Dave and Brian's Excellent Adventures

Black Sea 2007, Day 26

It’s hear! Late last night, coming to us on a FISHING TRAWLER, of all things, was our bow-thruster’s motor. It’s been a long week, since it left us in Istanbul. We’ve only been able to accomplish very little. Everyone’s waiting with baited breath to see that it goes in without a hitch. I would imagine the crew of the Alliance won’t be sleeping tonight, as I’d imagine putting this thing in is an “All-hands” type operation.

We spent last night with Echo in the water. After Echo came out of the water, the weather subsided and our hopes and dreams of being able to salvage the day were smashed when we started to put Herc and Argus in, and the weather picked up, again.

We tried our best to be patient, but after a week, our patience was wearing thin. Then we got the call: The boat with the bow-thruster’s motor on it will meet us half way. Hercules and Argus were on deck in short order, and we were beginning our 3 hour steam to the meeting place.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After 3 hours of waiting we discovered the boat hadn’t even left the dock yet. Really? Are ya sure? Needless to say, there were some unhappy campers. So, we waited for a total of 6 hours and finally got the motor.

When Echo was in the water, it actually found half a dozen targets. After the motor’s loaded we’ll go back and look at them with Hercules and Argus. Putting the motor in will take about 6 hours or so, but doing a “fly-by” visual doesn’t require the precision as sitting on the bottom of the sea working on a wreck. We should be able to get by, until the bow-thruster is fixed.

By the way, please start viewing the rest of my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/Littlebay/Blacksea2007 It seems that flikr has a limitation of 200 photos. I’ve surpassed that. Two more shows, tonight and tomorrow. Noon EST. http://www.immersionpresents.org click on “Channel” and then click within the viewer window.

posted by DaveandBrian @ 2:27 AM