing was short, max depth somewhat 74 feet, we all had EAN 36 in our 95 steel tanks, we were going to see two wrecks right in the port entrance. We were not to worry about ship traffic since the harbor captain told us the day before that only 15 ships are in port and traffic was not to be expected. If we would hear a ship coming just stay down since they have no more draft then 60 feet and we would be at 74 feet, nothing to worry, and in we jumped into the water drifting along the Malicon toward the fort and harbor entrance. I had a huge smile on my face at this part, if this was plan B I would like to come back and see plan A.
The surface water was a little turbid but at 65 feet we came upon the first wreck with remaining cargo of floor tiles can still clearly be seen. The wrecks are not in very good shape since Cuba is laying in the middle of the Hurricane belt and frequent storm during the last 120 years have taken their toll on the shallow wreck.
With the help of a compass and my competent guide Beto we continued our dive toward the second wreck located in the middle of the port channel at 74 feet. The Spanish warship Sánchez Barcaíztegui sunk due to collision in the year 1895. The Spanish warship was one of the first steam-powered warships in the Caribbean. The wreck is broken up badly but the knife like bow and the large boiler are still clearly identified. Artifacts are littering the ocean floor ranging from ancient bottles, glasses, rigging, port holes, ceramics, rifle cartridges and so on. Again we passed by some very old anchors lost at some point in time by some unfortunate vessel.
Besides coming of these two wrecks I suspect that this massive amount of artifacts is coming from a variety of ships passing by cleaning up ship as they sail into or out of port.
After close to an hour of bottom time and nowhere close to decompression we heading back to the shore and surface after passing by even more ancient anchors. If this is not the garden of anchors form plan A I need to come back for sure to see that garden of anchors.
Coming back to the surface we drift along the Malicon again, right under the port fortifications and the uniqueness of this dive is coming back to me. Dripping wet we disassemble our gear at the waterside boulevard until our 57 Belvedere is showing up again. Loading takes minutes and off we go half in wet suits, no t-shirts on, sunglasses on our faces and some huge smiles on our faces. What a nice dive.
Andreas W. Matthes
ProTec Advanced Training Facility
Calle, Avenida 25 y 30
77710 Playa del Carmen
Q.Roo, Mexico
( 984 ) 80-31168
matt@protecdiving.com
www.protecdiving.com
