The big day is here! All week we have been reading on the news and hearing on the radio about the big event coming, The sinking of an old U.S. Navy Mine Sweeper. The ship did service in World War II and the Korean War. After being retired from service she was given to the Mexican Navy and proudly served under their flag until the end of her second career. Usually the scrappers get them and they are cut up but this one gets one more purpose. An artificial reef!
We love these. Great for diving and they protect the coastline from erosion. Every kind of fish will soon make this their home. The coral will start to grow and an entire ecosystem will be born. Today the plan was to use explosives to blow the through-hull valves, let her slip into the sea to her final resting place on the bottom of the entrance to an already very nice little bay that is used by divers in the area.
We invited friends to spend the morning on Silhouette. The plan was have coffee and muffins, and Liana made some egg, sausage, bacon muffin things that were delicious. The day did not go as planned. It went way better! The most perfect day we have seen here in a month. The sun came up and it was calm, warm, no wind, the fish were jumping, and there was a party atmosphere all around.
We are at a dock that only has four slips – the super yacht dock. The other three yachts are not live-aboard so most of the time we have the dock all to ourselves. About 8:00am two Rescate boats (similar to U.S Coast Guard rescue) of the Mexican Navy version roared in, swung around and tied up next to us on the outside dock. Next thing you know officers and dignitaries and armored vehicles all just showed up at the dock right beside us.
They made our dock the loading zone for every important person invited to watch the sinking of this old ship. Then came the secret service. On every hillside surrounding the bay were men with automatic rifles. The secret service guys were dressed in really cool Aloha shirts and tan pants. They all were carrying concealed weapons and had little curly wires coming from their ears. They just didn’t know what to do with us except give me a stern warning “no pictures, no video.” We don’t actually know who they were but they showed up in several black suburbans heavily guarded by the secret service. Along with several high ranking officers and their wives all dressed up. Everyone had their minion aids with them. Our dock was a buzz of military boats coming and going.
Out in the bay, one of the Mexican Navy ships was anchored off the point It was a command ship with a helicopter deck. Our guests arrived and we had to let the guards know they were with us. We had front row seats to everything. After coffee and breakfast it was time to head across the bay to watch the big event.
Liana and Orley paddled their kayaks and John and Dani came with me in the dinghy. We only had one mishap. John dropped one of our newly inspected auto-inflating life jackets (PFDs) in the water. They are saltwater activated and this one immediately inflated. Lucky he wasn’t wearing it or he would have looked like the Staypuff Marshmallow Man. We grabbed another jacket and loaded up in the dinghy and headed for the beach. It was a very crowded trip across the bay. Nearly half the boats in the harbor were heading out in an armada-like fashion to watch the sinking. Some were in a hurry, some going slow, many dinghies and kayaks, so it was a jumbled mess of boats.
When we got to the beach we tried out our new dinghy beach-tires. They worked great on this rocky soil. After tying up boats and kayaks we hiked over a little hill through cactus and rocks to see in full view the P106 (A.R.M. Santos) sitting quietly at anchor. All the windows had been removed. She was sitting way above her lines because all the fuel and oil had been long since removed from her tanks. A crowd of at least 50 boats and 100s of spectators gathered along the shoreline and out past the ship.
It took an extra hour before they were ready and a helicopter buzzed above us delivering dignitaries to the on-guard Navy Ship. We didn’t hear the count down until the last second or two and the blast took us all by surprise. They used a lot of explosives! Smoke came out the hatches and windows and smoke stacks and for a few minutes looked as if nothing was happening. Then the stern began to sink and the bow came up a bit. After a few more minutes the stern deck was awash and the Santos started a slow roll to starboard. Her stern quickly went under and then just the superstructure and forward bow were still visible.
As a last goodbye all the ships started blowing airhorns as this old minesweeper took her last breath and slipped below the surface and a loud speaker played the theme to Titanic. A bubbling fountain started coming up to the surface and lasted another few moments and she was on the bottom. Soon she will be a filled with fish and divers from all over the globe and she will start her new life – the star of the show. What an enjoyable day!
Our next blog will be our first Island hopping, sailing again blog so stay tuned for more fun!
Love Steve & Liana