I took the day off (or course Tom already had the day off) and we went out with Jan, Ray and Louie on Jan & Ray's boat to watch the sinking. As we pulled out Key West we could already see Vandy in the distance waiting for her final hour. The site is about 7 miles offshore, outside the reef, so we made our way along with LOTS of other boats. It was estimated that over 200 boats came out to watch the historic event. We found our spot anchored in and waited. Usually things here do not happen on time but this was a special event and it actually did take place between 10 & 11 am as scheduled. There was a slight delay due to a turtle in the area that had to be moved. Seemed the creature was already looking for a place to live! We had the radio on and listened to the count down, then we heard the big boom of the charges going off, watched the smoke come up, then watched her sink down to just bubbles as The Vandenberg Song played, people cheered and boats honked their horns. I had goosebumps & tears!!! It all happened in 1 minute & 44 seconds which was faster than expected to witness history!
Here is the site that has a number of great video's on it. It will give you the feel of being there.
http://www.sinkthevandenberg.com/ondemand.html
So far there are 4 of them posted and new ones seem to be added each day.
The last one in the list (scroll down to see it) is the view from the chopper and is excellent. It gives the full view.
The second one in the list is the on-board cameras which shows what it looked like going down from different areas.
The third one is from the boat that the Joe Weatherby was on and you can hear his reaction. Joe is the brain child of the project. He had this idea 13 years ago and never gave up hope it would happen.
Of course the Mel Fisher group had a hand in this. They donated the salvage boats to come out and be used for the tech divers after the ship went down. Since they were on sight they were able to dive just hours after she had reached the ocean floor and before she was opened to the public to dive. Below is the video that they took of what she will be like when we get a chance to dive her. It is really cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPzju0TqHL0
Then of course in KW style the parties began.... we took our boat over to a sandy reef closer to shore, popped the cork on the champagne to celebrate, had lunch, swam and had a beautiful day.
That was just the beginning since that evening started with the Save the Vandenberg, Sink Joe Weatherby party at Half Shell. It was a tribute and honoring of Joe for all that he did. Then the party moved to the Rumbarrel where Howard Livingston and Mile Marker 24 band was playing (check them out in iTunes if you like Jimmy Buffett music). They are a favorite local band and wrote The Vandenberg Song. We finished out the night there with friends and toasts and to much RUM!
After she went down it as taken a couple of days to get her ready and open for public use. The 2 satellites that were on the top were dislodged during the sinking and had to be secured along with the other items that had to be finished. As of this morning.... the POOL IS OPEN!
Tom is working today (taking MF investors to dive) so we haven't decided when we will have a chance to get down and see her but it will be SOOONNN!!!
It seems that all we have talked about for I don't know how many weeks is Vandy. I am sure you are also wondering about it since there have been so many blogs about it. With having a the worlds second largest man-made reef it brings a world class dive site in our own backyard and so much more to KW. Here is the a list of the things that an artificial reef bring:
- boost the local economy, encouraging tourism and creating jobs
- create marine habitat and increase marine life population,
- relieve pressure from the surrounding natural reef,
- provide an opportunity to scientifically document the effects of artificial reefs with an ongoing monitoring program,
- provide a platform for education and research,
- preserve the history and honor the memory of those who served and traveled on the ship
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