So after classroom theories and conversational advice from my esteemed colleagues at the LDS I've sort of become affiliated with/attached to in Chicagoland, and a handful of dives in the local quarry where the skill development part of diving is better than the 45-50 ffw submerged attractions (The houseboat, the Amphibious Assault Vehicle, the &%$*# 2 1/2 ton truck that supposedlly sits somewhere just 350 degrees off the AAV and though I've taken several dive buddies to the spot that the map suggests contains said truck in order to disprove its existence by the time the story makes it back to the quarry owner it has morphed into "Doing got lost on the way to the truck again." Which is absolutely most likely not the case but if it was can only be attributable to my continued adaptation to the different weighting requirements and the subsequent trim problems that are being worked out in anticipation of)... I was invited to dive the wreck of the St. Albans.
My first opportunity to get into Lake Michigan arrived last night. Three of us including Carl (an instructor I'm considering further training with) and Joe (another instructor, more later) drove up to Milwaukee, a two hour fifteen minute jaunt where we discussed my need for 3 or 5 pounds of ditchable weight. Carl advocating no ditchable weight (I'm using it as a crutch) and Joe chiming in with he dives a full 12 lbs with the single he will be diving, for a trip out on the Nordic Diver, with Bill Prince, a 33 ft Bayliner motor yacht. Not a bad 6 pack boat, even better there were only five divers. It had been sunny and 85 degrees as we cleared the breakwater from Milwaukee harbor and sailed into smooth <1 ft swells. Seven miles out in 165 ffw lies the wooden steamer that sank after hitting ice and opening the starboard bow on December 31/Jan 1 1890/1891.
Pre-dive briefings confirmed that the wreck is mostly intact, the mooring buoy is tied at the stern to the rudder arm, yes the rudder arm bounces slightly its not narcosis for any of you deep air yahoo's (the capt had laughed cruelly), the windlass is intact on the mid-deck, there are a few openings for penetration (for the two other divers on the boat who might, friends of the captain and experienced on this wreck. Not me or my buddy), surface supplied O2 will hang at 20 ft, mutually acceptable deco obligation is 10 mins at 20, and Im diving with my three man team that consists of Carl in double 95s, carrying a 50/50 bottle for the 70ffw stop, me in double LP85s (which belonged to my buddy Ken and had been provided to me with 3400 psi). A gas supply that provided more than 1200 psi remaining at return to the surface in the worst case contingency, and I carried three contingency plans. Barring an uncontainable loss of gas I was prepared for a better than 60 minute runtime. And Joe, an OWSI and currently an external wreck survey student (the class I missed on account of not completing my chores at the house, luckily kitchen pass returned for last nights dive), diving a PST tank that he classifies as a 125 (Im not clear anymore how folks classify and calculate their PST tanks, he could be diving anything from the 95=119 to the 104=130 that is filled to a point that equates to 125 cu ft of gas.) As were gearing up I see he is diving a Scubapro one of the Hawks, not the knighthawk. With a redundant computer clipped neatly, low on his bc in a lime green brick console extruding from the right side, below his primary computer that is clipped higher on his bc on a retracto-gizmo in a console, wide enough to accommodate the UWATEC nitrox puter and a compass that rivaled many sextants Ive seen, extruding from the left side of his single first stage, with short hosed rec type second stages on a 232 DIN valve. The two other divers who were friends of the captain wore enough approved brand gear to give me the impression they were divers of a well-known but unnamed school of thought.
