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Ocean Promotion Scuba & Snorkel Adventures
Wreck Diving
There are over forty artificial reef sites we dive, most of them shipwrecks. In all depths and suited to all different skill levels, we can provide you with all the wreck diving thrills you can handle. Our newest addition to the 'collection' is the 150' United Caribbean, sunk near her neighbors, the Noula Express and the Sea Emperor south of the Boca Raton Inlet about a mile offshore. Already home to schools of bar jacks and yellowtails, complete with the required barracuda keeping watch in the wheelhouse, the "United Caribbean" sits upright in 73' with her superstructure topping out at 45".
Ancient Mariner
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It was a scary ride out to the site that June day in 1991 when the Ancient Mariner was being towed to her final resting place. The 165' retired Coast Guard Cutter had fallen on hard times and already having sunk at her dock twice before, it was a coin toss to see if the old ship would weather the four foot seas that threatened to build as she went her last few miles.
Commissioned in 1934 as the "Nemesis" the cutter performed coastal watch and lifesaving duties from her homeport of St. Petersburg, FL her entire career, save the war years when he was a sub hunter in the Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Atlantic. After being decommissioned in the 60's she languished until her purchase and conversion to a floating restaurant and bar along Fort Lauderdale's trendy new river district, eventually being renamed the Ancient Mariner. Before the renamed vessel could roll out her gangplank to serve her first drink, she sunk at the dock. Finally opening in late 1981, many months and nearly $100,000 later she gained international attention as a popular eatery and nightspot.
Her glory days were short lived though, when in 1986 over 100 diners were caught up in the largest single outbreak of 'Hepatitis A' in Florida history, courtesy of an infected salad chef. The Ancient Mariner closed its doors forever. Left to her own, she eventually sunk at the dock a second time. The old boat showed she still had a fighting heart as she managed to stay afloat until she reached her final destination. The unusually blustery June day kept many local boats in port that day that would have customarily been out to wish the latest artificial reef a last farewell. In less than ideal weather, and mostly unseen by the rest of the world, she gave up and sunk obediently beneath the waves. Still with one last surprise to her, when the Ancient Mariner struck the bottom, the planking that had been laid over her steel deck for the comfort of the patrons, shook loose and floated to the surface. It took several boats and many hours before the authorities collected the flotsam, during which time the crews jokingly referred to it as their "portable dance floor". Now covered with a nice carpet of hard and soft corals, you can still see places on her hull where she was riveted together. The Nemesis was built before the era of welded steel ships and, as the Ancient Mariner, is a piece of history in many ways yet today.
Jay Scutti
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In the years right after the Mercedes I was sunk, the prices of those rusting old hulks on the Miami River started to get pretty dear.
Buying, cleaning and sinking a coastal freighter went from just over 10 thousand to over a hundred thousand faster than you could say "Holy Shipwreck!" And then the prices REALLY took off. The 97' tug "Airkok" was found and hauled up to Fort Lauderdale from Aruba where she was renamed "Jay Skutti" in honor of a distinguished member of the local maritime community, and sank in 1986 in 70' of water with her top rising to about 56'. She sits proudly upright, somehow escaping the wrath of Hurricane Andrew, facing north and south.
The tug provided excellent experience for novice wreck divers during her first half dozen years on the bottom. A local instructor even went so far as to run a 'cave line' from the large entrance way at the stern to the forward hatch, passing by the engine room and hold along the way. He put it there as a convenient place to train divers for going into caves and caverns in northern Florida, the fact it was a handy aid to first-time wreck explorers was simply a bonus. The bountiful currents have blessed the Jay Scutti in ways greater than many of her sister artificial reefs. Phenomenal growth of soft corals and invertebrates has all but closed off the passageway through the tug. Her giant propeller now only allows reef fish to swim between her blades where once divers, the size of football players, once swam with east. It is not uncommon to find a good sized Atlantic Stingray or two lounging, half buried, in the sand by her stern, and occasionally a giant Horse Conch will be seen trying to take a short cut across the sand on the landward side of the wreck.