A Visit to the Antilles Star One Year
After the Sinking
July 5, 2005
John Lane and Cliff Norris visited the Antilles Star on the
Sea Urchin on 7/5/05. The Antilles was scuttled about one year
ago. Since then, the wreck has become a popular diving and
fishing location.
The ship was easy to locate because it was marked by a
large school of bait fish, with a turtle and several dolphins
swimming among the fish on the surface.
We anchored at 29 19.199 N, 80 44.771 W. Going down the
anchor line in the clear blue, 82 degree water we came to a
thermocline at 50 ft. Below the thermocline the temperature was a
pleasant 74 degrees. The ship is in the same position that she
was at the time of her sinking. She lies in a general southernly
direction and is intact. However, she is no longer lying on her
port side. The 2004 hurricanes have righted the ship so that that
there is only a 20-30 degree list to port. The visibility on the
bottom was about 25 feet. It was about 25-30 feet when we were on
or above the main deck of the ship.
We anchored in the sand along the port side, about
amidships. Looking toward the ship at the anchor, we noticed a 5
foot nurse shark in a scoured out area next to the hull. The
shark quickly moved away from us . Moving up to the main deck and
to the bridge, we found a large goliath grouper, next to the
captain's chair, looking back at us.
We saw three more goliath grouper who seemed to follow us
as we toured the ship.
The fish on the ship were mostly tomtate grunts. There were
also some porkfish, spadefish, sheepshead, mangrove snapper and
amberjack
On the stern, we noticed several large colorful orange and
white sea pork tunicates.
Coming back up slowly on the anchor line, in the clearer
water, we were among hundreds of small cigar minnows along with
some bar jacks, comb jellies and barracudas.
All in all, it was an interesting and easy dive.
John Lane
Volusia County Reef Research Dive Team
7/6/05