Impact Divers / Cape Radd

This site is an interesting site as you will enter the water at the yacht club and swim under the moored boats and will navigate to a wreck from a boat that sunk while moored. The site has a max depth of 10m and, because of the boat coming in and out the turbidity is high and often viz isn’t great.

Due to the shape of the harbour, Long Beach is well protected from most winds and waves. This dive site has a maximum depth of about 18 meters. This dive site does not require a boat ride and is a great shore dive.

Name: The name "Long Beach" is derived from the stretch of sandy beach at the site. Great training site. Depth: The bottom shelves gradually down from the shore to a depth of 18 m at the Simon's Town Harbour mouth, 5 m is reasonably close inshore, and about 9 m at the maximum distance that the average diver is likely to swim. Marine life: There can be quite a lot to see on the barge wreck, which provides a base for seaweeds and shelter for fish. Little clumps of sessile growth are based on the pipeline, red bait, other wreckage and debris, and loose rocks, mostly less than 0.5 m diameter. There are extensive areas of sand with weed in the deeper water, some of it attached to the bottom, but a lot apparently loose. In some places, there are beds of strap Caulerpa, and where red-bait has rooted itself in the sand, little clumps of other organisms gather, including large numbers of Common feather stars. Large numbers of Warty pleurobranch and Sand slug wander around, and at times there are quite a lot of sea hares. A wide variety of fish have been seen at this site, including several not normally found in the Western Cape, which is carried down the east coast by the currents, and the eddies bring them into False Bay, and for some unknown reason, they often end up at Long Beach. Seals are fairly common, and Southern Right whales also occasionally come into the bay and have been seen during dives at Long Beach. Stingrays are occasionally seen, some of them quite large, and the very shy and elusive White Steenbras is caught nearby, but never seen by divers on open circuit Scuba. Photography: Wide-angle or macro lenses are most likely to produce good results. Natural light is usually sufficient as it is shallow, but a flash will bring back the true colours. External flash is essential for anything further than about 300 mm as there is usually significant suspended matter which will cause backscatter with internal flash. Topography: Flat sand bottom with occasional lumps of growth on loose rocks, wreckage and other artefacts. There is a pipeline perpendicular to the shoreline near the wall at the south end of the beach, which is visible in the aerial photo, and a wreck of a small steel barge just north of this pipeline. In 2009 a sports fisherman sank at moorings in the bay during a storm and drifted alongside the barge wreck, where it broke up and came to rest between the south end of the barge and the offshore end of the inshore section of pipeline. Only the bottom structure with engines, gearboxes and shafts and various smaller pieces of loose wreckage remains. Further out along the pipeline are pieces of wreckage of a small sailing yacht, including the ballast keel and the lower portion of the hull.

Name The Phoenix was a British ship of 500 tons, built-in 1810. It was wrecked a little to seaward of Phoenix Shoal in Simon's Bay on 19 July 1829 while on a voyage from Ceylon with passengers and a cargo of sundries, part of which was saved. No lives were lost. She was armed with two cast-iron cannon. Some of the iron ballast can be seen on the reef, while her stem lies buried in the sand. Depth: Maximum depth is about 10 m. Parts of the shoal reach the surface, and there is an extensive area of shoal shallower than 6 m. Features: Wreckage of a wooden ship of historical interest. Photography: This is not a site with much to photograph, and macro equipment is most likely to produce worthwhile results. Occasionally in good visibility, it may be possible to get good results with a wide-angle lens and natural light. Topography: Scattered low to medium profile reef on flat sand bottom. Whale vertebra and rib or jawbone on the sand. Encrusted iron wreckage on the sand at S34°11.388', E018°26.898'. Buried but with a bit showing above the sand. Probably structure of the Phoenix. The wreckage mostly lies in a gap between two shallower sections of the reef at the northeastern side of Phoenix shoal, as shown on the map.

Name: "His Netherlands Majesty's Ship Bato" was a Dutch warship of 800 tons and 74 guns. The ship had been used as a floating battery in Simon’s Bay for several years. Set on fire and sunk off Long Beach, Simon's Town, on 8 January 1806, the same day that the Battle of Blaauwberg began. The Batavian Republic forces at the Cape capitulated to the British forces two days later. The wreck has been worked on and cannon from the site stood outside the Simon's Town Post Office. Depth: Maximum depth is about 4 m. The average depth is likely to be about 3 m. Marine life: The wreckage is largely overgrown with kelp and seaweeds, and has shallow water invertebrates, and often a few fish Features: Historical wooden shipwreck. The wreckage is low and heavily overgrown with seaweed and invertebrates. The wreck is protected by legislation and may not be disturbed. Photography: The water is very shallow, and natural light should allow almost any equipment to be used, but the subject matter is rather limited. Topography: The wreck lies in shallow water (about 3.5 m) The area is fine sand with some low sandstone reef to the South. The wood structure of the wreck has become very overgrown over the years and is not easily recognisable over large areas The wreck lies approximately parallel to the shoreline.

This is the point where Simon’s Bay meets the south coast of the Cape Peninsula, and the coastline makes a distinct turn, becoming more exposed to the swell and winds from the southeast. This site is in a Marine Protected Area (2004). A permit is required. The site is entirely inside the Boulders Restricted Zone.