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Extreme Sports - SCUBA
Diving
Although the Sunshine State is already considered one of the world's
top scuba diving destinations, for two days later this month, it
undoubtedly tops the chart as thousands of sportsmen take to the seas in
search of the tastiest catch of the ocean--the spiny lobster.
The sport season falls on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday in
July each year. This year the popular bug collecting stampede takes place
on July 27-28.
If you've ever ventured down to the Florida Keys during the week of
mini-season, you'll no doubt find this area to be the most popular haven
for sport divers on their quest for the elusive keeper-sized bug. However,
there are places located virtually anywhere around the close to 1,200
statute miles of coastline surrounding three sides of the state where
divers can go lobstering.
Surfing Apparel - Board Shorts
A team of deep-sea divers has discovered the wreck of a
U.S. submarine sunk by a Japanese minelayer 60 years ago in the Gulf of
Thailand during the closing stages of World War Two.
The U.S.S. Lagarto, a 1,500 ton 'Balao class' submarine, disappeared
without trace on May 4, 1945 after attacking a Japanese tanker and
destroyer convoy around 100 miles off the southeast coast of Thailand.
All 86 men on board are still listed as missing in action.
'We've always known that since the end of the War there's been a submarine
missing around there,' said British wreck diver Jamie MacLeod, who
discovered the 110 m (310-foot) submarine sitting in 70m (225 ft) of water
in May.
'We went into all the war-time records, cross-referenced them with
fishermen's marks and then searched with the sonar and it came up trumps –
we found a bump on the bottom, went down the line and there it was,'
MacLeod said.
The Pentagon has not yet confirmed the identity of the wreck, which
remains the property of the U.S. Navy under international maritime law,
although MacLeod says there is little doubt in his mind. 'It's a Balao
class sub for sure because I've seen it and touched it and it's the only
one lost in Thailand,' he said.
The Gulf of Thailand is the final resting place for many U.S. and Japanese
ships and planes destroyed in the struggle for maritime supremacy in South
East Asia and the South China Sea in World War Two.
Thailand's west coast is strewn with Japanese and British warships sunk
while patrolling the Indian Ocean shoreline from ports in Burma, or
Myanmar as it is now called, and Sri Lanka. MacLeod, who said he had also
just discovered a Lockheed P38 Lightning – a high-altitude fighter dubbed
the 'Forktailed Devil' by the German Luftwaffe – said the Lagarto appeared
to be relatively undamaged.
'It looks to me like it's intact and it's sitting upright on the bottom in
very clear water, so you can get a good idea of what it looks like,' he
said. 'Everything is still on it – all the armaments, the brass navigation
lights. It's beautiful.'
Having contacted relatives of the crew through the U.S. Submarines of WWII
Veterans Association, MacLeod said he would be taking two Lagarto
grandchildren to the site of the wreck later this month.
'It's nice because now the families are talking about closure,' MacLeod
said.
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