Hi.
Sorry it has taken so long to reply. As far as diving the Carpathia is concerned, it has been another frustrating year. As we didn't want a repeat of the 2004 Carpathia expedition (we were stuck in the Scillies for two weeks due to fog and strong winds)we have decided to look for a bigger boat that could handle rough seas and loiter on site waiting for a weather window.
Teresa and a couple of others from the dive team flew to Holland to check out a dive boat earlier on in the year. Although big enough (ex scientific ice breaker) the crew wasn't experienced with deep technical diving and then there was the added cost of sailing to and from Holland. Unfortunately this has dragged on and another year has passed.
Teresa and I and a reduced team had the opportunity of diving from a smaller boat earlier this month if the weather had been near perfect. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.
There is some good news though. We have recently found a suitable vessel based in southern England. We are just about to sign on the dotted line to commit for another attempt next summer. The down side is that it's going to cost each of the dive team 2500 - 3000 UK Pounds!! We are determined that this expedition will not fail due to sponsors pulling out (as has happened in the past) so we are going to self fund. If we find some sponsorship along the way then that'll be great but the expedition will not rely on it.
The only other concern is that Titanic Inc will salvage the vessel (with grabs?) before we get a chance to film her. According to their website
www rmstitanic.net/pdf/carpathia.pdf
they are starting operations "later in 2006". Does anybody know if this is going ahead?
It's not just Carpathia that's proving difficult. We have spent a lot of time planning to dive the gold ship SS Egypt which was involved in a collision 40 miles west of Brest, France. After a summer of near drought conditions, here in the UK, we spent a week sitting in France getting thrashed by gales!! At least we managed one dive on the wreck, which sits in 128 metres/420 feet. I managed to get 17 minutes of good footage. About three minutes of the footage is on
www.shipwreckfilms.co.uk if you are interested.
As soon as I know more about the Carpathia Expedition I'll let you know.
Hi Randel. Interesting to hear about the Carpathia headphones as the Marconi radio is one of the objects we want to find and film. Have you got any pictures?
All the best
Kevin and Teresa