Tobermory Trip 29 Aug - 1 Sep

[Notso_Ken]

Hi all, just got back yesterday from the absolutely AWESOME trip to Tobermory to dive wrecks there on the Canadian side of Lake Huron with Ber_Rabbit, and her husband, Bruce.

Ber and Bruce headed straight up there, and I am sure Ber will add her thoughts on the trip to this thread (if she isn't typing away at the same time as I am!). They got a day head start on me.

My wife, Kathy, and I had some family stops to make first, so we got there LATE Tuesday night, due to a wreck on the Trans Canada Highway. Sat at a standstill for about 20 minutes before they got a detour opened up. Then we detoured about 30 minutes, and finally got back on the highway just a mile or so from where we had been stopped. So, I tried to make up time on the road, and pulled into the ferry parking lot at 5:56, just in time to see the 5:50 ferry pulling out. One of the workers there saw we were obviously famished, and recommended we got back up the road about 10 miles, then 2 minutes west to a restauraunt called the Gardens Gate. We tried it out and had a fantastic dinner there, then still got back to the ferry a little after 8, so had to wait more for the 10pm ferry. On the ride across, the ferry was rocking pretty good. A computer onboard displaying the trip status reported 20-24 foot waves. I dopn't know if they were really that big, but they were pretty good sized. After the 28 mile ferry ride from South Baymouth, as we were pulling into the dock, we had some pretty good screaching going on as the ferry ground up against the pier. If you've seen the movie Galaxy Quest (a truly great spoof on Star Trek), and remember the noise when they left the space dock, you'll have a very good idea about the noise we had, and the duration of it!

Wednesday morning, got up, had breakfast, and went and got registered with the Park folks, then went to the dive shop. All boats cancelled due to the waves. Ber, Bruce and I did a shore dive there in the harbor on the Alice G, and a few other boats right there by the shore. Kathy passed on snorkeling along with us. The Alice G is surprisingly intact, with boiler there. The others are not intact. It's interesting to wade out, and start putting on your fins, and to discover you're doing so, right on a wreck. Tried a shore dive for the anchor, but the waves and rocks there at the entry dissuaded us. We spent the rest of the day sightseeing.

Thursday, we showed up for the dives, and got a late start, but we got out at least. Still pretty good waves out on the lake! I got buddied up with a guy named Tim that showed up. There was also a father-son duo along for the dives. First dive was the Niagara II (sunk on putpose for then diving). Nice 80+ foot dive on a very intact wreck. We went next to another wreck (I forget which), but the buoys were missing, so we then went to the James C King. Another good dive with lots to see. Due to the late start, then the replanning accomplished due to missing buoys, we got back about 3, with another groupd ready to go. Since we needed food and air, and the others were ready to go, we blew off the afternoon trip, and spent some time seeing Tobermory.

Friday, we showed up for the trip to the Arabia and the Wetmore. Just Ber, Bruce, and me, Kathy came to snorkel above the Wetmore. The lake was finally calm. On the way to the Arabia, the engine died (within sight of the marker buoys!). The captain nursed it along and got us to the ship, so we were able to get the dive in. Great dive on the wreck, with good visibility. Ship wheel, anchors, and a marker plaque are some of the sights to see on this one. On the way back up, at our 50 foot stop, Bruce discovered he was missing his camera. We continued up, and the Dive Master convinced the Dive Shop owner to let us stay out for one more dive on it to try to recover the camera, the owner wanted the boat back for a mechanic to work on the engine. Bruce and I waited for a 45 minute surface interval, then went back in. At about 50 feet, I noticed 4 things: 1) something looking like a label on the bottom, 2) Bruce signaling for us to drop to the jib-boom to start the search below it, 3) a nice clean knife laying on the bottom, and 4) my knife sheath was empty. We got the to jib-boom, and dropped to the bottom, Bruce saw something, and went in the direction of that label I had seen, I went for my knife, and saw Bruce pick his camera up off the floor! So, we were able to start right back up after a successful search and recovery mission! Waves were picking up as we headed back in, Kathy never did get to snorkel.

