After unfavorable weather the last two weekends, I was totally fired on Friday night as the marine forecast for Port Sanilac, Michigan was calling for light winds and calm seas for Saturday morning.
I made the hour and fifteen minute run up to the harbor with a Tiggr/Tracy. Tracy was diving wet, so we stopped by a local breakfast spot to get her thermos jug filled with hot water - yup, she needed this to pour the water in her wet suit (between the farmer John layers) to try to recover from the mild hypothermia, but in the end it still wasn't enough.
Our first dive was on the wreck of the Mary Alice B, a Tug that was sunk/scuttled by her crew in 1975. The seas were nearly dead calm -what a way to start my northern season. But I was plagued by a couple of equipment malfunctions; both self inflicted. While I did test fire the strobes via the cameras shutter after loading it into the housing, I did not look through the view finder. If had, I would have noticed that I had left the lens cap on -ugh! I guess the Red Wings' overtime loss was harder on my mental state than I had thought. I didn't realize my transgression until I was 45' under.
The Mary Alice isn't one of my favorites as it simply does provide enough interest for the entire dive, but it was nice to get wet. I have justed started to use Argon for my dry suit inflation. It does seem to make a bit a difference. With a bottom temp of 44 degrees (no thermocline), I will try anything to keep even just a small amount warmer. Total run time was around 35 minutes.
During the 1 hour SI we all just kept our suits on - fully zipped. For me this is quite rare, but the sun never came out and my hands just wouldn't warm up for the longest time. Tracy was so cold she begged off on her second dive. Even so, that lady has real nerve; diving wet at Gilboa and the big lake early in the season.
Our second dive was on the Regina. One of the many vessels sunk during the big storm of 1913; this 250' long freighter wasn't rediscovered until 1986. She sits in 75' of water lying turtle. The conditions were even better on this dive, with literally no current and improving vis. My camera seemed to work a whole lot better with the lens cap off.
The ship's nameplate has been cleared of Zebra Mussel encrustation
The group of 6 divers aboard the Sylvia Anne were decidedly tech orientated with a large contingent of UTD (United Team Diving) divers, a organization that splintered off from GUE when Andrew fell into bad standing with Jarrod J.
The ships forward rail is now crushed. Even sturdy construction is no match for an overturned ship and 95 years on the lake bed.
Of course, I could not resist a short exploration of the forward hold.
Linda the DM waited for me on the exterior of the ship.
My favorite image from the dive - the money shot.
Just outside the hold I notice some old bottles - I guess I might have had a drink or two if I was caught in a November gale with 95mph winds.
A buddy team (Chad and UDT instructor James Mott) with scooters were able to complete a 20 minutes exploration of the interior of the ship just as I was making my way back to the mooring line.
Of course, by the time we returned to Port Sanilac the sun started to shine brightly. The entire group decided to have lunch in Port Huron. Tracy picked the spot, Cheap Charlie's a place whose menu created confusion for some. But with lots of TV's around the dining area, James was able to hijack an input and show the dive video from today's wrecks.
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