USS Kittiwake

This afternoon we hired our regular sitter who watches Arianna while Katie teaches for some weekend work so we could do a snorkel together of the USS Kittiwake.  The Kittiwake is an American naval ship that was in operation from 1945 to 1994.  It is a Chanticleer Class Submarine Rescue Ship and its most famous duty was the recovery of the black box after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.  After it was retired, it was donated to the the Cayman Islands by the United States Government and was refitted over a fifteen year period to become a man made reef.  It arrived in late 2010 and was sunk off of Seven Mile Beach in January 2011.  It sits in 65 feet of water but because it is four stories high, it is a fantastic snorkel (as well as a world class scuba dive).  We rode a catamaran out to it and spent a good thirty minutes swimming over, around and when we free dove almost in the upper parts of it.  The trip also included a second snorkel out to a site off West Bay that we hadn't been to before called Boggy Sands.  Katie and I realized as we were riding the boat out that it had been several months at least since we had last snorkeled together so this was a great early Valentine present to ourselves.