Alpena Mich: July 10, 11 & 12

On July 9^th, president Rich Spalding and I left Oregon Ohio at 10:00 am for the Toledo Submariners trip to Thunder Bay (Alpena Mich). I had made arrangements with Joe at Thunder Bay Scuba for a three-day wreck diving trip. With my car filled with three sets of double 95s (my breathing air) and 2–100s, 2-95s, 2-72s and 1-40 (Riches breathing air) plus all our other gear, we made good time. It took us about 4 hours and 45 mins to get to our motel. On our way we made only one stop at a little dinner in one of the small towns we passed through on route 33. It was a pleasure to sit down to a kind of home cooked meal rather then the quick drive though greasy stuff. Even with about 800 # of gear and the two of us in my car we still got 31.5 mpg. We checked into 40-winks motel at 2:45. The room rate was just over $47.00 per night for singles. In the pass we have stayed at some very dumpy places, but just pulling into the parking lot here made us feel good about our choice this time. Upon opening the doors to our rooms to our amaze it was a very good choice for this trip, all most completely new inside the rooms. Once we unloaded our gear (stuff not needed for the 1^st dive) we went over to meet Joe at Thunder Bay Scuba. Joe gave us a rough idea of how the 3 days of diving would go. Joe trailers his boat so he told us where he would launch it. Rich and I left the dive shop. Out back was Joe's boat lets just say it’s a work in progress, we both said I hope we did not make a mistake.

We then drove over to the marina where we would be leaving from. It was about a 5 min drive from our motel. It was very nice with lots of parking and 6 boat ramps. Feeling good about the marina we headed back to the motel to set our gear up and relax the rest of the afternoon. Though out the day the other divers arrived. The other divers were Erica Blake, Bob Vincent (Carol) and Jim Meads (Amy). Carol and Amy are not divers.

Dive #1 E.B. Allen:

2.5 miles southeast of Thunder Bay Island lay the 111’ long schooner E.B Allen. She sank on Nov 18^th 1871 after colliding with the bark Newsboy. There were no lost of lives. This was a 275-ton schooner built in 1864 at Ogdensburg, N.Y. It was sailing from Chicago to Buffalo with a grain cargo when it was loss. She sits in 92 to 106 ffw. There is a windlass, anchor chains and its rudder is still in place. It’s a very good dive; Vis was 30 feet or better with bottom temp at 45 degrees. If you’re interested in how the old ships were built this is the wreck for you. You could see all aspect of its construction. My max depth was 103ffw. I was breathing 30% Nitrox and spent 30 minutes on the wreck before starting my ascent. Total time on this dive was 50 minutes. 
                                            

Dive #2 D. M. Wilson:

We moved the boat only a short distance to our 2^nd dive. The D. M. Wilson, which lies 2 miles north – northeast of Thunder Bay Island. She was launched on May 24^th 1873 at St. Clair, Michigan. She was a wooden streamer 179’ long. On Oct 27^th 1894 she sprang a leak and sank. The Sylvanus J. Macy rescued the crew. The decking was salvaged but the entire entire hull is there and for those who love to see how they were made this is the wreck. She was hauling coal and it’s all still there. For some reason there is no zebra mussel on any part of this wreck that is within 2 foot of the coal.

I splashed in on this wreck after 30 mins on the surface. I reached a max depth of 47ffw. Again diving 30% (still on the 1^st set of dbls) I did 35 mins on the bottom with 10 mins of ascent time. The bottom temp was 56 degrees. I enjoyed this dive very much even though it was shallow. Very interesting workmanship. Total time on this dive was 45 mins.
                                                    
                     Beam supports main deck,    Coal in cargo hold,              Deck supports 

Dive #3 (yes on this charter you get 3 dives per day) Monohansett:

This is the wreck that has the large prop on the NOAA posted for Thunder Bay underwater preserve. (I have one at the dive shop). This wreck is about 600’ off the old dock on Thunder Bay Island. She was a wooden streamer 164’ long. Launched as the Ira H. Owen on June 26^th 1872 at Gibraltar Mich. She was renamed in 1882. She burnt to a total loss on Nov 23^rd 1907 with no lives lost. Some items here to see are a very large boiler and of course the large prop. The bottom portion of the hull is there to look at but the rest was burnt away. This wreck sits in 20ffw and makes for a very nice dive to finish what breathing gas you have remaining. We did only a 20 min surface interval before we splashed in on this dive. Starting the dive with only 800psi I cut the time to only 35 mins and at only 20ffw did not need to make a safety stop. Temp on this dive was 62 degrees. I ended the dive with 500psi.
                                                                      

