Straits of Mackinac - July 15th and 16th

[schultz]

Well, by today's standards, my camera ain't all that special. It's a Canon G5 in an Ikelite housing. I have two strobes. One is a DS-50 and the other is a DS-125. They mount on both sides of the housing. The lens is an Inon UW-100 wide-angle. I bought this thing several years ago brand spanking new, but obviously anything dealing with technology becomes obsolete as soon as you open the box.

My next camera (whenever that is) will most like be a digital SLR. My current system simply cannot compete with an SLR, but I try my best when I can.

[Chris H]

The pictures are great.  I'm going to Mackinac in a week or so.  I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but the statement above seems fishy.    If you spent more time at depth then you had to do the deco, correct?  Am I missing something?  More time at depth is the main reason we go through all the crap we do for deco dives.

[schultz]

It's not meant to be fishy... I'm simply trying to tell people on this board that it is not necessary to dive all these wrecks as deco profiles. Some people might get scared off from venturing up there if they assume these are all beyond the recreational limits. Yes - I did some deco for those dives where I extended my stay (to get more shots essentially) beyond the recreational limits.

Conversely, if I dive to 200 feet - I automatically have to do a deco profile. Sorry if I confused you.

Chris, do me a small favor and see if the alge tufts are still there when you go (you can't miss them floating by when your under)... I'm wondering what's going on up there. The locals all say that Moran bay never froze this winter and the fishermen are all saying that fishing is down considerably.

-schultz

[Chris H]

There are definitely wrecks in Mackinac that you can do as a recreational diver without deco obligations.    However, I wouldn't recommend the Eber Ward as one of them. Especially on an aluminum 80 that isn't a bottom stage.  I have no idea what you guys were diving, so again that wasn't meant as a jab.  There was a time when I may have done that dive on an 80.  I just choose to be safer than that now.  I need to remember to look over the edge of the trench near the stern of the Eber Ward.

The last time I was in Mackinac, a year or two ago, we had similar floating balls of algae.

[schultz]

Let's see... a set of doubles, Aluminum 80 for a stage, and a large cube with some dangly arms that I pushed in front of me (a camera) to  significantly increase my drag (and sac rate).  

As long as people stay on the top deck of the Ward (120 feet) it's still considered a recreational dive... Checking out the trench behind the Ward which goes down to something like 300 feet - now we're talking! 

[gfmayhew]

Re: the deco.

Matt and I did a little deco on the Ward on the first day, but not so much that our computers didn't clear on the way up (of course, mine malfunctioned in between the first and second dive - go figure). We had stage bottles with 50% nitrox and planned the time out to 15 minutes on the bottom. I think my max depth was 125ft. The other guys on the trip were diving AL80s on computers, so we wanted to do real short decos, so as not to make them wait on us (first in, last up the ladder, but only just).

We ran doubles on air, and currents were a little strong. I was huffing a bit, so the monkeys came out after a while. I think the next time we do the Ward we might take a blend with us to make the dive safer and clearer. I totally love that wreck and would appreciate remembering more of it. ;-)

[dfreeman]

We had the algea tuffs in large quantities the first time I was on the William Young in 2003.  This kept me from getting really great pictures of Chris on the wreck by the wheel.

Doug

[gfmayhew]

??? Weird. Last year we were up there at the same time, and we never saw any suspended algae clumps. Granted, there was plenty on the wrecks, but none moving along in the currents.

[Chris H]

That isn't me, look at all the crap hanging off of me....I mean that diver. ;D

[matt t.]

That's the "old" you. Stroke-tastic............ ;D