scubaspider:
Does anyone have any history that they know about for the wreck Prince Albert ? I like to know history of wrecks/ships before I dive them...So if anyone has information or know's where I could find information that would be great, thanks!!!
It was a dark and stormy night...
When Bill Evans was sitting at his bar in CoCoView drinking Salva Vidas with Doc Radowski when they hit upon the idea of purchasing a derelict 140' Nicaraguan tanker and after preparation, placing her precisely in front of the resort. She was used by Nicaraguan refugees escaping the strife in the early 80's. She was placed in front of the rooms at CoCo View in late 1984 and has experienced considerable coral crowth since that time.
She is literaly 3 minutes through an aquarium of the front yard dive off of CCV. Alobert Jackson, the then owner of Fantasy Island inspired her new name, The Prince Albert. Sit with Bill or Billy at the CCV bar and get the rest of the story.
Albert, back when the shore dive from Fantasy used to be similar, decided to place an intact DC3 just 30' W of the PA Wreck, unfortunately he faced it into the current so she was destroyed and now rests in three distinct pieces. After dredging up a beach and ruining his shore dive, Albert then tried again, this time dropping a large steel ship into a 130' hole just WSW of FIBR, NW of Little French Key. Fuggedaboutit.
Bill Evans just placed another wreck, marked as "Mr Bud" a 90' shrimper, in approx 50fsw near above mentioned misplaced attempt. August 2003.
See them all at
http://www.cocoviewresort.com and click on the "discussion group", then search using words: front yard guide . You'll hear about diving on the PA and all of the other Front Yard delights.
From the airport E to French Harbour and CCV (and FIBR) you will see two wrecks on the surface, the bones of two large ships resting in (too) shallow water. They lie just E of the runway and are quite picturesque as viewed from the air.
There are other wrecks on Roatan that are largely undived- the rest much further E and on to Barbaretta, the island to the East in the Bay Islands.
The North side resorts placed a large ship in 100-140' (so as to avoid the rough North coast weather) that as of yet has no appreciable growth. It might take some time at that depth, but they got themselves a darned large wreck dive.
I have spent many hundreds of dives on the Prince Albert wreck dive and pretty well know each rivet and niche. There are critters that live on there that I visit trip after trip. My pet Basket Star owns and operates the port aft davit from o'dark thirty until I stop by to feed him. Just forward of him is a pretty big octopus. Forward of the pilothouse- a 7' Green Moray lays claim to that territory. A 3' (no joke) Parrot Fish has been seen lurking, and a big Grouper is even more often seen. Just 40' North is a crop of Garden Eels.
then there's the Orange Ball Corellamorphs.
