Cleo St. Barge

[El Dude]

Is anybody a frequent diver at the barge off Cleo St? I've gone looking for it a few times, but ended up seeing not more than sand and the occasional ray. I know it's hard to describe in type. But can anybody shoot some accurate directions at me? Is it accessible by beach or only boat? Reference points? Bearings? Depth? Distance? Conditions? Dive report? Thanks.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Cleo Street

 

[Groobie85]

If I remember correctly its in only about 25' of water and about 175 yard off the coast. its pretty bashed up. A chunk here a chunk there. Its one of those dives you do "to do" not a weekly favorite. If you are really interested pm me.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The last time I dived it (early 1990s) it was in 50 feet. Being a barge, it wasn't very interesting, but having any wreck at a Laguna Beach shore dive site is pretty cool.

 

[Spg01]

I have dove the site a few times and found it on the last trip a few months ago. It must have been a different spot than Groobie85 was at. Because like MaxBottomtime said it was just about in 47-50 feet of water. Where I was the barge was pretty much all together, but sunk into the sand with some holes you could look into. But not big enough to actually get into.

We almost missed it until I noticed the reef had a round hole in it. Looking around it was actually the barge covered with growth and sand.

I cant really help on how to get there, but we were in 2 groups and the 1st group decided that they were far enough out dropped. We went twice as far and were still in 25 feet of water and just headed deeper when we found it. The link earlier describes it pretty well though.

 

[Tcheps]

If anyone is looking for a buddy I am interested in diving Cleo Street to locate what would be the remains of a decaying sunken barge. I wonder when the barge will just become a pile of sand, if it is not already. Regardless let me know I am down.

 

[ScubaMilo]

Here's what you do after getting in the water look back at the beach.
There is a house with a surfboard mounted to the wall facing the water.
Line yourself up with this house swim directly out away from this house.
When you think you have swam far enough double the distance you just swam.
Take a compass heading for straight away from that house and drop.
More often than not you will still land in less than 40ft of water so use your compass heading to continue to 45 ft depth and start looking.
I use this method and find this barge 9 times out of 10

Hope this helps.

Milo

 

[jenth]

I've been to the site once...and it was my first "wreck". The barge was so deteriorated that I didn't even know we were on it. When I was there, we went as two teams of two and the other team towed us there on their scooters...it's a little far off shore, so I personally wouldn't kick dive it.

Here's a video the other team took...if I remember correctly, at some point in the video, you can see a diver knocking on it. Video was taken in September of last year...
YouTube - Foss 125 Scooter Wreck Dive

And here are some more links to it:
South Coast Divers
Cleo street beach in Laguna Beach California

 

[sawracer]

I was looking for that barge last night. after seeing the vids, im not sure ill bother again.

 

[textilet]

Milo's directions are perfect. Its not the Andrea Doria, but it is a little over 150 feet long and like 70 ft wide, with a hull that's basically a big flat hollow box with about a three-four foot gap between the work-deck and the water side of the hull. In bad viz it can be hard to tell you're on it because you may be over the flat deck and mistake it for bottom. There are large cat heads (those posts you tie docking lines to) at each corner, so you can use those to define the limits of the site. I always knew i was close when I'd start seeing sheepheads. Also, the 3ft diameter concrete piping the barge was carrying is scattered around the site so you may see that first. I like this site for a shore dive of a different flavor.