A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin

**fireman** · 28th July 2008, 15:19

I did 3 trips this weekend on Greg Such's boat Lil Alexandria (Shipwreck Adventures) We dove the wreck of the Wisconsin, a nice little steel and wood steamer about 130 to the mud, 90 to the deck. There are some model T sort of cars on one of the decks, and although the wreck is starting to cave in a little, there are lots of interesting nooks and crannies to explore.
Greg runs a fun but safe boat, thats fairly fast and rides nicely, although this weekend the lake was quite flat. He is a rebreather diver--'Boris, Sentinel, and CK--and lets you dive any reasonable profile within your training. We had everything from AL80s, trimix doubles, and the mighty rEvo all playing happily together. Greg runs a small shop in the area, so has gas fills of all flavors, is a Halcyon dealer, and has a good selection of spares and parts.

**fireman** · 4th August 2008, 20:14

Sorry to sound like a broken record here but:
Went out again and dove the Wisconsin again this Sunday with Greg and the merry crew of divers. Greg got in the water with a Sentinal. Very impressive unit. Rummaged around in the bowels of the wreck for over an hour. There was a very welcome thermocline on deco.

Love those great lakes wrecks. For those of you who haven't seen any pictures, I offer Vlada's site wrecksandreefs.com. See especially the wreck of the Florida in Presque Isle and for a shot of yours truely see the Eber Ward.

rEvo worked flawlessly as usual, its profile was apriciated squirming through some tight spots.

Skipbreather · 5th August 2008, 15:42

Wow- must have been one heck of a long ride from the dock @ Manistique MI !

That’s where his website says the boat was scheduled. It’s a LOT shorter ride from Northpoint/ Winthrop Harbor!

All joking aside, this is another example of how some charter operators who no doubt do a fine job of giving their customers a safe & fun experience manage to shoot themselves in the foot- noncurrent charter schedules on their websites. Keeping the planned itinerary up to date might do wonders for filling those unsold spots that make the difference between a break even and a profitable trip. A good selection of healthy charter operations is a great asset to any local diving community.

Just my $0.02

Ken

hypoxicexplorer · 5th August 2008, 17:35

Quote: (Originally Posted by Skipbreather)

Wow- must have been one heck of a long ride from the dock @ Manistique MI !

That’s where his website says the boat was scheduled. It’s a LOT shorter ride from Northpoint/ Winthrop Harbor!

All joking aside, this is another example of how some charter operators who no doubt do a fine job of giving their customers a safe & fun experience manage to shoot themselves in the foot- noncurrent charter schedules on their websites. Keeping the planned itinerary up to date might do wonders for filling those unsold spots that make the difference between a break even and a profitable trip. A good selection of healthy charter operations is a great asset to any local diving community.

Just my $0.02

Ken

Hi Ken,We always welcome comments and listen to critics.I believe it is fully exceptable for us to do something else when a group or groups cancel there iteniary. This is why we email our customers with openings, get several calls all week from guys/gals that sometime just say hi and other times want to see what is going on for the weekend. We do our best to keep the regular customers up to date. And sometime life itself gets in the way. Currently my twins are in NICU as they decided to arrive 8 weeks early. My wife and I are spending a lot of extra time at the hospital why they grow and are hopeing for their release soon, but it has been almost 6 weeks so far and is honestly a little more important then the web page.The web calendar itself is a double edge sword. Some people want it and most want to change it to fit there needs. You post it and one might not call because they are not qualifed for that dive, the next four divers call to see if they can go to a different wreck site. We work on a first come basis. So every spring we put out a tentative calendar which is only accruart the second it is posted, after that it is subject to change. If you just leave it blank and no one calls, we get the least amount of calls to a divers choice listing on the web. But hey it is the dive industry so it is not suppose to make sense. After 15 years in the industry and I know there is not a perfect answer. Others just like to know where we have been so they can expect a good mooring in place, but that can change overnight so they should just always be prepared to do it themselves. I am always a phone call or email away as my customers know. If we can be of service or you have any queastions then just call. Gregwww.shipwreckadventures.comBTW: How is your boat running?

