Hi guys,
took the boat out yesterday and sad but true: The boating season is over for this year.
Nevertheless, the last week became a highlight for this year's season, since the archaeologists managed to inspect "my" wreck --->
http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=240.0 from Monday to Thursday last week. It was more than interesting for me to be part of this enterprise, since I had the honour to be the Captain for the archaeologists.
Dr. Mainberger asked me if it would be possible to use my boat for the dives, since theirs is just a five metres aluminium nutshell without a cabin and not very suitable for such operations at this time of the year. After they got permission for my boat to be kept in the water for another week (all recreational boats have to be out of the harbours at the end of October) and the water level was still high enough to drive out (and come in), we started out on Monday morning as a crew of three archaeologists (Doctor Martin Mainberger, Gerd Knepel and Matthias Billig) and myself.
The plan was that the archaeologists dive on my wreck in the morning and after that we move to the "Reichenau", an island about 6 miles away from my wreck. At Reichenau the archaeologists wanted to salvage the remains of a wreck that might turn out to be the oldest ever salvaged wreck in Lake Constance. They dated it back to the 14th century(!).
Monday was rainy and cold as we loaded the boat with their equipment. Box after box with digging gear, measure tape, lines, metal frames and all sort of stuff that made me wonder what the heck this will be for.
I organized the loading so that safety on board was still guaranteed. Besides the navigation, safety on board was my task for the trip and I always take this very serious.
We took off at half past nine and drove out to my wreck.
After locating it with the HUMMINBIRD (981 kicked butt as always

), we dropped a marker buoy and I estimated wind direction and strength to get the boat as close as possible to the wreck without hitting the wreck with the anchor or having the boat right above the divers. That went OK and I managed to get the boat within 15 metres to the dive site. Dr. Mainberger and Gerd went down and started to work. They took pictures, measured the wreck and inspected it to estimate its age. After they finished, they were still not sure about the age, but had the length of it: Ten metres.
That was two metres more than I have estimated it on my first dive in June.
After getting the anchor up, we started out to Reichenau. This time we used Doc Mainberger’s GPS coordinates to find the wreck and anchored. I was surprised how close the wreck was to shore. Maybe fifty metres out from the banks and in about 1,8 metres water depth. This wreck was found a couple of years ago by a guy who was ice-skating and saw the wreck through the ice. Once again they dove, but this time to raise planks and ribs of the wreck.
Amazing to see what our ancestors were able to build 600 hundred years ago. Wooden nails connected the ribs and planks and these were still sitting so tight, that they have to cut the connections with saws.
After getting them on board, Matthias started to sketch and measure them, took photos, marked and documented them. After that, we packed them into plastic foil so they wont dry out.
The weather hadn't improved throughout the day and we headed back to base at three in the afternoon. In the harbour we unloaded the dive gear and the parts of the wreck. The archaeologists took off to refill the bottles and doing their aftermath work, while I was clearing up the boat to get it ready for the next day.
Next morning was waiting with a surprise: Blue skies, no wind! A perfect day to make pictures. We loaded up and the ride out was much more pleasant than the day before. The marker buoy was still in place, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I took three SI runs to make sure we drop anchor in the right place.
This is something I recommend to do, because with SI it's no big deal to be sure to hit the right spot.
Gerd went down, to continue his measurements and he inspected the wreck to find hints for its age. He also took pictures, which turned out to be much better than the ones he had made the day before. The sight was much better with the sun up in the sky.
After Gerd finished, he proclaimed that this was his 2000th dive! So we had something to celebrate, but first we drove to Reichenau to get further on with the job there. Gerd and Doc Mainberger made some brilliant pictures and since I could anchor closer to the site, it was possible to watch them working from the boat without taking diver's safety at hazard. With another load of ribs we headed back to base in the afternoon.
Another day, another surprise: Wednesday morning was windy and the rain was drizzling as we loaded up and took off. I didn't want to take a risk, so I dropped anchor a bit further off to get the whole chain overboard for better hold. The wind was strong (around six Beauforts ), but not too bad to cancel the dive.
Gerd went down and searched the wreck for its load and equipment. After half an hour had passed, the wind started to pick up and dark clouds moved in from Southwest. Gerd had just signalled that he was on his way up, when I realized that the anchor started to slip.
Holy chit!!!
I fired up the engines and told Matthias to keep the signal-line tight, so I could manoeuvre the boat and keep it in place. I didn't want to end up dragging Gerd around with the signal-line or having the signal-line caught in the propellers. Quite tricky, but we managed to keep position so Gerd could take it easy to come back to the surface.
We decided that it's too hairy to put another diver down and cancelled the second dive on my wreck for this day and took off to get more parts salvaged at Reichenau. It was still blowing hard, but as soon as we were under land, it was possible to dive. The archaeologists wanted to use a suction dredge to get the sediment off the planks, but as we rigged up the pump, we found out that the suction hose was missing. Damned!
I called my colleagues from the water police and asked if they have a hose on board their ship.
They came and handed over their hose, but this had a different size connection and there was no adapter available. So we weren't lucky on that one, but it was quite a show how Markus from the water police manoeuvred their ship to my boat's side in the storm.
Gerd and the Doctor had to use trowels for their sediment job. No fun in the clay

