On Saturday December 5, 2009 we once again went to the tugboat wreck at Vaersenbaai. This is a dive beyond the limits for recreational diving, so we don't do this too often. But we still needed to take some measurements to find out the dimensions of the boat. And we wanted to know if the engine is still in the engine room.
WARNING: don't do this dive unless you know what you are doing; this is a deco dive!
By an unimaginable coincidence my wife and I happened to be in Aruba for a short vacation at exact the same day that the owners of the axe that was used to launch the ss Dahlia (original name of the ss Mediator) visited Aruba on board of a cruise ship. So when we found this out during our mail conversations an appointment was made to meet at the cruise terminal. My wife and I were waiting at the gate of the cruise terminal at 9 AM; I was wearing my Alphen / Mediator T-shirt to be recognizable and I was holding a picture of them that I got from Elizabeth via e-mail. Read more...
On Sunday November 22, 2009 we went back to the Mediator for the first time since a long time. The reason for the long period of absence is that we are lacking sufficient volunteers to do the regular things. But this time 5 members of the hard core of the volunteers were present plus a number of guests for a guided tour. The idea was to check the status of the airlift, to find out what is blocking the entrance to the front hold (under the bow deck) and to restart the guided tours. This all with the intention to work at the Mediator at least every other weekend.
My goal was to find out what mysteriously blocked the portside entrance to the hold under the bow deck. Swimming under the bow deck from portside to the starboard side is one of the attractions during the guided tour, but last time we found out that this was no longer possible. I took some pictures of the area last time but apparently missed the essential piece. Read more...
Once again Rob and I went diving at Baya, the home of the tugboat wreck. After a nice dive in which we encountered some squids and a turtle we ended our dive as usual under the pier. A large tanker was moored to that pier so it was quite dark under the pier. But with my new focus / video light this was no problem. In the bright light of the Fisheye FIX Led 1000DX the colors of sponges and coral became very bright. The resulting video is much better than the previous one at this location. As an added surprise we found an octopus attached to one of the struts.
The development of Vaersenbaai has started again. The old weekend houses and the old dive shop are removed. In the future a renewed beautiful beach will arise at this place. A first impression how it will look like can be found at the web site of Trunkdivers; Trunkdivers will run the new dive shop at this location. Also information can be expected at the web site of Kokomo Beach.
Vaersenbaai Has always been a dive location with a variaty of diving options. Apart from the nice coral reef there are the car wrecks and the pontoon with which the cars are transported. Less well known is the fact that also the tugboat that is used to tow the pontoon is sunken here. That wreck lies beneath the acceptable depth for non-professional divers at a depth of 50 meters (150 feet).
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