Recent activities
We are back in business at the Mediator
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After a long period of no activity at the wreck site due to a lack of workforce we have a new group of volunteers to help with cleaning up the wreck and exploring it further. After an excursion on the wreck during one of the previous weeks they showed interest in coming back and pick up the excavation and cleaning activities. Today, Sunday October 24, 2010, was more of a practice run in working with the lift bag. Three new volunteers and one of our regular divers went under water with a lift bag and a large bucket.
No extra tilt of the wreck
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In my report on the dive that we did at the Mediator last Sunday I mentioned that it looked to me that the tilt of the wreck at the bow had increased to starboard. Today I checked this with previous pictures of this section of the wreck. To the left a picture that I made on November 4, 2007; that is more than two and a half year ago. I created a second layer on this picture in which I copied a small section of the picture from last Sunday with an opacity of 50% so that the original picture shines through. You can see it as a small rectangle in the picture at the left. I aligned the pipe in this small section with the pipe that is laying on the sand in the original picture; also the lowest part of the bow is aligned in both pictures. The pipe is not connected to the wreck so if tilt of the ship would have increased since 2007 the bow at the top of the small rectangle (just below the Tarpon) would be misaligned with the bow in the original picture. Although not really visible in the small picture, by clicking on that picture you will get a larger one in which you can see that there is no visible increase in the tilt of the wreck in the two and a half year since the previous picture. So even if there is an increase this would be minimal and certainly not visible with the naked eye.Back at the Mediator after a long time
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After a long time of absence we finaly found the time to get back to the Mediator. The number of volunteers has dropped below a critical limit for structural activities on the wreck. So the only remaining activity is once in a while a guided tour at this historical wreck site. And even these quided tours are not very often because most tourist don't know about this possibility.
On Sunday July 25, 2010, we did a guided dive / rescue exercise at this location. As usual I was the first one to enter the water to have optimal conditions for photography. As soon as I was under water it became clear that the conditions on this day were quite exceptional; the visibility was very good. At least 10 - 12 meters.
Mystery solved
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On Sunday November 22, 2009 we went back to the Mediator for the first time since a long time. The reason for the long period of absence is that we are lacking sufficient volunteers to do the regular things. But this time 5 members of the hard core of the volunteers were present plus a number of guests for a guided tour. The idea was to check the status of the airlift, to find out what is blocking the entrance to the front hold (under the bow deck) and to restart the guided tours. This all with the intention to work at the Mediator at least every other weekend.
My goal was to find out what mysteriously blocked the portside entrance to the hold under the bow deck. Swimming under the bow deck from portside to the starboard side is one of the attractions during the guided tour, but last time we found out that this was no longer possible. I took some pictures of the area last time but apparently missed the essential piece.
Visit of archaeological divers from abroad
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From March 5, 2009 till March 19, 2009 two archaeological divers from the States and a group of archaeological divers (Mergor in Mosam) from the Netherlands were visiting Curaçao to work on the Mediator wreck. One of the two people from the States is the professional archaeologist under whose direction all archaeological activities on this wreck take place. He wrote an initial plan of the activities that could be undertaken during this period. That plan had to be adapted because it was not possible to dive on all days because of visiting cruise ships in the harbor.