Tag Archives: Scuba

July 14 – Dive the shipwreck “Havana”

Today was a blue sky day with very moderate sea’s so a few Muddies and I went to dive the wreck of the schooner “Havana” and then do a little bottom searching on the way back in to shore.  We had some old “targets” (potential wrecks or underwater structure) that we wanted to see  if they could be relocated.  The picture’s give you a little look at what we see leaving the DNR docks in Benton Harbor to the entry to Lake Michigan.

We had a second boat that came out behind us that was going to spend more time searching of additional bottom targets. As the seas picked up at the end of the day it became too bouncy to get decent results on our bottom scanners and we all went  in.

The Havana is called a sand wreck or rubble wreck because she is shallow, about 50 feet,  and has been down  for over a 100 years. Being shallow storms and currents  have taken a toil on her. Depending on the season and shifting sands, portions of the wreck become uncovered or recovered. Being shallow, wave action and currents do have an unpredictable effect on visibility and temperature at depth.

It is an excellent wreck dive for the less experienced and newer diver.

Dive gear on board and ready to go
As you can see, the river is high and the docks are almost underwater.
The Inn – newest hotel on the water front.
USCG station at the entry to the North pier.
North Pier Light House
Looking at the lake bottom while going to and from the “Havana” wreck.

Havana Buoy – Placed by the SW Michigan Underwater Preserve in 2019. The Havana sank October 1887 with a lost of 3 of the 7 crew. She was carrying 800 tons of ore (yep- sank like a stone)

Today was a low visibility day but you can still see the vast accumulation of Quagga mussels on the ships deck and side ribs.
Mack & Kirk geeking the GoPro on the acsent line
Back to our ride home
Entering the harbor – the south pier and Silver Beach were crowded today
All ashore- preping Capt.John’s boat for travel

 

 

Cold Water Checkout Dive

Scuba, Water-Related,

Today was the second weekend for anyone wanting to check out their dive gear for the upcoming Turkey Dive. For those not having made any dives recently or changing over to a dry suit, it’s always a good idea to do the first dive in a none threating and controlled environment.

What that means is diving where you can make a safe shore entry with little or no current, proceed in stages to deeper water, verify your gear is working correctly and allow you to get comfortable in it.

It’s also a good place to rehearse your dress procedure to make sure you can don your equipment efficiently.  Did you get you neck seal in place correctly?  How about remembering to turn on your tank of air before you put your buoyancy compensator (BC)?  Did you remembering to connect your BC inflator hose and your dry suit inflator hose?  Did you bring the right fins for your dry suit if your suit booties are different?  If your using semi-dry gloves did you have a thermos of warm water to prime them before entering colder water?  And of course you remembered to bring extra weights to compensate for the dry suit bulk?

t’s much easier to respond to neck or wrist seal leakage, inflator hose leaks, glove seal disconnects if you’re not in water over your head, with zero visibility, and a current trying to drag you around.

In spite of your experience level, we have ALL had the issues mentioned above at some time or other in our past. The key thing is to remember that, have a checklist, and not to get distracted.

Today the air temperature was 35F and very windy which made the wind chill way below freezing. Gloves before, during, and after the dive were required, that is unless you like froze fingers.  Water temperature was 44F but still uncomfortable in leaky gloves or trickling down your neck seal.  Underwater visibility was limited to 4 to 5 feet for the most part and the light was not the greatest but I was able to get a few underwater photos of the zebra mussel infestation in Paw Paw Lake.

Looking forward to next week’s Turkey dive.    Maybe see you there!

 

Looking toward Forrest Beach from the choppy waters of Paw Paw Lake
Bob completing his dressing routine
Bob is using a rebreather and you can see the results of the choppy water.
Just parts of a tree by dormant vegetation
Zebra mussles on any object above the sand line
Though its winter you can still find some “green” on the bottom.