Seeing that everybody else on the trip is doing what they are supposed to do and think about diving more than logging on, I will start the various trip reports. Obviously, this is from my point of view.
I arrived in St. Ignace, Michigan Friday night and checked into the Driftwood Hotel (which also has a Sports Bar and Restaraunt). I met my group Saturday morning. First lesson learned, buy some form of sealant (DONE). I have ripped a pinhole leak in my drysuit the previous weekend and didn't realize it until I was packing to go. Fortunately, one the other divers had some Aquaseal and Hardener and I was off to the races with a repaired drysuit.
We get on the dive boat and pull out. The weather couldn't have been ordered any better. Our group included three Scott's (two of which were from Canada), Jeff from Indiana, Jim (an instructor from Canada, and Deb (from Michigan). Deb and I were dive buddies on Sunday and Jim and I were buddies on Saturday.
First wreck:
Eber Ward, which is an old wooden steamer. It hit ice and sank in 140 ft. of water in 1909. The mooring buoy had be installed as it was removed for the season last year. There was a line that came up about 15 ft. from the surface. I swam out with the mooring buoy and reattached. Meanwhile, my dive group was last to go in so I enjoyed a leisurely swim in my drysuit by the boat while the other two groups went in first. (I didn't feel like climbing back aboard in my doubles for some reason).
The Dive: 126 ft. for 36 minutes. Water temp: 45 degrees F. We went inside and looked for some light fixtures that are known to be there, but we never found them. The three levels that are left have nice artifacts like a bathtub. The mushroom anchor on this wreck has to be seen to be believed as well. Most of the deck machinery is intact, but the bow is demolished. Still this is a great wreck.
Second Wreck:
William Young: This old schooner was found a year or so ago by police divers looking for a rumored jumper from the bridge. The bow is fairly intact right up to having the ship's wheel. This wreck lies in about 120 ft. of water.
The trouble was that we couldn't find a mooring line at all. We could find the wreck on the depth finder and we had the GPS coordinates, but with the currents in the Straits, tying off to her was necessary to dive her.
So, I jumped in on the upcurrent side of where we thought the wreck was and descended to the bottom of the lake. I saw a shadow in the distance and swam towards it. I saw pieces of shaped wood connected to a line. Sure enough, this was the Young. I then tied a reel off a sturdy part of the wreck and shot a lift bag to the surface to mark the spot precisely. Then another diver (Jim) tied a real mooring line off to her after I came up and verified that we were set.
I took my decompression bottle off the boat and proceeded to dive the wreck for fun. BTW, I owe Jim a cold one for saving my dive reel as I was getting ready to cut the blasted thing loose when the line from the blasted thing decided to wrap itself around me on my ascent. In other words, he untangled me from the line without cutting it. I discovered that the line works great for shooting a bag for deco stops when I am under the line and there is tension. It is difficult to operate for other uses. This is something for me to file under "lessons learned" by experience. I would also highly recommend that the next vistors to the William Young clear the extra lines that were on the wreck as they were doing the same to other divers and will no longer reach the surface to tie off to anyways.
Dive: 112 ft. 46 mins. in 46 degree water. Oh, and 50 ft. visibility (Yay).
Next Day:
We tried to tie off the Eber Ward and dive her again. The mooring line broke loose in the 2-4 footers and heavy winds. We decided to dive the Young again.
This dive on the Young (besides lots of photos which I am working on now):
117 ft. for 37 min. and 43 degree water. Same beautiful condition on this old wooden ship.
Last wreck of the weekend:
Cedarville: This cargo freighter is among the largest shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. It collided with another freighter in the fog with the loss of most of her crew in 1965. This wreck is in about 100 ft. of water and lies on her side. She is 588 ft. long.
Aside from adding some rust coloring to my gear, I was able to poke around the pilothouse and some of the forward end. Cool wreck, but I prefer wooden ones.
Dive: 97 ft for 45 min in 45 degree water.
All in all, this was a great weekend. I hope that everybody had one equally as nice.
