Vandenberg Launch
Well, it’s finally here in Key West and soon we’ll be seeing the much-anticipated Vandenberg launch. The 528-foot ship is docked at Truman Waterfront while crews work on it. We went over today and there were crews all over the ship, doing clean-up jobs before the big day of the Vandenberg launch. It’s so exciting, even if you don’t ever do any Key West diving, since the sinking itself is awesome. Who ever gets to see a giant ship sink in the ocean? Anyway, the upcoming Vandenberg launch is the most exciting thing to happen in Key West this year. It’s a close tie with the dropping real estate prices, but a huge sinking ship that will become the world’s second-largest artificial reef definitely wins out!
The actual Vandenberg launch must take place by June first. That’s the official start of hurricane season. Towing a 528-foot long behemoth that’s basically dead in the water, was risky enough during March, when it traveled from Jacksonville to Key West. High winds and rough seas can really make that sort of operation extremely difficult, to say to the least. The day it arrived in Key West, they had to prohibit any cruise ships from being in port. That made the conglomeration of Duval Street businesses very unhappy of course. They actually wanted to keep the Vandenberg out at sea for one more day, until Wednesday of that week, when there weren’t going to be any cruise ships anyway. No dice! Too risky! Winds were in the 20-knot range that week anyway. So you can see why they want the Vandenberg launch to happen before June 1.
