Wreck dives have always been an alluring thing for me; I love everything from the initial approach to the vessel, to the often tight and somewhat precarious swim-throughs found within. There’s just something about finding oneself exploring a place that wasn’t originally designed to be such, with no one there telling you where you can and can’t go (with safety always in mind, of course). It becomes a dark playground, an underwater maze of sorts, where your only way out is to continue following the dim light through narrow hallways and metal corridors, and eventually (hopefully) back out into the open water. It can be an edgy feeling, but also quite exhilarating.

But before I get too far ahead of myself…

For this particular trip, I went on a 2-tank boat dive with an outfit called Grand Bahama Scuba, based in Freeport. We landed first at a reef known as “Moray Manta”, though there were no moray eels or mantas to be found (and if there ever was a manta ray in this area, it would be quite exceptional!). Nonetheless, the reefs and canyons here offered some colorful and diverse aquatic life and landscape. Here’s a short firsthand tour of what its like to swim along these canyons (with the natural soundtrack left in):

For those who’ve spent any time diving in the Caribbean, the topography here will be familiar. There wasn’t much out of the ordinary as far as fish or flora, but the water temperature was comfortable as usual (82-85°F/27°C) and the visibility that day was 100-150 ft, or about 30-50 m. We spent 50 mins scaling the reef, did our 3 min safety stop, then surfaced and made our way to the second site where our beloved tugboat awaited.

The Little Tugboat that Could NOT

So back to my intrigue with wreck dives…not only is it the actual diving experience, but also my appreciation of the story behind a sunken vessel. Our guide did a reasonable job explaining the situation here, but the story had not yet been publicly announced, as the tug had only been sunken there for about 3 months! The paint was fresh and the cockpit controls were still well-intact – user manuals were still clean, legible, and drifting about under the cabinetry!

The boat had been out on its first hired job, and had run into some “trouble” while towing the load, which happened to be a much larger pilot vessel (if my memory is correct here). The saddest part might be that the property insurance that was supposed to cover this kind of mishap did not actually become effective until the next week!

So the owner had taken on the job knowing there was this immense risk on the table, and severe bad luck just won the day. The fortunate part, however, was that no one was seriously injured during the accident, and now Freeport has a new and barely-tainted wreck site for both locals and tourists!

I’d mentioned swim-throughs being my favorite part of wreck dives, and although this one was not so dark and foreboding, it was neat getting to swim up along the ladders and out through the cockpit.

Grand Bahama Scuba provided a safe and well-equipped diving experience, though lacking any type of refreshment between dives, which was disappointing. If you decide to go with them, be sure to bring your own fresh water and whatever you’d like to eat during your surface interval. If you’d like to check them out, here’s a direct link to their website for pricing and schedule.

Feel free to leave me a comment below if you enjoyed this post or have anything to add. Stay safe out there everyone 🤿