Madeira 08/22

[plmnwater]

Me, my cousin, and a friend of his from work dove the Madeira on Saturday. The water was great, 62 degrees on the surface according to my computer, and about 41 at 55 feet.

We did two dives, for the first dive we swam out to the first buoy, went straight down, and swam around the bow of the boat. 28 minutes of dive time, plenty of air to spare. We stayed above 40 feet most of the time to stay warm.

Second dive we swam about 30 feet out from shore, and descended. We then swam over to the wreck underwater, a much easier and much more efficient way to do it. If you're going to dive the larger section of the Madeira, I would recommend swimming out above water to conserve air, but if you're doing the smaller section, you should have plenty of time to swim underwater there.

Visibility was good, I would estimate 50+ feet to my untrained eye. We wore 7mil suits, and were perfectly comfortable, even down at 55 feet for short periods of time. Since this was my first cold water experience, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very impressed.

[jasondbaker]

First coldwater dive. Wetsuit. Superior. Wow, I'm impressed. It sounds like you had a great time!

[LKunze]

WOW...62 degrees on the surface! :o That is tropical for Superior! I haven't dove the Madeira since Memorial Day weekend and the temp was 36 degrees from the surface on down then.

[Gramps]

Isle Royal surface temps at the begining of the month were hovering @ 52 degrees. Mmmm...that was nice.
Anyone else notice that temps on the Monarch are always a little nippier than the other sites?

[Inspirationdiver]

Last week we saw some huge swings in water temp at Isle Royale. On the Congdon stern and the Emperor stern- 39 at depth, 55 degrees at 70 ft, 64 degrees at 30 ft. This was some really nice water to deco in. It was much colder on the Kamloops though. 39 at depth and no thermocline until 13 ft. Even there it only warmed up to 56 degrees.