Experienced Glenashley diver Paul Naude supplied this video of divers negotiating the Fontao wreck about 2km south of Umhlanga Rocks and around 800m out to sea. The other wreck featured, Coopers Light, is off Anstey Beach at the Bluff.
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The film comes with notes. “Move very slowly and make sure you have at least 68 degree spead 12 v light at least.” The film-maker warns divers to watch out for Large Brindle and Potato Bass, which live in wrecks in the Indian ocean and are known to be rather territorial. Divers are also told to look out for eels.
“Try to find someone to penetrate (the wreck) with you, in case you get stuck!
“Usually the wreck, if it’s old, has fine silt which can instantly cause a blinding cloud if kicked up by fins etc.”
The notes to the film, which was posted on YouTube, continues that divers then have to “hand feel” their way out … a rather unpleasant experience.
According to the website www.delportdupreez.co.za the Fontao is “a Mozambiquan fishing trawler that was sunk by the ORI in 1991. It lies upright and is a delight to explore. It was rated as one of the top 15 warm water dive sites in S.A. by Divestyle magazine.” The top of the wreck is reachable at 17m.
Re Coopers Light, from the website www.diveatfive.co.za, “At a length of 77m she (Coopers Light) is not a small vessel and it is strange there are no records of her sinking. Her origins are British and it is likely that she was scuttled after one of the world wars as ships that were commandeered by the navy were often not returned to their pre-war owners. Shell holes in one of her boilers indicate that she didn’t go down quietly.”
Coopers Light is also described as Durban’s most interesting wreck in the recreational diver’s range.
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***Here’s a short article by Paul Naude, all about the Fontao
The Oceanographic Research Institute decided to sink the Fontao on August 8, 1991. The Fontao’s GPS position is S 29°44.576′ E 31°05.749′.
The wreck is situated about 2km off Umhlanga Rocks and about 500m south of the Umhlanga Lighthouse and lies proudly upright on the sand at 27m deep, facing south to north.
She is 8m wide and 34.5m long. The vessel has three decks, the hull supporting two upper decks. The top of the Fontao sits at about 17m.
Divers can penetrate all three structures due to the hatches being open on the lower deck aft of the vessel and, as can be seen on the video, also through holes in the superstructure caused by deterioration.
The Fontao is usually inhabited by Brindle Bass, the larger of the bass species. The bridge or wheel house was pulled off by rough seas around five years ago and serves as a haven for small fish and rare pineapple fish at times. Fontao serves as a safe house for small goldies, dominos, angels, wrasses and eels, to name a few. They live with, and feed off the invertebrate life and smaller fish living on the wreck.
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The Fontao is also visited by skates, mantas, sharks, tuna, barracuda – to name a few – who come in to feed off the easy pickings of the abundance of smaller fish living on, in and around the wreck.
Sometimes when divers descend on to the wreck they cannot see it because it appears as one huge shoal of fish, and only when one swims into the cloud the wreck appears, creating awesome effects for photographers. So, for diving she has so much to offer, especially the underwater photographer. The dive boat skipper usually throws a shot line or anchor line on to the wreck for divers to descend and ascend on to the Fontao .
If one looks out to sea south of the Umhlanga Lighthouse, nine times out of 10 you should see small fishing boats, grouped together, fishing for bait fish over the wreck, especially in the early mornings.
Fishing Clubs from Umhlanga Ski Boat Base, Westbrook/ Tongaat and Durban Ski Boat use the Fontao to catch bait fish. Once a year the Durban Undersea Club organises groups of divers to “clean” the wreck of fishing tackle snarled and left on the wreck, divers collect “bags” of hooks, jiggers and fishing line off the Fontao.
Dive Bookings are available from:
Aqua Rush, Umhlanga Rocks: Cliff van Zyl, 082 495 7001
Calypso Diving, uShaka Marine World: Celeste or Patrick at 072 997 2900 or 031 332 0905
Durban Undersea Club, Tracy Featherstone: 082 643 7614
Aqua Rush and Calypso visit Fontao daily