Sunday June 27th, the weather report was troublesome but with an early start we just might be able to knock out a couple of dives on the Big Lake. I met my boat load of divers at 0700. This was an experienced group of divers who have chartered the boat each year for a private charter, there is no babysitting these guys everyone of them is a self-sufficient diver. Our destination is the Mack. Though the skies are partly sunny over the Lake, dark skies are to my north and south. The Lake is flat and 50 minutes after pulling out of the harbor we are moored on the bow of the Straits of Mackinac. Surface temp is reading 67F but these, all but one, drysuit divers are expecting cooler water. After our six divers hit the water, I pay close attention to the marine weather broadcasts on the VHF. The skies over Evanston, a mere 8.25nm away darken. In the distance I can see flashes of lightening and they are getting closer. Near the end of their dive time, I begin seeing bolts of lightening and the VHF antennas on my boat begin to hum, just as if you were standing near an overhead power line. Now few things scare me when I am aboard the R/V as she is very seaworthy, but fire and lightening are two things that do give me the willies. So I fired up the High Definition Radar and see two large storm cells, one directly west of me and one to the far southwest. I track their parallel movements for a while and then the divers started surfacing. As they clamored aboard, I got them out of their tanks and said we are leaving NOW!
Lightening Striking North of the Mack
The radar showed me an opening between the two cells and the GPS told me the Rotarian was our next dive site. Though there was severe weather to our north and southwest we were just fine. When I tied into the mooring we had just 8KT winds and <1FT seas, and blue skies to our east. The divers swapped out tanks and hit the water for dive #2. By using the HD Radar and the GPS I was able to avoid serious weather and keep the divers diving. Just as the divers finished here, the wind began to pickup: 8KTs became 15KTs which then became 25KTS! When I undid the mooring the R/V swung abeam faster than I could ever do it with my motors. I scrambled back to the helm and we headed into the northern fringe of the southern cell I had spied earlier with the radar. Though we were only about 10 miles off shore the seas went from <1′s to 1-2′s, and then 2-3′s in minutes. Next time you hear someone talk about the Great Lakes and how they can change in a heartbeat, believe him! The ride back was uneventful as we took our time. Rather than charging directly into the storm at 20KTS, I dropped our speed down to 9KTS and we cruised right in. By the time we got to Burnham the storm had mostly passed.
Another great day on the Lake. Divers had 45F with +40FT of viz at both the Mack and the Rotarian.
Did the divers give you a bottom temp. ?
My wife and I are booked on the July 18th afternoon dive which is scheduled for the Buccaneer. She works for the Tribune and did the video on the sinking. We will be taking video of how she looks on the bottom for another Tribune video. Great job getting her cleaned up and sunk. Thanks for all the work and I’m sure I can say from all the divers who will be loving the site and experience…THANK YOU