Scuba Dive on the Bounty...kind-of

South 0Pacific Ocean - 25 miles NE of Pitcairn Island - 24 48.5S 130 28.7W

Today while mom and Bill went to town to get some veggies, see a patient, and tour the island I went on a dive. First stop was a wrech just around the corner from Bounty Bay, about 200m west of the small point at the western edge of the harbour. The wrech is apparently 130ish years old and I think they said it was a 3 masted steel sailing vessel, though I only saw the remains of one spar. The ship apparently was in the business of transporting anchors as there are at least 4 or 5 identifiable at the bow. The ship was clearly had riveted frames, though I was unable to see how the plating was secured due to too much growth, but I would assume that was hot riveted as well based on the age. A decent wreck, though not a ton of structure left with everything laid flat on the bottom. The wreck lays in water from 20' to 40' deep, so the surge was pretty significant this close to shore, making viewing under the panels a bit difficult. Still, there was a TON of fish living emong
st the wreckage, some of them quite colorful. I only used 1000psi for a 25 min dive, but it was reasonably enjoyable and nice to spend some time in the water. After that we headed to the site of the bounty, at least where they said it was. This was only about 10 feet of water and quite a lot of surge so we didn't stay long, plus there wasn't really anything to see. There were some 4x4's or something that looked like that that could have been the bounty.....I suppose. Anyway...I got back to the boat, broke down my gear, rinsed it, hauled anchor and we are now peacefully on our way to French Polynesia. Should be about 42-45 hours passage, mostling motoring, which is fine as we are basically a motorboat right now without a main or reacher available. wind is about 10 knots just aft of the beam, which translates to about 5 knots on the beam apparent. Just enough to fill the jib (mostly) and give us an extra half to quarter of a knot push and steady the boat out a bit. Qu
ite pleasant and relaxing really. It will most likely be calmer out here tonight than it would have been at anchor in Bounty Bay.