S U R V E Y ' 98 R E S U M E
End of Survey' 98 first campaign.

Dr. George F. Bass visits the next year's excavation location. Virazon heads back to Bodrum. (Sept. 27th)

Weekend with TINA members at Kizilburun area  (Sept. 26th)

TINA members visit Survey '98 (Sept. 23rd to 25th)

Two wrecks at Kokar limani (Sept. 19th to 22nd)

Another shipwreck!!
(Sept. 17th & 18th)

Two new wrecks  (Sept. 15th & 16th)

Two new wrecks at Sarpedere Koyu  (Sept. 14th)

Virazon's backgammon tournament  (Sept. 13th)

Working on the Classical wreck
(Sept. 12th)

Virazon heads back to sea
(Sept. 11th)

Where are our shipwrecks coming from? Teos? (Sept. 10th)

Sigacik: a charming fishermen town  (Sept. 9th)

Back in Sigacik, repairs begin on the windlass  (Sept. 8th)

A Late Roman Wreck and 1st Aquatic Basketball game of the season. (Sept. 7th)

An unfortunate accident and an ancient Classical wreck.
(Sept. 6th)

Virazon at Kizilburun. We dive on two Byzantine shipwrecks
(Sept. 5th) 

At dawn, the winds subside, and the Virazon begins the journey north (Sept. 4th)

Virazon at Myndos: the underwater remains of a Carian town (Sept. 3rd)

Hidden from the wind, we meet with the Bodrum Coast Guard.
(Sept. 2nd)

The Virazon team meets with the divers who found the Uluburun Shipwreck.(Sept. 1st)

The first Virazon campaign of 1998 (1st to 28th of September) came to an end but that only means that we have to start studying what we have found and prepare for the next campaign starting sometime in mid-October. A workload probably more demanding than the actual field work is awaiting us, but this is the time period when we will actually reap the benefits of the hard work at sea.

We tried to upload our web site daily, although at times it was impossible due to the lack of network reception. Virazon usually works in remote areas and our cellular phone, which we use to connect with the world was not always able to contact the telephone network.

If you have been following our activities through our web page you are probably up to date of all our activities. Nevertheless a summary of our September activities is presented below.

We had a few very frustrating days when the windlass (the mechanism of a boat that takes up the chain and anchor) broke down and we were left without our most important tool: the anchor. Even the ones that are not sailors will be able to understand how important that little part is... The failure of the windlass did not fully stop our work but it lead us to severe modifications of how we searched. For a few days we anchored at the big military buoys which happened to be conveniently located in the two harbors in the vicinity of our main search areas. Virazon safely moored at these buoys, we were able to continue search in the nearby locations with our dingy. Afterwards we went to Sigacik where the windlass was temporarily fixed by Hilmi usta, a local mechanic. In spite of the fine repairs Hilmi has conducted, the windlass never worked properly after that Now that we are in Bodrum, we will look for more permanent solutions.

 Besides the bad moments, there were very good ones. The final count of this month survey is FOUR new shipwrecks. They had been all reported in previous pages (see Sept. 15th, Sept. 17th, and Sept. 19th). They are scattered wrecks that unfortunately landed on rock and most likely no part of the hull is preserved, but they are shipwrecks and still tell us something about the history of the area.

We did extensive diving in areas that were not covered before and that work is important for us, even if no wrecks are found. They all have been recorded with GPS so we do not survey them in future campaigns.  During these searches the extreme efficiency of the underwater sled was again demonstrated (Sept. 11th ).

Another of our goals for this year was the detailed documentation of the Classical wreck, intended to be excavated by INA in 1998. We put numerous dives on it, took many minutes of video and many frames of still pictures, measurements, drawings, etc. We think we have the necessary information Dr. Bass may need to prepare and organize the excavation for 1999. He had visited the site himself especially to search for a camp location for the upcoming season (see Sept. 27th).

We did not only complete the inspection of the Classical wreck, but we also visited some of the previously discovered shipwrecks of the area and documented them better: collected the information we were lacking, film and photographed them.

But work is not everything! We also found ways to entertain ourselves when we were not busy. Days of bad weather and quiet evenings witnessed fierce competition of the participants of Virazon's First and Second Backgammon Tournament Uluc won them. (see Sept. 13th) When the weather was good and the sea water warm, the water basketball teams competed. (see Sept. 7th).

Not all the people of the initial team stayed with us until the end. Arda Akman left Virazon to go to Istanbul on the 15th of September for personal reasons. On the 18th three of our team members left us, every one of them had to return to their previously arranged duties: Yasar Yildiz, Uluc Alpozen and Jevon Roush.  At that time, Harun Ozdas of Bodrum Museum joined us as the representative of the Ministry of Culture and part of the team. (see The TEAM)

On our last weekend at sea, Virazon hosted a group of 18 members of TINA (Turkish Institute of Nautical Archaeology), we had a good time and we were very glad to show the members of this important foundation our work at the field. The visit culminated with a barbecue on the last day at the "barbecue beach," or Cilka, the only one of this year. (see Sept. 23-25th, Sept 26th, VISITORS)

We think we had a good campaign. Now we have to start putting together our notes, go through our footage and pictures and prepare the report. Soon we'll be heading out again for our second campaign, this time to south where the weather and water will hopefully warmer. We hope you join us on that voyage as well. In the mean time, we’ll keep you informed about our preparations and plans.

Thank you for ‘experiencing Survey'98’ with us, even though it has been a virtual experience this time. Who knows, maybe some of you might want to join us for an actual experience where you will really feel the seasickness caused by the huge waves of the Mediterranean, and the cold that gets to your bones. Well, maybe it is just better to read about it…

C O N T A C T   U S   A T   v i r a z o n @ d i v e t u r k e y . c o m