On New Year's Eve, a tug lost control of the barge it was towing through Enterprise Channel. The barge ended up on the rocks at McMicking Point. The bottom was holed and the already heavy cement-filled barge filled with water. It took several tugs a few days to finally pull it off. The barge was perched on a ledge right above the colourful, plumose anemone-covered little canyon that I think is the best part of this dive site. After the barge was salvaged, I wanted to see what the damage was underwater at the point. I had to wait awhile. There were a few days of strong winds, then some heavy rain which caused the sewer system to overflow and dump into Enterprise Channel. Finally, of course, I had to wait for the currents to coincide with my schedule. Eventually, everything cooperated and I came for a dive on Jan. 12, 2009. Instead of entering the water at the end of the road and swimming out to the point. I parked about half-way down the road and walked down a trail to the point. This walk was a bit longer, but there was no surface swim. In the shallows, I was surprised that there was no damage on the bottom from the big metal, 200-foot barge. I was expecting to see scraped-bare rock and maybe some cement, but everything looked normal. Visibility was only 10-15 feet, but I swam all along the point where the barge was sitting and didn't see any damage. I went down to the deeper walls and reefs at about 40-50 feet and things looked fine here too. I swam west at the base of the slope and eventually reached an area with lots of urchins and encrusting hydrocoral. There was an spot of reef here that had been smashed off. The patch of bare, splintered rock was about 8 feet across. It was too deep (45 feet) to be from the barge itself, but it could have been caused by a large anchor.
