Shipwreck Diving! Caribbean Island: St. Lucia City: Soufriere March 13, 2000 by Wayne & Karen Brown

Four and a half miles north of Anse Chastanet, Captain Felix, ties his boat onto a buoy that marks the wreck. We gear up for our dive, then zoom down to the wreck on our underwater scooters. The water is very clear. We can see more than 80 feet away! We rapidly come to the bow of the Lesleen M and see that it is now becoming a new reef! The ship was painted white. Now the entire ship is completely covered with hard corals, soft corals and sponges.

After stopping to study the bow we grab our scooters and continue to the stern of the ship. We see that some of the ship’s superstructure has fallen down, probably from the big waves of Hurricane Lenny that damaged some of St. Lucia's coast. We cruise down under the ship to see the propeller. It is no longer a smooth, shiny bronze. Now it is many different colors and fuzzy from the sponges and soft corals growing on it. As we circle the wreck once more we see that just like a real coral reef, fish have made this artificial reef their home.

We are getting low on air so we return to the surface. The Lesleen M has had lot of time for animals to settle in, on and around it. Next we will visit a fairly young wreck. The wreck we are looking for is one we searched for earlier in our expedition and could not find. We drop in the water where Captain Felix thinks it should be and zoom to the bottom on our scooters. After cruising over the bottom for about 3 minutes we see the side of this huge ship rising up off the sea floor, 104 feet underwater!

This wreck, a Japanese dredging ship named Danai Koyomaru (DAY-nigh KO-yo-ma-ROO), is 244 feet long and was sunk as an artificial reef in September 1996. Originally painted white, this ship is now covered with algae. In less than four years this ship is now covered with sponges and soft corals, and some of these gorgonians are over two feet across! Fish are attracted to this ship, too. We see large schools of fish swimming around and through the ship.

Before we return to the surface we circle the wreck and discover something very suprising. Resting on the side of the ship, next to an open hatchway, are two hawksbill sea turtles! One of the turtles swims away as we approach, but the younger one seems as curious about us as we are about him. He lays on the ship and lets us come up close to him and take some photos. Unfortunately our Aqua Lung/ U.S. Divers dive computers tell us that we are out of time, so we must return to the surface. Join us tomorrow as we kayak through a mangrove forest!

We took this picture minutes after the Lesleen M was sunk on October 1986. See how clean and new it looks.

Karen inspects the bow of the Lesleen M. Compare this photo with the first photo and see what changes to the ship you can find.

At 70 feet underwater Karen uses her dive light to inspect the large propeller of the Lesleen M. See how the propeller is completely covered with sponges and soft corals.

Karen zooms up to the shipwreck on her underwater scooter. The ship is laying on its right side so the hand rails we see are sideways.

Large schools of fishes are attracted to this shipwreck.

A young hawksbill sea turtle takes a rest on the side of the shipwreck. Hawksbill turtles can grow over 3 feet long, but this young turtle is only about 1 foot long.