The Scuttling of the ex HMAS Adelaide!!!!

On Wednesday the 13th of April 2011 we witnessed a little piece of history :)

The ex-HMAS Adelaide was scuttled off Avoca Beach NSW to create an artificial reef that will hopefully become a popular world class dive site. This has been over 10 years in the making and was originally supposed to be sunk in March last year but was delayed by a small group of protesters. Which I won't go into because it makes me MAD. lol

Here she is sitting off Avoca Beach on the day of the scuttling:

A small indication of how many people came to watch. The beach was PACKED. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people made the trip to see her scuttled.

The Willy Man being cheeky :D He thought it was a good idea to throw sand all over our mat.

"Look Mum there's the ship"

Camera Envy.

The beach was lined with camera's of various degree's of impressiveness, lol

This was by far the most impressive I saw, his arms must have been aching by the end, he didn't move for hours!

Some of the crowd, my children entertaining themselves and the police presence to make sure everything ran smoothly (and that the protester's kept out of the way!!)

 It was a gorgeous day, many people took to the water to cool down :)
This also gives an idea of how far it is from the shore (and what a good job my kit zoom lens did, lol. I had it zoomed all the way in and wasn't using a tripod so I think it did an alright job, which is good because I have no plans to buy a proper zoom lens any time soon!)

Some people will do anything to get a good view!! SO dangerous!

waiting waiting waiting

The scuttling ended up being delayed by an hour and 20 minutes. Just after the 5 minute warning flare went off a HUGE pod of Dolphins swam under the ship and started to feed!! So the charges had to be reset and the waiting game began.

William was a little over it when all of a sudden...

KA-BOOM!!

I SO wasn't ready!! I'd been standing in position for hours and I'd finally put my camera down when the fireworks went off! You should have heard the gasp from the crowd!

It was spectacular!! Blue and red fireworks and then a big fireball went up! Which I missed because I turned around to check on William, lol

It happened very very quickly, I'd say around a minute and a half for it to be completely gone!

Going...going...

 Going...

GONE.

All that remained was a cloud of smoke :)

It was a fantastic day, we all really enjoyed it and I even got interviewed by the local news (which I don't think got shown thank goodness!)

And the best part is my Dad will be amongst the first to dive her in about 2 weeks! *Hi Dad!*
I'll be sure to share his photos (if he lets me :P)

If you would like to read more about the artificial reef project go HERE

If you want to see the first underwater shots of her taken by the survey dive team go HERE

Happy Tuesday!