For many UK divers visiting an old historic wreck can be the highlight of their diving holiday, as each wreck comes with its own story and can be decades or even centuries old. Wreck diving destinations like the Red Sea and Caribbean have so many wrecks to see that you could tailor a whole trip on wrecks alone. Tropical Sky have teamed up with some excellent Red Sea liveaboards who have tailored specialist itineraries to visit the best and most famous wrecks in the Red Sea including the world famous Thistlegorm and Shaab Abu Nuhas.
The best Caribbean wrecks that must be on any “to do” list includes Captain Keith Tibbets in the Cayman Islands and the Bianca C in Grenada, the wreck diving capital of the Caribbean.
Shipwrecks make great and sometimes dangerous sites for diving. Now, the sunken ships near the island of Cayman Brac aren’t really shipwrecks. Instead, these are ships that were sunk on purpose to make sites for exciting diving. The ships are first cleaned of any kind of pollution, such as engine oil. Next, dangerous parts of the ship are removed or disabled. Doorways to dark interior cabins are welded shut so divers can’t get trapped in the ship by accident. Finally, the ship is towed to where it will rest on the bottom on a sandy spot where it can be sunk without damaging any of the corals of the reefs. There, it is carefully sunk to make sure it comes to rest where it was intended, creating an exciting dive site as well as a great artificial reef that will attract and protect all kinds of marine life.
This big ship was a Soviet warship, the Frigate 356. Once owned by Cuba, this ship was purchased by Great Britain and taken to the Cayman Islands just to make a great site for diving. Several hundred feet long, this ship attracts many kinds of fishes, including grunts, snappers, and groupers. Several different kinds of corals and sponges are already growing on the surface of this ship.
