Paul Colley Wins Telegraph Big Picture Competition

 

Congratulations to Paul Colley, whose photo of the USS Kittiwake wreck in the Cayman Islands has won the latest round of The Telegraph's Big Picture Competition. Paul's image wins him a Nikon Coolpix S8000 camera. A nice return from a week's diving in Grand Cayman.

Paul took his picture during Digital Madness 2011, Alex Mustard's 10th photo workshop, using his Nikon D300 with Tokina 10-17mm, fitted with a Magic Filter, in a Subal housing.

Alex said "I am thrilled for Paul and a big thank you to Capt Sean for posing, too. My workshops don't have a competition during the week, as I find this helps everyone to share ideas, subjects and knowledge through the week. But after the event, I always encourage people to get their images into contests. But wins don't usually come this quickly. The Kittiwake was only sunk a month ago. This must be first competition win for a picture of the wreck."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/8298187/The-Big-Picture-photography-competition-round-138.html

Kittiwake February 2011 Maintenance Report

Dive teams will visit the wreck each month or more frequently if needed to conduct various maintenance projects on the wreck.                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Maintenance items noted/reported:

- Inspections, DONE

- Pick up loose metal sheets external in the sand,  20% DONE

- Cut off ropes that are under ship that were attached to lift bags, DONE

 Moorings:

- Remove 2 x DoE Grouper moon yellow markers; return to DoE, DONE

- Remove light from yellow marker, DONE

- Install light on new Danger marker, DONE

- Install 2 new danger markers, DONE

- Install Aggressor tag line, DONE

Kittiwake Night Diving

Night diving under a full moon on the Kittiwake - 19th Jan 2011.

Exploring the Pilot House at night. 

If the divers were not in the shot, it would be difficult to tell if the ship was underwater or not.  You have to love the crystal clear visability in the Cayman Islands.

Photos by Courtney Platt

Boat Support by: Dive Tech

Have you met Mr. Rix?

You are never alone when diving The Kittiwake.  Long time residents and 'Keepers of the Ship' are the Rix family; Daddy Rix, Mommy Rix and Baby Rix.  They prefer to hang out in the air tank storage and compressor room on deck 4, midship.  On your next dive in Cayman, be sure to pay them a visit and pose for a photo with them. How can anyone resist those big eyes and that wide open smile.  We're sure you'll agree that the Kittiwake is 'juuust right'!

Please note, divers must be certified Advanced or higher to visit deck 4 or lower.

Photo by: Alexander Mustard    Taken on 15th January 2011, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

A Rush on Vessel Licensing

Since the sinking of the ex-USS Kittiwake on January 5th 2011, along with massive media attention, the local Cayman dive indusrty is far from sinking.  Buoyed up by the surge of interest from resident divers and visiting divers planning new trips to Cayman- specifically to visit this new wreck dive.

Being the best thing to happen in Cayman's dive industry in the last decade, local operators are thrilled with the international response and demand to visit this new attraction.

To date, 46 commercial vessels and 16 private vessels are licensed to visit the attraction, with many more expressing strong interest and expected to get the required paperwork in order and processed by the end of the month.

All licensed vessels recieve 2 full color dive slates, illustrating the wreck and to be used to help safely navigate the wreck and for those qualified, to allow them to know which areas of the wreck can be penetrated.  In addition, licensed vessels receive 3 annual(staff) passes for commercial vessels and private vessels receive 2 annual passes.

Averaging over 100+ scuba divers per day, the numbers are only expected to increase as the word gets out and for new bookings to start rolling in. CITA is urging all vessels to submit their license applications as soon as possible in order for them to start taking bookings for the busy March/April Spring Break period.