Great Extended Weekend: 5 for 5

What a great weekend of diving we just had!  WCD ran 5 full trips over this weekend (including Monday).  We had flat seas and lots of sun!

Saturday morning I met my divers, a group from St. Louis that we supplemented with a two of divers from Fort Wayne at 0700.  The plan was to dive the Mack at least once and maybe twice.  It was a bright sunny day and as we pulled away from Chicago I had everyone turn and look back at the City and it was as beautiful as I have ever seen her.  I wanted to grab a pic with my I-Phone  to show you all via Facebook, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment and unplug the Jimmy Buffett music, so you will just have to believe me that the skyline was looking grand.  The Lake was flat and in 60 minutes we were tied into the Mack.  We would have made it in 50 minutes but 5 out of 7 divers/crew were flying doubles, so the R/V was hanging a little low in the water.  For all but one of the group, this was their first dive on the Mack.  The divers plunged into the 72F water and I settled back to catch some rays.  35 minutes later they returned with stories of schools of alewives and perch and what a great dive they just had.  I must admit that I was envious.   Divemaster Tom even returned with a couple lures left by the salmon fishermen.  The divers reported 50F and 35 viz.  After a short debate and some watermelon, the divers decided they wanted to see another wreck we headed to the Wells Burt.  There again we had 35Ft of viz but with warm 63F water.  The divers spotted some big smallies on the wreck.  It was also nice to hear a couple of divers who have done some big dives (Pres Isle area) commented how nice a dive the Wells is, kind of made me feel proud of our Chicago wrecks.

The second charter of the day was a group out of Indy.  If your ever in the Indianapolis area and you want to stop by a dive store stop by Divers Supply Indy they will take care of you.  This trip was set for 2 dives on the Mack.  As planned we departed Burnham at 2PM and headed northeast.  Now as it was later in the day there was a little more boat traffic so I headed further East than I normally due to avoid the congestion.  As I am nearing Dever crib (the candy stripped crib), actually I am East of it, one of the tall ships is on my starboard side heading South on a parallel course.  My intent is to give him a wide bearth but give our divers I nice view of the ship.  To my left and behind me a new expensive looking powerboat is coming up from my port quarter.  My assumption is we will both pass the tall ship’s stern but as he is behind me and to my left he is the give way vessel so I continue on my course.  A short time later as we are nearing the tall ship, the expensive boat is 100 feet a beam of my boat and he now has my full attention as I am trying to figure out what it is he is doing.  He then accelerates to get a head of me which is fine but when he starts to turn into me to get closer to the tall ship is when I started screaming epithets.  Apparently he was focused on the tall ship and not the R/V!  We simply accelerated and maneuvered in front him at which point he backed down.  Remember, you don’t need to take a boating course to own a boat.  Anyhow, a short time later we are on the Mack and the divers have 2 great dives on Chicago’s best wreck and a beautiful and uneventful ride back to the harbor.

Sunday we again had light southerly winds which gave us less than 1 ft seas.  I planned on meeting my boat load of divers at 0700 but a couple were late due to some miscommunications but fortunately they were “early” and it all worked out just fine.  The day was a little hazy but the Lake was flat and we headed out to the Buccaneer.  When we got on site I dropped a marker buoy which Divemaster Bob said landed squarely on the stern deck and he tied our mooring in and I tied the R/V to that.  The divers, a mixed group of experienced to first Lake dives, suited up and hit the 72F water.  Fortunately it was 72F as one of our divers forgot to close his zipper.  Now every drysuit diver has at some point forgotten to completely close his zipper but our diver left the waterproof zipper completely undone and only closed the outer zipper.  But to his credit, he got back on board the R/V, determined the problem, closed the zipper and went diving.  He didn’t even drain his suit!  My compliments Frank, you are a true diver.  Everyone loved our newest wreck.  The divers reported 53F with 20-25 ft viz.

Next stop the Holly/Illinois.  As most of you know, a part of my boat briefing is “this is not a quarry there are no free ascents as we are in navigable waters”.  Fortunately, this group of divers listened as we had not 1 but 2 boats pull within 60 feet of us, even though I gave a securite call on the radio and had our dive flags up.  The first boat was a sailboat who claimed to be driven off-course.  The problem with that story is I watched them bear down on us for over 1/4 mile.  Apparently it is too much work to steer a sailboat so you just go where the wind pushes you or when you go to sailing school they teach you to steer toward other boats.  I’m not sure how it all works.  The next one is even better.  One of the divers had just returned and I was working with her getting her equipment off when I hear a short whistle sound like a chirp from a bird.  I hear it repeat again and I am wondering where the bird is and as I go to look for the bird I see this small fishing boat about 50 feet away.  He is whistling to get my attention!  I start screaming I have divers in the water and he asks me “where are the divers?”  That’s when I told him to leave the area but it gets better.  After he clears the area I grab my VHF and hail “the small white boat that just approached the dive boat” and he answers!  So he had a radio on board but chose to break the 150 ft rule and whistle at me instead, duh!  Oh, and by the way, he said he was an old diver looking for the Illinois, he just bought a Humminbird side imaging sonar and wanted to check it out.  Apparently, he left his brain with his truck and trailer on land.  Anyhow, everyone was safe and had a great time.

Monday, I had a group of divers out of northwest Indiana who generally work on the weekends and can’t get out much when all the charter boats are busy.  So they called me and we scheduled a weekday trip.  We met at 0700 and I started getting out my liability releases when all but one handed me completed releases.  They had gone to my website and downloaded the pdf and completed the form.  You got to love it when a plan comes together.  At this point I am totally impressed.  We kicked around a couple of ideas and decided on the Material Service Barge and Tacoma.  30 minutes after leaving Burnham we are tied into the MSB.  The wind is 5kts out of the South and waves are less than 1 foot.  Water temp is 72F but it is looking pretty green.  The divers suit up and knock out a 45 minute dive.  Everyone comes up happy as they have 25-30ft of viz, reports of plenty of smallies and warm water about 63F.  After some pineapple and a tank change, next dive – the Tacoma.  At this point the wind has picked up to 10kts and waves are around 1ft but the divers again punch out another 45 minute dive.  As they were such a good group and as the organizer was  a pilot I decided to drop them off on the old TBM just NE of Dunne Crib.  We located it with the sidescan, dropped a marker buoy on it and dropped our divers off 2 at a time as I circled the area.  Everyone did great and had an excellent time.  This might have been the best weekend of dives this year.