Presque Isle 2011

Chris Borgen · Post by **Chris Borgen** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:19 pm

Well last Tuesday, Scott Christopher, Dennis Mahle, Erik Foreman, and myself loaded up a 24ft enclosed trailer and Dodge Ram 2400 long bed with 16 sets of doubles, 32 deco bottles, and 32 argon tanks, 2 rebreathers and 4 bailout bottles, and headed for Lake Huron. Our destination was Presque Isle, a location loaded with old ship wrecks most of which sank in the mid 1800's. The visibilty in Lake Huron is far from the 2-8ft we are used to in Lake Washington, and most the time is 80+ft. When we arrived we loaded our gear onto the Molly V. owned and operated by Jitka of Shipwreck Explorers, and headed out to dive 6 different wrecks in 4 days. We dove the Cornelia B. Windiate, John J. Audubon, Norman, Pewabic, Florida, and the Kyle Spangler. If your interested in learning about the wrecks visit http://www.shipwreckexplorers.com, but in general most of them were wooden 3 masted sailing schooners. Each has its own interesting story which makes diving these wrecks so fascinating. We really enjoyed this trip and got to experience some amazing shipwrecks, and I would highly recommend this trip to anyone interested in wreck diving. All these wrecks were in 160ffw to 205ffw, but the Great Lakes offer many opportunities to recreational divers as well. Here are just a few of the photo's I took from our trip.

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:03 pm

Beautiful pictures, amazing wrecks, and epic viz to dive them!

Awesome....

H20doctor · Post by **H20doctor** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:33 pm

Nice.. Congrats on the dives..

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:40 pm

A friend sent me a video a while ago of the Windiate -- I remember being very struck by how you could still see the grain on the deck planking. The preservation of those wrecks by the cold, airless water is amazing.

Great photos -- sounds like you guys had a fantastic trip!

renoun · Post by **renoun** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:46 pm

Wow, nice photos.

That is a ton of gear to schlep across the country. Did they have a suitable rinse station for you guys to use?

ljjames · Post by **ljjames** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:30 am

brilliant shots! thanks for sharing!!

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:30 am

Damn that's alot of zebra mussels!! Looks like fun though. Did Erik cut up alot of gloves in all those shots?

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:48 am

terrific pics, chris! thanks for sharing them here.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:02 pm

Great pics! Looks like a really fun trip.

This part made me smile:

Chris Borgen wrote:16 sets of doubles, 32 deco bottles, and 32 argon tanks, 2 rebreathers and 4 bailout bottles,

Maverick · Post by **Maverick** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 2:25 pm

We leave on the 5th for Lake Michigan and I am the only open circuit guy, imagine the shit i get for all my tanks. I will be getting fills while there though. I didn't want to bring tanks for 9 days of diving. Carl D Bradely here we come

airsix · Post by **airsix** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:11 am

Sweet!

Nice pics. The conditions look fantastic!

BDub · Post by **BDub** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:14 pm

Nice shots, Chris!

nanmark1 · Post by **nanmark1** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:26 am

WOW!! Great shots Chris. What kind of camera/housing/strobes were you using? I'm camera settings you used on that last available light shot of the full wreck at the stern. Absolutely wonderful photo.

Mark T.

vbcoachchris · Post by **vbcoachchris** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:22 am

Joshua Smith wrote:Great pics! Looks like a really fun trip.

This part made me smile:

Chris Borgen wrote:16 sets of doubles, 32 deco bottles, and 32 argon tanks, 2 rebreathers and 4 bailout bottles,

Scott

Chris Borgen · Post by **Chris Borgen** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:15 pm

Thanks everyone for the kind words!!

nanmark1 wrote:WOW!! Great shots Chris. What kind of camera/housing/strobes were you using? I'm camera settings you used on that last available light shot of the full wreck at the stern. Absolutely wonderful photo.

Mark T.

Nikon D70s/Aquatica Housing/Ikelite DS50's. On the last shot I used the ambient light (no strobes), and although I don't have my camera in front of me settings were something like f4, iso 400, 1/80 or so. Glad you enjoyed the photo's!!!

-Chris

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 4:40 pm

Absolutely awesome!

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:53 am

Hey, Chris!

What are those big heavy tank-looking things I see on Scott's back in the pics?????

- John

Chris Borgen · Post by **Chris Borgen** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 11:35 am

John Rawlings wrote:Hey, Chris!

What are those big heavy tank-looking things I see on Scott's back in the pics?????

- John

That was our attempt at mixed team diving....

vbcoachchris · Post by **vbcoachchris** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 11:42 am

I believe the first line of the SSI Open Water manual says

“Scuba diving is a gear intensive sport”

It seems they are correct.

Scott

seainggreen · Post by **seainggreen** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:54 pm

vbcoachchris wrote:I believe the first line of the SSI Open Water manual says

“Scuba diving is a gear intensive sport”

It seems they are correct.

Scott

<grin>

You believe correctly.

Northwest Dive Club

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