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(Caution: This report is likely to bruise and anger the monster egos that dominate techdiver.) If there is better shipwreck diving than Lake Superior, anywhere in the world, I'd like to hear about it. Just returned from a week of boating, camping, and diving Isle Royale National Park in northwestern Lake Superior. The Emperor's stern sits in 160 ffw, with her bow in 30 ffw, and at 525 feet long, the freighter has two moorings for two distinctly different dive sites. The Congdon is similar, but her stern is completely separate from her bow, sitting in 220 ffw and 110 ffw respectively, plus the overall length of the Congdon exceeds the Emperor by a few feet. These are just two of the wrecks at Isle Royale, and as one might imagine from their lengths, there are plenty of opportunities to explore inside and out. Of course, sitting in Lake Superior's cold, clean water (bottom temp 42 F, vis 30 feet) these beauties aren't about to fall apart any time soon, plus marine encrustations are not a problem as in the ocean. There are a couple dive charters that frequent these wrecks (Superior Diver, Heyboy) but using your own powerboat is my preferred choice, if you don't mind preparing for Superior's notorious weather, plus the National Park Service's many diving restrictions, including compressor use limited to certain times and certain locations. On this trip to Isle Royale, we (three divers) chose to pack as many tanks as we could haul (about eight each) and no compressor. Well, the weather and diving were fantastic! And as I poked around the Emperor's stern at 130 ffw, shooting pictures of my buddy who could easily fit in the ship's air vent, I couldn't help think that this must truly be one of the best wreck dives in the world. Not only that, but the Isle Royale camping experience is equally superlative. I don't recall a night sky being that starry and beautiful except maybe once while hiking in Switzerland many moons ago. And for the three of us who just returned from this little paradise on earth, the trip was well worth it. Report over. (And now for the monster techdiver egos, it's time to twist, mutilate, and flame.) MJB :-))) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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