Windy City doesn’t normally run charters on Thursdays but, if every Thursday was like the one today, July 1, 2010, we would certainly run more of them. Traffic was light on my way downtown to the harbor, probably because of the upcoming holiday. It is bright and sunny and not a cloud in the sky. My divers were at the harbor before I was but I told them to get their equipment down to the dock and I would be there in 20. When I pulled the boat up to the dock I am greeted by a group of young, older teenage, divers. Expecting the worst, because they are kids and I know how I was as a kid, but hoping for the best we load up and head south to the Material Service Barge and then the Tacoma.
The ride there is great, the 1FT waves from the east splash us a bit as we cruise there at 22kts. At the MSB the mooring pendant is fouled and divemaster Mike just can’t clear it. So I prep another pendant and spin the R/V and stern into the mooring so that Mike can attach a new pendant. Mike is quick and in short order we are tied into the bow of the MSB. As the divers get ready I give a securite call on the VHF and the next thing I know these young guys are ready to go. 45 minutes later they are back on board regaling with stories of their first Lake Michigan wreck dive. As the MSB was my first Lake dive I sat back and listened and remembered first dive on her over 25 years ago, which of course I kept to myself as that was way longer than these guys have been alive. They had only around 20Ft of Viz and water temp of 67F, not bad. I didn’t regale them with stories of my first dive: 3FT of Viz and 46F and 3FT seas as I wanted them to come back.
Next stop the Tacoma. Water temp is the same, 67F but the viz has been running better here the last few weeks as they had 30-35FT of viz. The Lake had settled down to 0 seas and I was feeling good and they had exceeded my expectations as divers and as young kids, so on the way home I dropped them on the old TBM by the Rachel Carson Scuba Park and then we cruised on back to Burnham. I put the boat away and they went to the Taste. Just a great day!
