I recently (finally …) had the opportunity to dive the USS Kittiwake.   The USS Kittiwake is a decommissioned US Naval ship that was sold to the Cayman Islands Government and sunk a few hundred feet off Seven Mile Beach to become an artificial reef and wreck dive.

The USS Kittiwake was commissioned in 1946 and decommissioned in 1994.  Although this ship was involved in all kinds of operations during its service, the most interesting fact about it for me is that it recovered the “black box”‘ of the Space Shuttle Challenger after the 1986 disaster.  Quite a historical boat we have here.  It’s also quite a big ship @ 251ft long.

Great day for a dive ; calm ocean

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Here is the USS Kittiwake.  The first few pictures are from the surface while snorkeling around the boat.

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The smoke stack ; remember this for later.

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Wheel house

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My favorite picture.  That is me swimming along side of the boat.  You can get a sense of how big it is.

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The propeller & rudder.

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At the wheel 🙂

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From the inside of the smoke stack

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I am not sure why it took so long for me to dive this site ; it was great! I loved the fact that you can go inside the ship and explore it.  There are many fish and all kinds of stuff to see. Just the history of this ship alone was enough to make me want to see it.  I would probably need another dive or so to be able to explore the whole thing. Highly recommended if you are diving in Cayman.