Skipbreather · 5th August 2008, 20:20

Quote: (Originally Posted by hypoxicexplorer)

Hi Ken,We always welcome comments and listen to critics.I believe it is fully exceptable for us to do something else when a group or groups cancel there iteniary. This is why we email our customers with openings, get several calls all week from guys/gals that sometime just say hi and other times want to see what is going on for the weekend. We do our best to keep the regular customers up to date. And sometime life itself gets in the way. Currently my twins are in NICU as they decided to arrive 8 weeks early. My wife and I are spending a lot of extra time at the hospital why they grow and are hopeing for their release soon, but it has been almost 6 weeks so far and is honestly a little more important then the web page.The web calendar itself is a double edge sword. Some people want it and most want to change it to fit there needs. You post it and one might not call because they are not qualifed for that dive, the next four divers call to see if they can go to a different wreck site. We work on a first come basis. So every spring we put out a tentative calendar which is only accruart the second it is posted, after that it is subject to change. If you just leave it blank and no one calls, we get the least amount of calls to a divers choice listing on the web. But hey it is the dive industry so it is not suppose to make sense. After 15 years in the industry and I know there is not a perfect answer. Others just like to know where we have been so they can expect a good mooring in place, but that can change overnight so they should just always be prepared to do it themselves. I am always a phone call or email away as my customers know. If we can be of service or you have any queastions then just call. Gregwww.shipwreckadventures.comBTW: How is your boat running?

Hi Greg-

Congrats on the twins! I completely understand the order of priorities. I was in your shoes more years ago than I’d like to think about when we had premie twins. Time marches on & 2 weeks ago the youngest (by 17 min) presented us w/ our first grandchild- who weighed 2 oz more than she and her sister did combined: 10lb 2oz!

Fully understood that cancellations occur & plans change. Once life gets a bit more normal, would humbly suggest maybe at least a monthly update, w/ perhaps something like "diver's choice" to keep options open. Batch email for updates are fine as long as prospective diver is on the list. FWIW, I tried to sign up & your server returned an ‘unable’ error message. Makes one wonder how many other divers had the same problem.

Boat’s running great. Hauled it to Door County last month & got in several super dives on the Lakeland. We got REAL lucky- minimal current both days. Two days later a friend had his boat in same area & was fighting 2KT+ currents.

It sometimes gets frustrating when the boat’s running great but my screwy days off don’t match dive buddies w/ regular work hours. That’s when I start eyeballing charter schedules. I love to dive, but solo diving from an unattended boat is a bit much even for me. About 10 years ago I had my boat on one of the Willy’s buoys when, half way thru our surface interval, some guy in a 32 ft cruiser motors out solo & ties up by the stern to the other buoy. He strapped on a twinset & rolled over the side for a 30 minute solo dive, leaving that size boat unattended on the thin buoy line. Go figure…..

Best,
Ken

hypoxicexplorer · 5th August 2008, 20:47

Quote: (Originally Posted by Skipbreather)

Hi Greg-

Congrats on the twins! I completely understand the order of priorities. I was in your shoes more years ago than I’d like to think about when we had premie twins. Time marches on & 2 weeks ago the youngest (by 17 min) presented us w/ our first grandchild- who weighed 2 oz more than she and her sister did combined: 10lb 2oz!

Fully understood that cancellations occur & plans change. Once life gets a bit more normal, would humbly suggest maybe at least a monthly update, w/ perhaps something like "diver's choice" to keep options open. Batch email for updates are fine as long as prospective diver is on the list. FWIW, I tried to sign up & your server returned an ‘unable’ error message. Makes one wonder how many other divers had the same problem.

Boat’s running great. Hauled it to Door County last month & got in several super dives on the Lakeland. We got REAL lucky- minimal current both days. Two days later a friend had his boat in same area & was fighting 2KT+ currents.

