Article by Geoffrey May. Photos by Joyce Klein
Palm Beach County gained a new adventure spot on July 13th 2016 with the sinking of the Ana Cecilia. At 170 feet long and resting in about 80 feet of water she set down gently just outside the Lake Worth Inlet sitting upright and intact, but not without a few dents and scratches on the way down. This makes the 151st artificial reef for Palm Beach County and it will continue to attract divers for decades. She had been neatly cleaned, cut apart, stripped of all her wares and prepared for sinking over the last few months in Miami. This new “Wreck Dive” makes for an excellent open water experience that offers excitement for all levels of divers. The convenient location just North of the Lake Worth Inlet and just adds to the attraction as it eliminates a long boat ride to the dive site for scuba divers and is easily accessed even with smaller boats.
The Ana Cecilia will be the “flagship” of the wrecks in Palm Beach County according to one County commissioner quoted recently. The enormous size certainly makes that true. The sunken vessel does bring a new playground for scuba divers but the Commissioners and community wanted to add another purpose as well. It will also serve as a memorial to five Palm Beach County residents that lost their lives in boating accidents in the past year. Metal plaques have been placed permanently on the front of the wheelhouse in their memory. It is a reminder that the Ocean provides so many opportunities for enjoyment and recreation but it also hides a dangerous element that must be heeded. Scuba divers who wish to dive the wreck must use the proper equipment, have proper certifications and stay in areas of the wreck that are within their training.
The ship, built in 1972, has a history primarily as a general cargo vessel but over its long life played a few different roles, had multiple different names and owners, and eventually ended its working life when it was boarded by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after it had sailed back to Miami from Haiti in September of 2015. Customs agents proceeded to find more than $10 Million worth of a white powdery substance they determined to be cocaine. The boat had a brief moment of fame when it made National news with the first delivery of humanitarian goods from Miami to Havana in 50 years back in 2012. Shortly after that voyage she became a suspicious vessel in a drug smuggling operation.
My ship sinking adventure day started at 8:00 AM with my arrival at the Phil Foster State Park where I met the crew for the “Little Deeper” dive charter. This location is also known as the Blue Heron Bridge area where so many local and regional scuba divers visit for training, shallow diving and muck diving alike. The site is conveniently located heading East just over the Blue Heron Bridge before you get to Singer Island. The Little Deeper boat is docked at the Park which offers plenty of free parking, showers and bathrooms all conveniently located for use after your dive. The facilities are impressive and a big bonus when compared to other regional area charter boats. Divemaster Brad welcomed me with a friendly greeting and a roller cart to carry both of my Steel LP85 cylinders and gear bag down to the boat. My dive buddy was just a few minutes behind me. I proceeded to the office where I met Lynn who had coffee waiting and handed me my liability release form to fill out before the trip. She runs a dive shop on site that offers all the basics for sales and rentals as well as snacks and drinks if you need. The dock and facility also serves as the boat launching area for the County, State and Federal Government agencies water patrol and is a well maintained floating docks system with aluminum ramps to fluctuate with tides. A nice change from some of the splintered wooden docks some boats provide. The boat had a group of 10 divers that day with training levels that varied from newly certified Open Water divers to Technical Cave divers. This was the first sign that the Ana Cecilia does and will draw a wide variety of divers to the area and fulfill the financial aspirations of the local government agencies. Captain Jason introduced himself and proceeded to give us a brief synopsis of the agenda and explain the uncertainty of the dive time today as we had to wait on the authorities to do their thing. As with most things that take multiple levels of coordination with several different agencies you can expect some delays. The plan was to head out around 9 am as the current “start” for the sinking was set as 9:30-ish. The boat ride to the site would be 15-20 minutes at idle speed. Divemaster Brad stepped up and gave us the safety briefing and told us the rules of the boat. He then introduced Divemaster Craig who would help to guide us underwater and make sure we did not miss the turtle or shark on the dives. When the lecture stopped chatter ensued among the group as we learned about each other and shared recent diving adventures as the crew proceeded to loosen the lines and get us underway. We headed away from the dock, under the BH bridge and weaved around the sand bar and then Peanut Island towards the Lake Worth Inlet. As we were heading out the Inlet we could already see the excitement brewing just North as a sizable group of dive boats, law enforcement, and sightseeing vessels were circling the Ana Cecilia that was still tethered to the tow boat. Drones flew in the air to capture the last few views of the boat before she sank and you could see many people were hanging over the edge of their vessel with their phones out taking a selfie with the Ana Cecilia in the background. The anticipation was forming but due to multiple preparations that still needed to be finished the sinking would not actually start for a few hours yet. No worries, a party type atmosphere was in the air and the crew of the Little Deeper came prepared with snacks and fruit for all of us. Strawberries, watermelon and cantaloupe were passed around as discussions about the event filled the boat. Would it go down without a hitch? Maybe it would flip over and settle on its side. Was it going to list to one side or the other and foil the plans of the sinking crew hired to do the job?
