Another from the wayback machine, my first overseas dive trip. It was with an old Ft. Lauderdale dive club, the Aqua Addicts in 1972. Used to meet at the Hall Of Fame, rode my bike over there past all the old fishing charter boats, sea scouts house boat, old time Lauderdale haunts. Dive clubs like ski clubs in Florida are unusual in some respects. I have a theory, the less accessible a sport is, the more people like to get together to talk about it. For that reason, Florida has some of the largest ski clubs in the US while the dive clubs come and go. Understand Colorado has a large dive club. Go figure. The Addicts are long gone today but for a new 15 year old diver and new to Florida it was just the ticket. A weekend dive trip to Cay Sal Banks in the Bahamas was laid on departing out of Islamorada in the Keys.
The Double Headed Shot Cays on the NW quadrant of the Bank lay about 53 miles from Islamorada. Cuba is just 30 miles south of Cay Sal Bank. Little known but centrally located.
Doc Golden, long time Addict and notable Ft. Lauderdale diver volunteered to drive myself and another diver down to the boat in Islamorada. The 55 ft. steel hauled power yacht was tied up by the commercial fishing boats at Holiday Isle. It was captained by a self-avowed "beat-nik." True story, perhaps the only one I ever met. They sort of vanished in the 1950's and early 60's by accounts.
We head down to the Double Headed Shot Cays along the NW part of Cay Sal.
Even today, Cay Sal is off the path for many. It is remote, a "pseudo atoll" framed by the Florida Keys to the northwest, the Bahamian plateau to the east and Cuba to the south. Some have even theorized that Cay Sal was created by a large meteorite impact. It resembles a normal coral atoll common to tropical areas of the Pacific but I understand it was not formed in that fashion.
We had some pretty good rolling seas on the way down. Also, I recall they must have oversold the boat as there were guys in sleeping bags on the aft deck dead to the world snoring away in the morning. Being the only dry land for some miles, migrating warblers stopped by to rest. I was amazed to see them nosing around the guys faces passed out on the deck. One stuck its head in a guys mouth and even stepped in? Talk about wanting someplace dark to hang out. Bird, I would keep looking.
Eventually we were shadowed and then boarded by an armed crew from a USCG ship. The Bay of Pigs had happened just 11 years previously, the Cold War and enmity between the Cuba and the United States governments were in full swing. It was a routine search for contraband and shortly there after we were sent on our way. We were told the last time the vessel was in these waters it was boarded by crews from two Cuban gunboats. Wonder if there were any attack subs or boomers in the area? Unstable time and dicey area of the Straits in those days.
The long abandoned lighthouse station, like so many others in the islands
We made it to the cay and anchored off before the lighthouse. The lighthouse is not only abandoned but pretty much shredded by countless hurricanes. The buildings were built tough, just not tough enough for all the pounding. Cay Sal has been a layover spot for smugglers running north, more often south for a coons age. Weapons were the contraband of choice for a long time. We even saw some cartridge dumps underwater around the island. A bit of the Wild West in Cay Sal in those days. I understand rafters heading north from Cuba lay over there at times.
A view of the cays from the southwest.
https://wikimedia.org/
Gun running for the numerous revolutions going way back concluding with Castro's revolt of the late 1950's was a common thing. Not sure but it may have played a role in rum running during prohibition. It is a pretty remote area after all. Recall the rum runners would moor in cities off major ports waiting for night and speedboats to hull the hooch into shore. In more recent times running people and drugs has taken over.
The visibility was great, 100 ft. plus with an incredible cobalt blue cast to the water as I recall. It was this way in the Florida Current waters frequently in those days. Sadly, no longer at least not as often, climate change at work, you've got me?
We dove our single 72 cft and regs. with dinky vests for a couple of days. I recall being particularly impressed by a heavier guy's only slightly larger vest that had TWO CO2 cartridges. Blinded by science ... or was it technology? We didn't do any real deep stuff, that had to wait until I came back with a young lady and her family almost two years later. That's another story though.
The Cay has all these great rock solution features, caverns, blowholes, you name it. In good viz, lots of marine life it was quite a playground to explore. There was a wreck of a sidewheeler vessel there, the Steamship Marion of the Mitchell Line. Didn't figure out that it was a sidewheeler until sometime later by the giveaway cast iron support hoops laying on the bottom. It may have resembled one of the sidewheelers in the engraving above this. The Marion was traveling with passengers and cargo from Key West to New Orleans when it struck bottom off the Double Headed Shot Cays on April 2, 1863. The vessel was sinking so the captain elected to run the ship into the rocks of the cay. More about the wreck and circumstances at
http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/co...3_results.html
A illustration of the Steamship Marion, the one that gained fame at Ft. Sumter during the outbreak of the Civil War. It may resemble the vessel sunk off Cay Sal but is apparently a different ship.
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/ftsumter/marion.htm
Did some free diving may even made 50 ft, maybe. Would be a few more decades before I figured out long fins are a world better for free diving than my first Jet Fins. Time tells all, if we pay attention.
It was a great first trip, more to come. Would like to go back there and checkout some of those blue holes, kite in the lagoon and in some of the swell areas. Scooter free diving the drop offs would be a blast too. These days lots of other folks have been there, what sort of things did you see?