Great Day To Dive A Great Lake!

[moneysavr]

Wow just got back from several great dives off Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Day started with a lake launch from my pals home and a short hop down to Port the first dive was on a small Fishing scow skin boat and a seldom visited site, North of the Port Harbor entrance in 75' of water temps were 40's top to bottom the lake flat vis in the 70' range as we must of had a west wind blow the deep clear water in SWEET! my pal shot some video and stills of this small but to me a neat site-first time to dive her,the navy anchor and drop marker were on the mark!

Second dive on a civil war era brig to the south and vis was the same fabtabullass!did a off site search to find a divers wienie weight and bugger pole,and a nice tour seeing her intact and still in her glory.
Sweet day and hope others got wet today with the great conditions!
Brad

 

[trucker girl]

Glad to hear it, moneysavr!

I just received the first of several books I ordered by Cris Kohl on the wrecks in the Great Lakes. The Niagara is detailed in The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks Volume II on page 317. It lacks photographs or a diagram in the book, but has several pages of history and details of her story- a lot of folks lost their lives on her final trip, it seems. Great book, though, if you plan on diving many of the GLWC sites on Lake Michigan or Lake Superior!

Thanks for the report!

 

[moneysavr]

Glad to hear it, moneysavr!

I just received the first of several books I ordered by Cris Kohl on the wrecks in the Great Lakes. The Niagara is detailed in The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks Volume II on page 317. It lacks photographs or a diagram in the book, but has several pages of history and details of her story- a lot of folks lost their lives on her final trip, it seems. Great book, though, if you plan on diving many of the GLWC sites on Lake Michigan or Lake Superior!

Thanks for the report!

She lays close to my home in the lake that is!
Cris Kohl has some nice books and had a few beers with him at Beach Harbor in Sturgeon Bay several months back after his book signing he sold more books out of his trunk that day then at the store light house tour!! hes good but I have several things that I need some one to sit between us,his GPS No#s tend to be old Loran Conversions and get you in the same lake but not near the wreck! second,, one wreck he describes intact and up right is fragment's but I do buy his books and he is a pal of a dear friend of mine so I must play nice!

The Niagra is a great dive as she has been stripped clean by the old core divers of years back prior to the wreck protection acts,but still today you can find tons of china on the site, and her boilers stand tall!and her walking beam engine still makes me hear the chug chug sound that it must of made!
Think I may have some photo or video in my galley, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Xl07s36is
Dive safe,
Brad

 

[do it easy]

OK, so what were the fishies in the video?

 

[trucker girl]

Sad to hear about the inaccuracies. I borrowed Ber Rabbits Great Lakes books (by Kohl) during our Tobermory trip- it helps to know what you're supposed to be looking at- lol. I'd like to get his Volume I which includes Lake Huron, but I did order Tobermory Ship Wrecks by Rick Salen.

We had a 10 hour drive up to Tobermory- I can't say I'd make the trek again anytime soon! But the wrecks were fascinating. Ahhh... to have ship wrecks in your back yard. What a great thing! I'm happy diving in the quarries- but diving an actual wreck is very cool!

 

[moneysavr]

yep keep up with your skills diving quarries, but please get out on the Great Lakes!it's what its all about!
yes we all dont live on or near the lake & own a dive boat,but with so many fantastic charter and dive opp's with great saftey records get out of the sink holes and play !
Brad

 

[Dean810]

yep keep up with your skills diving quarries, but please get out on the Great Lakes!it's what its all about!
yes we all dont live on or near the lake & own a dive boat,but with so many fantastic charter and dive opp's with great saftey records get out of the sink holes and play !
Brad

Hi Brad,

You know what my big disappointment is this year? I was supposed to go out to the Northerner a couple of weeks ago, and got blown out! It was supposed to be on the Len Der, and he doesn't go out there very often...:-(

 

[Dean810]

OK, so what were the fishies in the video?

The first fish is a perch, the second fish is a sucker, but don't ask me what kind of sucker! The last fish, the "lawyer" is the famous burbot. They all seem to like this wreck. There seems to be tons of suckers on this boat, but I don't know what its like now because Brad hasn't taken me diving on it in a long time!

 

[moneysavr]

DEANO DONT GUILT ME NOW!
Come on up some weekend and lets dive a few!your a hoot to dive with,a safe diver, and have a safe system that its got to be right!
I like that in a diver,pluss back then you were relatively a newer diver and your skills were that of a pro!
now that said I got to get diving!
Brad

Dean,
right right and right!

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Brad ... I was just up in Door County this weekend! We were diving with Dive Diva out of Gills Rock. We did two dives on the Frank O'Connor on Sat. Viz wasn't very good ... probably 15-20' with temps 50-52 on the wreck and 60s on the surface. Saw lotsa burbot including one very large guy on top of the engine. He was a good 2' long I'd estimate. Also saw a small school of alewife. With two dives we were able to give the wreck a good exploration, including a tour from stern to bow and back on the second dive. We also saw the famous very large wrench that people like to move around on the wreck.

Unfortunately Sunday was a blow-out as the winds picked up earlier than expected. As luck would have it though my wife was with me on this trip, so we just spent the morning and early afternoon eating our way out of Door county as we worked out way S down 42! Awesome food!!

Oh ... and will Chicago EVER finish construction on the Dan Ryan!!! From now on I'm going to completely skirt the entire city and head back into Indiana on 80/94. 90/94 is always, always a nightmare heading S and then E into Indiana. ARGH!!!!