Mackinac Straits trip

[SDAnderson]

I'll be diving the Straits over the 4th of July weekend, nonetheless I wish I could go with you folks. Fortunately I'll be in Morehead City your week, so I should be able to handle the disappointment. I've been out with Abyss before and Dan is a good guy - he's okay with some deco as long as you can demonstrate that you know what you're doing. This isn't the place to practice your deco skills and I don't think he wants to play surface support all day long, though. Given the traffic and the fast changing and often rough conditions in the Strait, I wouldn't want to be down for a long period, either.

I did a couple of dives on the Cedarville last summer, one of which was delayed by a couple of hours due to a body recovery problem - it's a huge steel hull that deserves several dives before you start worrying about going inside the thing. It's a great dive, but the don't miss dive up there is still the old wooden Eber Ward, IMHO.

 

[jbd]

I have not taken any classes through NAS. I need to relocate them on the internet and gather some more info.

reefraff--can you give us a run down on the Eber Ward?

Your comments regarding deco in that area are pretty much what I recall from my earlier conversation with Dan last year before we headed for home.

 

[diver_paula]

The Eber Ward is wonderful steamer to dive. It's deep but doable within sport diving limits if you want. The decks are wide open and easy to transverse.

You can't go wrong with the Straits. There are so many wonderful wrecks. The Minneapolis, Sandusky, Wm. Young, Col. Ellsworth, The Cayuga! (but a father ride not all charters will do), Maitland, and the Barnum.

The Cedarville is nice but it's metal for goodness sake! Nothing beats a good schooner!

Paula <== A total schooner snob!

p.s. I echo Reefraff in that The Cedarville is not a wreck one should penetrate without first becoming very familiar with her. The orientation and age can make for a very challenging penetration. & I write this because despite being a schooner snob, I've been on the Cedarville more times than I can remember.

 

[diver_paula]

Good link on the Eber Ward.... http://www.greatlakesunderwater.com/GreatLakesUnderwater/eberward.html

 

[diverbrian]

The Eber Ward is wonderful steamer to dive. It's deep but doable within sport diving limits if you want. The decks are wide open and easy to transverse.

You can't go wrong with the Straits. There are so many wonderful wrecks. The Minneapolis, Sandusky, Wm. Young, Col. Ellsworth, The Cayuga! (but a father ride not all charters will do), Maitland, and the Barnum.

The Cedarville is nice but it's metal for goodness sake! Nothing beats a good schooner!

Paula <== A total schooner snob!

p.s. I echo Reefraff in that The Cedarville is not a wreck one should penetrate without first becoming very familiar with her. The orientation and age can make for a very challenging penetration. & I write this because despite being a schooner snob, I've been on the Cedarville more times than I can remember.

I got blown off the Cedarville last year, so I didn't get a chance to dive it. I did do a deco dive on the Eber Ward. In a word.... awesome!

 

[MikeFerrara]

I'll be diving the Straits over the 4th of July weekend, nonetheless I wish I could go with you folks. Fortunately I'll be in Morehead City your week, so I should be able to handle the disappointment. I've been out with Abyss before and Dan is a good guy - he's okay with some deco as long as you can demonstrate that you know what you're doing. This isn't the place to practice your deco skills and I don't think he wants to play surface support all day long, though. Given the traffic and the fast changing and often rough conditions in the Strait, I wouldn't want to be down for a long period, either.

.

I guess it slipped by me that the trip was with Abyss. They do a lot of tech stuff.

The only concern with decompression "for qualified divers" will likely be timing. If only one dive is planned on a wreck they're not going to want to wait around for some one who's spending twice as much time in the water as every one else.

 

[Big-t-2538]

reefraff--can you give us a run down on the Eber Ward?

Jbd - I know she's at 140'. This may not be the bet dive for a group with mixed experience. I certainly wouldn't go there without doubles and a little more training.

just my thoughts.
-T

 

[diverbrian]

Jbd - I know she's at 140'. This may not be the bet dive for a group with mixed experience. I certainly wouldn't go there without doubles and a little more training.

just my thoughts.
-T

The dive that I did on her last year, I did only got down to 117 ft. (The deck) for 33 minutes of runtime. The ship is huge if you haven't seen it. I poked my head inside a little, but my dive buddy wasn't quite as proficient that day as I would have liked. (Poor trim, he was leaving a silt trail on the deck for crying out loud!) That prevented me from going any deeper. There is space for penetration (if you want to call it that) as the deck hatches are very large so I could easily see a person reaching 130 ft. without running into a "hard overhead."

My whole group had doubles. The are highly advised for that particular wreck.

My dive log notes state that it is beautifully preserved and worth the small deco obligation to stay down awhile, but that is an understatement, IMO.

Brian

---->Another schooner snob!

 

[diver_paula]

My whole group had doubles. The are highly advised for that particular wreck.

My dive log notes state that it is beautifully preserved and worth the small deco obligation to stay down awhile, but that is an understatement, IMO.

Brian

---->Another schooner snob!

I've only dove the Eber Ward with my local club. The rules are no deco and 130 foot max. We've done the Eber Ward countless times with these limitations. & I don't recall ever being on the Eber Ward with anyone having doubles. If someone doesn't want to do deco they certainly don't need to. & with the depth, air is not usually an issue. & thus doubles are by no means necessary.

Just my 2 cents.
Paula

 

[diverbrian]

I've only dove the Eber Ward with my local club. The rules are no deco and 130 foot max. We've done the Eber Ward countless times with these limitations. & I don't recall ever being on the Eber Ward with anyone having doubles. If someone doesn't want to do deco they certainly don't need to. & with the depth, air is not usually an issue. & thus doubles are by no means necessary.

Just my 2 cents.
Paula

I will admit to having less experience in these circumstances than you. I trained for deco diving before that dive and it was sold at the shop as a planned deco dive. It would be very possible to do this as a no-deco dive, but with all of us on the boat having planned the deco, we wanted the extra bottom time. All the deco really bought us was another eight minutes of bottom time.