It sometimes gets frustrating when the boat’s running great but my screwy days off don’t match dive buddies w/ regular work hours. That’s when I start eyeballing charter schedules. I love to dive, but solo diving from an unattended boat is a bit much even for me. About 10 years ago I had my boat on one of the Willy’s buoys when, half way thru our surface interval, some guy in a 32 ft cruiser motors out solo & ties up by the stern to the other buoy. He strapped on a twinset & rolled over the side for a 30 minute solo dive, leaving that size boat unattended on the thin buoy line. Go figure…..

Best,
Ken

Congratulations on the grandchild, that is three times the weight of my boys (3 and half lbs each at birth).

Email me so I can capture your address and send your phone if you want, I call and/or email weekly.

Computers and web site... an Achilles heel this year. There is contact information when things bounce but most people just prefer to stay annomious or informal. I'll try and work on it next week. We also lost a portion of our mailing list in a spring computer failure. Well I try, it just works out some days, weeks, and months better then others.

Anyone that would like to be on our mailing or if you noticed you have not been receiving anything since around April please send an email to divbum@charter.net.

We are planning to be in Milwaukee this weekend.
Greg

lgibsonmd · 6th August 2008, 01:40

Ah the Wisconsin. I love that wreck. Have been on it and in it a few times this year on my Evolution +. Really miss The Nordic Diver and Bill.

**fireman** · 18th August 2008, 22:00

Went diving with Greg again on Sunday, this time out of Milwaukee. We dove the car ferry on the morning trip and the Willie on the afternoon trip. As usuall, the group was nice and a mix of rec divers doing two dives with a surface interval, and tech divers doing one long dive. The water was very warm, about 54 at a deep (90 foot) thermocline. The Viz was a little disapointing, at about 20 feet, but the diving was fun. I did 90 min in water times on both wrecks, and as usual, the rEvo performed well. Can't wait for next weekend.
I am really amazed at how easy the "house keeping" tasks are with the rEvo, I can turn in around at the end of a day of diving in 15 min, already to go for the next trip. I have 3l bottles for dil and O2, and 2l of argon for the drysuit, and this is easily enough gas to do two long dives, and have adiquate reserves for bail out deco--I also carry an 80 of bottom gas/bailout. It is also easy and logical to do the predive checks, which I can accomplish during my prebreath. I also did some serious swimming with it on the last trip and it handles the workload just fine, even though I already had 90min on the scrubber from a previous dive and was 20 min into the current one. I also had to rig a second moring line to the Willy, and in the process, dropped a shackel and had to find in etc. and even though I was less than attentive my PPO2 didn't drop hugely 1.2 to .9 oops.

Skipbreather · 19th August 2008, 15:26

The vis opened up to 60 ~ 70 ft at about 140’, but temps dropped to 41F. Had a good time on the St. Albins- could see pretty much the entire wreck from the middle of the debris field! Saw you folks on the Willy- we were the boat circling the Gillen just to your west. Was testing a new snag rig I’d just put together. Saw a boat on the EMBA as well. Had to be the nicest weekend of the summer on the Lake!

28th July 2008, 15:19	#1 (permalink)
fireman rEvo combat swimmer Current Rebreather/s: rEvo Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: rEvo Other CCR Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: chicago Posts: 540	A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin I did 3 trips this weekend on Greg Such's boat Lil Alexandria (Shipwreck Adventures) We dove the wreck of the Wisconsin, a nice little steel and wood steamer about 130 to the mud, 90 to the deck. There are some model T sort of cars on one of the decks, and although the wreck is starting to cave in a little, there are lots of interesting nooks and crannies to explore. Greg runs a fun but safe boat, thats fairly fast and rides nicely, although this weekend the lake was quite flat. He is a rebreather diver--'Boris, Sentinel, and CK--and lets you dive any reasonable profile within your training. We had everything from AL80s, trimix doubles, and the mighty rEvo all playing happily together. Greg runs a small shop in the area, so has gas fills of all flavors, is a Halcyon dealer, and has a good selection of spares and parts. __________________ Heres to you Capt. Bill Never Forget, and stay safe everyone.
(Offline)

