A group of us from St Louis headed up to Milwaukee for some wreck diving on Lake Michigan. This has been an annual trip the past few years, but this year, we were booked on the Alma, which is a new boat in the area. The boat is owned by Shipwreck Adventures, which also runs the Little Alexandria out of their home base in Two Rivers. Unlike their other boat, the Alma stays put in Milwaukee. Actually, considering the size of the boat, I’m not sure it can be trailered like the Little Alexandria.
We booked one of the first charters of the year over Memorial Day, and on Saturday, things were not completely ready at Jerry’s Dock, so we ran across the river to the public river taxi dock, and loaded our gear on board. The public dock makes for a nice, close by backup location, but I was happy to load up on Sunday at Jerry’s dock because of the ease of access, and parking. For a change, I was diving singles this trip. Even loaded down with everyone’s gear, the boat had a lot of room to spare. The benches especially were very roomy. The boat only carries 6 divers, but the benches seem to be sized for eight divers. That makes gearing up a lot less frantic, especially when you have a couple first timers who are not in the habit of corralling their gear. The cabin area is also very spacious, with a table that seats four, and a wide bench on one side. The helm, and a galley line the other side. The bow berth contains an emergency head, first aid kit, oxygen, and a very small amount of storage space. The head is not what I would call your first choice, hence the ‘emergency’. There is a small door connecting the cabin and the stern.
The rules of the boat are that everything wet, including divers, stays in the back. Dry stuff can be stowed in the cabin, and gearing up for the first dive was not too much of a hassle. Actually, because there is no V-berth in the bow, everyone stowed their drysuits and undergarments in different places, and there was no last minute rush to the bow to get your suits, like there normally is. Again, the stern was so spread out, there was plenty of room to don your suit on the gear benches. I would imagine the cabin would get crowded if it was raining, and everyone was trying to gear up at the same time, but other than Dale’s old boat, you just aren’t going to find a cabin big enough on a great lakes dive boat.
Our first site on Saturday was the Willie. Brett was crew for the weekend, and he managed to get us moored up without falling in  Captain Bob gave us the pre-dive briefing, and had a nice large drawing of the wreck as visual aid. He also had a couple recommendations for getting into the engine room. The swim step, and walk through transom made exiting the boat a lot nicer than having to hurdle the engine compartment, or back-roll off the side. Bob put out a tagline, and a granny line, which is pretty standard.
Dan and I dropped down, and had okay visibility at about 20 or 25’. I led the first dive. We were moored on the stern, which was a first for me. Swam through the aft holds, then through the bridge, and up into the port gangway before heading into the forward hold, into the forward hold entrance to the Engine Room, and exiting through the interior passage aft. Swam around the bow a little before heading back up the mooring. Coming up the ladder in a single tank was really nice for a change, and considering I still had almost 2k psi left, I started wondering why I don’t dive a single tank more often. The ladder was very nice and stable. Fins-On design. The bottom step was plenty deep to get a good purchase on it without fighting it. In between dives, Bob broke out some really sweet pineapple, continuing his tradition.
We were on the boat all day on Saturday, so we stayed at the Willie for Dive #2 before heading in for fuel, tanks, and lunch. After swapping out tanks, we headed to the #6 Dredge. Everyone decided one long dive was preferable to two shorter ones, so we planned 45 minutes on the bottom. Dan and I snuck into every nook and cranny we could before making fools of ourselves on Dan’s Scooter. Lets just say neither of us should be doing barrel rolls. We got back to the dock, and some of us left some of our cheaper gear on board for Sunday’s dives. Jerry is setting up a compressor at the dock, which will make overnight fills much easier if you need them. We all met at the Ale House for dinner, which is a really trendy part of downtown just down the street from the dock.
Sunday we met at Jerry’s Dock, and headed out to the Car Ferry. The Alma is decently fast. Probably a little faster than the Len-Der, but maybe not quite as fast as the Little Alexandria. A LOT faster than Dale’s old boat if that means anything to you. The boat seemed pretty stable in the water, but with the Lake so calm, I can’t really say for sure. Captain Bob told me about a hole in the hull of the Carferry leading to the engine room, and I swam over there to check it out. The engine room was very expansive and wide open, but had a lot of places to get hung up. The hole is also hidden by some large debris, so there is no ambient light coming in, and the exit would be very hard to find if you get disoriented. I didn’t wander far, and searched around for some of the other entrances Bob mentioned before the dive. Bob is very enthusiastic, and knows a lot about the area wrecks, so you can get a lot of info out of the dive briefings, even if you have dove the wrecks a number of times. We did a second dive on the Car Ferry, and then headed back to the dock.
All in all, I really liked diving on the Alma, and most of the other guys on board really thought it stacked up well against the other Milwaukee charters. There are probably some things that can be improved, but they are mostly cosmetic. We chartered the whole boat, but based on Greg and Bob’s reputation, I believe they might attract a larger share of the experienced divers, so you may not have as many split-fin-induced silt-outs as you get on the Len Der or the RV Aquatica. They are also based out of Milwaukee full time, so if you want to do any of the recreational, or technical dives out of Milwaukee, they should probably be first on your list.
