2019 R/V Preservation - Cruise
Up and Back to Silver Bay Marina 

 

June 15 - 16, 2019

Every year the RV Preservation is cruised up and back the North Shore of Lake Superior to it's final summer destination and slip, at Silver Bay Marina.  Then it is cruised back to Spirit Lake Marina for winter layup. 

The GLSPS Board of Directors and project leaders decided it would be best to keep the vessel centrally located to most of the projects scheduled for the season in Silver Bay.  Then when the season is over in that area in September, we cruise it back to Duluth to Spirit Lake Marina to finish up the projects schedule for the Duluth area and then pull the boat out for winter layup in October.

Because this is a two day event each way, the GLSPS decided to make it a cruise that both the non diving and diving membership could enjoy.  Please click here to learn more about the events.

On the way up the north shore, GLSPS volunteer divers install the shipwreck mooring buoys and conduct any repairs needed to the moorings.  Mooring buoys are installed by the access committee and are there for boats to moor on while scuba diving the shipwrecks.  On the way back the participants that are divers help remove the mooring buoys for winter storage.

Please see "Wreck / Dive Sites" Page of the GLSPS website to check the dates which the shipwreck mooring buoy's are both  installed and removed again.

Please join us for these really adventurous cruises.  We have a great time cruising, diving, eating, comradeship, installing and removing the shipwreck mooring buoys.  You will have a great time on this event.

Hope to see some new faces this year.

Ken Knutson
RV Preservation Chairman Senior Captain
kknutson@glsps.org
612-578-1551

Tim Pranke
Event Leader and Captain
dirttrackin2001@yahoo.com
651-395-9451


Closing Report:

2019 R/V Preservation September Cruise Back to Duluth and Removing the Shipwreck Mooring Buoys

Here is a link to the photos taken on the Cruise up north.  Please click Here

The R/V Preservation departed Silver Bay Marina the morning of 14 September after starting the day with an engine repair.  The starboard engine had developed a valve cover oil leak, which was remedied with the installation of a new gasket.

With Jimmy Christenson, Wim Wilke, Dale Koziol and Mike Mack on board and Captain Tim Pranke had the helm, we set out on our first task, retrieving the mooring buoy from the Hesper.  That ended up being a challenge, since what we thought was our buoy turned out to be a temporary channel marker for the taconite plant.  Our buoy had disappeared!  After some searching, our lookouts spotted the buoy wedged in the rocks of the break wall.  We returned to our slip in the marina and a shore party set out to retrieve the wayward buoy.  It was not an easy task, but we succeeded in prying it out of the rocks, hauling it over massive boulders, and then hauling it up to the marina office for storage.

After that we had blue sky, sunshine and a cool breeze for our voyage down the coast to Gold Rock Point.   We found that we were not alone.  There was a dive boat tied up to one of the mooring buoys and more divers swimming out from shore.  It took a bit of coordination to insure a safe work area as we carefully removed the buoys from the Madeira.

We spent quite a while to getting both buoys on board.  By then the clouds were starting to move in and the breeze was freshening.  We had a bit of a bumpy ride back down to Two Harbors, but made the trip without incident.

At Two Harbors, we found the Algoma Strong field on the hook outside of the break wall, waiting for the loading dock to clear.  They were still sitting there on a foggy Sunday morning as we motored over to the south break wall to retrieve the S.P. Ely’s mooring buoy.

During the cruise back to Duluth, the skies cleared and we had smoother sailing.  Once in port, we cruised around a bit, paying courtesy calls to the Edward Ryerson and the BBC Rio Plata.  Then it was time to head up the river past the stuffed animal decorated Grassy Point swing bridge to Spirit Lake Marina.

Closing Report was written by Dale Koziol
Former GLSPS Board of Director

Closing Report:

2019 R/V Preservation June Cruise Up to Silver Bay and Installing the Shipwreck Mooring Buoys

The R/V Preservation departed Spirit Lake Marina the morning of 15 June with Jimmy Christenson, Andrew Goodman, Ken Knutson, Dale Koziol and Mike Mack on board.  Captain Tim Pranke had the helm.  We had blue sky, sunshine and light winds making for excellent cruising weather as we headed up the St. Louis River toward the Duluth harbor.

Along the way we put our new Garmin radar unit to use.  It is a vast improvement in technology over the old Raytheon set.  Monitoring the old radar involved trying to interpret a set of green blobs on the screen.  The new digital screen has the radar superimposed over GPS navigation charts, allowing you to not only see what is around you, but also see where they are on the map.  We were able to even detect small, sport fishing boats on the river.

We, of course, had a fine ride through the harbor and under the lift bridge, seeing several ships along the way.  We made a stop at Knife Island to dive the Niagara before continuing on to Two Harbors.  As usual, we tied up on the south break wall and dove the S.P. Ely before setting its mooring buoy.  We then moved the Preservation over to the north break wall, where we moored for the night.
 

Sunday started off cloudy and rather cool.  We moved the boat back to the south break wall so that Tim could try out his home-made, triple Go-Pro drop camera rig on the Ely.  It was the first field test of the system and it produced mixed results.  Nonetheless, it was fun to try it out.  Lessons learned from the Beta test would be applied toward future design improvements.

We then cruised up the North Shore to Gold Rock Point and Split Rock lighthouse were we set mooring buoys on the wreck of the Madeira.  The divers got plenty of bottom time in exploring the wreck.  Then it was onward to Silver Bay.

We were not able to set the mooring buoy for the Hesper, which was postponed for a later trip.  However, we did get to watch the thousand footed James R. Barker steam into Silver Bay to load taconite.  That was a sight to see before we made the long ride back to Spirit Lake Marina to retrieve our vehicles.

Closing Report was written by Dale Koziol
Former GLSPS Board of Director