Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Disa

The dive site Disa is an offshore recent wreck in Table Bay, near Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

he Disa was built for Irvin and Johnson in 1959 in Yorkshire, England. It was a 453 ton steel side trawler of 43 m length,8.3 m beam, and 4.3 m depth, powered by a single coal fired triple expansion engine capable of a top speed of 10 knots. It was wrecked in a collision with another fishing boat, the Lupin, on a clear day in a heavy sea. The vessel sank rapidly, and ten men were lost.

-33.873318.316351 Disa: S33°52.398' E018.18.981', about 8km north of the Green Point lighthouse. This site is in the Robben Island Marine Protected Area since 2019. A permit is required.

"Disa" is the name of the wreck at this site

Depth on the sand is about 67 m. and the shallowest part is about 60 m. (Average depth of a dive is likely to be about 64 m.)

Visibility is unpredictable. The site has not been dived often. It is likely to be similar to other sites in the area of similar depth. Surface visibility is not a reliable indicator of visibility at depth, and a heavy layer of plankton bloom may overlay a dark but relatively clear deeper layer. Or maybe not.

The wreck lies on its starboard side, partly embeddedin the sand bottom, on an axis of about 66°T, with the bow to the northwest. The hull is nearly intact, and is 46.6 m long, with intact tripod mast, trawl winch and and boat davit. The superstructure is mostly intact, but missing the stack. Many of these details are recognisable on the sonar images. The collision damage was on the starboard side, which is on the sand.

The site is exposed to all winds and swells with a westerly component, so should be dived in calm or light offshore winds and low swell, and may be good after a southeaster. The depth limits the effect of surface waves on the wreck, but conditions during the ascent and visibility of divers at the surface should be taken into account. South-easterly winds may be strong on the south peninsula but light over Table Bay.

The site is likely to be at its best in summer but there may be opportunities at other times of the year. This is an area which sometimes has upwellings caused by south-easterly winds, but it is not as strongly affected as some other parts of the Cape Peninsula. Sunny days in summer will generally cause plankton bloom to close down surface visibility, but under the bloom it may be relatively clean but can be very dark.

Boat access only, usually from V&A Waterfront or Oceana Powerboat Club at Granger Bay.

Dive and explore the wreck.

No routes have been recommended.

Wreck of a steam powered steel fishing vessel in fairly good structural condition.

The wreck is deeper than the generally accepted limits for recreational diving on air and nitrox.

Skills should be appropriate to the equipment used.

Due to the depth, breathing mixtures using helium to limit narcosis and work of breathing are strongly recommended. Decompression will be accelerated by use of suitable gases, and a DSMB will allow safer decompression if the shotline is not used for the ascent. Use of a rebreather can limit consumption of helium.

• Bruce Henderson and Kelly Graham, 2024, Wood, Iron and Steel: Shipwrecks Mapped off the Western Cape', Wreckless Marine, Cape Town. ISBN 978-1-037-00702-6 (high resolution sonar images)

• -33.8245518.4710171 MV Seli 1
• -33.83353318.3447672 MV Afrikaner
• -33.83518.3816673 SS Hypatia
• -33.835218.3809674 Whale Rock
• -33.8398618.385565 MV Daeyang Family
• -33.86273318.2694336 T.S. McEwan
• -33.86918318.4863837 MV Winton
• -33.87016718.4875838 Hermes
• -33.873118.3249179 Mooivlei
• -33.87473318.34548310 Blomvlei
• -33.8818318.33858311 MV Gemsbok
• -33.88596718.430512 Highfields
• -33.88713318.409713 SS Cape Matapan
• -33.88778318.36581714 King Emperor
• -33.89666718.39666715 SS SA Seafarer
• -33.897518.409516 RMS Athens
• -33.90793318.417917 Two Oceans Aquarium
• -33.90618.397518 Three Anchor Bay
• -33.91508318.35701719 Sea Point Ridge Pinnacles

Back to the Alphabetical list of sites, or list of dive sites in the Table bay and approaches

Other regional dive sites:

• Dive sites of the Cape Peninsula west coast
• Dive sites of the Cape Peninsula east coast
• Dive sites of False Bay offshore and approaches
• Dive sites of False Bay east coast
• Fresh water dive sites of the Cape Town Metropolitan Area