Lake Michigan Dive Chartering, Racine, WI

[eric myers]

I just have to tell you about the dives my father and I completed two weekend's ago. As you know my father has a 50ft Marine Trader Single Engine Diesel named Willoryder at Reefpoint Marina in Racine, WI (half hour south of Milwaukee). He has owned and operated a boat on Lake Michigan for over ten years and finally sat for the Captain's Course Work and Test just this past winter. He has a Commercial License for up to a 50 ton vessel, a Masters, and a Six-Pack (can charter six paying customers). The boat's amenities include: generator, fridge, ice-maker, stove, microwave, heated, AC, 20 in tv with DVD, fresh water system, two heads, plenty gear storage, radar, color GPS, brand new Stainless steel dive ladder and the list goes on! Best part about it is my father (William Myers) is retired. Call and plan your dive for anytime, any day of the week or weekend, between April and October.

I took Friday, June 18th off of work and left the night before. On Friday morning we left Reefpoint at about 9:00a.m. traveling north and reaching the Wreck of the Prins Welhem, just outside of Milwaukee harbor at about 11:30. Geared up with single steel HP 120's and descend the mooring line. In the first twenty-five feet we encountered a milky layer. This layer was no doubt as a result some of the flooding and dumping from the nearby sewage treatment plant. Not the smartest move by the city to have the storm sewers connected to the treatment plant. However, after get past that layer the visibility was much improved say about 50ft. The wreck was just a little darker than usual because that above layer was deflecting some of the sun's light penetration. We penetrated the aft wheelhouse, exited and toured the rest of the wreck. Back on the surface the wind speed was increasing and the marine forecast was calling for 3-4fters. We headed into the Milwaukee harbor and tied up on a river slip at Performance Yachts. We spent the evening tied up there. Took a rental pontoon up to the Milwaukee Ale house for dinner and did a tour of the river.

Saturday was not a dive day! We left Milwaukee and had 5-6ft seas all the way back to ReefPoint Marina.

Sunday we decided to head South to the SS Wisconsin, 3 miles off Kenosha (see any Chris Kohl book for details). This wreck is notoriously dark and cold.The wreck lays in a sand bottom at 130ft. You encounter the decks at 100ft. The steel freighter went down on Black Tuesday 10/29/1929. The 209' wreck is entirely in tact, except for there are no cabin or wheelhouse areas left. Penetration points include a loading bay on the port side near the bow, a blown open cavity in the starboard amidship, and below deck entry points in the stern and the bow. After scootering on the surface from the stern to the mooring line we descended. Usually this wreck has three bouys on it. This year it only had one so we were unsure of our position on the wreck. The Tide bottle bouy gave us little clue. A bright sunny day and encountering no thermocline the visibilty was awesome, probably 75-100ft or more. At the 80ft mark I saw the bow of this enormous ship loom from the bottom. It was so dramatic it could have been a documentary. We situated our gear once we reached the deck and proceeded to scooter the entire deck at about 115ft. We scootered out to the anchors and back to the deck. We also scootered out on a line leading to a dresser drawer. We penetrated the starboard loading door and exited at our entrance. At the end of the dive I penetrated forward into the hull below the main decking. After 25 minutes it was time head back to the surface. We were diving single 120hp's so we had no choice. Our SIT was two hours, just to be safe. Our second dive was also a deep scooter dive but we switched from Sport BC's to Backplates, Wings, and doubles. We spent about :30 minutes on the bottom and hung for a while on the way back up. These were two top notch dives!

It rained all day on Monday, I mean a total washout, but it was worth it. We were paying penance for such a great couple of dives on Sunday!

If interested call Captain William (Bill) Myers at (262) 412-8259, you really owe it to yourself to get down there and dive. He may even let you dive for free if you book a six person charter.

Eric J. Myers
Administrative Assistant
Government Relations Division
Leonard, Street and Deinard
150 South Fifth Street, Suite 2300
Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 335-1830
(612) 335-1657 (facsimile)
mailto:eric.myers@leonard.com