The Hermaphrodite Brig, Barracuda and Fire Coral

Our next stop was John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park near Key Largo. Aboard the diveboat Reef Adventures we set out on a 2-tank trip to the City of Washington shipwreck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Washington_(ship) and the Elbow Reef. Both were shallow dives with maximum depths of 25' and extended bottom time.

First up was the City of Washington, a ship which was historically significant because it was moored near the USS Maine in the harbor at Havana, Cuba on the night of February 15, 1898. And the significance of that date is seared into the memory of every red blooded American, right?

Even more important than Feb 15, 1898 was the fact that City of Washington was a "hermaphrodite brig." Go ahead, if you don't believe me, check it out.

Okay, long story short...the City of Washington grounded on the reef off of Key Largo in July of 1917, subsequently broke apart and is now part of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park . After a waddle across the deck and a giant stride into the water we began exploring the reef and the wreck.

Cameron and I started off trying to move away from the crowd, and for the first fifteen minutes we were generally successful. The boat captain had asked everybody to surface at 15 minute intervals to locate the boat. Since the maximum depth was only 25' yo-yo diving was perfectly acceptable...if you go deeper than 1 atmosphere your dive is over once you break the surface, regardless of the amount of air in your tank.

When we surfaced to check location after the first 15 minutes we were about 30 yards away from the diveboat and completely off of the wreck. After going back down we worked our way back to the remains of the bow. From there we swam about 30 or 40 yards down the port side of the ship. There we saw a barracuda, and down under one of the steel plates of the hull a big grouper was hanging out. We stayed and watched the grouper and the 'cuda for several minutes and then began working our way back towards the boat.



Hanging out directly under the boat was a very large barracuda. As we hovered near the boat waiting for our turn to climb back aboard, one of the divers ahead of us dropped her weight belt. The 'cuda, which I think was between 4 and 5 feet in length, shot down towards the bottom after the weight belt. The speed and agility of the fish was something to behold. A few minutes later we were back aboard, and the boat moved about 400 yards over to our next dive stop, which was the Elbow Reef.



This was another 25' dive, and was pretty unremarkable except I ran my hand through the branches of a fire coral. That stung. Badly.

Specifics for the August 9, 2007 dives:

• Location #1 - City of Washington shipwreck, Pennekamp Park
• Time In - 14:10
• Time Out - 15:10
• Exposure - 3mm full wetsuit with booties
• Weights - 16 lbs
• Air In - 3000
• Air Out - 1000

• Loation #2 - Elbow Reef, Pennekamp Park
• Time In - 15:30
• Time Out - 16:20
• Exposure - 3mm full wetsuit with booties
• Weights - 16 lbs
• Air In - 3000
• Air Out - 1300

August 8, 2007 - 15 dives, 552 minutes of bottom time