Greetings and welcome to BC WreckFest 2024!

Join us for a weekend of community building and diving some of the best artificial reefs in the world. The HMCS Saskatchewan and the HMCS Cape Breton are a 20-minute trip from the Nanaimo harbour and among the most popular diving destinations in BC. These artificial reefs have been colonized by some incredible marine life. As our community has grown, so have our relationships with other local dive groups and so this year  Thermocline Diving and Vancouver Island Women Underwater are co-hosting a weekend of awesomeness on two of the most popular dive sites in the Pacific Northwest. Join us to dive one or both of the wrecks, with two scheduled dives per day on Aug 31st and Sept 1st.

HMCS Cape Breton

The HMCS Cape Breton was originally built in 1944 for the Royal Navy and was transferred to the Canadian Navy in 1952. She served between 1953 and 1964 as a maintenance ship. In 2001, she was sunk off Snake Island, just outside of Nanaimo on the inside coast of Vancouver Island as an artificial reef. In her glory she was 441' (134 m) long and 57' (17 m) wide. She had a triple expansion steam engine powered by two boilers and generated 2500 horsepower. She had a complement of 270 sailors and had a helicopter deck on the aft part of the ship. Today, she is an amazing artificial reef and home to octopus, wolf eels, filter feeders like plumose anemones and a wide variety of fish. The visibility is usually excellent and for those trained, she has been made into "Swiss cheese" to facilitate wreck penetration. She sits in about 140' (42 m) of water but the upper decks are easily within single tank recreational diving range so don't be intimidated. This ship is BIG and has a lot of relief (basically the amount of the ship that stick up out of the sand) so even if the sand is 140' (42 m), much of the ship s in the 70-80' (20 - 24 m) range. Most people actually do dive it with single tanks. 

HMCS Saskatchewan

Not far from the HMCS Cape Breton, the HMCS Saskatchewan sits in about the same depth. She was a McKenzie class destroyer in the Royal Canadian Navy and is the sister ship for several other artificial reefs of the same class, sunk in BC waters and also off San Diego (the Yukon). The HMCS Saskatchewan was launched in 1961 and decommissioned in 1994 and then sunk as an artificial reef in 1997. She is covered in the same sea life as the Cape Breton but smaller at 366' (111 m) long and 42' (13m) wide. She had a crew of 228 and mainly worked as a training ship while she was in service. The two wrecks are only a stone's throw away so it's easy to dive them both in a day. The Saskatchewan has more life on it than the Cape Breton but it is also a little smaller. Everyone has their favourite!

The Wrecks

The wrecks are two world-class diving destinations and regularly attract divers from around the globe to dive on ships in the temperate waters off Vancouver Island. Both wrecks sit upright on the bottom and offer a nearly endless opportunity for exploration. The Cape Breton had her engines removed before she was sunk but the Saskatchewans' power plant is still inside that ship. In August the surface temperature will usually be in the upper 50s F (13-15 C "ish") while at depth the temperature will likely be low 50s (13 C). Visibility in August should be very good and sometimes approaches the 75' (25 m) range. There can be some current on the surface but not usually. 

We will do two dives a day on the wrecks and be tied to them so it is relatively straightforward to jump off the boat and follow the granny line to the down line and then down to the wreck. We will have three dive boats available and a maximum of 16 spaces. That means they will likely go very fast! 

The Dives

Diving is open to recreational divers as well as technical divers including CCR.  Our only requirement is that you dive within your certification limits, you don't dive alone, and that you enjoy yourself!

We will plan to stage out of Nanaimo so that is where the boats will load. We will confirm the exact location for loading closer to the date. Your trip includes hot lunches on the boats every day. 

Each Day is $175 plus GST for the day's diving. You can register for one or both days at the links below. 

We will also be planning on having a team dinner at the local pub near our loading point, so plan on staying a little later on Saturday (or arriving a lot earlier for Sunday...) for some social fun! This will let us enjoy the social aspect of our amazing island diving community!