scubafanatic
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I simply wanted to dive the wrecks I wanted to with some people I know. Period.
As far as I can tell, the charter boats in the Straits of Mackinac/Thunder Bay don't regularly book per seat like the Chicago and Milwaukee boats (plus DRIS' Lake Huron boat out of Sanilac/Harbor Beach). It seems mostly the entire boat gets reserved by a group from either a shop or just a group of folks going together. I'll occasionally see notices on FB for a seat or two being available on a group trip, but there's no guarantee something will be available when you want to go diving. Someone has to put a deposit down to reserve the entire boat for the dates you want. Some of the charter ops have boats that are trailerable that they will move to various locations on the Lakes. First ones to call dibs get choice of dates and locations. That's why my Straits trip is already booked. Good dates fill up fast. These are destination dives. Alpena/Mackinaw City are about 7 hours from the Chicago area. You just don't book a seat at the last minute like I've done with the DRIS boats and drive an hour to the boat.
I've had absolutely no trouble with my Alpena trip which is next weekend (Fri - Sun, mornings). I set the dates back around the end of last year. Got my deposit in. Had absolutely no trouble filling the boat (6 pack). I picked the wrecks, told folks they were on their own for lodgings (gave them the options and campgrounds, too). Got 1/3 deposit from everyone, remainder due June 30. Put all trip $$ in a separate savings account. One guy had to back out several months ago due to work. He told me to put his deposit towards his dive buddy's (close friend) seat. We didn't need another person as the boat just needed 4 to go out. But someone else had indicated interest after trip was already full, so the one spot was filled within a day after person dropping out.
I'm not going to vet divers now, but if my spidey-senses get tingling, I'll simply tell them no.
It sounds like your trip is easily fillable and you don't have to 'settle' for selling to John-Q-Public if you have some sort of standards you want to impose. With just a 6-pack to fill, you're looking at maybe 3 buddy pairs, so mainly I'd focus on YOUR buddy, let the other 2 buddy pairs sort out their own affairs among themselves. If, for instance, a buddy pair wants to do this dive trip on single AL80's, they will have their own short dive, which is their preference and not your major concern, it's their call as long as the captain doesn't have his/her own 'minimum' gear requirements.