Tugboat Lupus

January, 2002 will be remember by the sinking of three tugboats off Recife: Minuano, Servemar X e Lupus.

They are a part of a artificial reefs program created to increase both the number of divers on the area and the increase of sea life since nowadays everybody know that this kind of action really works and are very important to the maritime life.

The aim of our article is the tugboat Lupus that is the biggest of them and the deepest dive.

After one hour and a half of navigation from Recife, this shipwreck is a great spot for Advanced Nitrox divers because of his depht: Third six meters. We arrived at the shipwreck by the anchor´s cable of the dive shop Aquaticos boat, the "Van Gogh". This cable lead us to the bow of the Tugboat.

During the descent the excellent visibility and whater temperature that are common in the months between spring and summer make our dive more pleasant!

The Tugboat are in his normal position of navigation, it looks like moving in a sea of sand !

After an outside recoinassance from bow to stern and side to side, we headed to the diesel engine room.

From the engine room , we started our penetrations in the ships structures, using the acess stairs that level by level lead us to the bridge of the ship.

As we use technical configuration including pure oxigen for decompression, we pay attention to each part of the ship, looking all compartiments that already have a lot of sea life such as rays, turtles and others big fishes.

After finishing our dive plan, I Gaba and Massud release our lift bags and started our decompression. Due to the great visibility we saw for a few moments the Tugboat Lupus sailing in a sea of sand and working with a new crew.

Many thanks to the staff of the dive shop Aquaticos of Recife: Gaba, Edísio, Scott, Carnaval e Léo.

The exact position of this shipwreck it is not of my knowledge.According to some informations, this exercises was realized at 80 miles of Cabo Frio.This distance, that seems to far from any attemptsmade by wreck divers doesn´t mean that the wreckage is 80 miles from shore. It could be less.

To the people interested in this dive, please visit the Aquaticos website: www.aquaticos.com.br