Overall, despite the uncooperative weather, a very good trip! I recommend we do this again next year, with a little change, get up there, with only morning dive trips planned, except maybe shore dives in the afternoon, then do other things such as the sunset cruise, or dinner ferry trip. Then after 3 days or so there, drive to Munising and dive in Lake Superior. Great challenge for us wet suit divers!

Ken

 

[Dean810]

Sounds kind of nice to be able to get a shore dive in when the boat doesn't work out!

 

[Scubadude773]

What a cool trip, I would like to dive there next year.
Thank You for the trip report.
Robb

 

[Notso_Ken]

What a cool trip, I would like to dive there next year.
Thank You for the trip report.
Robb

It was indeed a good trip, and there were only 3 of us there! Boat had plenty of room for more.

I'm hoping Ber and Bruce do this again next year.

Ken

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I sure am slow getting caught up after being off gallivanting around for 2 weeks

Bruce and I headed up to Tobermory Monday Aug 28. We arrived at 4pm and checked into the Harbourside Motel. It's nothing fancy but it's clean and the employees are friendly. The location is great, each room has a back door that opens to a nice shared patio and from there you can walk down the steps to the harbor. We headed to G&S Watersports after settling into the hotel to drop off our tanks for fills and let them know we were in town. The town was really crowded and there were no parking places anywhere near the dive shop so we pulled into the gravel area behind the shop and they let us bring the tanks in the back door. Food was the next item on the agenda so we headed to the Crowsnest Pub for dinner. The North American Clam Chowder with a Baguette was yummy! I didn't even know what a baguette was when the waitress told me they were out of croissants but it was worth trying something new.

Tuesday morning we picked up our tanks and headed out to the Tugs to get reacquainted with Tobermory before heading out on boat dives. I caught a quick glimpse of two boats coming toward the harbor and running side-by-side while we were driving toward the Tugs. I walked to the platform after we parked and saw the Lark towing the Joseph Simon back to the harbor, they hadn't been out very long when the engine quit. The divers onboard were transferred to the Mamie and we saw her heading out toward the Arabia as we prepared to dive. We had talked to Capt. Billy briefly that morning and he said they had gotten some bad diesel the previous week and they had just gotten the boat running again--evidently the mechanic missed something during that repair resulting in the tow to the harbor.

We had a great dive on the tugs and Bruce got a couple of really good pictures of the Alice G as well as some of the smaller details like caulking and the wood grain of parts of the other wrecks. We packed up our gear after the dive and headed over to try to find the anchor. That dive site is a bit of a challenge to enter, lots of rock climbing is involved. The instructions for finding the anchor are pretty vague in Cris Kohl's book "Great Lakes Diving Guide". I had a few extra tips that a diver had given us last year after we dove the lighthouse so I was hoping we would be able to find the anchor. No such luck! We found the boulder with the boards but I led us the wrong way from there, the directions gave a depth and said to go away from the boulder. They meant go the other way away from the boulder The sandy bottom of the harbor was not interesting but the rocks were and we poked along looking at the geology and looking for critters. Next time we're going to find that anchor, I have a few more tips that fill in the gaps in my previous knowledge and I really think we can find it this time!

Tuesday we had lunch at The Fish and Chip Place, my personal favorite place to eat in Tobermory. I would eat there every meal given the chance, I think we ate there 3 or 4 times this trip The fish are cooked until the batter is golden brown and crisp, no soggy batter mess at the center of these fish! We figured out that buying the family fish 6 piece and a small side order of chips (fries) was less expensive than getting two orders of regular fish and chips or even a regular order of fish and chips and an order of bits (the equivalent of 1 piece of fish) and chips. A small order of chips splits nicely between two people and doesn't fill you up too much so you can easily eat your 3 pieces of fish from the family 6 fish pack.