By the time the first diver, one of the captains friends who would set the surface supplied regs and descend first, backrolled into the lake with one AL40 staged left side and one AL80 staged rightside solo I was disuaded of that misconception. The winds had shifted and the boat turned accordingly. The waves however required more convincing and continued to pummel us from the port side as they had built to 1.5-2 ft rollers, rocking the boat to a level of slight annoyance and difficult balance. Compounded by the heat and the drysuit I held on to the gunwale opposite the entry side and waited for my turn to gear up, wishing I had grabbed a Bonine from the sav-a-div kit. I was third off the boat, Carl in first, Joe was behind me, and I sat fully suited on the side as he was dressed by the boat capn. Finally over the side and pulling along the line to the bow, Carl is waiting at the descent buoy. I joined him and we waited for Joe to make his way to the bow, as Joe neared within 10 feet of us Carl submerged to verify the O2 regs were clipped to the ascent line. Joe and I made the descent once united at the buoy. I find Carl as planned on the line at 25 ft. He shows me his left glove, with a large tear between the thumb and index finger in the shape of a jon-line clip and signals he will go up, Joe and I should descend. I signal ok. Joe arrives at my side and Carl demonstrates the regs function, then turns the first stage off Emphasizing this. He then begins to ascend and Joe looks away as I try to signal him. I try again, we seem to understand and exchange oks. We descend to 35 ffw, we stop and Joe looks toward the surface, we look at each other and shrug. He signals wait one, I count to twenty, I signal down and begin to descend slowly, five feet, seven. I stop and look up to Joe, he looks to the surface again, shrugs, follows me into the green depths. Slowly but surely Joe decides were going on with the dive. I signal ok as we descend past 70 ffw, he returns the ok. We make the deck of the ship and the legendary rudder arm at the eight minute mark. As we hover over the rudder arm and orient ourselves my depth guage reads 140 ffw. I exchange oks with my dive buddy and move toward the port side of the vessel, descending slowly over the side and inspecting the wooden sides, meaning to follow our plan to inspect the prop first, the planned 162 ft max depth and deepest part of our dive. I turned to the aft as I descended over the side and looked for my buddy to choose a side(the first thing I realize I neglected to ask him in our planning). Finding him hovering above me still at deck height, I raised myself to his level and signaled to him that I was heading to the stern. We moved in that direction slowly over the deck parts of it collapsing in on itself but mostly intact, and then he signaled me with his light and shot me the thumb. We were nearing the line and I signaled back the line and the thumb and an ok. We exchanged oks and he swam off excitedly. I followed as fast as I dared, making it to the ascent line as he was five to ten feet up. I began my ascent horizontal and slow. By the time I reached 70 feet he was nowhere to be seen in the green 25 ft +/- visibility, I counted off the stop and continued my ascent. When I arrived at 20 ffw he was there, breathing an O2 reg. Relieved I spent five minutes on the surface supplied gas. At some point he went on to the surface and was out of his drysuit and eating cookies when I finally made it to the top of the ladder. Where I had to step over the aft wall from the swim deck, as there is not a walk through on this 33 ft Bayliner motor yacht. Other than that and a small gear up area the boat is great. The captain is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable of the local wrecks and has tons of experience diving and chartering divers out to them. Not only out of Milwaukee but other areas in Lake Mi as well as wrecks in Lakes Superior, Huron and the Straits of Mackinac (Shipwreck laden channel that connects the Great Lakes/ Shipping channel). Captain Bill was a one man show and is incredibly helpful and able to support tech diving operations though he does run recreational charters to the inner wrecks in the 50-130 ffw range.
This Dive:
Max Depth 150 ffw
Total BT 14 mins (8 on descent)
Total RT 42 mins
Water Temp at depth 43 deg F
As I slipped my arms out of my harness and went for my weight belt, on which I had finally settled wearing only 3# opposite my light canister, I realized it had not made the dive with me. Turns out no ditchable weight was appropriate, or my buddy turning the dive early was lucky for me. Back to the quarry to run the tanks down low and see how it works then to know for sure.
By the time all divers back on the boat winds were from the NW at 10-15, swells were 2-3 ft. Seems the wreck diving in the Great Lakes is superb because cold fresh water preserves things so well, however the weather is the biggest obstacle because as large as the lakes are they still react like lakes to weather changes and are much more volatile than most ocean destinations. Thunderstorms moved through the Milwaukee area last night late, luckily we were back into Illinois before anything more than wind and some threatening clouds had gathered.
