The wreck of the Sapona is about 5 miles off the west coast of Bimini. The winds this morning are not favourable for a visit but are to lie down a bit by this afternoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assessing the winds are favourable we jump in Heliopause with Patti and Todd from Alcyone and venture out to see the famous cement ship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was purchased and moved to Bimini, using it as a warehouse for alcohol during the era of Prohibition The owner also intended to use the ship as a floating nightclub, although this plan never came to fruition. In 1926 the ship ran aground in a hurricane and broke apart during a rum run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During WWII the wreck was used for target practice by the US Army and Navy. Flight 19 vanished while returning from a bombing run to the Sapona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wreck lies in about 15 feet (4.6 m) of water, the stern broken off and partially submerged by hurricanes that struck in 2004. Little concrete is left on the hull because of the effects of bombing and weathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a great space for snorkeling and fishing as well. Scott quickly jumps in the water and checks the anchor hold. He snorkels around the wreck where people are swimming in the crevasses and jumping from what is left of the deck. As the engineer scans the wreck he quickly realizes that no one should be anywhere on or under the remains. It is barely being held together and will fall at moments notice. He only swims at a safe distance from what is left of the hull. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming back to the boat he notices the grasses move and determines there are conch living here. We are allowed 6 conch per day per boat. He only takes 4 and the larger ones of the lot. Conch in The Bahamas is a staple for the locals. We foreigners have restrictions but it seems the locals do not based on the amount of thrown out shells we see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heading back before the winds pick up yet again Patti and I contemplate how to cook this delicacy. Scott researches the internet to learn how to shuk the conch properly. He does figure that part out but the cleaning of the conch is more difficult. A local watches him struggle and comes to the rescue. He shows Scott how to do it properly but I think those skilled hands won’t be happening any time soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The wreck of the Sapona is about 5 miles off the west coast of Bimini. The winds this morning are not favourable for a visit but are to lie down a bit by this afternoon. Assessing the winds are favourable we jump in Heliopause with Patti and Todd from Alcyone and venture out to see […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-loop-second","category-uncategorized","category-4-id","category-1-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2461,"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/helioBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}