Diving the EMBA

As October approached, I knew that our days to get on Lake Michigan were numbered. Rob and Dave called me up and said they wanted to get one more big dive on Lake Michigan before the weather completely shuts us down for the year. I haven’t had a chance to dive with Rob and Dave much this year. All of us have had the usual stuff creep up in our lives and our schedules would never line up. We looked at a couple charters still going out this time of the year and saw that Shipwreck Explorers operated by Captain Jitka had an opening for a two tech dive day. We booked it.

The Dive Day Begins

Our departing port was out of Milwaukee, WI. Coming from the Chicago (and suburbs) area, it is a drive, even very early in the morning. I got there 10 minutes late, but as usual, Dave had a hard time getting out of bed and Rob had to stop for his Super-Sized Grande Mocha Frap, Espresso, Latte. So they were 15 minutes behind me. Fortunately, we had the entire boat to ourselves, but it put Jitka on a tight schedule as she had another charter later that day. The plan was to do one dive on the EMBA and another on the St. Albans. It had been a couple years since I was last on the EMBA and dove the St. Albans with Rob last year.

Early in the week, Rob and Dave got me their tanks so I could fill them with trimix and deco gasses. Once I got to the parking lot, I quickly unloaded all of Rob and Dave’s tanks and started analyzing and setting up my gear (normally, I have mine already setup, but had too many tanks in my car to do it). After we got our stuff analyzed, put together, and loaded on the boat, we were only 30 minutes behind schedule. Sorry Jitka.

Once underway, the conditions on the lake weren’t as bad as the forecast. We had 2-3 foot rollers instead of the normal chop. Jitka had put a lot of modifications on her boat, the Molly V, since last year. Noticeably, was the increase in speed. It didn’t take us long to get to the EMBA, but it was still a little bumpy and I got a free spinal adjustment out of it.

Into the Darkness

As usual, I’m the first one to get dressed and geared up. Rob and Dave gear up at the same pace as mating turtles. So I waited until they started getting into their rigs before I got into mine. I get into my rig and to no one’s surprise, I’m the first one to get into the water. After attaching my bottom stage and deco bottles, I had the normal Rob and Dave surface wait until they could get their p-valve hoses untangled from one another. After sitting on the surface, and taking 2-3 footers to the face for 15 minutes, Rob and Dave finally splash in. We pull our way to the mooring line and start our descent into the darkness.

Diving the E.M.B.A Formerly the A.C. Tuxbury

The EMBA is formerly known as the A.C. Tuxbury and sits in 170 feet of water about 7 miles off shore from Milwaukee, WI. The EMBA is an wooden schooner barge. It sank in December 1932 when it was scuttled. One of the cool features of the EMBA is it’s tower. It’s tower was used to hoist cargo onto the ship.

Thanks to a mostly cloudy day, it started getting dark at around 60 feet. The water temperature was an unseasonably warm, 52F from top to bottom.The mooring is tied into the wreck a the top of the tower, which is at 140 feet and we barely saw it before crashing into it. We left the line and sank to the floor to view the rudder.

After looking at the rudder for a couple of minutes, we swam up and along the ship towards the bow. From there we looked around on the deck. At 15 minutes into the dive, Rob and I switched off the bottom stages to back gas for the remaining 5 minutes of the dive. We swam back towards the mid-ship and looked around the base of the tower. There are winches that still exist on the wreck’s deck which are pretty cool to look at.
At 20 minutes we thumb the dive and look forward to the 30 minutes of deco to get us to the surface. Below is our dive profile.

After the Dive

Our deco was uneventful. The wave action on the surface didn’t feel like much, but underwater it sure moved us around a bit. At 20 feet, you could still feel the surge of ups and downs. So I chose to do my last stop around 22 feet where it was more comfortable. After clearing deco, we slowly made our way to the surface at the back of the boat where Jitka was waiting to take our bottles. Due to the cloudy day, visibility wasn’t very good at depth and I wasn’t able to get any good video. There’s always next time.

All of us had a little bit of water in our suits. For Rob and Dave, it was enough to scrap the next dive. Me being the hardcore Great Lakes diver that I am, was willing to do the second dive. But not having anyone to dive with, I reluctantly agreed to scrap the second dive. Instead we hit the Brat Stop on the way home for lunch, where I was able to pick up some Spotted Cow beer, and Jitka was able to get back on schedule for her day. All of us had a great time diving the EMBA to close out the 2009 Lake Michigan diving season. Thanks to Jitka for running a great boat. I’m looking forward to next year.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving