ADAM HAYDOCK

I woke up super early so I could make it to Richard Pagels house and meet up with him so we could carpool and drive out to south central Indiana to go on a caving trip.  There are hundreds of cave systems just in Indiana alone so I was so excited to finally be going on my first Indiana trip! 

We met up with a few other people including Tom Campbell and headed to the parking spot for Suicide Cave. We the cave itself got its name from a guy that committed suicide almost 100 years ago from a police chase.  We unlocked the cave and entered the which was a beautiful entrance.  We locked ourselves in so nobody else could get in and we headed into the cave.

The cave was about a half mile to the end of the system and consisted of a meandering dry passage with some interesting challenges and a lot of formations at the end of the cave.

We took a few side canyon routes to continue to check out the cave which was also an interesting view.  I was fascinated to see slot canyons and beautiful formations everywhere!!!

We finally made it to the end of the cave and had lunch.  Afterwards we started to head back out of the cave and saw some more interesting artifacts as we left.

We headed out of the cave and were out in around 6 hours from when we started. WOW !!! I can get into this for sure!! I am so happy that this is only four hours from Chicago!!

We headed to a hotel and prepared ourselves for another cave called porter and lost boy cave on Sunday's trip.

 

I have heard about the cenotes of the Yukatan but I never had a chance to dive any of them since I have been diving the shipwrecks in the great lakes and some ocean dives here and there.   I was staying at a nice hotel called the xcaret and I got a chance to go on two dives in the cenotes of Chac Mool.  I was so freaking excited about it I couldn't believe it!!  we made it to the center and we walked our dive gear down to the entrance.  Whaaa!! the waters are so freaking blue and it was so peaceful around the entrance. This is so amazing.  I jumped in and we did a dive check before descending on into my first cenote ever. I was so impressed with how this place looked with the sun beams penetrating through the entrance and the crystal clear 74 degree blue water.  We ended up going to Little Brother which is another cenote in the area of Chuc Mool as well. I had a freaking blast and I cant wait to do this again

 



 We set out to visit a couple wrecks near middle island in Thunder bay, the DM Wilson and the Nordmeer.

 

She was going to Milwaukee with a cargo of coal when she starting sinking due to a torn fissue in the haul.  She was towed toward shore but foundered in 40 ft. of water. 

 

 A lot of the wreck was salvaged and she was damaged more 10 years later from ice but her 1894 foundering has left her windlass and more of her remains pretty well in tact.

 when I got into the water, the temperature was around 55 degree and dropped to the mid 40s after passing the thermocline.  What was fascinating about this thermocline is that I dropped my camera diffuser and as it sank to the bottom I saw it suspended at around 30 ft which was right at the thermocline line.

 The water actually became dense enough to hold this diffuser suspended in water and was incredible to see that happen!

 I highly recommend these two dives for people that want to visit some recreational shipwrecks that are unique to the Great Lakes.

Around 7 miles off shore, the shipwreck of the Nordmeer lies scattered about on a shoal platform at a depth of around 40ft. She was a Salty transporting Rolled Steel and simply ran aground November 19th, 1966. 

 

 Some of her crew stayed on the wreck but eventually left when a storm came a tore teh haul apart scattering the wreck. 

 

Ice and water enhanced this wreck to twist the steel into a diver paradise of artifacts to view, shallow warmish waters to enjoy and lots of artifacts to observe at you swim through the torn wreckage.

Today some of the vessal can be seen from the surface and until recently, people could camp inside some of the wreckage and have until ice and water had their ultimate resolve aganist the salty.

 

The large steel engine remains along with a controversial barge that attempted to haul steel from the wreckage but ended up sinking next to the Nordmeer.

On June 7th, 1906 A 300ft steel steamer called the Grecian ran into some rocks and foundered in shallow water off the St. Mary's River in the UP and was brought back up to be towed and repaired in Detroit.  The Grecian filled back up with water and sank in Thunder Bay to a depth of 100ft.

 

 her crew got on life boats and were saved by other ships. The Grecians Mid ship has collapsed but the bow is upright and her stern are intact. 

 

 The three story steamer is penetratable with a lot of escape routes and great for photography due to the ambient light that makes it way inside the wreck.

