Sideband
Guest
The big day was here. I was finally going to make my first "real" dive. I was going out on the lake. My 75 dives to this point have all been in quarries except for two river dives in the Florida springs. The target was the Willie. I have talked to several DMs that frequent this particular wreck and bought a book on the Great Lakes wrecks to get some pre-dive information.
It was 8:00Am, 90' to the bottom, supposedly great visibility, ~1.5' waves, surface temp of 50 deg., 42 deg. on the wreck and an air temp in the low 60s. Not too bad of a day. There were 7 of us total on the boat including Capt. and DM. I wouldn't have the foggiest ideahowbig the boat was but we weren't crowded. We were able to suit up 2 divers at a time on the back of the boat with the crews assistance if that tells you anything. I think we were just about the same size as the Lender, for those of you that may mean something to. The Lender was heading out to the Willie too but was going to be there after us so the plan was to get there and attach to the mooring line. The DM would go down with us and shoot another line from the bow, which our boat would then move to while we were down on the wreck leaving the existing line for the Lender. Well, you know how plans go. We took so long getting the first two ready that the Lender shows up so before we drop anyone we reposition so that the Lender is on the mooring line and we are tied off their stern. Our first two go in and I make a HUGE discovery. I get sea sick. I handled it well. Fed the fishies and realized the the 2 Krispy Cremes I had earlier were the most guilt free doughnuts I'd ever eaten.
With that behind me I get geared up and get in the water. We are a threesome so I'm hanging on the drag line for about 15 minutes. We finally are all in the water and start for the down line. We pull ourselves back up to our boat, along the granny line to the bow, grab the line the Lender is trailing and pull ourselves to its granny line then up to its bow and finally to the down line. Buddy 1 signals he is heading back and takes off while buddy two has dropped down to about 10'. I start down but am kind of winded from the fight out there and just having been sick and then I have a bit of trouble clearing my ears. I'm about 2 feet under water and getting tossed around with a big ol' boat right above me pitching and rolling and I know that if I can get down a couple more feet it will settle down, but my ear won't clear to let me get there. I signal down to buddy 2 that I'm bailing and start back with him following. Buddy 1 had a glove leak and a computer failure so he was done for the day. I was again reminded that I now know I get sea sick by again getting sea sick and decided I was done for the day. (I mean, heck, man. I only had 2 doughnuts. I HAD to be puking up stuff I hadn't eaten yet.) The DM suited up and went out for 2 dives with buddy 2 and the other pair made a second dive as well. They all seemed a bit chilled but said they had a great time.
I think part of my problem clearing was the 2 little fish that will have clear sinuses for about 4 hours. I don't know if the Sudafed was in me long enough to work or not. That was the whole show stopper. If I could have gone down right away I would have caught my breath at 10' instead of getting beaten up on the surface and just working harder.
All in all I think it was a good dive to call. The Willie has been down there for 50 years. It will be down there next time.
Joe
It was 8:00Am, 90' to the bottom, supposedly great visibility, ~1.5' waves, surface temp of 50 deg., 42 deg. on the wreck and an air temp in the low 60s. Not too bad of a day. There were 7 of us total on the boat including Capt. and DM. I wouldn't have the foggiest ideahowbig the boat was but we weren't crowded. We were able to suit up 2 divers at a time on the back of the boat with the crews assistance if that tells you anything. I think we were just about the same size as the Lender, for those of you that may mean something to. The Lender was heading out to the Willie too but was going to be there after us so the plan was to get there and attach to the mooring line. The DM would go down with us and shoot another line from the bow, which our boat would then move to while we were down on the wreck leaving the existing line for the Lender. Well, you know how plans go. We took so long getting the first two ready that the Lender shows up so before we drop anyone we reposition so that the Lender is on the mooring line and we are tied off their stern. Our first two go in and I make a HUGE discovery. I get sea sick. I handled it well. Fed the fishies and realized the the 2 Krispy Cremes I had earlier were the most guilt free doughnuts I'd ever eaten.
With that behind me I get geared up and get in the water. We are a threesome so I'm hanging on the drag line for about 15 minutes. We finally are all in the water and start for the down line. We pull ourselves back up to our boat, along the granny line to the bow, grab the line the Lender is trailing and pull ourselves to its granny line then up to its bow and finally to the down line. Buddy 1 signals he is heading back and takes off while buddy two has dropped down to about 10'. I start down but am kind of winded from the fight out there and just having been sick and then I have a bit of trouble clearing my ears. I'm about 2 feet under water and getting tossed around with a big ol' boat right above me pitching and rolling and I know that if I can get down a couple more feet it will settle down, but my ear won't clear to let me get there. I signal down to buddy 2 that I'm bailing and start back with him following. Buddy 1 had a glove leak and a computer failure so he was done for the day. I was again reminded that I now know I get sea sick by again getting sea sick and decided I was done for the day. (I mean, heck, man. I only had 2 doughnuts. I HAD to be puking up stuff I hadn't eaten yet.) The DM suited up and went out for 2 dives with buddy 2 and the other pair made a second dive as well. They all seemed a bit chilled but said they had a great time.
I think part of my problem clearing was the 2 little fish that will have clear sinuses for about 4 hours. I don't know if the Sudafed was in me long enough to work or not. That was the whole show stopper. If I could have gone down right away I would have caught my breath at 10' instead of getting beaten up on the surface and just working harder.
All in all I think it was a good dive to call. The Willie has been down there for 50 years. It will be down there next time.
Joe
