Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

***jasondbaker*** · 08-25-2002, 11:39 PM,

A couple additions to Lonnie's effort. Ray, Chris, and I drove up to the North Shore late Friday afternoon. We stayed at a local hotspot known as the Beaver Bay Inn. We were "very" fortunate to be staying there on karoke night. I think the bartender took a liking to Chris. After a couple beers, and a pondwater or two we turned in for the night. We woke up early, had breakfast, and headed to the Split Rock park. We met up with Lonnie at the Park and headed to the shore dive site. The vaunted trail through the woods was not a big deal. Yes it was long, but the journey was worth it. We hauled our gear down to the rocky shore. We could clearly see the two marker buoys from the shore. We saw at least four dive boats moored off the buoys -- about 15 divers. We made two dives on the wreck. Lonnie and I used nitrox (29%) on the first dive to 65 feet. We used air on the second dive to 100 feet. The water was cold. No doubt about it. I've done many many dives in cold water. But the difference was that this water was consistantly cold from the surface to the bottom. You should take this into consideration with your dive planning. Remember once you ascend you still have a 5-10 minute surface swim back to shore. I could only take about 35 minutes in the water before becoming too chilled in my suit. I agree with Lonnie. A dry suit is definitely in my future. Also, plan for nice leisurely surface intervals after your dives. This dive site encourages physical exhursion. You have surface swims and a long equipment haul to deal with. Take your time. After the Madiera we said goodbye to Lonnie and headed over to the Lemon Wolf for lunch. Chris took off after lunch and Ray and I headed over to Silver Bay to dive the Hesper. The Hesper is located right off the side of one of the breakwalls in the marina. In the past this site was only accessible via boat or a very very long surface swim. The marina built a road on top of the breakwall. Now you can just drive along the breakwall, unload your gear, and go park your car. One of the tricky things about this site is that you have to carry your gear over large rocks on the breakwall. Again, take it slow because this requires a bit of work. Ray and I entered the water and headed out to the buoy marking the wreck. We descended and found the wreck at around 40 feet. The water was a bit warmer here (43deg) and the visibility was a bit diminished (35 feet). The wreck site was enormous. We swam along the length of the ship for a almost ten minutes and still didn't reach the end. It seemed to stretch on forever. I was impressed by how much territory this wreck covered. Ray and I would like to dive this site again just to check out everything we missed.