Vandenberg Sinking

We got invited to witness up close and personal the historic sinking of the U.S.S Vandenberg. This WW II relic of a troop transport and latter retro fitted into a missile tracking ship is now an artificial reef, dive site extraordinaire and working classroom for our local Community College, FKCC.

 

There was a slight delay in the scuttling timetable while a couple of sea turtles swam by but once they were safely away there was a red signal flare followed by a muffled explosion 1 minute latter. In under 3 minutes the 550 foot, 8 story, 17,000 ton vessel disappeared from view.

It was a momentous occasion for our community. Big thanks go out to a lot of different people who made this 8 years in the making dream a reality. Our hats are off to Joe Weatherby who had the idea and worked tirelessly to get it done and to City Commissioner Bill Verge who cleaned up every obstacle throw in this projects way and tied up every loose end to make this a reality.