Windiate Report

[ComputerJoe]

Well it's been some years since I've had a boat in the water and I just got out to the Windiate on Thursday with some visiting friends from New York. Awesome day! Sun, light breeze, no waves, no current.

The mooring is now tied to the booms traveler horse with a surface line spliced in at 30' and a sub-surface jug at 20' on the main down line.

Someone left a large XXX jug on the overhead which is OK unless someone trys to drop an anchor on her next spring, then the jug may be history in pieces. Somehow one of the cargo hatches has gotten knocked into the cargo hold and some cargo is molding away on deck. Does anyone know how long the hatch has been in the hold? I don't want to see this wreck loved to death, she is such a beautiful example of the latter age of sail on the Lakes. Someone must have worked real hard at moving it, what for I can not imagine. Yes there is still a cargo of grain on board, what good did removing the hatch serve?

Other than that we had about 60' of viz and 42 degree water with the major thermocline at 50-60 feet. On the bottom viz might have been 75' from her decks down.

What can one say about revisiting one of the premiere shipwrecks in the world but "wow was she sexy."

Life was good for me that day and I am back in the saddle again with Thunder Bird II.

 

[StanS]

Hi Joe

Glad to see you got to dive the wreck. Tracy X and I installed the mooring in July. We always use a large jug below the surface on all the wrecks. There is two reasons for this. One is we tuck the mooring line into the jug fill it with water and swim down to the wreck. We then attach the chain on the wreck and shoot some gas into the jug. The whole line is deployed in one easy step. The second reason for the large jug is that when the boat pulls on the line the jug acts a shock absorber and puts less strain on the wreck and the boat rides the waves better also. The jug on the Windiate was not as large as the moorings we put on the Uganda in the straits. There we used 15 gal. jugs. Easy to spot at thirty feet . Also the reason for the subsurface jugs is that they will survive the winter.This time of year we would hope people will sink the surface line for the winter. Then next spring you simply send a diver down to the jug and bring the mooring back up. We would hope that most divers are smart enough to look for a subsurface float before anchoring. Almost all the moorings at Presque Isle were installed by Tracy X and myself. The cost for all the moorings was also provided by us. We are doing this because we love to dive at P.I. and we want to protect the wrecks from damage.

Stan

 

[dsc2679]

Cool and thanks for your time, effort and generous donation to these great wrecks. Where do you get the jugs from and what size works best?

 

[StanS]

Tracy gets the jugs from a car wash. They usually throw them out. The best jugs are the 5 gal. ones with a large bung hole so you can stuff the line in the jug. Also the handles are molded in and not pinned on with a plastic pin. On the suface we use small plastic jugs that are foam filled so even if they crack or the cap leaks they will stay afloat. The 15 gal. jugs we used on the Uganda I believe were from the CO2 absorbant material from the rebreather divers.

 

[ComputerJoe]

Yes, the Thunder Bird II is a functional dive boat and I have just addressed the last of the DNR requirements to start running charters. She still is a bit rough around the edges but personally I don't give a dam, I'm going DIVING again! It's been three long years of no-boat.

And here I thought Kroll was doing the moorings, thanks. A 15 gallon jug must show up as a whale on the bottom finders. Tieing into the traveler horse is a great idea. I had thought that a real small surface line, one that would break more easily, would allow a boat to hold on long enough to get a diver in the water with their own tag line and down to the big sub-surface jug tie off. I've been looking at where to set a mooring on Defiance. With those masts still standing the chances of getting the mooring line wrapped up in one is great.

But Stan, when did the hatch get dropped into the cargo hold?

 

[jtivat]

But Stan, when did the hatch get dropped into the cargo hold?

It was moved over in 2007 and last year was still off center but had not dropped in. I was told that the Deep Sea Detectives moved it to take a sample not sure if that is true just what I was told.

 

[ComputerJoe]

I understood that a NOAA diver used a hand suction-syphon pump between the deck boards to get that sample during the Deep Sea Dectives shoot

I just walked down the street to the car wash and now have 3- 5 gal jugs. Thanks again Stan.