From what little I saw this wreck is in better shape than anything I have seen short of artificial reefs. Considering it has been in that location for nearly 115 years it was pretty spectacular to me and is by far the oldest wreck I have ever lain eyes on. I cannot wait for another chance to get to the Albans and see more of her. Just wanted to drop you guys a dive report from the great Mid-West. I thought about many of you as I thumbed through the ADM in the cabin and read the Six-Gill Shark article by Wolfeel on the return trip, seated low and in the middle of the boat balancing my need for heat and fresh air,
My first opportunity to get into Lake Michigan arrived last night. Three of us including Carl (an instructor I'm considering further training with) and Joe (another instructor, more later) drove up to Milwaukee, a two hour fifteen minute jaunt where we discussed my need for 3 or 5 pounds of ditchable weight. Carl advocating no ditchable weight (I'm using it as a crutch) and Joe chiming in with he dives a full 12 lbs with the single he will be diving, for a trip out on the Nordic Diver, with Bill Prince, a 33 ft Bayliner motor yacht. Not a bad 6 pack boat, even better there were only five divers. It had been sunny and 85 degrees as we cleared the breakwater from Milwaukee harbor and sailed into smooth <1 ft swells. Seven miles out in 165 ffw lies the wooden steamer that sank after hitting ice and opening the starboard bow on December 31/Jan 1 1890/1891.
Pre-dive briefings confirmed that the wreck is mostly intact, the mooring buoy is tied at the stern to the rudder arm, yes the rudder arm bounces slightly its not narcosis for any of you deep air yahoo's (the capt had laughed cruelly), the windlass is intact on the mid-deck, there are a few openings for penetration (for the two other divers on the boat who might, friends of the captain and experienced on this wreck. Not me or my buddy), surface supplied O2 will hang at 20 ft, mutually acceptable deco obligation is 10 mins at 20, and Im diving with my three man team that consists of Carl in double 95s, carrying a 50/50 bottle for the 70ffw stop, me in double LP85s (which belonged to my buddy Ken and had been provided to me with 3400 psi). A gas supply that provided more than 1200 psi remaining at return to the surface in the worst case contingency, and I carried three contingency plans. Barring an uncontainable loss of gas I was prepared for a better than 60 minute runtime. And Joe, an OWSI and currently an external wreck survey student (the class I missed on account of not completing my chores at the house, luckily kitchen pass returned for last nights dive), diving a PST tank that he classifies as a 125 (Im not clear anymore how folks classify and calculate their PST tanks, he could be diving anything from the 95=119 to the 104=130 that is filled to a point that equates to 125 cu ft of gas.) As were gearing up I see he is diving a Scubapro one of the Hawks, not the knighthawk. With a redundant computer clipped neatly, low on his bc in a lime green brick console extruding from the right side, below his primary computer that is clipped higher on his bc on a retracto-gizmo in a console, wide enough to accommodate the UWATEC nitrox puter and a compass that rivaled many sextants Ive seen, extruding from the left side of his single first stage, with short hosed rec type second stages on a 232 DIN valve. The two other divers who were friends of the captain wore enough approved brand gear to give me the impression they were divers of a well-known but unnamed school of thought.
