I first heard about the St. Lawrence from a PADI dive coordinator who told me that the clarity of the water had cleared up because of the prevalence of zebra mussels, and that shipwrecks were prolific. We started planning about June and decided on the Columbus Day weekend so that the participants would not have to loose much work time.

We left Friday morning about 10 o'clock from Cape Cod, and ten of us drove up in a 34' motor home, arriving about 9 p.m. There were 12 of us total -- two other people joined us when we arrived – the group included three women. The personalities and walks of life ran the gamut, but we were all bound together by our love of diving and anticipation of seeing some great wrecks. The area is gorgeous. We entered through the U. S. side at Clayton, NY. Hunt's Dive Shop (http://1000islands.com/dive/dive.htm) provided the boats and air. We were able to park the motor home right at the dock, which was really perfect.

Saturday morning when we woke up, before our first dive, we were greeted by a herd of deer. The leaves had turned color, actually past their prime, but it was just beautiful. The first morning it was 42 degrees outside -- cold. Everyone from Cape Cod was freezing, but I'm from Minnesota, so it didn't bother me. No one except myself had been diving over 3 years, although many dive extensively in Cape Cod waters, which are shallow, 30 to 40 feet. The dive shop provided two boats -- a 32' Bertram, and the other was an all-steel, single-hull diesel.

We left the dock at 9 o'clock. It took us about a half-hour to get to the first dive site, which was actually in Canadian waters. It was a 150' sailing hull that went down in 1904. They call it The Mystery Ship because they haven't found the name of it, yet. It rests in 91 feet of water. All the visited wrecks are marked with surface buoys, so we just dropped in the water and went down the descent line. The water was warmer than the air. Four of us were diving dry; everyone else was wearing 7 mil wetsuits. Nobody complained about the water being cold, it was about 58 to 62 degrees. No thermocline. I happened to have a rookie with me, she was just newly certified.

One of the reasons I went on the trip was that I just like to see people dive. Most of the people are from the Cape, and they think their wrecks are pretty cool; but I wanted to see their faces when they really saw these wrecks. It was amazing to see their eyes when they saw this sailing vessel. The lady I was diving with was really excited about it; she just couldn't believe her eyes. The wreck was discovered about 3 years ago. The pots and pans are still sitting on the deck; the bilge pumps were there, the capstan, the wheel. The wreck was in half, but you could penetrate it, swim through. It was very clean, you didn't have to worry about getting caught on anything, it was so wide open. The visibility was about 80 feet. After about 20 minutes we came to the surface with a safety stop at 15 feet. That was about 10:30.

Now we come up into the boat and it's really cold. But when you get a group of people who love a sport, you just have a lot of fun. The camaraderie I find in diving just amazes me. That's 90% of the dive experience as far as I'm concerned. This big old ship came cruising by us, flying a Canadian flag, and we all just started singing "O, Canada" to her. Then we headed for the next dive, which was The America. It was a 250-foot freighter that sank during a storm, and rests in 115' of water with its shallowest end at 20 feet. When our boat stopped at the marker buoy we looked down and there was the wreck, we could see it so clearly. We dropped in the water after a surface interval of about an hour and a half. Everybody was pumped, the wreck was completely intact -- the bridge, superstructure, air funnels and masts are still there. The divers reminded me of kids in a candy store, they couldn't believe it. It was pristine, you could go below. There was a line on deck from bow to stern, because there is a little current here, so you can hold on if need be. None of my people had any problems with narcosis. We spent about 20 or 25 minutes on this wreck. We did a 10-minute safety stop. It was a great dive and they wanted to do this one over and over again. Everybody dove computers, and we were "OK". As far as the dive tables were concerned, we were worse than borderline. I was not particularly happy about doing this deeper dive second, and we had a lengthy discussion about this on the boat, as well as dive tables versus computers, which we resumed later that evening. The weather turned very cool by then, maybe 38 degrees, and the wetsuit divers definitely got very cold. Of course, I was doing OK because I had a drysuit on.

We hit the warm showers back on shore. I cooked the meal that first night. The camaraderie was great. We turned the heat on full blast. And slept well.

The next day we went out at 8 o'clock to dive two new sites. The first was The Yakima, a wooden ship, intact. Visibility was 70 feet -- people couldn't get over the visibility. She was another freighter, in 80 to 110' of water. A beautiful dive, no current, no thermocline. The mist was pretty coming off the river. Another clean wreck. We all penetrated, one deck, and swam through it together; we had 5 or 6 people abreast, it was so open. A very nice dive. When we came up everybody just said, "Wow!" Words were inadequate.

We had about an hour and twenty minute surface interval before the next dive, which was in about 60 feet of water. It was actually a hotel, on the NY side, which had been pushed into the water many years ago. It was concrete, brick, and wood rubble, but you could still tell it had been a building. I watched adults turn to kids. Bottles, everywhere. Dishes, everywhere. Stuff, everywhere. They protect the wrecks up there but this particular dive is just for fun, so you can do whatever you want. They found 1980's Pepsi bottles and brought them up. They found it underwater, so it was a treasure to them. It was kind of neat to see. It was still cold topside, and we actually had snow flurries. At about 3:30 we headed back. We went back to the motor coach and repeated the warming process. Everyone said, "I've got to get one of those [drysuits]." The conversation was amazing, we were all kids again.

There is minimal to no current at these sites. The wrecks were great! Were they as great as my wrecks in Minnesota . . . maybe. No! . . . but that's because I'm from Minnesota! Would I do this trip again? Yes! The area is gorgeous. There's even a castle on an island!

On Monday we did an early dive on the Yakima again. There were more wrecks around, but the group all wanted to go back to the intact freighter, because they had done the initial exploration and wanted to investigate particular areas.

Overall we traveled about six miles from the dock to the furthest dive site. Again, all the dive sites are marked. One that we dove was right in the shipping channel, and you could hear the traffic go by. The freighters are not a problem. Cold was a problem, and next year the group is thinking about going up earlier. We'll probably try the Canadian side to see what's over there.

If you've never dived deep you should definitely go with someone who knows what they're doing. Beginners should be OK, with supervision. Would I recommend this dive area? Definitely!

(Photos courtesy of Tom O'Brien and Lee Duncan)

Lee Duncan, the energetic ex-Manager for the old East Coast Divers on Cape Cod, has been diving for 45 years. Originally from Minnesota, he was a Navy SEAL before settling down in the recreational diving industry as a dive storeowner. He has devoted over 22 years to training others, as well as himself ("You can't be over educated"). Among his credentials are Senior Dive Instructor, Instructor Trainer, CPR Instructor, and DAN O2 Instructor Trainer.