Isle Royale Aboard 'Heyboy'

[Mark Y]

Just got back from Isle Royale. A four-day trip aboard Ken Merryman's 'Heyboy'. The results:

Dive #1 - 'Chisholm Engine': Max Depth - 140 ft, Time - 60 min. Really fun dive, but very, very cold; my drysuit had a minor leak. Good thing the 20 ft. stop was in 50 degree water!

Dive #2 - 'America': Max Depth - 2 ft., Time - 2 min. My drysuit flooded out.

Dive #3 - 'Emperor' (Stern): Max Depth - 139 ft. Time - 30 min. Dry suit still leaked! Beautiful wreck. Made it into the engine room and looked about.

Dive #4 - 'Chester A. Congdon' (Bow): Max Depth - 114 ft. Time - 54 min. Dry suit leak discovered and remedied! Purge valve flap folded over. Another find wreck! Will be back for both the bow & stern.

Dive #5 - 'Emperor' (Stern): Max Depth - 137 ft. Time - 37 min. Cruised around the main house, poked around inside.

Dive #6 - 'Emperor' (Bow): Max Depth - 92 ft. Time - 37 min. Tough dive. High seas, very strong current. Vis wasn't the best. Did the swim through around 90 ft. Real cool. Lots of twisted metal. Very fun shallow dive. Will do it again. Oh yeah, very cold.

Dive #7 - 'America': Max Depth: 12 oz. Time - 11:30 PM. Got to wreck too late for anyone to dive (very tired). All decided to blow off dive. If weather would have been better, high waves all the way from the 'Emperor' to the 'America' and strong current (against us) we would have been there earlier and would have made the dive. Oh well.

Dive #8 - 'Chisholm Engine': Max Depth - 140 ft. Time: 50 min. Saw the rudder at 80 ft. Man, that thing is huge. Wreckage scattered everywhere. This was the coldest dive (glove leaked). The vis was fantastic - must have been 30-40 ft. +.

Done with one 3 litre cylinder of 02 & one 3 litre cylinder of 15/50 (O2 & He).

Dove with Joe M., Laura & Tim H., CN3, GHOSH and CORNDOGG. Good dive buddies.

If you get a chance, dive aboard Ken Merryman's 'Heyboy'. It's worth the trip (and he's a great cook!). ;D

[ghosch]

If you haven't made a trip on Ken's boat, you're missing out!

Ken takes great care of his divers, and has great knowledge of the local wrecks. He has a compressor and constant flow mixing station on board.

I know GUDC (and I think SD&T) run trips through Ken. The wrecks at Isle Royale are awesome!

[Mark Y]

Check it out:

You can dive CCR, SCR and/or OC on his boat.