Hellcat Snorkel
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 12 Sep 2015 22:57
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Grumman Hellcat
Snorkel
  We all remember the excitement of the
sticking and gluing our Matchbox models, how many of
us got our first whiff of Airfix glue and in our innocence didn’t realise that
in later life we would read about such things as plastic bags, sniffers and
abusers.......moving on. The pilot of the Grumman Hellcat we set out to see
today, would have seen a similar sight to the one above as he flew away from his
carrier, he ran out of fuel and crash
landed on the reef, now what remains of the wreckage is the subject of our
search.
  After a couple of false starts we made it
to Spitfire Lagoon. Oh my, we looked left and right.
Where on earth would the remaining bits be in this huge lagoon. Needle in a
haystack sprang to mind. Undaunted and with a positive feeling Bear said he
would wade out right in the direction of the buoy – seen as a tiny dot, there is
one near the horizon too. I would head out to the stick near the horizon and
work toward Bear. Plan, how we love a good plan – pop a tail on it and call it a
weasel.
 I set off, Bear
to my right.
  Half an hour later, we were still in thigh-deep, clear, warm water – carefully stepping between
the coral heads. Great excitement as Bear had struck gold, he had found the
wreck on the second buoy in about twenty feet of water. I waded toward him and
then swam the rest of the way. It really is exciting when through the
surroundings something interesting comes into view.
  We first saw the front
end, then a bit of body.
 Looking toward the nose.
 Sadly, all that is
left. Some years ago divers came and ransacked the plane,
taking off instruments, weapons etc, what remains is slowly breaking
up.
 Who is that
person in the picture – at least it proves that
we were there.
 Moving toward the
back.
 The tail
section.
 We spent
twenty minutes or so swimming up and down the plane,
looking at the residents.
 On our way back to the beach
we found the coral very different to ‘our side’. Spongy
mostly.
 Grass that looked like Mickey Mouse’s ears and hyacinth lookalikes.
 The star of our
snorkel.
ALL IN ALL THRILLED TO HAVE FOUND
THE ‘SPITFIRE’
AN AWESOME
FIND |