Heres a photo of the attendee's.
Left to right, Swimjim, Seahunt Jerry, Fred W, Jerry S, Frank W, Surflung, ?, Nic A, Eric P and Ken. Eric Poggemann photo.
Surflung, Swimjim, Seahunt Jerry
Like I said we got real lucky with weather. October is a gamble in upper Michigan. I went up on Friday with one of my friends from the Deepsix. Eric P. About the time we got up from our dive Jerry and his two friends arrived. Ken and the other fellows name Jerry will have to help me with. I managed to tweak my back coming out of the water so that put me out of action, but Jerry and his crew got ready and then hit the water. A little later Surflung and his son in law arrived and did the same. The top layer of water was in the 50's, but below the thermocline it dropped to the 40's. Viz depended a little on how deep you were at and varied somewhere in the 60 - 100 foot range.
After the diving was done we retreated to Iron River and the Lake Shore motel. The Lake Shore is a vintage Mom and pop motel and in my opinion is a pretty nice place. Always a pleasant place to stay. After a brief respite we went to Alice's resturant and had a nice meal. It didn't exactly start that way but we ended up moving a couple tables together. Stories of the days dive circulated and dives past too.
The next day a couple more of my Deep Six buddies came. Jerry S, Fred and Frank W and joined in the festivities. Somewhat recovered from my back episode I dove strictly vintage that day. I have a Dacor R-4 which in the past has resisted all my attempts to make it useable. My last tweak was a winner. It wasn't great, but I had a nice 15 minute dive with it and took it as deep as 60 feet. I switched over to my Healthways Gold label after that and stayed with it. That reg cooks!!
For this event I purchased a small table top gas grill and around noon I got it going and cooked some Bratwurst. Fred added to that some butcher style hot dogs. It made for a nice lunch right at the pond.
As the afternoon wore on people started to pack up and head home. On my last dive of the day I broke out my video rig and got some nice underwater footage of Surflung and his son in law Nic. That evening Surflung, Nic and Myself had another nice meal at Alice's resturant. The hostess/owner Jill came over and talked to us for awhile. She's a cutie! I slept late this morning. Almost until 7:00. Okay, late for me. Ha. I went to Mr. T's for breakfast then came back and checked out. I stopped at Fortune Pond which is on the way home for me and sat there and thought about the weekend. Everyone got along super well. My Deep Six guys dove modern and that wasn't a big deal what so ever. Actually, Eric's tech rig drew a lot of interest and there were a lot of questions about it. In the end a good time was had by all.
For those who are willing to make the trip to upper Michigan and can dive cold water, Fortune Pond would make an awesome place for future vintage get togethers. Not just because of the dive site, but the accomdations, resturant and locals are very nice. A good time was had by all.