By the time the first diver, one of the captains friends who would set the surface supplied regs and descend first, backrolled into the lake with one AL40 staged left side and one AL80 staged rightside solo I was disuaded of that misconception. The winds had shifted and the boat turned accordingly. The waves however required more convincing and continued to pummel us from the port side as they had built to 1.5-2 ft rollers, rocking the boat to a level of slight annoyance and difficult balance. Compounded by the heat and the drysuit I held on to the gunwale opposite the entry side and waited for my turn to gear up, wishing I had grabbed a Bonine from the sav-a-div kit. I was third off the boat, Carl in first, Joe was behind me, and I sat fully suited on the side as he was dressed by the boat capn. Finally over the side and pulling along the line to the bow, Carl is waiting at the descent buoy. I joined him and we waited for Joe to make his way to the bow, as Joe neared within 10 feet of us Carl submerged to verify the O2 regs were clipped to the ascent line. Joe and I made the descent once united at the buoy. I find Carl as planned on the line at 25 ft. He shows me his left glove, with a large tear between the thumb and index finger in the shape of a jon-line clip and signals he will go up, Joe and I should descend. I signal ok. Joe arrives at my side and Carl demonstrates the regs function, then turns the first stage off Emphasizing this. He then begins to ascend and Joe looks away as I try to signal him. I try again, we seem to understand and exchange oks. We descend to 35 ffw, we stop and Joe looks toward the surface, we look at each other and shrug. He signals wait one, I count to twenty, I signal down and begin to descend slowly, five feet, seven. I stop and look up to Joe, he looks to the surface again, shrugs, follows me into the green depths. Slowly but surely Joe decides were going on with the dive. I signal ok as we descend past 70 ffw, he returns the ok. We make the deck of the ship and the legendary rudder arm at the eight minute mark. As we hover over the rudder arm and orient ourselves my depth guage reads 140 ffw. I exchange oks with my dive buddy and move toward the port side of the vessel, descending slowly over the side and inspecting the wooden sides, meaning to follow our plan to inspect the prop first, the planned 162 ft max depth and deepest part of our dive. I turned to the aft as I descended over the side and looked for my buddy to choose a side(the first thing I realize I neglected to ask him in our planning). Finding him hovering above me still at deck height, I raised myself to his level and signaled to him that I was heading to the stern. We moved in that direction slowly over the deck parts of it collapsing in on itself but mostly intact, and then he signaled me with his light and shot me the thumb. We were nearing the line and I signaled back the line and the thumb and an ok. We exchanged oks and he swam off excitedly. I followed as fast as I dared, making it to the ascent line as he was five to ten feet up. I began my ascent horizontal and slow. By the time I reached 70 feet he was nowhere to be seen in the green 25 ft +/- visibility, I counted off the stop and continued my ascent. When I arrived at 20 ffw he was there, breathing an O2 reg. Relieved I spent five minutes on the surface supplied gas. At some point he went on to the surface and was out of his drysuit and eating cookies when I finally made it to the top of the ladder. Where I had to step over the aft wall from the swim deck, as there is not a walk through on this 33 ft Bayliner motor yacht. Other than that and a small gear up area the boat is great. The captain is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable of the local wrecks and has tons of experience diving and chartering divers out to them. Not only out of Milwaukee but other areas in Lake Mi as well as wrecks in Lakes Superior, Huron and the Straits of Mackinac (Shipwreck laden channel that connects the Great Lakes/ Shipping channel). Captain Bill was a one man show and is incredibly helpful and able to support tech diving operations though he does run recreational charters to the inner wrecks in the 50-130 ffw range.
This Dive:
Max Depth 150 ffw
Total BT 14 mins (8 on descent)
Total RT 42 mins
Water Temp at depth 43 deg F
As I slipped my arms out of my harness and went for my weight belt, on which I had finally settled wearing only 3# opposite my light canister, I realized it had not made the dive with me. Turns out no ditchable weight was appropriate, or my buddy turning the dive early was lucky for me. Back to the quarry to run the tanks down low and see how it works then to know for sure.
By the time all divers back on the boat winds were from the NW at 10-15, swells were 2-3 ft. Seems the wreck diving in the Great Lakes is superb because cold fresh water preserves things so well, however the weather is the biggest obstacle because as large as the lakes are they still react like lakes to weather changes and are much more volatile than most ocean destinations. Thunderstorms moved through the Milwaukee area last night late, luckily we were back into Illinois before anything more than wind and some threatening clouds had gathered.
From what little I saw this wreck is in better shape than anything I have seen short of artificial reefs. Considering it has been in that location for nearly 115 years it was pretty spectacular to me and is by far the oldest wreck I have ever lain eyes on. I cannot wait for another chance to get to the Albans and see more of her. Just wanted to drop you guys a dive report from the great Mid-West. I thought about many of you as I thumbed through the ADM in the cabin and read the Six-Gill Shark article by Wolfeel on the return trip, seated low and in the middle of the boat balancing my need for heat and fresh air,
