190910 Closed Baths, the Chimney, and the Kodiak Queen

We left Cooper Island early so that we could catch the Baths on Virgin Gorda before noon. Of course, the Baths were closed because of the strong swells, so we set sail for the Dogs. Wonderful dive at the Chimney on the west side of Great Dog. Lots of surge from the northern swells made for an uncomfortable surface stay for Lori and a rather physical dive for Eric and I.

On surfacing, we cast off the mooring ball immediately and headed over to calmer waters and the Kodiak Queen. The Kodiak Queen remains to be an impressive dive, tons of sea life, and lots of history. She was a US Navy fuel barge, one of the five ships that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. in 2012 she was discovered rusting in a Road Town junkyard. Mike Cochran and Owen Buggy worked to sink her and create an artificial reef. They cleaned her up and covered her stern with steel mesh in the shape of a Kracken climbing onto the stern of the ship to give coral a lot of surface area to adhere to and populate. The project was completed in early 2017 and she was sunk in Long Bay off the NW shore of Virgin Gorda. Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September of that year damaged some of the mesh that formed the kracken. We cleaned off the dedication plate and took some pics that were sent to Owen.

After the dives the wind picked up so we headed away from the islands for a few hours to get some sailing in before making it to Leverick Bay and grabbing a slip so that we could enjoy air conditioning for an evening.

The Chimney>Kodiak Queen>Leverick Bay