badbread
Guest
Just got back last night from a week in the Dominican Republic. Really beautiful place, stayed at Dreams Resort in La Romana on the South Eastern side of the island right near Catalina. It was an amazing resort, highly recommend it!
Anywho, while at the resort the local dive club had something setup with the resort where you get the first PADI dive lesson free in the pool for people interested in SCUBA. As the dive shop guy explained, they do that so people know if Scuba is something they are into and so people don't pay the $90 for a real dive without knowing if they can do it. Cool thing is, that dive counts as part of the PADI open water or cert. Scuba diver license. I did it, in total it was $305 for a PADI certified SCUBA diver and I got a free bonus dive!!!
Shot of the Dive place, just down the beach from the resort.
Dive spots, looking at my log book I did: Viva Shallow twice and Dominucus Reef.
View from the dive shop, the ship that sunk is about 300m out from this spot.
When we first got to the resort there was this old rusty ship anchored out in the ocean just outside the beach. We all talked about it and wondered what it was, etc... Here is a quick picture of it:
I think the Scuba guys said it was a 160 foot long or something like that.
So the day before we were set to leave I had to go back and take the PADI tests and do all that stuff. I was told to be there at 9am, when I show up at 9am all the divers were out checking out a ship that sank that morning. I really didn't think anything of it, and didn't even realize the big ass ship we were all talking about was gone. I go in, watch a couple videos, and then head out with Narcisco to do my ocean test.
When I come back all the divers are back and have a small group of people going out to check out this brand new ship wreck. At first I wasn't going to go because I had already ditched my friends and GF for 2 days, spent a bunch of cash, etc... but the instructor I took the pool lesson with kind of made me go. He told me that I will never in my life have a chance to see something like this again. The ship sank this morning, it's in 15m of water, and the next hurricane that comes is going to tear it to pieces. So I went.
It was amazing, as you pull up to the spot and the temporary buoy made of out life jackets all you see through the crystal clear water is the bridge of the ship maybe 10 feet below you, this massive massive silhouette of a ship that we saw above water just hours ago.
We hop in and follow the line down and wait at the front of the ship for the rest of the group, it was surreal, all these underwater Scuba movies and shows you see on TV were flowing through my mind, it was amazing! First thing we do is go down about 15-18m and circle the perimeter of the ship. The ship landed smack dab in the middle of the reef. There were many sea fans at least 3-4 feet wide, tons of sponges, brain corals, tangs, blue and yellow damsels, big ass puffer fish, sting rays, grouper, a lot of parrot fish, and so much more. We circle around the ship once at about 15m. The back of the ship created somewhat of a tunnel between rocks in the reef so we swam under that which was really cool. After that we toured the surrounding reef area Robin our guide was picking up pieces of the ship that came loose when it sank, and cutting anything we could get caught up on.
From there we entered the ship from the left side. We started on the 2nd floor of the ship and went right through the middle, past the bathrooms onto the back part of the ship. From there we swam up another floor and went through the kitchen area and deck. We swam up to the front of the ship, all posed like Jack in Titanic on the front the of the ship and then swam into the bridge and played with the controls in there. There were still a lot of personal items on the ship from the 3 people who were living on it before it sank.
I was 1 of 4 of the first group of regular Scuba divers to check out that wreck. I have to say I am hooked, I can not wait to go anywhere I can dive again. I am going to go get my Open water certification as soon as I can, I would have done it there but I didn't have enough time.
Anywho, while at the resort the local dive club had something setup with the resort where you get the first PADI dive lesson free in the pool for people interested in SCUBA. As the dive shop guy explained, they do that so people know if Scuba is something they are into and so people don't pay the $90 for a real dive without knowing if they can do it. Cool thing is, that dive counts as part of the PADI open water or cert. Scuba diver license. I did it, in total it was $305 for a PADI certified SCUBA diver and I got a free bonus dive!!!
Shot of the Dive place, just down the beach from the resort.
Dive spots, looking at my log book I did: Viva Shallow twice and Dominucus Reef.
View from the dive shop, the ship that sunk is about 300m out from this spot.
When we first got to the resort there was this old rusty ship anchored out in the ocean just outside the beach. We all talked about it and wondered what it was, etc... Here is a quick picture of it:
I think the Scuba guys said it was a 160 foot long or something like that.
So the day before we were set to leave I had to go back and take the PADI tests and do all that stuff. I was told to be there at 9am, when I show up at 9am all the divers were out checking out a ship that sank that morning. I really didn't think anything of it, and didn't even realize the big ass ship we were all talking about was gone. I go in, watch a couple videos, and then head out with Narcisco to do my ocean test.
When I come back all the divers are back and have a small group of people going out to check out this brand new ship wreck. At first I wasn't going to go because I had already ditched my friends and GF for 2 days, spent a bunch of cash, etc... but the instructor I took the pool lesson with kind of made me go. He told me that I will never in my life have a chance to see something like this again. The ship sank this morning, it's in 15m of water, and the next hurricane that comes is going to tear it to pieces. So I went.
It was amazing, as you pull up to the spot and the temporary buoy made of out life jackets all you see through the crystal clear water is the bridge of the ship maybe 10 feet below you, this massive massive silhouette of a ship that we saw above water just hours ago.
We hop in and follow the line down and wait at the front of the ship for the rest of the group, it was surreal, all these underwater Scuba movies and shows you see on TV were flowing through my mind, it was amazing! First thing we do is go down about 15-18m and circle the perimeter of the ship. The ship landed smack dab in the middle of the reef. There were many sea fans at least 3-4 feet wide, tons of sponges, brain corals, tangs, blue and yellow damsels, big ass puffer fish, sting rays, grouper, a lot of parrot fish, and so much more. We circle around the ship once at about 15m. The back of the ship created somewhat of a tunnel between rocks in the reef so we swam under that which was really cool. After that we toured the surrounding reef area Robin our guide was picking up pieces of the ship that came loose when it sank, and cutting anything we could get caught up on.
From there we entered the ship from the left side. We started on the 2nd floor of the ship and went right through the middle, past the bathrooms onto the back part of the ship. From there we swam up another floor and went through the kitchen area and deck. We swam up to the front of the ship, all posed like Jack in Titanic on the front the of the ship and then swam into the bridge and played with the controls in there. There were still a lot of personal items on the ship from the 3 people who were living on it before it sank.
I was 1 of 4 of the first group of regular Scuba divers to check out that wreck. I have to say I am hooked, I can not wait to go anywhere I can dive again. I am going to go get my Open water certification as soon as I can, I would have done it there but I didn't have enough time.