Captain Jason kept us in the loop and would periodically announce the latest news that was coming over the radio from the sinking crew and we all perked up when they gave us the 10 minute warning. We could see the workers on the vessel frantically scurrying around to complete the final tasks before their shuttle boat came alongside the Ana Cecilia to pick them up one last time. Once all had been removed the actual sinking process began and to our amazement within about 10 minutes the ship was completely underwater. There was no BOOM and no explosions at all for this sinking. That is the “old way” of doing it which apparently did have additional hazards and was not always as precise as desired. The new way is to slowly fill the boat up with water in a controlled manner that allows for consistent and more accurate control of the process. It started very slow as they pumped water into the cargo hold and the engine room which caused the stern of the ship to be weighted down first. We watched the tail end go down and then the mid-section as the waters flowed over the deck and into the large cut-out holes that were placed just above the water line. The front on the ship contained the wheelhouse and was the highest point that was the last to be seen before it sunk below to its final resting place. A final spray of water erupted as the Ana Cecilia took its last breath of fresh air. The authorities informed us we would have to wait about an hour before we could dive the wreck so we headed over to a nearby reef and proceeded to hop in the water for our first dive of the day. A classic WPB reef dive with turtles, goliath grouper, lobsters and a reef teaming with fish of all colors and shapes. A good dive of course but all of us were already focused on the NEXT dive!
Finally, the time was upon us. The boat had been cleared for diving and surprisingly we were one of only three dive boats at the site for the inaugural plunge. The fact that this was a Wednesday morning certainly reduced the crowds and left the virgin wreck to just a handful of lucky divers. The current was moving along as usual in this drift dive capital so we were informed by Captain Jason to prepare and be cautious about our drop in when the time comes. Staying at the surface too long after your giant stride entry could mean we would drift over the wreck completely so we were encouraged to make a safe but fast descent to about 60 feet depth then drift into the wreck. The current was running North so the Little Deeper was set to drop us about 200 feet South of the wreck to ensure we did not miss the structure all together. I was suited up in my wetsuit, mask on, fins on, dive buddy was ready, and then I heard the words everybody had been waiting for. “Dive Dive Dive” screamed Captain Jason from the upper deck and I shuffled my way to the back, hand on my mask and regulator and off the stern I went. The current was obvious as soon as I hit the water so I quickly vented all the air from my BCD and sunk below the surface. Quick equipment check as I started my descent and before I knew it I could see two large white anchor chains in the sand below me that were leading North towards the object. Floating in the current the large ominous structure slowly came into view and behold the Ana Cecilia was right in front of me with open arms. Coming up on the bow fast I negotiated my position so I could reach the rail once the current pushed me into it. Grasping the front section I held myself steady so I could spend a few seconds taking in the sight and planning my tactic for exploration. It was evident that there were many different points of entry into the ship so the only decision was which one first. I saw my buddy in front of me already starting to explore so decided to swim right through the front window of the wheelhouse and begin by swimming around the multi-deck section at the front where most of the activity happens. Stairs heading down to lower levels where you can see the gutted rooms and living quarters were easily accessed even by recreationally certified divers but there were many sharp edges and corners from the cut metal openings that deserved attention. Chains and debris were still strewn all over the deck from the sinking process and as I meandered towards the stern of the ship I could then see that the hard landing on the bottom caused the prop shafts to be pushed up and protrude out of the top deck. Looking down into the holes you could see down to the sand and view the props directly. There were also large chunks of concrete that were apparently placed into the holds of the ship for ballast before sinking. They provided hundreds of nooks and crannies that would certainly be occupied soon by the multitude of sea creatures that were looking for a new place to call home. I continued to swim around to the back of the ship and could view the name and “Kingston” location designation still painted on the back. I continued on to complete a 45 minute dive and intricately inspected the freshly wet hunk of metal that was the latest addition to the underwater world.
As I finished my safety stop at 15 feet with my buddy and then inflated my surface marking tube to hail the boat at the surface, I exited the water with a sense of delight. The wreck was even better than I had imagined and with the barrage of chatter from all the other divers on the boat it was obvious this was a success for the local diving population. The Ana Cecilia may prove to be the most easily accessible wreck in the area and with the moderate 80-ish foot depth and less than 5 minute boat ride from the Inlet location it may also prove to be the most visited site in the future. As the next few years pass the dive should become even more exciting as the underwater world will slowly adopt the structure and make it part of its beautiful canvas.