4th August 2008, 20:14	#2 (permalink)
fireman rEvo combat swimmer Current Rebreather/s: rEvo Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: rEvo Other CCR Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: chicago Posts: 540	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Sorry to sound like a broken record here but: Went out again and dove the Wisconsin again this Sunday with Greg and the merry crew of divers. Greg got in the water with a Sentinal. Very impressive unit. Rummaged around in the bowels of the wreck for over an hour. There was a very welcome thermocline on deco. Love those great lakes wrecks. For those of you who haven't seen any pictures, I offer Vlada's site wrecksandreefs.com. See especially the wreck of the Florida in Presque Isle and for a shot of yours truely see the Eber Ward. rEvo worked flawlessly as usual, its profile was apriciated squirming through some tight spots. __________________ Heres to you Capt. Bill Never Forget, and stay safe everyone.
(Offline)

5th August 2008, 15:42	#3 (permalink)
Skipbreather Reads the fine print Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Home Build Other Rebreather/s: Not Bought Yet MK 15.X Home Build Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA Posts: 580	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Wow- must have been one heck of a long ride from the dock @ Manistique MI ! That’s where his website says the boat was scheduled. It’s a LOT shorter ride from Northpoint/ Winthrop Harbor! All joking aside, this is another example of how some charter operators who no doubt do a fine job of giving their customers a safe & fun experience manage to shoot themselves in the foot- noncurrent charter schedules on their websites. Keeping the planned itinerary up to date might do wonders for filling those unsold spots that make the difference between a break even and a profitable trip. A good selection of healthy charter operations is a great asset to any local diving community. Just my $0.02 Ken __________________ "Entropy RULES! Enjoy the interim."
(Offline)

5th August 2008, 17:35	#4 (permalink)
hypoxicexplorer New Member Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Ouroboros Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Other CCR Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Great Lakes Posts: 54	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Quote: (Originally Posted by Skipbreather) Wow- must have been one heck of a long ride from the dock @ Manistique MI ! That’s where his website says the boat was scheduled. It’s a LOT shorter ride from Northpoint/ Winthrop Harbor! All joking aside, this is another example of how some charter operators who no doubt do a fine job of giving their customers a safe & fun experience manage to shoot themselves in the foot- noncurrent charter schedules on their websites. Keeping the planned itinerary up to date might do wonders for filling those unsold spots that make the difference between a break even and a profitable trip. A good selection of healthy charter operations is a great asset to any local diving community. Just my $0.02 Ken Hi Ken,We always welcome comments and listen to critics.I believe it is fully exceptable for us to do something else when a group or groups cancel there iteniary. This is why we email our customers with openings, get several calls all week from guys/gals that sometime just say hi and other times want to see what is going on for the weekend. We do our best to keep the regular customers up to date. And sometime life itself gets in the way. Currently my twins are in NICU as they decided to arrive 8 weeks early. My wife and I are spending a lot of extra time at the hospital why they grow and are hopeing for their release soon, but it has been almost 6 weeks so far and is honestly a little more important then the web page.The web calendar itself is a double edge sword. Some people want it and most want to change it to fit there needs. You post it and one might not call because they are not qualifed for that dive, the next four divers call to see if they can go to a different wreck site. We work on a first come basis. So every spring we put out a tentative calendar which is only accruart the second it is posted, after that it is subject to change. If you just leave it blank and no one calls, we get the least amount of calls to a divers choice listing on the web. But hey it is the dive industry so it is not suppose to make sense. After 15 years in the industry and I know there is not a perfect answer. Others just like to know where we have been so they can expect a good mooring in place, but that can change overnight so they should just always be prepared to do it themselves. I am always a phone call or email away as my customers know. If we can be of service or you have any queastions then just call. Gregwww.shipwreckadventures.comBTW: How is your boat running?
(Offline)

