For the last dive in a course I was taking years ago, the instructor had us dive on the burned out wreckage of an old and once famous hotel on Lake Rousseau. The lake is tannic, and though it is pitch black below 20 feet, the water below the thermocline is quite clear. Ideal for finishing some skills for a technical course.
Built in the 1920s and frequented by Hollywood stars, Hotel Muskoka burned to the ground in 1954 or so. As they did in those days, the wreckage was bulldozed off the picturesque granite cliff and into the lake. The cliff continued 70 feet straight down under water, where it gradually levelled out at about 90 feet.
The hotel wreckage was scattered between 70 and 90 feet. Old ornate metal bedsteads, charred wooden timbers, sheet metal eaves troughs, bits of pipes and so on stretched off into the distance as far as our lights could illuminate. It was vast, fascinating and a bit eerie.
My instructor spotted the edge of a china plate poking up out of the rubble. He grabbed it, then signalled to begin the ascent. On the way up we did an exercise where after turning my wrist mounted dive computer over so the depth couldn’t be seen, I popped a lift bag with line marked every 10 feet, then he simulated being an unconscious diver and I had to bring him to the surface, controlling both of our buoyancies while sticking to a simulated deco schedule. He maintained a firm grasp on the plate as we successfully ascended.
It wasn’t till we were back on the boat and not so busy with skills that I was able to see the plate. IlRC it was given to the appropriate staff of a modern hotel that’s now on the lake.
It was certainly an interesting and unusual dive.
Built in the 1920s and frequented by Hollywood stars, Hotel Muskoka burned to the ground in 1954 or so. As they did in those days, the wreckage was bulldozed off the picturesque granite cliff and into the lake. The cliff continued 70 feet straight down under water, where it gradually levelled out at about 90 feet.
The hotel wreckage was scattered between 70 and 90 feet. Old ornate metal bedsteads, charred wooden timbers, sheet metal eaves troughs, bits of pipes and so on stretched off into the distance as far as our lights could illuminate. It was vast, fascinating and a bit eerie.
My instructor spotted the edge of a china plate poking up out of the rubble. He grabbed it, then signalled to begin the ascent. On the way up we did an exercise where after turning my wrist mounted dive computer over so the depth couldn’t be seen, I popped a lift bag with line marked every 10 feet, then he simulated being an unconscious diver and I had to bring him to the surface, controlling both of our buoyancies while sticking to a simulated deco schedule. He maintained a firm grasp on the plate as we successfully ascended.
It wasn’t till we were back on the boat and not so busy with skills that I was able to see the plate. IlRC it was given to the appropriate staff of a modern hotel that’s now on the lake.
It was certainly an interesting and unusual dive.
