Day One of the 2017 Expedition

[:en]Today was the first day of the 2017 expedition, one of the most physically demanding stages of the project. Around ten tonnes of equipment and supplies were unloaded and readied for usage. The team split into three, setting up the mess area for the next three weeks, building the gas station to fill SCUBA cylinders, unloading the dive boats and preparing dive equipment. There is only limited infrastructure on the island, meaning that almost everything has to be shipped in and set up each time.

Michalis Protopsaltis helped the team by providing a forklift and driver from Kythera to unload pallets from the ferry. We would have been in serious trouble without such a tool.
This entire truck load of equipment came from Athens and was loaded onto the ferry in Kythera.

Team members have been arriving from around the world, with; Theotokis Theodoulou,  Nikolas Giannoulakis,  Mihalis Kelaidis,  Phil Short and Gemma Smith making the transit from Chania to Antikythera aboard diving support vessel “Nikolas”.

The transit from Chania in Crete to Antikythera.

Alexander Sotiriou and Dimitrios Romios made the transit to Antikythera from Alimos on diving support vessel “Poseidon”, collecting John Fardoulis from Kythera on the way.

Diving support vessel “Poseidon” stopping off in Diakofti, Kythera on the way.

Brendan Foley, Alex Tourtas, Michael Tsimperopoulos, Paolo Iglic, Ilias Charalampous and Dimitra Kotsi arrived on the ferry from Neapolis, with four heavily laden vehicles and thirteen pallets of equipment and supplies.

The main job for tomorrow, day two, will be to finish assembling dive equipment and do shakedown dives, ideally heading to the wreck on Wednesday to do the rigging, before excavating can begin. Stay tuned for more…

Tonnes of equipment and supplies shipped in for the three-week duration of the expedition.
All hands required to help unload and set up.

Assembling rebreathers.
Boxes containing dry suits, and soft equipment need to be unpacked.
Photographic equipment, spare parts and more dive gear.
Dive cylinders to be filled.
Pumps and other excavation equipment.

Vans, SUVs & trailers transported to Antikythera for the expedition.
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