July 20-24, 2011 - Got another chance to dive at Isle Royale this past week with the crew from Innerspace Scuba Center in Duluth. Outstanding wrecks! Outstanding company! The group this time included Yan, Josh, Dave W, Steve, and myself, along with Captain Ryan and First Mate Matt. Here's a photo of the crew at Windigo. Dave W and Matt were new this year. It was my fourth trip to the Isle for diving, and fifth trip total. Very cool to see some of these well-preserved old friends (both the wrecks and the guys). There are lots of photos and some additional movies on the page - click the Scuba Diving link under the photographs section on the left.

We had some great dives around the island, including one dive on the Engine Room in the Emperor Stern with Yan as my buddy where he was trying out his new video camera. The video was interesting - he let the camera run continuously from the time we hit the stern deck until we were back up the mooring line. Here's a link...

Emperor Stern - Isle Royale July 2011

We gave the Algoma a try one morning, but got blown off by the 5-foot rollers coming in from the east. That was a bummer! But the rest of the trip was amazing.

July 21-25, 2010 - I had a chance to go wreck diving at Isle Royale again this year - what a blast! I dove a couple of new wrecks, and some old friends. The water was cold (34°F was the coldest I recorded, usual temperature was about 39°F), the captain was great, and the camaraderie was outstanding! Below are a few photos and some descriptive text about the dives.

The trip was put together by Yan Saillard of Innerspace Scuba in Duluth, MN. The charter was operated by Captain Ryan Staley of Isle Royale Charters, and our boat was the Lake Superior Diver, a 38 ft Chris Craft with two 454 Chevrolet engines carrying us on our way. In the evenings we tied up at one of the various docks on Isle Royale and slept on the boat. Here is a link to our GPS track during the trip. The group included Captain Ryan, Yan, Josh, Steve, Kevin, and myself. Ryan, Yan, Josh, and I returned from last year, and Kevin and Steve were new divers this year. We made a total of 12 dives on the various wrecks near Isle Royale and were treated to some very well-preserved examples of the history of commercial shipping on Lake Superior.

The gang apres dive.

May 16, 2010 - We had a three-generation team run the Holiday Lake Triathlon. My stepson Mark did the swim, I did the bike, and Pete, Mark's grandpa and my father-in-law, did the run. Quite a bit of fun! My niece Malynda was there too - she did the whole thing herself! Here's a link to my race details: Holiday Lake Triathlon.

March 12-19, 2010 - I made a trip down to High Springs, FL this past week to do some cave diving. Beautiful caves and 100 ft + visibility make for some fascinating dives. Here's a day-by-day account of the trip and the dives.

March 12 and 13, 2010 - Here is a link of the GPS track for the trip down.

March 14, 2010 - Here is my track to Ginnie Springs and Cave Excursions East Dive Shop. Cave East is all the way at the west end of the track and Ginnie Springs is at the "hook" going north about 3/4 of the way to the west end of the track. If you set the map type to Satellite and zoom in, you can see the river and a bit of the dive entry point. Diving was - shal we say, interesting! Its been two years since I've dived in a high-flow cave. We started out at Ginnie Springs at Devil's Cave. I had a good dive buddy. His name is Allen Beard and he's just moved here from Seattle, WA. He's a law school graduate and former police officer in Seattle, and he moved down so he can cave dive more. He plans to take the Florida bar exam in June and join a law firm when he passes. He's currently working at Cave East Dive Shop as a part-time job while he studies for the bar. We did five dives today - two in the Devil's Eye entrance to the cave and three in the Devil's Ear entrance (here's a map of the cave with the Eye and Ear in the southwest corner - you can see I have lots of cave left to explore as my skills improve!). My first four dives were not so good - I got hammered by the flow! Finally on the fifth dive, I sort of figured it out. To get into the cave you have to pull yourself along the rock walls because of the flow. Its supposed to be "Pull and Glide" but in this cave its more like "Pull and Pull Harder." On the fifth dive I got in without any problems and we made it past the Lips formation. A decent accomplishment. I was diving 1/6ths (only using 1/6th of my gas to enter the cave and turn around at that point). I've included a photo of the dive entry point at Ginnie - note the beautiful, clear water...