Scuba
    by Jim Hartman

Bob and I went diving in Florida (where he is living now...) while Juli and I were in the Keys. I told him then that he and I should dive whenever he comes to Rochester again. He apparently was humoring me when he said "Sure Jim that sounds great!" I didn't think that someone who lives in sunny FLA might not want to dive in Lake Ontario.
Well many months have passed and apparently Bob forgot his earlier plans to dive here so I reminded him when he called. He stumbled and stammered a bit and he suddenly remembered that he promised other people that he would play golf while he was here. That meant he would have to bring his clubs and would not have any room for his SCUBA gear. I was disappointed but vowed to find a way that we could dive in wonderful Upstate NY. He didn't seem very optimistic but I was determined to find a way...

Well luck was on our side Bob apparently felt guilty that I wasn't able to find him dive gear and he remembered that his cousin (who may or may not also be my cousin but I'm not sure...) who lives here has some gear that he could borrow.
He did need weights and a wetsuit. I asked him how thick of a suit he wanted and he said he wasn't sure so I should see if I could get him a 10mm suit. Apparently they measure millimeters different in Florida because I had to explain to him that I dive in a 3mm suit and that the Navy Ice exposure suits are like 12mm. He was not convinced by my arguments and insisted on at least an 8mm suit. I told him the water temp in like Lake Ontario was 70 degrees F last week and he laughed out loud....

Well I decide he knew better than I what suit he would need so I told him I would get the gear for him before he got here. I got the suit, tanks and weights we would need and had it set up that my brother-in-law Paul would take us out in his boat.

I researched dive sites in the Lake and tried to pinpoint one. Well without GPS (one toy which Juli hasn't let me buy "yet"....) they are alittle hard to find. I had heard about a Tug-boat (the Laura Grace) that ran aground in like 1900 not to far from Rochester. I asked aground and got some general directions but everyone acted like it was the easiest thing in the world to find. Like it had a Giant-sized flashing yellow arrow pointing it out in the middle of the Lake. So I was fairly confident that I could find it easily.... I never even went out and reconed the area, Why should I, this is going to be easy...

So the day of the dive I arrive at Paul's house early Monday morning and Bob does not seem as excited as I am about the dive. I think it was that he was hung over from the night before not so much about the diving.

Paul wanted to bring his Jet-ski with us so he could have something to do while we were setting up for the dive and such. I told him I would drive his ski to the dive site to make sure I could find it. The Laura Grace is in about 15-20 foot of water so I thought it would be an easy site to find and a nice dive for Bob. Regardless of what Bob says I was somewhat sympathetic to his fear of cold water and didn't want to go too deep. I figured with the jet-ski I could bounce around quickly and find it no sweat.

So we put Paul's boat and the jet-ski in the water and I jump on it. Paul's ski was the first and only one I have ever ridden and it was once for like 4 minutes. But I felt confident I could handle it, the ski is attached to the dock with a bungee cord. I get all set and start it up....

For those of you that don't know there is NO neutral on a jet ski... If it's running it's moving forward, well I was fairly surprised by this and after yelling a bit ( Paul was also yelling a bit, I think it had something to do with some one trying to run his $6,000 jet-ski into the concrete docks) I pulled the emergency cord and it stopped short of running aground. But not before the bungee cord snapped and left a nice welt on my arm.

But I am still optimistic (I'm not sure how Paul was feeling...) and I start off down the river towards the lake. On the way I feel something on my foot, I look down and it's a lacy, Victoria's secret type bra!! I laughed and showed it to Paul and Bob on the boat. They laughed but were not as amused as I was so I decided it to show them again later and put it in the glove box. I left the river and decided to see what it could do... Well I got it up to about 50 mph... Whoo Hoo!!
After a little while I notice that Paul is not right behind me anymore so I go back and look for them. When I find them they are stopped and they tell me that Bob forgot the top part of his rented wetsuit. Paul asks him if he needs it and he reached down touched the water and seemed fairly certain that he would. So we decide that I would take the Jetski and go back and get it.

