12. May 2009 by alpenadiver.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since March.  Maybe I’m not cut out to be a blogger, or maybe I just need to post more often.  Well anyway spring is here in Northeast Michigan, so it’s time to ready the boat for another season, oh to live someplace where you don’t have to winterize or wrap a boat for winter.

Oh yea, on May 5th NOAA held a reception for visiting Marine Sanctuaries, they held a sanctuary summit meeting here in Alpena.  I met quite a few fellow dive enthusiasts from all over the U.S.  I hope they all had a wonderful time here in Michigan.

Anyway enough whining from me.  I’m off to work on my Boat.  Hopefully it won’t be another two Months before I post something.

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

12. March 2009 by alpenadiver.

On February 24th 2009, NOAA released there Draft Management Plan for the Thunder Bay Underwater Preserve and Marine Sanctuary.  The plan covers everything from Resource Protection, Education and Outreach, Research, and Operations.  There is also a Public comments meeting set for March 24 2009.  The Draft management plan can be downloaded from the Sanctuary’s website located here: http://thunderbay.noaa.gov/management/mpr/welcome.html

Also here is link to the Great Lakes Maritime Database, which contains over 12,000 entries on Great Lakes Ships. http://www.alpenalibrary.org/special/tbrc/tbrc.html

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

11. February 2009 by alpenadiver.

Well I was just sitting here contemplating if I should work on a webpage, but instead I looked out the window, and seen how much of our Northern Michigan snow has melted, and it’s going fast.  So I counted the days until Memorial Day, and when I can start un-winterizing the boat for another dive season, I sure hope the days go by fast.

This weekend the regulators will go in to get checked, and rebuilt.  My two aluminum 80’s need to get hydro tested, and my double 95’s, and deco bottle need a visual.  Thunder Bay Scuba set aside a day because I’ll be in.

However  I know the wrecks through out the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary are waiting patiently for the summer dive season, so If your looking for some wreck diving this year check us out, we are waiting for you to join us.

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

7. February 2009 by alpenadiver.

Senator Carl Levin, and Congressmen Stupak, Kildee, and McCotter.  Have introduced bills into the Congress, and the House of Representatives (S-380, H.R. 905) to expand the boundaries of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  This bill will increase the size of the Sanctuary from 448 sq. miles, to 3667 sq. miles or from the Northern Presque Isle county line to the Southern Alcona county line, and out to the International Boundary.

This in my opinion is a greatly needed expansion, the Alpena / Presque Isle area have some of the most pristine wrecks imaginable.  To name a few Cornelia B. Windiate, Kyle Spangler (recently announced), Florida, Norman, Audubon, Defiance.  NOAA also has a very good working relationship with the local community, and has done tremendous work on preserving the resources, and artifacts of the surrounding wrecks. Unlike shipwrecks in the Oceans which will disappear overtime, and the taking of artifacts is permitted,  here in fresh water the wrecks stay intact for hundreds of years. This should also help the surrounding areas in bringing in more tourists / divers.

Alpena News Article - Boundary Expansion

Congressman Stupak’s Letter

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

6. February 2009 by alpenadiver.

As I woke up yesterday to a chilly ambient of –16 F, I started to reminisce of what I was doing a year ago.  On January 15 2008 I flew to Guam for a month of work, supporting a Navy exercise.  Of course I packed some of my dive gear because I had a plan, and that was to get in a lot of diving, which I did up to five dives a day.  Most of these were shore dives but they were awesome, especially of you like WWII era diving also the sealife was amazing, they covered everything from all the colorful fish, to turtles, and even a Manta Ray.  We would rent gear for $20.00 (BC, Weights, Fins, Tank), air fills were $3.50 for a neutral buoyant 100.  Then we would just drive looking for a place to dive, some of the sites we hit were Gab Gab Beach, Gun Beach, Haps Reef, Shark Pit just to name a few shore dives, we also did two charters, we dove American Tanker twice, Western Shoal, and the famous Blue Hole.  The greatest thing about diving in Guam was the water temp it stayed a constant 85 degrees no matter how deep you went, my deepest was 140 feet at Blue Hole still the temp was 85 just awesome.

We used Guam Tropical Dive Station specifically for our rentals, However when I told them of the Manta Ray sighting they just wouldn’t believe us, until I produced this picture.  They said “we dive here all the time and have never seen a Manta Ray on Guam” all I could do was smile, and get my tank refilled for another dive.  Ah yes just a year earlier I was warm.

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

24. January 2009 by admin.

Its been a few days since I created this blog, I still haven’t figured out how to FTP into the blog, so I can edit the look of it.  How ever I thought I would at least post something anyway.

This blog is mostly for Scuba Diving, and as you can guess by my living in Northeast Michigan there just isn’t a lot of diving going during the winter months.  But I’m pretty much counting down the days until I can get my 21’ Larsen out on the water, and dive some of the local wrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

If you have never had a chance to dive up here then you are in for a real treat, the deep wrecks are pristine, the sinkholes are also a very cool dive.  You can visit my website to check out wrecks we have here, go to www.alpenadiver.com

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

19. January 2009 by admin.

Well this is my fist post after creating this blog.  So please be patient while I get used to using a blog.

Mike

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

31. December 1969 by admin.

Well, just checking out the blog software that comes with Fedora 13, not bad so far. Also it’s finally Memorial Day weekend, getting out and doing some diving up here in the Great Lakes . Supposed to rain tomorrow, but hey it’s diving. Hope everyone has a safe holiday.

Posted in Diving | No Comments »

31. December 1969 by admin.

After my last post I see I did not have spell check enabled. ooooops…

Posted in Diving | No Comments »