09 March 2008

Ghostships!

The 9th annual Ghost Ships festival was held in Milwaukee this past weekend and it was good to see everyone again.

Unfortunately, I was tied to the Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates exhibit booth most of the day Saturday -- except when we presented our program -- and I did not get a chance to see anyone else's program. I barely even took time to walk around the exhibits.

I did, however enjoy a couple of nice cigars in the lounge on Friday evening, and a very informal dinner with a bunch of fellow presenters on Saturday evening.

The shipwreck "game" as my friend David Trotter likes to call it, is populated by a real variety of characters. The guys from Great lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation really put their heart and soul into this program each year -- all on a volunteer basis. Kimm Stablefeldt and Brad Friend (and many others) deserve a lot of credit for providing this opportunity for all of us to get together. Frankly, it's a really good way to find out that we're all pretty nice people -- despite the sometimes ridiculous squabbling and one-upsmanship that goes on.

I understand that the legendary John Steele dropped in, but I missed the opportunity to say hello. I didn't have enough time to chat with folks like Bill Prince of Nordic Diver and even Paul Ehorn. I did speak with Harry Zych a few times and spent quite a bit of time with our good friends Ralph Wilbanks and Harry Pecorelli.

The hit of the trade show was obviously swimsuit model Rabecca Lee who was in the Deep Blue dive charter booth giving autographs. It was slightly distracting!

I made the trip with Ross Richardson and met up with Jack and Valerie van Heest --all co-directors of MSRA. It was a good time with good people. That's about all you can ask for.