Tom
We booked one of the first charters of the year over Memorial Day, and on Saturday, things were not completely ready at Jerry’s Dock, so we ran across the river to the public river taxi dock, and loaded our gear on board. The public dock makes for a nice, close by backup location, but I was happy to load up on Sunday at Jerry’s dock because of the ease of access, and parking. For a change, I was diving singles this trip. Even loaded down with everyone’s gear, the boat had a lot of room to spare. The benches especially were very roomy. The boat only carries 6 divers, but the benches seem to be sized for eight divers. That makes gearing up a lot less frantic, especially when you have a couple first timers who are not in the habit of corralling their gear. The cabin area is also very spacious, with a table that seats four, and a wide bench on one side. The helm, and a galley line the other side. The bow berth contains an emergency head, first aid kit, oxygen, and a very small amount of storage space. The head is not what I would call your first choice, hence the ‘emergency’. There is a small door connecting the cabin and the stern.
The rules of the boat are that everything wet, including divers, stays in the back. Dry stuff can be stowed in the cabin, and gearing up for the first dive was not too much of a hassle. Actually, because there is no V-berth in the bow, everyone stowed their drysuits and undergarments in different places, and there was no last minute rush to the bow to get your suits, like there normally is. Again, the stern was so spread out, there was plenty of room to don your suit on the gear benches. I would imagine the cabin would get crowded if it was raining, and everyone was trying to gear up at the same time, but other than Dale’s old boat, you just aren’t going to find a cabin big enough on a great lakes dive boat.
Our first site on Saturday was the Willie. Brett was crew for the weekend, and he managed to get us moored up without falling in  Captain Bob gave us the pre-dive briefing, and had a nice large drawing of the wreck as visual aid. He also had a couple recommendations for getting into the engine room. The swim step, and walk through transom made exiting the boat a lot nicer than having to hurdle the engine compartment, or back-roll off the side. Bob put out a tagline, and a granny line, which is pretty standard.
Dan and I dropped down, and had okay visibility at about 20 or 25’. I led the first dive. We were moored on the stern, which was a first for me. Swam through the aft holds, then through the bridge, and up into the port gangway before heading into the forward hold, into the forward hold entrance to the Engine Room, and exiting through the interior passage aft. Swam around the bow a little before heading back up the mooring. Coming up the ladder in a single tank was really nice for a change, and considering I still had almost 2k psi left, I started wondering why I don’t dive a single tank more often. The ladder was very nice and stable. Fins-On design. The bottom step was plenty deep to get a good purchase on it without fighting it. In between dives, Bob broke out some really sweet pineapple, continuing his tradition.
We were on the boat all day on Saturday, so we stayed at the Willie for Dive #2 before heading in for fuel, tanks, and lunch. After swapping out tanks, we headed to the #6 Dredge. Everyone decided one long dive was preferable to two shorter ones, so we planned 45 minutes on the bottom. Dan and I snuck into every nook and cranny we could before making fools of ourselves on Dan’s Scooter. Lets just say neither of us should be doing barrel rolls. We got back to the dock, and some of us left some of our cheaper gear on board for Sunday’s dives. Jerry is setting up a compressor at the dock, which will make overnight fills much easier if you need them. We all met at the Ale House for dinner, which is a really trendy part of downtown just down the street from the dock.
Sunday we met at Jerry’s Dock, and headed out to the Car Ferry. The Alma is decently fast. Probably a little faster than the Len-Der, but maybe not quite as fast as the Little Alexandria. A LOT faster than Dale’s old boat if that means anything to you. The boat seemed pretty stable in the water, but with the Lake so calm, I can’t really say for sure. Captain Bob told me about a hole in the hull of the Carferry leading to the engine room, and I swam over there to check it out. The engine room was very expansive and wide open, but had a lot of places to get hung up. The hole is also hidden by some large debris, so there is no ambient light coming in, and the exit would be very hard to find if you get disoriented. I didn’t wander far, and searched around for some of the other entrances Bob mentioned before the dive. Bob is very enthusiastic, and knows a lot about the area wrecks, so you can get a lot of info out of the dive briefings, even if you have dove the wrecks a number of times. We did a second dive on the Car Ferry, and then headed back to the dock.
All in all, I really liked diving on the Alma, and most of the other guys on board really thought it stacked up well against the other Milwaukee charters. There are probably some things that can be improved, but they are mostly cosmetic. We chartered the whole boat, but based on Greg and Bob’s reputation, I believe they might attract a larger share of the experienced divers, so you may not have as many split-fin-induced silt-outs as you get on the Len Der or the RV Aquatica. They are also based out of Milwaukee full time, so if you want to do any of the recreational, or technical dives out of Milwaukee, they should probably be first on your list.
Tom
