The Great Lakes

The last trip of my internship was to the Great Lakes, more specifically Lake Huron for a week of wreck diving and video editing with Jim and Pat Stayer.  Jim and Pat are founders of Out of the Blue Productions and have helped find a handful of wrecks in Lake Huron. The first couple of days I was there, Sea Rover Cris Kohl and his wife Joan Forsberg were also visiting.  Cris also writes books about the Great Lake Wrecks.  The first day that we went out on their boat the Wildkat, I was astonished to be looking at the huge body of water in front of me.  It smelled and tasted like freshwater, but the amount of water and the waves made it look like the ocean.  We dove the wreck of the Sport.  The next day the weather was not good, so we could not go out.  Whenever there is a little bit of wind or rain, it gets rough really fast on the lake. Instead, I spent the day in the editing room.  The Stayers have an amazing editing room that they use to put together their films from their trips. Luckily, I was able to pick up using the editing program fairly quickly.  The following day the weather had improved, and we made 3 dives.  The ships that we dove on were the New York, Col. A.B. Williams, and the Charles A. Street. The shipwrecks in Lake Huron are located in a preserve so all of the portholes and metal are still intact.  This was really cool to see, because the shipwrecks in the ocean where I live have all been stripped down.  After a long day of diving it was back to the editing room to continue working on my presentation.  The day after we were able to get in a dive before the weather got bad; Jim and I dove the Eliza H. Strong.  The rest of my time at the Stayers was spent editing and sightseeing in nearby Lexington.  My visit with the Stayers was an amazing opportunity.  I dove so many wonderful wrecks and was able to learn their history.  I would like to thank the Stayers for their unbelievable help with the editing and the assembly of my presentation.  As I got on the plane to go home, it was weird to think that after my flight, I wouldn’t have any more traveling or planes to catch for a while.

I would like to thank the Boston Sea Rovers and the Scalli Family for the amazing opportunity, and although the internship may be coming to an end, it is just the beginning for me.