November 26:  Every Thanksgiving weekend the MUD Club has a “Turkey Day Dive”. Today’s dive was held in the Saint Joseph River flowing by “Fisherman’s Park” in Benton Harbor, MI with 7 divers and an equal number of surface support members to help suit up and assist those getting in and out of the water. Visibility varied with the depth, and even with a powerful dive light, vis was still from 2 to 5 feet. Water temperature 42 to 44F depending on whose temperature gauge was used. People always ask “What do you see down there?” – so here’s a few pictures:

October 25:  This Tuesday, I went with Kevin Ailes to Diamond Lake located in Cassopolis, MI to look at a boiler located in a weed bed and then to the opposite side of the island to dive the wreck of the “South Bend”.  We were trying to determine if the boiler was from the steam boat wreck. The boiler check was performed when we had daylight, and by the time we were on the wreck it was dark.  Pictures are of the Diamond Lake Boiler photos from Tuesday evenings dive – Dive #1 and  Diamond Lake – Wreck of the “South Bend” – Dive #2 (night time).

October 23: Sunday at High Noon – Dive behind Wonderland at the park.

Looking upstream, you can see the river level is high as the entry pipe is almost covered. Looking downstream belies how fast the current was moving . River sticks were not enough today, so most everyone grabbed a large brick or hunk of metal to carry around. Rob had the most unusual find today with a partial set of teeth and the horn of some animal. The round bottom bottle he dug up was nice, too. Deb’s keepers included a nice sample of button shells. Jim was working on locating Milks, and I found the UFO t-shirt almost in wearable condition. Todays air temp ~65°, water temp 55° to 60°F depending on whose temp gauge you believed. The today’s sunshine really made the bottom visible (~5 feet) except in the heavily shaded areas. A very nice dive for late October.

October 7:  Thursday’s dives actually started around 3:00 with me and two other divers showing up early to start the day’s diving. At 5:00 p.m., five other divers (and a cameo by MB) arrived and suited up. Visibility without grubbing was 3 to 5 feet, water temp still around 60 F, the current was strong for the crossing, and you needed something to grab on to even in the shallows. Most everyone was on the fast side of the river, and when we surfaced near the end of our dives, we were surprised to find you could not see across because of the fog that had rolled in. There was also a significant amount of flocculent (summer time icebergs) about.   Only two keepers from my finds for the day.

October 4:  Tuesday evening with Kevin Ailes, mowing the lawn and diving on two targets previously noted on Paw Paw Lake (Coloma/Watervliet, MI).

We cruised the area, got close to the GPS numbers for the first target, threw out a 50 foot down foot line with buoy and then dropped the anchor. I dove on the first target, that when looking at the side scan print out,  looked just like the hood of a car and its windshield. The down line was within 3 feet of the target which turned out to be a very large white dock box with the lid open. So the lid was the hood and the opening was the windshield. Darn!

After recovering me and the down line buoy, we proceeded to the 2nd target and did the same routine of GPS, 75′ down line & buoy, and anchoring. Kevin dove this target  which the side scan print looked like a long and narrow boat. We were  close with the down line again and Kevin verified it was an old narrow sailboat with the paint coloring still shiny and no engine. Kevin explored it a bit before terminating the dive because the bottom smelled,  tasted terrible and was burning his eyes.  Its not uncommon to find lake bottoms that are very mucky bottom made of compressed weeds and vegetation. Its decay results in the formation of hydrogen sulfide – when the bottom is grossly disturbed the gas is released in the water, it really stinks. So does your suit.

Two mysteries solved, only a few dozen targets remaining.

October 03:  While we were having fun doing an Ecology dive Sunday, someone had lost a purse and phone off a boat in a local marina. Monday morning I discovered an email asking  about the availability of a diver to see if the  lost items could be found. Being retired does have the advantage of not being tied up on a Monday afternoon instead of being at some  job “working”.   After talking with the lady who lost the purse & phone I was assured of its exact position when dropped and told that there was a minimal effort of poking around on the bottom with a LONG pole and fish net attached trying to recover it.

For anyone who recovers objects underwater, we are used to being told the X on the water is where an object was lost.  And through experience I have noted that anytime the owner has used a  long pole and or net in a recovery effort, they often succeed in burying the item, or picking  it up just enough for the current to catch it and move it to a totally unrelated  place to where it was dropped.

In this case the depth was 15 feet ,  two feet of visibility, one large piling on the bottom under the boat,  old tree parts and typical odds and ends.  The purse was located nudged against one of the branches and within 3 feet of where it was  dropped.  Dried everything out, dewatered the phone and left it in a bag of rice for good measure.  The owner was very pleased to get everything back, and the I-phone, it still worked.

October 01:  Today I participated in an Ecology Dive in  Niles, MI that the Michigan U/W Divers Club, also known as the MUD Club, put on the the support of the Niles Municipality that supplied the dumpster for junk recovered.  It started at 10:00  Am and ended around 4:00 PM when the judging was held. Prizes were given out for the Most Items Recovered, Heaviest/ Largest, Most Unusual item, and Who came the furthest away. This is only a small sample of the trash removed from the river. We did fill the dumpster and the trailer with scrap metal  which  went to the scrap yard and weighted ~ 1 ton. I think the pictures say it all 🙂

I could not have gotten all this up without ALL the good people providing shore support.

Sunday: Did a double dip Sunday from the Marmont launch. First dive at 8:30am. Second around 10:30am when we ran out of air 😋.  Double Dip Sunday was a success, meaning all the divers had lots of FUN, enjoyed the sunshine, had great U/W visibility, moderate current and the water was still warm (60F). My advise for the day is “Get out there and get wet now before the hard water gets here.” 

You know that thing about “try” not to bring home more large bottles? Well, I’am trying… these are smaller– sort of…. Ok, it does need some additional cleaning but is is unusual. .Duck, Duck, Goose…. OK, I know, a goose would be larger than a large bottle.

September 22:    The plan for Thirsty Thursday dive night was in the Saint Joseph river as it flows thru Niles.  The time was changed to 5:30-7:30 to give the working guys a little more time to get here.  Pickup point for getting a  ride to the dive site was at the Marmont St. Launch.  We had 3 drivers and one shore support (Barb) off the park boardwalk in Niles and three divers launched from Marmont street. We were spread out all along the shore line and collected the following. Fast current, many many trees and snag points with 4-5 foot visibility, water temperature ~65 F surface. Saw some HUGE cat fish among the sunken tree’s and a couple of large bass.  I did uncover a cache of older small coke bottles. Top Photo: No Christmas cokes and only 3 were local- one was from Texas. Bottom Photo: The large milk was a nice embossed “Twin Pine Dairy, Guernsey Milk, T.W. Keirnan”. The purse did not have any money in it, honest!