Starting to close down the excavation

Thursday 15.9.2016

Today we started to slowly close down. We complete the tasks that are underway, and do not start any new ones. We lost two days of diving due to boat trouble, but those things happen. We could have easily lost them and much more due to weather in these four weeks. Today's weather forecast had again strong winds for the afternoon, and so we started early.

Our own RIB has still problems. We are fortunate to have a small RIB from Cyprus Civil Defense forces helping us now for a few days. With that RIB, and with Spyros and his boat (also a RIB), we just manage.

The Civil Defense RIB with two crew members are big help for us.

Today I had a real fun dive. I was diving last with Dimitrios, when he took photogrammetry photos. The visibility was good, with some current towards east. You could clearly see the slightly "cloudy" areas on the west side of the wreck, whereas the east side was very clear. My job was to "watch his back", and not to be on the way. It was great to spend the whole dive just to look at the wreck in its current status without any specific other tasks. It was especially rewarding the see all the work that we have done in the bow and B trenches. At the end we recovered the safety tank from the bottom of the ascent line.

On the way back David, Rupert and me were asked to sit in the back of Spyros' boat, and we were given one amphora to take care of. The weather was not good for amphora transport, the waves were maybe 1m tall, but we really needed that amphora brought to High View Gardens today. Every now and then the boat reached a wave crest, and the amphora started to "fly". I needed to lift it up slightly, that it would not bump too hard onto my lap.

Rupert, Teemu and David in babycare duty

I was taking care of vertical suspension. Rupert was in control of forward speed changes due to boat hitting a wave every now and then. David for ready for anything. I had no purchase to do anything in forward direction. At half way Spyros gave his own life jacket for extra suspension. We were drenched from the waves, and my eyes were hurting from drying salt. I could not wipe them, because both hands were needed to hold the "baby". The amphora was swaddled in wet fabric and wet bubble wrap, and so I was pretty wet from the start. After some 30 minutes of wave riding we finally reached Alaminos, with the baby intact.