We weren't sure when Ken and Kathy would be in Tuesday but we figured they would arrive on the ferry scheduled to come in at 7:30 so we had an early dinner at Shipwreck Lee's. I had the fish there and wasn't too impressed, the batter was still soggy in the middle of the fish and I like my batter cooked until it's crispy. I forgave them the soggy fish because they have cheesy garlic bread that is WONDERFUL! My husband ordered it and they brought out three large slices of cheesy garlic bread cut in half. The order was so large I could have eaten that as a meal! Next time I'm going to try their chowder and split an order of the cheesy garlic bread with my husband.

The Chi-Cheemaun ferry came and went and no sign of Ken and Kathy. We were starting to worry when I noticed I hadn't turned my phone ringer on and I had missed a call from Ken saying they would be on the late ferry. It took me forever to figure out how to retrieve the message; I finally realized I had to actually dial my phone number instead of just selecting the message and hitting "send." Just FYI, a Verizon phone will work in Tobermory, I was able to make and receive calls as well as send text messages and pictures Needless to say I used this knowledge sparingly, hopefully the bill won't be too high

We heard the ferry come in at midnight so we got up to meet Ken and Kathy. The wind was blowing like crazy and the last time we were in Toby any wind we had at night continued through the next day so I figured we'd be blown off the dives Wednesday. Unfortunately I was right, no boats were going out so we took Ken over to the Tugs to show him around. This was the first time we had ever gone over to the John & Alex which sits partially on the shore and of the 4 tugs at the site it is the closest wreck to the harbor. We had a great dive and as Ken said spent the rest of the day sight-seeing. A quick peek at The Anchor's entry point and its crashing waves told us diving there would be a bad idea. Getting in might not be too hard if you timed the waves just right but getting out was another story; "Divers Pounded to Death on Rocks" wasn't the trip report I wanted everyone to see on here.

Thursday the winds had died down a bit but the waves were still 5-7 feet according to Capt. Billy. The Joseph Simon was running again and we loaded up and headed for the Niagara II a bit later than planned due to an appointment that ran later than expected. We were given the choice to make the Niagara II dive or a shallower dive since the waves were pretty big. I knew our group could handle the conditions at the Niagara II but we were concerned about the father/son pair since they didn't have much experience. We let them know that it was ok if they wanted to change sites but they insisted they would be fine so we splashed on the Niagara II. Bruce and I had a really nice dive although I had to take a minute at the bottom of the line to get my head together after the challenging swim to the anchor line; I'm not so sure I like boat diving in a drysuit. We had great visibility and Bruce managed to get some pretty good pictures. Ken's buddy discovered he had no hood on the way to the site so I offered to let him wear my rabbit ear hood--we have pictures of that as well

The second site was going to be the Caroline Rose but as Ken said, the buoys were missing. The waves were only 4-5 feet there but a bit of a current was running so the safety stop would be blue water in a current. We expressed our reservations about the father/son team to the DM; there had been some minor buddymanship problems that, combined with their lack of experience could cause serious problems during a blue water drifting safety stop. The final decision was to go to the James C. King a wreck none of us had ever been on so we liked that plan better than the Caroline Rose which we dove last year. The water at the King was colder than the Niagara II and Tim, Ken's buddy had opted to go without the rabbit ears based on the water temp at the Niagara II. I saw my computer register temperatures in the 50's and I was really feeling sorry for Tim and his bare head; he managed to stick out the dive though I'm not sure how. The King has Roman numeral depth markings on the bow which Bruce remembered to look for and even got a decent picture of! We didn't stay down there at 80+ feet very long, I was cold in the drysuit! The late start and change of sites meant we were REALLY late getting back to the harbor. We were scheduled to go out on the next charter but we needed to get air fills and EAT since it was about 3pm and Bruce and I had eaten a light breakfast to help avoid getting seasick--I was STARVING! We opted to skip the diving and headed off to dinner.

End part one

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Part two, our final day:

Friday dawned and the wind was calm, things looked good for the Arabia and Wetmore with waves less than 3 feet but I was having these feelings of impending doom. I don't like it when my gut starts screaming "Danger" and we're heading out to do a 105 foot dive.

