THE LIFE AQUATIC

Leave from: Chicago

The jaunt: Lake Michigan's stormy weather and rough waters make Chicago a less beachy destination than, say, Miami. But the conditions have also been responsible for some 3,000 shipwrecks littering the lake floor—in other words, a bounty for Windy City divers. Best of all, you can start exploring the wrecks right from the East Chicago Marina just south of the city in Indiana. Twice a day the N'Pursuit (the name of a boat, not a new boy band) ferries groups of six certified divers to such sites as the 73-foot Tacoma (a steam tug that sank in 1932) and the 202-foot Iowa (crushed by ice in 1915). You can swim through sunken boilers, peer into the open holds of submerged barges, and even search for the treasure chest that will help pay for your next gas bill.

Your chariot: The N'Pursuit, a six-passenger, 38-foot Wellcraft Coastal

Check into: Request a lake-view room at The Drake, right across the street from Oak Street Beach.

N'Pursuit
Tel: 219 942 5767
From $95 per person

The Drake
Tel: 800 553 7253
Doubles from $230; lake-view doubles from $250

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