What is name of the squished wreck at 130 feet on the sand with the field of garden eels directly out from Habitat? I know La Machaca is the small overturned boat at 40fsw or so at Habitat.

Here are the pics. There appeared to be a plaque on the bow but could not read it.

Hi Dan this links shows some of the wrecks:- http://www.aquaexplorers.com/bonire_shipwrecks.htm

it mentions one at 130 feet in front of Habitat. But the Hesper (Cap'n Don's old ship) is too big. Maybe a lifeboat? I have been down to it many many times the best visit it had a large green moray next to it with two Queen Angels swimming around the morays head.

Cool - will check out the link

40 feet might be close so I would guess that is the Hesper. At least that what I will call it until someone has a more accurate name.

Thanks again.

Again, from the description on your link above it mentions the Hesper as wooden and this wreck is steel, so........

Dan, I'm sure it is the Hesper. Right about 140 ft, and right downhill from La Machaca?

We just call it the "peapod" - describing its shape. Those cubera snappers (in your picture) can usually be found around there and we have seen the only mutton snappers (a pair) we've ever seen in Bonaire right there at the Hesper (aka Peapod).

Also notice that one side of the peapod seems to have peeled downward - we were there right after Omar and the peapod was relatively intact. Wonder what happened...

Brian - thanks for that link - very cool picture of Hilma Hooker before she sank...

I don't think that it is the Hesper as from memory it is only a small boat 15 foot long or so? Maybe Walt Stark or the crew at Habitat would know.

(Message edited by brianl on March 19, 2009)

Mel - yes that is the location. Hmmmmmmm.

The 130' deep wreck at Habitat appeared there after 1984; Don arrived at Bonaire in the '60s and his boat sank sometime soon after.

The deep wreck was a wooden boat sheathed in fiberglass. The hull was shaped like a sloop rigged 'fishing boat'; I don't remember any sign of a propeller shaft. The story at the time was that Don had bought the boat for parties (at the dock or at anchor) but that it sank 'accidentally'. More than one sizable hole in the hull made that sound strange.

When I first saw it most of the wooden hull and interior were intact though not in sailable shape. Gradually the worms and sea did away with the wood; the last time I saw her in '02 there was little left of the wood parts. I can imagine that the fiberglass sheath would look like Dan's first photo if it 'collapsed together' instead of 'opening out'.


I too saw a large green moray at the wreck. The first time it was on the open side of the hull, stretched out full length. I stopped on the sand bottom about ten feet out. Then I moved a little closer - she came out a little. I backed away a little. Because the eel was rather large I wanted to gauge it's size: I stretched out on the sand so my fin tips were about opposite her nose and stretched my hand out over my head. I judged that her tail was beyond my finger tips, a length of me that later measured at over 9 feet. I was told she was the larger of the two green eels that had been in a tank at Den Laman restaurant, to much indignation by local dive people, until they 'escaped' one night by smashing the glass wall of the tank and going to sea. I understand that 'our own' Michael G. is one 'local' who can tell something of this.

Another time I took an Our World-Underwater scholar down to see her. We were told by Tino, a divemaster at Habitat, that the eel liked to be hugged. (Ha!!) When Jamie first saw the eel you could have heard her a half mile away even with the mouthpiece. I invited her to touch the eel. She reached out several times but didn't quite touch, then shook her head. And I had no video camera - bad planning!!! (No, I didn't show her the way! Wanted to see Tino do it first! Green morays of that length have mouths of size! :–) )

The sea swallows all things, sooner or later.

Great story Glen

Addressing the title of this thread, I am not sure the boat had a name as a dive site. Perhaps Jack Chalk. or Janet, can help here.

Brian, thanks for the ship wreck link....that was fun!

Might be best to also check with Wilco, or Lutty @ Habitat for sure they would know.

I have a beautiful pic of the green moray on the side of Captn Don's boat before it imploded... nice eel and it was a wonderful wreck... good night diving on a full moon....the pic is at Kaya Venus 17, I'll be there on the 29th if anyone would care to come see it...

I think Capt. Don told the story of this wreck a few years ago. It would take a lot of searching to find it I think. I can't think of any particular key words that would help much. As I recall it they had wanted to place it much shallower, but it got away from them and they could not stop the descent. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
Mick

Here is Capt. Don's story

Sink the Lamachaca

Here we did it.
photo bij don


1977

After just a little over a year, Habitat had its foot in the door and was entering the world of Hotels and Resorts. Being designed both by and for hard-core divers, Habitat was an instant success. Starting out, I knew these divers would sleep in a box and eat from tin cans with chopsticks if the reefs were within easy reach, and at Habitat we could step off the cliff and into the corals. Actually, at that time Habitat boasted more corals than rooms, and sleeping bags were in vogue.

Winn, whom I had met as a boy years before and tried to help when he was injured by the bends, now sported his father's name and swung his arm from a repaired shoulder. These days, he owned a muffler shop and had become an ironmonger, among other things, for a hobby. Sport cars, big trucks and steel boilers became his new toys. Amongst all these playthings was a nifty little thirty-six foot steel hull fishing boat.