 

The Engine, Boiler, propeller and deck artifacts are still very much noticable and there is a steel Canalon lying on the stern of the ship from an attempt to lift her in 1909.

 

The Barge was the next dive that we went to since the waves were too strong for the crew to handle and the wreck is more protected in the bay. 

 

At a depth of around 40ft and a Length of around 300ft the barge was carrying lumber and chickens when it ran into a reef near thunder Bay's Northpoint.  There were four large barges were constructed to carry rail cars from Wisoconsin to Chicago and this barge called barge 1, was sold to a company that would transport lumber and pulpwood to harbors on lake michigan.

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO GRECIAN:  http://youtu.be/1ec2RHE_ZJU

After kayaking around squaw bay I got some sleep and had to get up extra early in the morning to meet up with a Charter that was going to take me and a few other participants shipwreck diving around the Apostle Islands.  I get to the charter and the boat captain is sleeping on the boat, which I can understand, having a boat on the great lakes is quite the money pit and to be able to save a few bucks here and there by sleeping on the boat makes pretty good sense to me, pretty good. 

We load up all of our gear and get out on the lake.  It was interesting to see how shallow some of the shoals get and how deep the water got immediately after some of these shoals, im talking from 10ft to well over a 100ft. within 10-20ft of distance! We make it over to an area between long island and Madeline Island where the Shipwreck of the Lucerne has found a permanent residency in 20ft of water.

The Lucerne was a commercial schooner. In November 1886, it sank due to bad weather in Lake Superior, off the coast of Long Island in Chequamegon Bay. The site of the wreck was added to the National Register of Historic which I think was a nice addition to the register as this is a good example of how fog and peoples lives can play a serious role on the great lakes especially in the turn of the century.

The tragic story of the Lucerne begins with her departure from Ashland, Wisc., with 1,256 tons of iron ore bound for Ashtabula, Ohio. Nothing indicated the snowstorm that would sweep across Lake Superior. As gale-force winds began to buffet the ship with snow, the schooner turned back toward the protective shelter of Chequamegon Bay. Unable to find the entrance, the captain dropped anchor off Long Island. For three days a desperate crew rode out the storm. Strained by the heavy ship and surging waves, the anchor gear failed. Sliding backwards with her bow into the wind, Lucerne's massive centerboard hit the lake bottom, breaking the schooner's back and quickly sinking her. On Nov. 19, the La Pointe lightkeeper discovered the Lucerne's masts jutting from the water. He found three men lashed in the rigging covered with up to six inches of ice. They had climbed the mast to escape Lake Superior's freezing water. Though two other bodies later washed ashore, there were no survivors, and the bodies of several crewmen were never found. (source: http://www.maritimetrails.org/resource-details.php?Resource=14 )

We did a dive here and afterwards headed back toward the bay where we left from and went to visit the logging field, a rock pile from where a dock was being built, and the shipwreck of the Finn McCool.

The Fin McCool was a 135 foot long, two story, wooden barge that served the lumber trade in the Ashland and Apsotle Island area. She was equipped with a derrick and bucket for loading logs. Over the years she changed owners six or seven times.
In 1964 her pumps failed, she sank and was abandoned in the Bayfield harbor.

Source: http://wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Vessel/Details/200?region=LakeSuperior

After swimming around here, we got off the boat and I went over to the Red Cliff campground to set up camp and deploy my kayak to visit the Fedora and the Coffingberry. 

These two wrecks are only in 10ft or less of water and can be viewed by kayaking up and over them or swimming out to them. More information can be found about the H.D. Coffinberry here

http://wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Vessel/Details/255

The Fedora is the first wreck a kayaker would pass by from the red Cliff campground as the top of the side paneling is still sticking out of the water and easy to spot. more information on the Fedora here

http://www.stormeyes.org/tornado/SkyPix/fedoraz.htm

It was nice to kayak and swim among the wreck of the fedora and be able to see some artifacts still at the bottom of the wrecks shallow grave

The Coffingberry was another mile north flanking he mainland in a small bay

It was fantastic to kayak, dive, and kayak some more to the shipwrecks and the islands of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and I look forward to doing it again shortly.