                                Prop on Monohansett                        Machinery on Monohansett
After a very nice morning of diving we started our way back to the dock at 12:00 pm. It was a short ride back. The lake was dead flat when we left at 7:30 this morning and at noon there was less then 1’ waves. This was a very good day on the lake. Day twos dives are to be The Grecian, the Montana and barge #1. After showering we went to the subway for lunch then headed out to the Marine Sanctuary museum. The museum was free and very nice; while we spend about two hours there I’m keeping the description to a min, as the wrecks are what I came to see. We went to THE COURT YARD for dinner that evening it was an Italian dinner and the food was excellent. We returned to the rooms about 8:30 pm and I started to get all my gear together for Sunday’s dives. We need to be at the boat by 7:00 am to leave by 7:30. I turned in at about 11:30pm.

Day 2 dive #1:

We were at the dock at 7:15 this morning as the boat wanted to leave the dock at 7:30. The boat was in the water and waiting when we got there. Once we were loaded and did a final check to see that we had all our gear we were on our way. The planned dives for today were Grecian, Montana and barge #1. The Grecian was about 12 miles from the dock. The lake was flat with no wind so we were making good time. About 1 mile from the wreck the motor made a funny noise but the captain continued on, then at ½ mile from the wreck the motor made a very load noise and started to shake very badly. Captain shut down the motor and checked things out. We all knew that this was going to be trouble. The captain and first mate said lets still try to get the divers in the water, so he started to idle to the Grecian. After about a min Joe said that’s not going to work and we will be heading back. While the boat was moving at about 3 mph and making a lot of noise we turned around and headed back. Joe and Jeff said that we would pass right pass the Montana so we will be able to dive it and give the motor a time to cool off. While heading to the Montana, Joe called everyone he knew until he found someone to come out to tow us in. The towboat would be at lease two hours before it would be able to get in the water and then a while longer to get to us. Joe said we’re on the water so lets dive. At 3 mph it took us about 70 mins to get to the Montana. We all suited up so when we got there we would be able to splash right away.

Dive #1 on day 2 the Montana:

This wreck is southeast of Thunder Bay Island. She was a wooden streamer launched June 18^th 1872 at Port Huron, Mich. She was 236 foot long. She burnt to a total loss on Sept 7 1914 with no loss of lives. The hull was intact and upright. Items to be seen were windless, anchor chain, capstan, boiler, rudder and huge four bladed prop. The steam engine was huge 3 stories high. I was the first to splashed in at 9:34 am with a 30% Nitrox mix. Max depth I reached was 65ffw and did 45mins on the bottom. Total time on this dive was 55 minutes. Bottom temp was 51 degrees. I was last back on board and we left toward port as soon as I was settled in. Joe said that we will be going pass barge #1 and it would be at lease anther 90 mins before the towboat would get to us so we might as well dive.
                                                                            
        Wrench on Montana                                      Montana engine

Dive#2 on day 2 Barge #1:

The lake was still flat when we got to the wreck site, but I had devolved a headache being in the bright sun so I opted out on this dive. Captain Joe said we will still be making one more dive after this one the Oscar T. Flint as we will pass right over it on our way in, so if I was felling better I could still get in two dives. While I did not dive, here is a description of the wreck. It lies about one mile off North Point, it’s an enormous wooden barge 309’ long and 44’ wide. Built at West Bay, Mich. in 1895 and launched as a railroad car ferry. In 1912 it was converted to a bulk freight barge in Chicago. She was stranded on the rocks of North Point on Nov 8, 1918, the wind and waves moved her to deeper water where she sank. She is still intact and sitting upright. Those who dove this wreck were in the water about 45 mins. In that time the wind picked up and we had about 2 to 3 foot waves. Captain Joe said that with the waves we would not be doing anther dive and that the towboat was only a min or two away. By the time all divers were out of the water the towboat was there to tow us in. It was not a bad ride back in. We got to the dock at about noon. Captain Joe said he was looking to make arrangements for diving on Monday but it was not looking good. He said check back with him in a couple hours after we had lunch. Rich and I stopped by the diveshop after we had lunch. Joe was still trying to make arrangements for Monday’s dives but said that if we wanted to dive the sinkhole north of Thunder Bay Island Jeff the 1^st mate would take us out. We said that sounded good to Rich and I and would get back with him once we talked to the others. The group though that sounded great so we agreed to meet at the diveshop at 5:00pm.