The engine was gone as was the glass in its windows, and it was for sale. Three hundred he said, and three hundred I paid. I had visions of this wonderful craft sitting amongst the corals just out front of the Habitat.

Winn had gone to great lengths describing the meaning of the name of this little craft, Lamachaca. He said the Lamachaca was a Brazilian fly with the following attributes: if it once bites a woman and she does not have sex within the hour, she will die. What a perfect legend for the new Habitat! Now my resort could be booked as a first aid station. Everyone was involved in the preparations being made for the sinking of this lovely little steel boat. It was intended to drop her in amongst the corals at exactly 40 feet. A beautiful little coral-free sand patch was to be the target.

Sinking day arrived, and the terrace at Habitat was crowded with fun-loving, hard-drinking divers. Everybody was there, for the long ropes centered the craft exactly over the target cove. Two of the ropes led ashore where linesmen were to slack off the rope as the boat sank. Snorkelers on the surface were to guide this action. The other two ropes were secured to the sterns of two powerful outboard motor boats that would keep the lines ashore tight as the Lamachaca settled. These ropes were more than long enough to do the job intended.

I opened the event by pouring a bottle of Amstel beer into the sea and motioned for the diver aboard the Lamachaca to open the seacock. The little boat started settling, slowly at first. Then as she filled with water the sinking became faster and faster and then even faster; the line tenders on the shore ropes were having trouble. Ropes became tangled. The rope tenders to the north tried to hold the rope by hand and were pulled off the cliff, leaving only one shore rope to hold the Lamachaca in place. The strain was awesome. The remaining rope became taut as a banjo string, then parted with a loud twang.

Lamachaca now having no shore restraint was fully influenced by the pulling boats. Later, the snorkelers on the surface said the Lamachaca resembled a glider as she started her dive for the deep, sailing smoothly over the top of the corals as she plunged down the steep incline that ended somewhere in the black abyss far below.

Suddenly, both of the pulling boats came to an abrupt stop even though both engines were running in forward. Then both boats were pulled backwards into a position where their stern ropes pointed vertically into the sea. The larger of the two boats was prepared for anything and knives came into play, cutting the rope that was dragging them down straight into hell. The other boat, smaller and less powerful, had only one man and no knife. With engine racing, the bow of the boat suddenly flipped up and into a vertical position as if wishing to race to the clouds, then simply disappeared. The captain was left floating about, saving his life by hugging the five-gallon fuel tank that had broken loose from the boat.

I watched the snorkelers racing out to sea, trying to stay above the descending Lamachaca as she ghosted on and downward toward the center of the earth. It was frightening, the stillness on that cliff after witnessing such a fine show of engineering. I walked over to the bar, ordering two fingers of tequila with ice. Downed it, looked out to sea at the floating quagmire of snorkelers and the remaining boat stationary over a spot a long way from shore. I ordered another tequila in a paper cup and went out to find my diving gear.

The sinking of the Lamachaca had been one helluva exercise, a lotta fun followed by a damned fine party that ran well into the night. Interested divers practiced air lifting with homemade lift bags, and a mechanic cleaned up the now salvaged engine of the smaller boat.

In addition to the excitement of sinking the vessel Lamachaca, the new Habitat was now considered a first aid center for the bite of the deadly Lamachaca, a reputation that swept the diving industry. There was a time when our register showed the men out numbered by women, quite unusual in the dive industry. In fact, the end result of our engineering exercise was rather amazing. The Lamachaca landed on a pure white patch of sand at exactly 130 feet, just at the base of the coral mountain. That boat knew exactly where she wanted to go from the onset of the sinking. Never question the intelligence of any boat called the Lamachaca.

Photo by Herb Taylor
boat at 130 ft.


-79-

One more story site only.... Name it!

I do not understand this story.
La Machaca is at 40 ft, not 130 ft.

Well
Capt. Don always says his yarns are 85% true.
Mick

LaMachaca - the 40fsw wreck does not appear 36 feet long but is steel. The wreck at 130 fsw may well be 36 feet long and steel but why is it crushed as it is in the pic? That does not fit with the story.

I sill would love to know what the plaque on the bow says. It was not readable ????

The wreck at 130 was wooden with a fiberglass sheath, What you see in the photo is the fiberglass sheath after toredoes ate all the wood. Apparently the south (starboard) side of the sheath has been pushed in, toward the north (port) side; she lies bow to the up slope.

Glen - thanks for the clarification. Still want to know what the plaque says.

It's a tribute to a diver that died on Bonaire a few years ago.

Thanks Walt. Wish I could have read it.

I don't understand the story. The La Machaca is the upsidedown turned wreck or am I wrong. I know that this wreck sunk at a 130ft. She was relocated in 1979 for a Dutch tv series called 'Duel in diepte'(Duel in the deep)