The USS Kittiwake, one of the most-popular dives in the Cayman Islands, has been toppled on to its port side by Tropical Storm Nate, and it is not yet known what damage, if any, has been caused to the vessel.
The 76-metre decommissioned submarine rescue vessel Kittiwake has been a top destination for all levels of diver (even snorkellers could see the upper parts of the superstructure) since it was sunk upright in 2011 (the photograph above, taken in 2012, will no longer be possible), but now it lies some 6m deeper, having been shifted some 18-20 metres towards the adjacent dive site Sand Chute and rolled over on to the sand right next to the reef.
It is not yet known the full extent of the damage caused to Caribbean dive sites by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and now it appears the first confirmed casualty didn’t fall victim to either of these monsters, but Nate as it was in the process of growing from being a tropical storm into a full-blown hurricane. It just shows the awesome, terrifying power of nature. Once the site has settled, divers now have a completely new shipwreck to explore, as its new orientation will make it a very different dive, much as the Spiegel Grove in Florida went from being on its side to almost upright after the passing of a hurricane.
