isle royal

[Terry]

Hello John, I led the first dive thru the deeper end of the America, only because Joe and Scotty haden't dove it before, and didn't want Joe to go in anywhere he didn't care for, only because we were behind him. Not that I question his (or Scotty's) abilities in cold penetration runs. The port stern hallway turned us back 25' up from the womens room, due to partial wall colapse and the drop of the sprinkler line into the center of the hallway. Joe and I did get into the, "forbidden room" where the 20 year old male drown back in 1976, (due to entanglement), astern and below the galley, although this area isn't as silty as the restrooms and their hallway. In retrospect it would make sense in the future to send Joe and his camera in first, that and widen Joe's light beam.
Other news from Isle Royale,,,,, Concessions closed on Sept. 11 at Windigo on the south end, and the 13th at Rock Harbour, on the north end, that means the stores, showers,(at $6.00/5 min.) and laundromat are all closed. This always seems a little early to me as that's some of the best season to jump in, after Labor Day, schools back on, so a lot of the crowds are thinned, (not that IR being the least visited of any National Park, crowds are ever an issue) nights are cool, dandy nice for watching the Northern Lights. Both Windigo and Rock got updated electric generator/solar/battery inverter installations. Windigo now has twin 45 KW Cat. gensets and a single 75 KW Cat genset, to back up solar panels that cover the maintence building, and generator building roofs and a grass field between them. On a nice day Windigo has a maintained draw of 16-18 KW, ( approx. 30 HP) so the Cats don't run then at all, least when the suns out. Steve Martin gave us the complete tour, interesting,,, for me anyway. Gas tanks are being replaced with double wall tanks at Rock Harbour while we were there, nessessitating a run down to Mott Island to get fuel on the North end (and a run back to Rock to pay). Gas was $4.40/gal at Mott, still a deal compared to the $5.40/ gal it is at Windigo. Daily fee is still $4.00/head, per day. Tough to beat somewhere, anywhere, on Labor Day without reservations, and be the only boat there though.