Day 2 afternoon dives:

We meet at the diveshop at 5:00pm. Captain Joe led us to Rockport harbor where Jeff was waiting with his boat. The boat was an old coast guard rubber raft type boat in the 20-foot range. Joe said the boat that towed us back in had also agreed to meet us here to take us out to the dive site. Three of us rode with Jeff and one with Joe. Here is a little note. Captain Joe had a major problem with his boat that will most likely cost him $1500.00 to $2000.00. All afternoon all he though about was us getting in a couple more dives. Not only did he make it happen he also dove with us. Jeff took Erica, Rich and I out to the sinkhole. The ride was about 15 mins. Once there we dropped anchor in about 10ffw and suited up. The sinkhole is a very strange thing; it’s like a blue hole in the ocean. All the area around it is about 10 to 20 feet deep and all rock bottom. There is algae growth of many difference colors. What I liked best was the white algae growing near the bottom on one wall. The max depth that I got to was 76ffw. We was in the water for about 45 mins with a 49-degree bottom temp. Upon surfacing we found that the skies had made a turn for the worst, there was no wind yet but it was coming, captain Jeff though we might see a waterspout. We got on the boat, but the others divers had not surfaced yet so we would wait for them so both boats could leave at the same time. Once both boats had all divers on board we headed back to Rockport harbor. It was raining lightly but running about 30mph over the water made the drops hurt on the face. I’m glad I still had on my drysuit. By the time we got to the dock it had quit raining, Captain Jeff said that the old Rockport harbor dock made for a good shallow dive with max depth at about 20ffw. I had about 800psi left in by cyls so Rich Erica and I decided to make anther dive. We quickly got ready as it was getting dark and it still looked like rain. Upon entry of the water Bob said he was going to join us, but it would be 5 mins. Erica said she would wait for Bob and Rich and I can go ahead. We started the dive at about 7:35 pm. We followed the old dock out to the end. The timbers were very impressive as they are over 100 years old and looked like new. Rich saw a Musky I did not. We did 35 mins on the dock before calling it quits for the day. When we got out it was raining. We quickly got out of our gear and stowed it in my truck. Captain Joe and Jeff were still there waiting for us to finish our day of diving. I asked Jeff what we owed him for the trip out to the sinkhole. He said there was no charge it was his pleasure to show us the sinkhole. I gave him a large tip and said we was vary pleased with all the stuff he had done for us over the last two days. Upon returning to the motel we decided to get a little dinner. It was already 9:30pm. There was a KFC just across the street so Erica, Rich and I decided to get some chicken for dinner. After dinner we said our good nights to Erica as we was going to be leaving very early in the morning. Rich and I loaded my truck so as to get that early start and went in for the evening. After cleaning up and showering I got in bed about 11:30pm. I was up early about 6:00am, put my over night stuff in the truck, Rich was ready shortly after that and we was on the way home at 6:45 am. The trip home was uneventful.

Summary:

Over two days we got in 7 total dives (I only did 6). Five dives were on wooden steamers or schooners. Anyone who knows me know that wood is the only wreck I really enjoy diving. I do dive steel but wood does it for me. Captain Joe and Captain Jeff were unbeatable even though Joe had a major problem with his boat he still keep smiling and joking. He still took us out to a dive site after the boat was broken and made a dive with us. If I were the captain it would have been very hard for me to keep smiling and joking, and no way would I have made a dive after getting the boat back on dry land. Captain Jeff did not have to offer his boat for us to get in anther dive. As a diver who has done thousands of dive trips, I would have completely understood that some times you have to cancel dives. Most the time weather does it and sometimes-mechanical problems. Captain Joe and Jeff as well as Thunder Bay Scuba went way out of their way to make our trip the best trip I have done this season. I would VERY strongly recommend anyone in Alpena look up Thunder Bay Scuba and Captain Joe. They will make your trip worth your time. FYI Captain Joe is the owner of Thunder Bay Scuba and has all your scuba needs and offers air fills and does have OCA fills and Nitrox.

 Joseph Sobczak

Thunder Bay Scuba

413 S. Ripley Blvd.

Alpena, Michigan  49707