5th August 2008, 20:20	#5 (permalink)
Skipbreather Reads the fine print Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Home Build Other Rebreather/s: Not Bought Yet MK 15.X Home Build Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA Posts: 580	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Quote: (Originally Posted by hypoxicexplorer) Hi Ken,We always welcome comments and listen to critics.I believe it is fully exceptable for us to do something else when a group or groups cancel there iteniary. This is why we email our customers with openings, get several calls all week from guys/gals that sometime just say hi and other times want to see what is going on for the weekend. We do our best to keep the regular customers up to date. And sometime life itself gets in the way. Currently my twins are in NICU as they decided to arrive 8 weeks early. My wife and I are spending a lot of extra time at the hospital why they grow and are hopeing for their release soon, but it has been almost 6 weeks so far and is honestly a little more important then the web page.The web calendar itself is a double edge sword. Some people want it and most want to change it to fit there needs. You post it and one might not call because they are not qualifed for that dive, the next four divers call to see if they can go to a different wreck site. We work on a first come basis. So every spring we put out a tentative calendar which is only accruart the second it is posted, after that it is subject to change. If you just leave it blank and no one calls, we get the least amount of calls to a divers choice listing on the web. But hey it is the dive industry so it is not suppose to make sense. After 15 years in the industry and I know there is not a perfect answer. Others just like to know where we have been so they can expect a good mooring in place, but that can change overnight so they should just always be prepared to do it themselves. I am always a phone call or email away as my customers know. If we can be of service or you have any queastions then just call. Gregwww.shipwreckadventures.comBTW: How is your boat running? Hi Greg- Congrats on the twins! I completely understand the order of priorities. I was in your shoes more years ago than I’d like to think about when we had premie twins. Time marches on & 2 weeks ago the youngest (by 17 min) presented us w/ our first grandchild- who weighed 2 oz more than she and her sister did combined: 10lb 2oz! Fully understood that cancellations occur & plans change. Once life gets a bit more normal, would humbly suggest maybe at least a monthly update, w/ perhaps something like "diver's choice" to keep options open. Batch email for updates are fine as long as prospective diver is on the list. FWIW, I tried to sign up & your server returned an ‘unable’ error message. Makes one wonder how many other divers had the same problem. Boat’s running great. Hauled it to Door County last month & got in several super dives on the Lakeland. We got REAL lucky- minimal current both days. Two days later a friend had his boat in same area & was fighting 2KT+ currents. It sometimes gets frustrating when the boat’s running great but my screwy days off don’t match dive buddies w/ regular work hours. That’s when I start eyeballing charter schedules. I love to dive, but solo diving from an unattended boat is a bit much even for me. About 10 years ago I had my boat on one of the Willy’s buoys when, half way thru our surface interval, some guy in a 32 ft cruiser motors out solo & ties up by the stern to the other buoy. He strapped on a twinset & rolled over the side for a 30 minute solo dive, leaving that size boat unattended on the thin buoy line. Go figure….. Best, Ken __________________ "Entropy RULES! Enjoy the interim."
(Offline)