!
Exhausted and cold, but cheered up with some coffee and hot dogs from the galley, we took it slow to drive back through the storm. Since my boat doesn't sport an aircraft carrier's deck, the salvaged parts had to be tight up to the cabin deck and we didn't want to loose or break them by a hard ride through the waves.
In the evening we celebrated Gerd’s 2000th dive and planned for the next day. Since it would be the last dive day, they decided to salvage the last parts at Reichenau and recover the equipment on both wrecks. This way we would be able to get everything sorted out and packed up before it would be dark. Besides that, I had to unload the boat completely and get it ready to hoist it out on Friday. Well, that was the plan…..
Thursday greeted us with a little fog, but this was gone as we were ready to drive out. The sun was shining and the temperature would raise to 16° Celsius in the morning! What a day!
We rode out and got the equipment recovered on my wreck. Mission accomplished there.
Its age?? Around 150 years. Some bolts point into this direction and exclude this wreck from the middle ages. I'm not disappointed about this (maybe a little, yes), but it leaves the possibility that it might be open for other divers. We'll see.
Afterwards we went back to Reichenau to finish the work there, but we were in for a surprise:
It was around half past eleven, when my friend Tabs from the water police called me and asked where I am.
I told him that we are at the same spot where we met yesterday and asked what's up. He responded that he got a call from the Tourist Information of Reichenau that people were asking where this wreck is laying which is reported in the radio.
"Huh, what???"
"Yeah, since ten o'clock there are reports in the radio about a wreck from the middle ages which will be recovered."
"Hm, so so…."
At twelve o'clock two dudes were standing on shore, whistling and waiving. I took the binoculars and checked. A tripod and a camera….
Doc Mainberger swum over and disappeared with them for five minutes, coming back with another Gentleman, who helped them to get a dinghy waterborne.
"All right, here we go", I though, "show time!"
Someone had leaked the info to the press and while Gerd was struggling to get the rest of the gear and parts out, Matthias to get his job done documenting and measuring, Doc. Mainberger had to give interviews to two TV crews, one newspaper reporter and one radio station reporter ON BOARD OF MY BOAT!! Haven't imagined this would happen...
Luckily they came one after the other, but I was just wondering, how long it will take for one of them to fall into the drink

Not to mention, that the Doctor's cell phone wouldn't quit ringing all the way back to base. Appearantly 64 Radio and TV stations from Austria, Switzerland and Germany reported the story!
Finally we made it and got all stuff unloaded and sorted out. The salvaged parts will go to specialists for further inspection and documentation. After they are finished with them, they (the parts) will be buried in the sediment of the lake near Reichenau again. I was wondering what the hell this should be good for, but there they are conserved at best for the next couple of hundreds or even thousands years. If science will have better possibilities in the future to explore them further, their position is known and they can be recovered again.
Here are some links to the press echo:
http://www.suedkurier.de/region/kreis-konstanz/konstanz/Jetzt-kommt-das-Wrack-unter-die-Lupe;art372448,4022393 Check "Fotogalerie"!
EURO 3 TV:
http://video.regio-tv.de/video_id_=22154 Note the details in the background when Doctor Mainberger was interviewed

. I turned the cover so it's readable from the front

.
SWR TV:
http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/bw/-/id=1622/did=5584136/pv=video/nid=1622/1mwzuyo/index.htmlWell, as I said in the beginning, the season's over for this year. And what a season it was!
Finding five boats with my Humminbird made it defiantly worth to invest the money in the unit. Allthough it wasn't my wreck which made the headlines, just being part of making the headlines is quite a cool way to finish a wonderful boating and diving season. And that wouldn't have happened without my 981!
The boat is now in the winter storage, waiting for the modifications I have in my mind:
A platform for better access to the water for the divers is a must and will be on the rear end of the boat when spring comes. The under water ship is due to be restored, although I hate just the though of crawling underneath the boat with the sanding machine overhead.
And……an 1197 has to find its way over here into the cockpit. I'll talk to G-Comm about this

.
Since winter is coming in the northern hemisphere and most of you guys will also get their boats and ships out, I hope you guys also had a wonderful and exciting diving / boating / fishing season.
For those down under (the equator), I wish you will stay safe and have fun out there
Regards / Harry