Croatia or Sweden?  Photo: Michael Palmgren, Havsresan

The rain is here…

A long and exciting day yesterday, but unfortunately there was no time for blogging. However the weather turned for the worse during the night (a lot worse!) and this morning we woke up to dark skies, heavy rain and wind speeds peaking at 20m/s. We made an attempt to reach yesterdays dive sites but had to turn back when the waves started washing over the deck - In other words, no diving today but this gives me the chance to update you on yesterday’s exploration.

Day 1 (part two)

Mediterranean weather and Scandinavian diving 
After the morning briefing we couldn’t wait to get out to the dive site. It’s not every day you get to explore wrecks that no one has ever dived before (you might call it a “Star Trek experience” -To boldly go where no man has gone before…). So after packing our gear it was full speed ahead for open waters.

RIB, WakaWoo  Photo: Michael Palmgren, Havsresan

Today’s assignment: To map the wreck (JHG 084) and associated objects by measuring and documenting them with film and photo.

We couldn’t have picked a better day for launching this years Ocean Voyage. Blazing sun and virtually no wind! If it wasn’t for the scarce 12^oC in the water and the dry suits you might have thought we were on a dive boat off the coast of Croatia (see introduction photo)…

Once our boat arrived at location we put a buoy on the surface to mark the position and the first eager divers hit the water. While descending the 27 meters to the bottom the contours of a ship slowly revealed itself through the dusky water - A wooden wreck reaching 40 meters!

Because of the low salinity and the low temperature its hard/impossible for the shipworm (a type of mollusc that eats wood which makes wooden wreck very rare in most parts of the world) to survive in these waters, which makes wooden wrecks a fairly common sight in the Baltic Sea.

Since a picture is said to be worth a thousand words I won’t bore you with a bunch of measurements but instead post a bunch of (commented) photos…

Documenting the wooden wreck  Photo: Sven Berglöf, Havsresan

The body of the ship lies quite flat to the bottom Photo: Robert Hansson, Havsresan

The anchor was found close to the middle of the wreck  Photo: Robert Hansson, Havsresan

A smaller brass wheel was found close to the stern of the wreck. Another brass object was located half a meter from the wheel. Since the two items had the same diameter it was assumed that they once might have been connected. Photo: Jan Christensen, Havsresan

A large brass wheel with s-shaped spokes was found outside the stern of the ship  Photo: Robert Hansson, Havsresan

Map of the wreck  Photo: Jan Christensen, Havsresan

As you can see for yourselves – This was an awesome day!