5th August 2008, 20:47	#6 (permalink)
hypoxicexplorer New Member Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Ouroboros Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Other CCR Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Great Lakes Posts: 54	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Quote: (Originally Posted by Skipbreather) Hi Greg- Congrats on the twins! I completely understand the order of priorities. I was in your shoes more years ago than I’d like to think about when we had premie twins. Time marches on & 2 weeks ago the youngest (by 17 min) presented us w/ our first grandchild- who weighed 2 oz more than she and her sister did combined: 10lb 2oz! Fully understood that cancellations occur & plans change. Once life gets a bit more normal, would humbly suggest maybe at least a monthly update, w/ perhaps something like "diver's choice" to keep options open. Batch email for updates are fine as long as prospective diver is on the list. FWIW, I tried to sign up & your server returned an ‘unable’ error message. Makes one wonder how many other divers had the same problem. Boat’s running great. Hauled it to Door County last month & got in several super dives on the Lakeland. We got REAL lucky- minimal current both days. Two days later a friend had his boat in same area & was fighting 2KT+ currents. It sometimes gets frustrating when the boat’s running great but my screwy days off don’t match dive buddies w/ regular work hours. That’s when I start eyeballing charter schedules. I love to dive, but solo diving from an unattended boat is a bit much even for me. About 10 years ago I had my boat on one of the Willy’s buoys when, half way thru our surface interval, some guy in a 32 ft cruiser motors out solo & ties up by the stern to the other buoy. He strapped on a twinset & rolled over the side for a 30 minute solo dive, leaving that size boat unattended on the thin buoy line. Go figure….. Best, Ken Congratulations on the grandchild, that is three times the weight of my boys (3 and half lbs each at birth). Email me so I can capture your address and send your phone if you want, I call and/or email weekly. Computers and web site... an Achilles heel this year. There is contact information when things bounce but most people just prefer to stay annomious or informal. I'll try and work on it next week. We also lost a portion of our mailing list in a spring computer failure. Well I try, it just works out some days, weeks, and months better then others. Anyone that would like to be on our mailing or if you noticed you have not been receiving anything since around April please send an email to divbum@charter.net. We are planning to be in Milwaukee this weekend. Greg
(Offline)

6th August 2008, 01:40	#7 (permalink)
lgibsonmd New Member Current Rebreather/s: Evolution Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Inspiration Vision Megalodon Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 10	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Ah the Wisconsin. I love that wreck. Have been on it and in it a few times this year on my Evolution +. Really miss The Nordic Diver and Bill. __________________ Larry www.lcgvs.com
(Offline)

18th August 2008, 22:00	#8 (permalink)
fireman rEvo combat swimmer Current Rebreather/s: rEvo Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: rEvo Other CCR Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: chicago Posts: 540	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin Went diving with Greg again on Sunday, this time out of Milwaukee. We dove the car ferry on the morning trip and the Willie on the afternoon trip. As usuall, the group was nice and a mix of rec divers doing two dives with a surface interval, and tech divers doing one long dive. The water was very warm, about 54 at a deep (90 foot) thermocline. The Viz was a little disapointing, at about 20 feet, but the diving was fun. I did 90 min in water times on both wrecks, and as usual, the rEvo performed well. Can't wait for next weekend. I am really amazed at how easy the "house keeping" tasks are with the rEvo, I can turn in around at the end of a day of diving in 15 min, already to go for the next trip. I have 3l bottles for dil and O2, and 2l of argon for the drysuit, and this is easily enough gas to do two long dives, and have adiquate reserves for bail out deco--I also carry an 80 of bottom gas/bailout. It is also easy and logical to do the predive checks, which I can accomplish during my prebreath. I also did some serious swimming with it on the last trip and it handles the workload just fine, even though I already had 90min on the scrubber from a previous dive and was 20 min into the current one. I also had to rig a second moring line to the Willy, and in the process, dropped a shackel and had to find in etc. and even though I was less than attentive my PPO2 didn't drop hugely 1.2 to .9 oops. __________________ Heres to you Capt. Bill Never Forget, and stay safe everyone.
(Offline)

19th August 2008, 15:26	#9 (permalink)
Skipbreather Reads the fine print Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Home Build Other Rebreather/s: Not Bought Yet MK 15.X Home Build Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA Posts: 580	Re: A glorious weekend of diving the wreck of the Wisconsin The vis opened up to 60 ~ 70 ft at about 140’, but temps dropped to 41F. Had a good time on the St. Albins- could see pretty much the entire wreck from the middle of the debris field! Saw you folks on the Willy- we were the boat circling the Gillen just to your west. Was testing a new snag rig I’d just put together. Saw a boat on the EMBA as well. Had to be the nicest weekend of the summer on the Lake! __________________ "Entropy RULES! Enjoy the interim."
(Offline)

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