But there is a problem, I broke the bungee cord that you use to secure the boat to the dock. Paul looks around and grabs another cord, problem is that it is like 4 inches long. I thought I could figure it out but before I tear-ass back Paul asks me how fast I got it up to and I say "like 50mph..." he laughs and says "It will do over 60 with the trim down...". You know what he was right.... So I get back to the docks allot quicker than I expected and when I pull up I try to tie off I can't make the bungee cord reach. I think about it for a second and decide Paul doesn't want me running it up on the concrete ramp so I got to find a way to tie it off.... <LIGHTBLUB> I remember the bra in the glove compartment, I quickly tie the ski off and check it to see if it will float away. It doesn't and I rush off to grab the wetsuit from the car. I come back and sure enough the BRA held!!! I jump on the ski, untie the bra and race back to Paul and Bob.

I tell them what happened and show them the bra and how lucky it was that it floated onto the ski. They laughed and told me that they found it on the dock when we were leaving and they threw it at me. I know it doesn't make as good of a story but it's true so I had to put it in.

So we continue on, me at 60+mph and Paul and Bob a bit slower. Before I know it I have went a bit pass the area the wreck should be in, so I stop and wait for Paul. I explain that the wreck is somewhere between where we are and the smokestacks. Bob says "The smokestacks that are in the distance there?!" I said "yeah... they are only like a mile, mile and a half away...". Bob did not seem very happy about the opportunity to swim a couple of miles in the Lake so I tell them to look at the map while I look around.

While I am gone Bob is kidding with Paul (I think he was kidding...) with comments like "This is nuts." and "There aren't any damn ships around here." and "Do you see how far away those smokestacks are?". He is a very funny guy sometimes.
Well I don't hear any of this as I am racing over to another one of my new cousins houses ( again not positive and I would ask Juli but with this many cousins I doubt she knows them all) who has lived on the Lake for years and ask him where it is. Luckily he is sitting on his dock with some friends and I don't have to tie the bra to his dock. He gives me great directions and I thank him and head back to Paul. When I show up and tell them I found it Bob's jaw drops about 6 inches ( which is coincidentally is how thick Bob's rented suit is...).

They follow me over to the site and we look around for it like I said before everyone says you can see parts of it from the surface. Well we don't see anything but the directions I got were specific enough that I am sure that it was right around here ( I don't think that Bob was as confident). So we suit up and jump in deciding to do a couple search patterns and try to find it.

On one of the times we came up for air to discuss strategy, Paul tells us that the guy fishing near us sees a big dark shape on the bottom near him. So since Bob is shivering and I think the swim might warm him up I decide we should head over there.

On the way over there I see a fairly large smallmouth bass swimming towards us, this being the first thing we have seen in the 30 minutes we have been in the water I point it out to Bob who doesn't seem very impressed. I decide to follow the fish and see where he is heading and sure enough he darts under this rather large wreck. I was initially upset about losing sight of the fish but then I realized that the fish had found the wreck we were looking for!!!!
My father told me that the fish is there to guide divers in and has been there for years but I'm not so sure. The fish didn't look old enough to have been there very long.

Anyways Bobby was seeming to be more impressed now and we explored the dive for about an hour. It was about a 40 ft long wooden tug boat and much of the wood was intact. The boiler was also still there and there were many different types of fish hanging around.

When we came up and told Paul about it he seemed just as surprised as Bobby was. Juli is still upset at them because they seem to have so little faith in me.

Bob says he would love to come back and dive there again and definitely would go on any other dives would like to plan around here. He says it was "about 50% as cold as he thought it would be and 200% the dive he thought it would be."

All in all it was not a bad day and I promise to write a shorter synopsis of our next dive....

Jim

Laura Grace
Current Location:
N43.29254 W77.67048

Post Script:
It is no wonder this wreck is so hard to find. Directions to the wreck are not always as clear as they could be. These directions were recently published in the Greece Post from an Article written by Lorriane Beane

...You can find her by using the dead reckoning method known to many lakes side residents. Start about 300 yards off shore just to the west of Long Pond Outlet. Find the tall round tree on the south side of Old Edgemere and align it between Munson's and Marshall's homes and follow that line back and forth until she appears on the bottom or just wait and ask one of the many fisherman that anchor near by...