Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

. By Stephen Weir ·       From the June 2016 issue of Diver Magazine OceanWind was sunk to create a new dive site for Florida Pan Handle divers. Close too shore and not too deep.  Not yet part of the Trail (but could be soon) wreck already a popular dive site .  Florida Panhandle divers don’t have to apologize for having a sinking feeling tug, away at their C-cards.  Early this year OceanWind, a retired harbour tug was made environmentally safe, hauled out into the Gulf of Mexico and scuttled.  Dive shops in Pensacola are already running scuba charters out to the first new artificial reef of 2016 and promise that there are more ships to be sunk this year and beyond! The OceanWind was a floating workhorse.    Built in 1952, she worked in the Pensacola Harbour pushing and pulling big ships as they came in and left port. The OceanWind has a massive engine to bully much bigger craft near the docks.    She was 30 metres long, 8 metres wide and 12 metres tall.

The Benwood - NOAA photograph Happy Birthday to the wreck of the Benwood It was 73-years ago Thursday that the Merchant Marine freighter Benwood collided with another freighter, the Robert C. Tuttle and sank off the shores of Key Largo, Florida.  Stephen Weir photographing the wreck of the Benwood It was an accident caused in no small part by World War 2 -- rumours of German U-boats in the area that night required both ships to travel completely blacked out, even though they were just 3-miles off-shore in the reef filled waters of Key Largo’s Atlantic coast.  The 360 ft. long Benwood was filled to the gunnels with phosphate rock and was armed with a deck gun, depth charges and bombs. When her bow was crushed in the collision, she took on water and 30-minutes laters the captain and crew abandoned ship as the Benwood sank. She now lies close to shore between French Reef and Dixie Shoals on a bottom of low profile reef and sand in depths ranging from 25 to 45 feet.

. Good ship(s) Canada sail in the week long Bacardi Cup. Queen City Star Class boat finishes 73rd, another Canadian team finishes 4th A pair of sailors from the Queen City Yacht Club took part in 5-days of Star Class races in the Miami's Bacardi Cup. Skipper Greg Poole and crew Jeff Imai took part in the 83rd running of the venerable regatta. Poole and Imai were not the only Canadians in the race, according to our correspondent/photographer Pat Whetung (and commodore of the QCYC) reported from the races that " there are boats from the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club in Ontario, and entries from Quebec and British Columbia." "There were 84 entries in total this year." she continued. "That makes for a very long start line filled with skilled boatmen. There were 10-12 Canadians on the start line each day." The race schedule was hampered by bad weather, organizers called it a "vicious storm system which lurked north of Miami." As a result some races w