Tues, 10 Jan 2012
Today my team was assigned the task of doing a SCUBA survey of the outside coral reef, directly opposite the buoy making the anchor chain on the inside. We entered the water at 9 am for a 40-minute dive. During that time we found copper fastening, keel staples, a large piece of lead which may weigh over 500 kg!
Jenni Mullen on a dive. Photographer: Xanthe Rivett
We swapped tanks for a second dive, but had to wait on a surface interval of one hour. We went back out and got in another 40-minute dive before lunch.
We had a mandatory two hour surface interval after our second dive, and then headed out a third time. It was on this dive that we saw a piece of timber in deep water, but because this was our third dive for the day we weren’t able to get down that deep without compromising our no decompression limits.
We ended the day as usual with a great dinner and photos. Tonight we had a special talk by James from Flinders Uni on his work on Australian Colonial Navy vessels.
Cheers
Paul Hundley (Sr. Curator and archaeologist)