I got to do four on the SS Wisconsin this weekend... The wind gods were smiling upon us all weekend - thats for sure....
Loki - the god of mischif - however was out in full force today determined to ruin everything....
1. Wake up an hour early to get to Winthrop Harbor - 5 mins after jumping on I-94 traffic is at a standstill @ 6:30 sunday AM......! Luckily right when I ended up stopping - Illinois famous Minutemen arrived and cleared whatever had things mucked up in no time....
2. I get to the dock, assemble my rig and walk my doubles down to the Nordic Diver. I go park my car, walk back w/ Drysuit/Fins, etc in hand only to see the boat off in the distance. I haul a-- down the dock, drop my gear and full sprint to the end of the dock waving my arms as frantically as possible. Some poor soul is watching me (likely laughing at me while sipping his morning brew) as I mutter "Well - maybe my tanks will be doing 2 on the Wisconsin...." and offers to let me use his radio... Turns out - they were just going to get fuel and they'll pick me up at the gas docks... <unintelligable grumbling> When I get to the top of the ramp - there are the rest of the passangers for the day with a smrik "we didn't leave anything down on the dock did we"... I seem to recall a few muttered profanities....
3. Suiting up for dive #1, the wrist strap on my computer breaks... Wow - the new sturdier strap from Uwatec lasted all of 12 dives.....! Its ok - I now know it'll fit snugly in the new BT mount from DeepSeaSupply.... Ahh well - borrowed a computer from Captn' Bill and splashed down - I'm diving - all is forgiven...! (see#2)
Ok - now for the diving...
Weather - wonderful! Viz = 35-40' Of course as many sets of people visited the wreck all weekend conditions deteriated... but still - wow....
Spent most of Saturdays dives checking out the car hold and the blowhole. Viz was like gin down in the blowhole. I made it back two holds and ran across three burot in that area along. Dive 2 I pretty much just showed a newbie the car hold and farted around on deck - compute rnailed me w/ a ton of deco due to my extended 1st dive and only a 1hr SI. Ahh well - ya do the crime - ya do the time. Luckily the thermocline was just below 20', so it wasn't terrible sucking O2 from the boat.
Sunday I dropped down into the engine room and checked things out for a bit - then made my way back to the car hold and did a little swim through. Dive 2 pretty much farted around on deck - and made another visit to the blowhole. Only went about 5 inches into the second compartment as the muck was in the air and I saw the distinct glow of an 18W HID coming from the other side of the room/ship. So I figured lets get out and not create any problems for someone else.
Saturday's dives were in my single's rig - 119's which are dialed in perfectly... Sunday I got to break in my new set of doubles... old HP100's... I grabbed a 7lb v-weight before heading out the door - and the rig is a little heavy.... The shop is doing a picnic at Haigh Friday - I may experiement w/ the gear, maybe swap out the SS plate for my AL one - that should shave 5lbs - hopefully that won't be too much... I still got 1200psi leftover - so a dive or two at the quarry should suck that down near 500psi for an ample weight check to make sure I can hold my 20' stop.
