Tagging in the dust cloud

Wednesday 31.8.2016

Our goals for today were simple and straightforward. Go down to the bow trench, and first tag 3-5 amphorae just west of the keel. Then use the airlift south of the lead weight trying to locate the other lead weight. Christos had already enlarged the sandbag fence in our trench and moved the airlift closer. Simple and exciting dive expected. We were also excited, because this was our first excavation to Mazotos without instructors.

Once we got down, the first thing was to get our bearings. And then everything went bad. Another dive pair aiming to work on trench A came down with us, and they were tasked to lift an amphora from the apotheke at the end of their dive. To make it easier, they decided to move an amphora in our apotheke to a lifting net at the beginning of their dive, and then just pick it up on their way back to the ascent line. While doing that, they created a huge dust cloud covering the whole bow trench.

We tried desperately to get our bearings right, but finally gave up tagging, and moved to excavation. We were eventually able to remove some sand also from the assigned area, but overall the dive was a bust. Fortunately Chris and Dom were able to tag and document those amphorae, and saved the team's bacon.

Jouni excavating the bow trench.

Jouni picked up 2 sherds and one shell to our loose finds bag, and so we did not return completely empty handed. But almost. Things happen. Better dive next time.

Two sherds to be recorded to the project database and then delivered for desalination.

On the way back to port in Spiros' RIB, a flying fish was racing us in air right next to the RIB, no more than 2m from us. It won! Spiros challenged it to another race by speeding up his RIB, but the fish was gone. Why race again and risk losing! It was neat to see it up close. With fluorescent colors it looked more like a humming bird than a fish.

I do not write any more now, as I am writing today also to the Mazotos Fieldschool blog. You can find that blog here.