F My Life: It's Funny, It's True, Except When It Happens to You

uss vandenberg Crews Prepare to Sink the VandenburgCrews are preparing to "Sink the Vandenberg."  The decommissioned ship is set to be sunk on Wednesday, seven miles off the coast of Key West, Florida.  It will become one of the biggest man-made reefs in the world.

Explosives attached to the hull of the U.S.S. Hoyt S. Vandenberg will be detonated to, allowing the ship to flood, which will then send it to the ocean floor very quickly.  The 17,000-ton, 523-foot-long U.S.S. Vandenberg will be sunk on a in about 140 feet of water.

"Don't go to the bathroom. Don't go get a beer. It should be under three minutes for the ship to fully deploy onto the bottom," said project organizer, Joe Weatherby.  Weatherby works for Reefmakers, a New Jersey-based company that specializes in sinking craft in order to make artificial reefs.

The cost of the project is about $8.6 million.  Florida officials expect it to pay off with up to $8 million in annual tourism-related revenue.  They are hoping that divers will be longing for a peek of the underwater vessel.

The U.S.S. Vandenberg should also help to guard the Keys' reefs, which are already suffering from excessive diving and fishing, and even rising water temperatures.

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