FettSolo
Contributor
When I first looked into scuba diving in Lake Champlain, I found a dearth of information online. So, I just wanted to put down some information here for others who might be searching in the future.
Lake Champlain is home to over three hundred wrecks. A handful of these make up the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve System. Each of these sites are marked by a yellow mooring buoy. There is a dive shop in Burlington, Waterfront Diving Center (WDC), that runs boat charters to these sites from June through September. They do single-tank charters on Wednesday evenings and two-tank charters on the weekends. The single is $50, the double is $65-75 depending on the distance to the wrecks. You can rent tanks, weights, and anything else you need from WDC. The boat only fits six, so you need to book ahead of time.
These wrecks lie as shallow as 12ft and deep as 110ft. Visibility tends to be low, from 10ft in June to 30ft in September. You need a dive light. In addition, all it takes is one diver with poor buoyancy to stir up silt and make the visibility even worse. The water temperature can be quite chilly, especially as one goes deeper - I have experienced as low as 36 degrees Fahrenheit at 110ft. I dive in a 7mm wetsuit with a hood and gloves, but most people dive these wrecks in drysuits.
Based on the water temperature and visibility, I would not recommend Lake Champlain wreck diving for beginners (though you could do a shore dive at Oakledge or Perkin's Pier, albeit with not much to see). That being said, the diving is rather easy. You descend at the yellow buoy, fall the line down to a marker, and then follow the line along the bed until you reach the wreck. As long as you have a dive light, it would be very difficult to get lost.
Anyhow, that's just some information. There might be others on here who could add more.
Lake Champlain is home to over three hundred wrecks. A handful of these make up the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve System. Each of these sites are marked by a yellow mooring buoy. There is a dive shop in Burlington, Waterfront Diving Center (WDC), that runs boat charters to these sites from June through September. They do single-tank charters on Wednesday evenings and two-tank charters on the weekends. The single is $50, the double is $65-75 depending on the distance to the wrecks. You can rent tanks, weights, and anything else you need from WDC. The boat only fits six, so you need to book ahead of time.
These wrecks lie as shallow as 12ft and deep as 110ft. Visibility tends to be low, from 10ft in June to 30ft in September. You need a dive light. In addition, all it takes is one diver with poor buoyancy to stir up silt and make the visibility even worse. The water temperature can be quite chilly, especially as one goes deeper - I have experienced as low as 36 degrees Fahrenheit at 110ft. I dive in a 7mm wetsuit with a hood and gloves, but most people dive these wrecks in drysuits.
Based on the water temperature and visibility, I would not recommend Lake Champlain wreck diving for beginners (though you could do a shore dive at Oakledge or Perkin's Pier, albeit with not much to see). That being said, the diving is rather easy. You descend at the yellow buoy, fall the line down to a marker, and then follow the line along the bed until you reach the wreck. As long as you have a dive light, it would be very difficult to get lost.
Anyhow, that's just some information. There might be others on here who could add more.
