Diving in the Straits

[WIdiver_Paul]

I just got back from a trip on the Rec Diver in the Straits with Hoofers HI MATT club. The rest of the divers were diving rental singles and the RDP. I dove doubles with an O2 bottle, not budgeted in a deco profile, but as a safety buffer during 20 and 10 foot safety stops on 23-34% Nitrox. My run times ended up being 33-57 minutes for the 5 dives that were mostly no-deco; One dive got me 1 minute at 10 feet, but the computer was unaware that my upper stops were O2, of course.

My question is, has anyone found anyone else beside Rec Diver up there to do deco or technical dives?

Even though my dives were or at the edge of recreational dives, the operator didn't seem to be very happy to have anyone without a snorkel on his boat: I was talking about the O2 explosion at Cave Excursions in Florida and the captain asked why anyone would use 100%!!!

Later he sent a letter to the club complaining about the use of doubles and reels.

Not that I'd go back there, the divemaster was an utter fool, throwing a huge wake in the harbor (and getting yelled at by the tour boat captain sitting at the dock) and then argued with me about wether my manifold was open, he kept turning it clockwise! And then later he attempted to top off my tanks, said it was full while my PG was reading 1500. We did this 3 times before I noticed he was reading his bank supply pressure, not the fill pressure. His reply, "We know how to do our fills!". Whatever. And then the captain hit me in the face with my stage bottle while I was in the water, I took that a little personally!

Who does tech charters up there, I'd really like to explore the Cedarville and the Eber Ward much more thoroughly?

[Chris H]

Paul,
I have been in the straits on that cattle boat and it is a nightmare. The best boat I've been on there, or anywhere for that matter, has been "Little Alexandria" from Shipwreck Adventures. Greg runs an outstanding charter and offers air, Nitrox, and Tri-Mix fills on site. The other boat that has been good is Abyss Charters. I beleive they are in Mackinaw. They have two boats, one that will trailer and one that won't. I used them in Whitefish Point last weekend too and had another good experience.

Both of the above charters had no problem with my doubles or my deco schedule. I had double steel 80s and an aluminum 80 with 50% in it. We kept run times under an hour and had great dives.

Good Luck

[dfreeman]

I have also been on the same trips with Chris to the Straits and Whitefish with Abyss Charters. The owners, which often captain the boat, are tech divers and understand what you are doing and work with you. I believe that if you use these guys, you can agree upon a reasonable tech dive plan.

Doug

[Omicron]

Abyss Charters -

The greatest charter I've been on.

We were using 50% deco bottles and everything - they were nothing but helpful and would let us do anything we wanted, and we weren't even on their "tech" orientated charters...we were on the "rec" charter.

[WIdiver_Paul]

Thanks again guys for the excellent info. Abyss has a nice site!
I think I met one of the crew at the dive shop, they must not have their own compressor or something, but she seemed very nice.

I'll definitely be trying that one next time, can't wait to see more of the wrecks there (had a HI MATT great time Saturday night at the Driftwood for Karaoke as well! And the nightclub across the bridge has a good selection of surface attractions as well!)

Thanks.

[FreediveWI]

We always dragged a buddies boat up there so that we could dive what we wanted to.

This allowed us to hit the Newell Eddy less than a year after she was found- still the single best wreck I ever dove, but am sure that she has since been stripped or covered with mussels. The tip of her mast is at 38' with the crow's next at 90'. Follow one of the three masts down to the deck at 155' and the bottom is at 167'. There was all kinds of stuff just lying on the deck. She is only a couple of miles away from the Bently- 170'.

Another, shallower, wreck that the local boats don't hit much is the Cayuga. She sits in 96' of water and has three different deck levels you can swim. She was well worth the extra distance to dive. She is a couple of hundred feet long and still has salvage ponttons on her. There is even a sunken dive barge next to her that is rumored to have a hard-hat diver beneath her.

I would have to suggest Greg Such, hands down, as the guy to go with for the tec, or even rec, charters.
Jon