|
From Galeão to
Buenos Aires
One of the trademarks of
wreckdiving in the city of Rio de Janeiro is
the shipwreck of the german packet Buenos
Aires that sunk due to a collision to the Rasa
Island in 1890.
The wreckage is already
dismantled but is a great diving and the proof of this is the great amount of
divers that visit this dive point every year. This shipwreck are in dephts
from 12 to 40 meters e this profile make both recreational and technical
divers very happy.
A few years ago, the existance
of another shipwreck next to the Buenos Aires was comented and people start to
call it "Galeão" (an armed nao).
The "Galeão" receive
this name because in the spot, part of ships of diferent times, human bones, e
ammo. The presence of itens of steamships and another utensils of the nineteen
century tell us that maybe, this area is in part, parts of the Buenos Aires,
that lies 400 meters from the "Galeão". The sea conditions in the
area and the demolition works realized on Buenos Aires in the 60´s can make
this theory be true.
There are records of battles on
the coast of Rio deJaneiro and some people say that the privateer Fournier lost one ship near to the Rasa island and there´s also a recordo of the
shipwreck of the brazilian ship "Ferreira Primeiro" that sunk in the
same area in 1869. Unfortunately ,it is not possible to confirm that this
facts really are related with the "Galeão". The "area called
Galeão" is a mysterie to be solved.
In the beggining of 2001, I´ve
heard an incredible invite for a dive: Make a connection underwater between
the "Galeão" and the Buenos Aires. This incredible idea came from
my friend and collaborator of the Brasil Mergulho, Paulo Tessarollo. Tessa
– as he is known by his friends – together with ours friends Lelis and
Clarice, was doing this dive for while and having sucess.
The depht of the dive was of 22
meters, the distance between the both areas was 450 meters andthe presence of
currents and cold water means that an underwater navigation was very
difficult. The solution was to follow a cable put before the dive using a 500
meters cable, fishing weights and GPS marks. Very anxious to see and
participate of this dive that we named "The Crossing", I , Sergio
Amorim and Clécio Mayrink join Tessa, Lelis and Clarice in January 2002 to
make this operation.
Arriving at the Rasa island on
board of the Trawler "É Verdade" , we set to the GPS mark of the
Buenos Aires, where we drop the first buoy with weight and we start to release
the cable in the direction of the GPS mark of the "Galeão". To
avoid the flotation of the cable, we fix fishing weights to it. When we
finally reach the "Galeão" mark we drop the last buoy and the
preparations for the dive starts.
We decide to make the dive from
"Galeão" to the Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires is a better option
to finish the dive because of the slowly decrease of depht in the spot. During
the "Crossing" is possible to see the many itens, some of them
buried that named the place. After 40 minutes of diving and a lot of
expectation, we reached the Buenos Aires and the final fase of the operation
taking advantage of the slowly decrease of depht and the beauty that only a
wreckage like the Buenos Aires can have.
Due to the profile of this dive
such as: bottom Time, depht, presence of currents and cold water, the
"The Crossing from Galeão to Buenos Aires" must be realized by
technical divers with minimum certification of Advanced Nitrox. The use of gas
mixtures is recommended and the probability of decompression using the lift
bag is huge.Include this aspects on your dive plan and GOOD DIVE !
Congratulations to the people
that create this dive:Paulo Tessarolo, Lelis J, Clarice e Eduardo Davidovich
for the kindness, simpathy and fellowship.
|
