Dive Weekend 2009- Dives 3 and 4

On Sunday we slept in somewhat, no thanks to the noisy neighbors at the campsite. between the drunken louts at night in the RV section of the campsite that could be heard over the hill that separated them from the tents, and the yelling moms and kids in the tent area, sleep was hard to come by.

So we got up, packed camp and headed to Port Sanilac. We had a brunch at Uri's restaurant at the Port Sanilac Marina (first time eating there and the brunch buffet is not to be missed!)

Then we dove the Regina and the Eliza Strong

The Canadian Shipping Lines Regina, a 250 foot long freighter sank in the Great Storm of 1913, taking all her crew with her.



The Regina which I had dove twice before but I was about to be in for a new experience. On both prior dives we had gone down on the stern, and this time we were heading down on the bow, which I had not yet seen.

The Regina is upside down on the bottom as shown in this picture:


Here's a picture i took of the R from her name on the bow, still visible after all these years (I would have photographed the entire name, but a certain dive buddy took off at that point....):

There were lots of artifacts to be seen on the bow, including this old green glass bottle:
Now remember kids don't drink and dive!

The bow of the Regina was a nice dive. I even managed to get LK to start regularly monitoring his pressure gauge. One quick note - having 1800 PSI remaining does not mean keep on swimming away from the upline towards the stern of the ship, it means hang around as you're going to turn the dive at 1500 psi and head back towards the upline, not wait until you have to make a mad dash for the upline, and certainly not leaving your buddy behind to follow the blooming trail of silt you leave in your wake. Ah, some dive buddies.

During the surface interval we were able to see a modern Lake Freighter pass by:


We then dove on the Eliza Strong, the first time i had ever dove this wreck.

The Eliza Strong was a 205' wood steamer, sunk in 25 ft of water in 1904. The wreck burned to the waterline, was dynamited as a hazard to navigation and is a nice relaxing dive. We had a bottom time of 54 minutes cruising along the hull and around it looking at the wreckage that was everywhere. The conditions for the dive could not have been any better - excellent visibility, low amounts of particulate in the water and warm temperatures (for the Great Lakes anyways).

Here's how the Strong looked in better days:


Now:





a view of the side of the hull:


Amy and LK on the wreck:


While she sails no more, a number of fish have made the hull their home:


The Strong was a great dive!