Sitting a few hundred yards from the shore of Hallover Bay on Cooper Island in about 85 feet of water are the Marie L and the Pat. The Marie L was a 75-foot inter-island cargo ship, the Pat a 90-foot freighter. The Marie L. was purposely sunk in 1990 and the Pat in 1995. Coincidently I was born in 1995. If you descend down the line of the mooring buoy you reach a plateau about 45 feet down. Swim several hundred feet and you reach a reef that drops down to about 80 feet. The reef is abundant with coral and fish. Continue on and suddenly the two ships that are leaning against each other appear out of the haze caused by the algae bloom. The bloom which traveled up from South America and settled in the B.V.I. limits visibility to 65 feet. The algae could destroy the ecosystem that feeds on coral because the cloudier water could not allow coral to grow, thereby killing it. A new ecosystem of algae eaters could flourish though.

The Marie L is closer to the reef. We approached the wrecks and were amazed. Two massive French angelfish were feeding in coral on the wreck. We swam closer, getting within a few feet before they swam off. Schools of fish inhabit the wrecks. We swam to the stern and I entered the bridge and stood where the wheel once was. We moved onto the Pat. Beside the Pat are a toilet and a bidet. I immediately sat down whilst giggling through my regulator. Mom was on the bidet beside me. We started swimming into the abyss. Where are we going?

We were going to the Beata, a tug that was scuttled as well. On the front of the Beata were the massive tires, from an 18 wheeler maybe, that were used to push numerous boats from the perils of other boats or a dock. The pilothouse had stairs leading to the bridge and I couldn't resist the urge to mimic climbing them. So childish but so much fun.

Suddenly, as we neared the end of our dive, Mom's secondary regulator started flowing almost all of her remaining air. I gave her my spare regulator while Dad shut off her air. She went to the surface on Dad's spare.

Those wrecks were the most spectacular things I have encountered in all my scuba diving.