Michigan UnderWater Divers Club

Here is the Video that Ken took on the Ann Arbor #5

Jim, Josh, Kirk and Darrin visited the wreck South Bend in Diamond Lake. The Tuesday night dive took advantage of the warm water and great weather. Jim’s brought his boat and Kirk provided the GPS. The anchor was dropped within 20 yards of the wreck, but as tradition with this lake bottom the anchor plowed a path away from the wreck. Following the trench you could find the wreck. Visibility was on the low side at 6’. Surface water temperature was 77 degrees F and was 58 degrees F on the wreck at 43’.

Gull Lake

It was a little windy, but the vis was still great. Bob S., Jim K., Josh K. and Darrin ventured into Gull Lake early Saturday morning. The projected meeting time was 9:00 am at the Gull Lake park, but it took 20 minutes for the “person with the keys” to unlock the gate. Surface water temperature was 68 degrees F and water temp below the thermocline was  55 degrees F. Visibility was over 20’ which made exploring the objects underwater enjoyable. The fax machine has been moved to the top of the phone booth. That must be to improve reception. By the end of the dive the park was full of at least 20 divers preparing to enter the water.

Josh at Gull

Mac and Darrin ventured to Front Beach Park, Paw Paw Lake for some grubbing.  Vis was on the low side with 3” to 24” at its best. We are pretty sure the dock / pier used to go further out into lake due to the footings that were found. The normal objects thrown into the water were pulled up as you can see in the photo. The pier and beach were much busier than normal due to the good weather.

The Michigan U/W Divers club meets the third Tuesday of the month except December.

We meet at Andrews University, Price Hall, Biology Amphitheater, Berrien Springs, MI

Meetings begin at 07:30 PM

Directions to Andrews University: 

Go to Berrien Springs on US-31, turn Left on University Bvd, go to the traffic circle and keep Right on Seminary Drive. Go straight to the stop sign and turn Left on Grove Ave. The 3^rd Left should take you to the parking lot. Look for the Modern Art thingy – Price Hall (PH) is the building in the middle and the Biology Amphitheater is down stairs. 

Map: AU Map    ( http://www.andrews.edu/about/visiting/campus_map.html )

Boats over Havana

Bob, Ken and Larry each brought the boats out for a dive on the Havana to raise the buoy on the wreck and to prep for Sunday’s dive on the barge and crane.  As can be expected on a shakedown cruise the normal gremlins had to be dealt this. The ignition in Ken’s boat decided to stop working and required a replacement. Larry’s loran no longer works with the shutdown of the loran C signal early this year. Also Bob didn’t have the Havana co-ordinates loaded in his GPS. Bob had a good survey of a sandy bottom by using co-ordinates off of a website to find the wreck. After Ken’s boat repair he arrived with a slightly different location 200’ feet away that put everyone directly over the submerged buoy. There were several deflated bouys on the wreck and have some line untangling new buoy’s were floated.

More Boats

The vis on the bottom was poor at 2-3’. Larry and Darrin dove wetsuit while Bob and Ken dove dry. Overall a great day for a dive and the club is ready for tomorrow’s dive on the Barge and Crane.

South Haven Pier

The MUD club divers marked and dove on a new target this week. The club was provided GPS co-ordinates for a location that is being referred to as a barge and crane. We were told no one had dove on it yet and that the discovery was collateral information from the search for a lost aircraft. To prepare for a full dive on Sunday, May 30^th, Bob, Mac and Darrin sailed out of South Haven Michigan to check on the location. The team was armed with a side scan sonar and some scuba gear to bounce the target if found. Bob’s GPS found the location with an object about 10’ above the bottom. Mac’s GPS showed the location further west. After close to an hour of mowing the lawn with the sidescan it was terminated that Bob’s GPS location was on target and the anchor was dropped. The bottom depth was 125+/- feet. Mac and Darrin dressed for a dive and entered the water. The water clarity was good. The first attempt down was stopped at 60’ feet as Darrin has an issue with a clogged first stage. Both Mac and Darrin were equipped with bailouts due to the depth and lack of knowledge of the dive site. Mac went down a second time and was able to verify that there is an object down there.

Barge -South Have - Side Scan

From the anchor line he could make out a shape but was not sure what the object was. Based on the iron, seawall look of the section he could see it appears that it could in fact be a barge. The MUD club, with a flotilla of boats, will be diving on the location in mass on Sunday. We are looking forward to what we can find.

SASS Hyperbaric Chamber at Bronson Methodist Hospital Kalamazoo, MI

The mud club ventured to the Bronson Methodist Hospital Hyperbaric Chamber run by Sub-Aquatic Sports. Don M, Jim K, Darrin J, Richard C and Leroy R headed down to 150’ and 130 degrees F to see how they would react at depth. They performed test before and after the dive to see the effects of being narced. The dive lasted 32 minutes and was recorded by Josh K. It is likely that some of the footage could make it online, unless the extortion amount is paid.

You can see the photos here at http://mudclub.scubaobsessed.com/photos/2010/chamber-dive

You visit the Sub-Aquatic Sports website to find out how you can dive the chamber. http://www.sassdive.com/

Jim, Josh, Kirk and Darrin broke in Jim’s new boat on a wreck dive today. The shake down was going to be a simple run just north of the Saint Joseph, MI pier, but ended up at the Shipwreck Havana. Vis was a little less than earlier in the season however was still good at 15’.  The wreck was loaded with goby and zebra muscles as expected and the newly uncovered wood is being rapidly occupied.

Kirk broke out the underwater camera for some photos and videos. The battery died before Kirk’s own image could be captured.

Bob and Kirk after a dive on The Muskegon

Bob, Kirk, David and Darrin ventured into Michigan City, Indiana territory to dive on the wreck of the Muskegon. Bob retrained is legendary boat captain status by dropping the anchor in the middle of the dive site.  Vis was low at 5’ however the warm water temp of 49 degrees was a welcome change. New boards on the wreck have been exposed and the water depth this season is 27’.  Bob and Kirk penetrated the boiler. The prop is still visible and there were numerous fish taking refuge on the wreck.

Shipwreck Dive Site Page – http://mudclub.scubaobsessed.com/dive-sites/wrecks/lake-michigan/the-muskegon