Superior, Maderia- Aug 24th

[Markn]

Guys,<br>I have just returned from Two Harbors after diving the Ely, Hesper and Maderia. THe dive on the Ely and Hesper (Saturday) was beautiful. I prefer the Hesper as the visibilty was so much better, at least 20 feet compared to the Ely at 5-7 feet.<br>On Sunday I managed two dives on the Madeira. BOth were from a boat. The first dive I went to the dizzy depths of 121 feet and saw the lower part of the Ship and then worked my way up to the wheel house and the bow. Unfortunatly I started running out of air so I made my safety stop and then surfaced.<br><br>The 2nd dive was supposed to be a penetration dive, but my buddy had 2 free flows and the 2nd one took all of his air so we had to surface after 16 minutes :'(. <br>Whilst in the boat after the 2nd dive we noticed 3 dives coming off shore to the moorings. Two of the divers made it without any problems, but they left the third to fed for himself after he got into difficulty as was swept onto the shoreline. He was OK but to the left of the shore (where he was swept to) there was difficult terrain for him to combat, and being tired and with heavy equipment made it more and more difficult for him to get back to comfortable land.<br><br>The next obstacle to overcome was the temp of the water. At 121 feet it was 36 degrees ( BLOODY COLD) at the surface it was 42 degrees. Not much of a difference. I was in my new Semi-Dry which I thoroughly recommend. The down side was my hands and feet did turn blue with the cold (you should be OK Jean LOL) so please be warned. The next problem was the weather. Although it was a fairly warm, sunny but windy day, the conditions would have been perfect for Crosby etc, but on the 2nd dive the waves were 4-5 feet making life a little difficult again, although the waves did look spectacular looking up at them crash against the cliff from 15 feet below.<br><br>I will not be joining you this weekend. My advice is HAVE a Contingency plan just in case, make sure a cell phone works there (again, just in case). I will gladly dive Superior again, especially the Hesper and the Madeira, but only from a boat. These guys get paid to look after you, and they really do take care of you. <br>Saying all that. I wish you all the best of British (LOL) and would love to hear of your exploits and see the photo's.<br>If anyone has questions, please call or email me.<br>Thanks for reading.<br>Mark