Ken's wife Kathy came along with us this time so she could snorkel on the Wetmore. The four of us were enjoying the ride to the Arabia when the Joseph Simon's engines quit within sight of the Arabia's buoys, that bad diesel fuel was still haunting her and my gut turned up the "Danger" volume. I had gone to the head while Capt. Billy worked on re-starting the engines; I was unlocking the door to come out when my hand slipped off the latch and neatly sliced my thumb open causing my gut to scream "Bad omen, we're about to die!" I cleaned up my wound as the captain managed to nurse the engines back to life. We limp to the Arabia and tie off, Bruce manages to cut his thumb on the head latch although his wasn't nearly as deep as mine. This dive has bad news written all over it but I don't opt out, a bit unusual for me. I have one of my finger spools with me because the DM said the jump line from the mooring line to the wreck was broken. Ken, Bruce and I splash and make our way to the mooring line and down into the depths, my ears are really slow to clear and at 50 feet I'm seriously considering turning back but suddenly Bruce sees the wreck off to our right. We tie the line from the finger spool to the mooring line and I run it over to the wreck and tie it off while Bruce starts taking pictures nearby and Ken watches both of us. We explore the bow and head back the port side, crossing to starboard at the stern and dropping down to the bottom to see the wheel and the concrete monument/plaque Bruce's friends put down there so many years ago. We headed back the starboard side looking at the dead-eyes and pulleys and taking pictures as we go. There is a bit of a current running and we are heading into it on the return to the bow, I know I tend to hoover air a bit when working and I get to the jump line with 800psi. I wanted to cut the line and leave it, taking the reel with me but I had never discussed that possibility with the guys so they didn't understand my hand signals. Ken jumped in and untied the line; he and Bruce later said they thought I was badly narced and intending to mess with that line until I ran out of air. Bruce untied the line from the mooring line and now I had about 60 feet of string floating behind me in the current. We ascended to our 50 foot stop where I started winding the line in--or so I thought, I couldn't figure out why my husband kept trying to take the thing away from me. I was focusing on my task when Bruce gave me the "I don't know" sign and I gave him the "I'm confused" look. He made the "camera" sign and that's when I realized it was GONE, he had dropped our Olympus 5060 while trying to take the $15 spool away from me--my gut said "See, I told you something bad was going to happen on this dive." The finger spools aren't easy to wind when your dry gloves are longer than your fingers; Bruce said I was getting about every third wrap onto the spool. Most of the line would catch on the fingers of my glove and fall off, I was evidently too narced to see this because I swear I was winding that line just fine. Bruce was afraid I would stay at the 50 foot stop until I ran out of air trying to wind that spool and since he didn't want that to happen he took the spool and dropped the camera in the process. I intended to finish the winding at the 15-foot stop I was just getting a head start at the 50 foot stop. We were heartsick when we got on the boat since we had not downloaded any pictures from the camera, I hadn't remembered to bring the USB cable. We were supposed to go back to the harbor to meet the mechanic who would fix the boat, the DM and Captain obtained permission for us to stay on the Arabia for a surface interval and make a second dive to hunt for the camera. We were diving air and a 45 minute SIT would give us a little time to search. I opted to stay on the boat with gear ready in case something went wrong since the DM didn't have her gear with her and my tank would be the only full one on the boat. Ken and Bruce made the dive and actually managed to find the camera in spite of the current moving it a bit away from the wreck. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to see them both come back and to see that camera in Bruce's hands. That was more excitement than I care to have on a dive that's for sure! My gut said, "You got lucky this time, next time listen to me goofy!"

All in all it was a great trip and I'm looking forward to getting a chance to go back, hopefully soon.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Dean810]

Great report! Sounds like much of the adventure didn't even happen in the water. I'm still a little puzzled though why Tim wouldn't wear the bunny ear hood in that cold water!

 

[texdiveguy]

I am jealous!!!!!

 

[pcarlson1911]

Sounds like a good trip. Ihope Tobermory is on our plans for nex tsummer!
pc

 

[Notso_Ken]

Sounds like a good trip. Ihope Tobermory is on our plans for nex tsummer!
pc

I want to go back next year, about same time!

Ken