The weather has really blown up in Antikythera, giving us a taste of how harsh conditions can be. No wonder there are many shipwrecks in the region.

It’s not safe to dive at the moment, and it looks like it won’t be for another couple of days.

Today’s ferry was cancelled. Thetis is anchored safely in Vatika Bay (near Neapolis) with the Exosuit on board (40 nautical miles away), and GLAROS is seeking shelter in Vatika Bay as well.

Two of the six man Hellenic Navy Seal (O.Y.K) team who are part of this year’s expedition have arrived with a truck filled with equipment, and are preparing for in-water operations during the excavation phase of the project. Even though the weather is too bad for diving, lots is still going on.

The navy seal truck that arrived at 3.30 am this morning.

Unloading hundreds of kilograms of diving equipment.

Preparing lots of equipment for the six man team.

Hellenic Navy Seals are known as O.Y.K.

The Hellenic Navy is another key partner in the project who deserves thanks, providing skilled personnel, equipment and the Thetis as a support vessel for Exosuit.

The dive plan for today was to secure the second mooring line and a little metal detecting but more was accomplished than expected.

Phil Short providing a post-dive team briefing on board GLAROS*.

Alexander Sotiriou explains what he thinks should happen next.

The Metropolitan of Kythera & Antikythera, Bishop Serafim came to Antikythera today to bless the team.

A roman anchor located last year was also worked on, and is ready for retrieval after being photographed.

Another prime target was also located, which will require excavating to reveal its true identity. This will be a priority for when excavating takes place.

Unfortunately we have strong winds forecast for several days, meaning that mother nature might force the team to take a break.

The navy ship with Exosuit on board is now at Neapolis, waiting for the weather to improve, to head to Antikythera.

* The yacht GLAROS, has been generously provided by the Aikaterini Laskaridis foundation as a research vessel for the project.

Stay tuned for more…

Digital mapping of the Antikythera shipwreck is done for 2014, with the engineers from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, University of Sydney spending the day processing data collected by Sirius, the underwater robot.

The diving team is getting ready for the next phase, which will be a metal detector survey, then opening some test trenches to see what may lay beneath the sand and silt on the wreck.

Diver, Athanassios Chronopoulos testing the hydrolift near the port of Potamos in Antikythera.

And testing an airlift near the Antikythera port of Potamos as another option.

One of the primary tools so far has been Sirius, the underwater robot, aka. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

It has completed several missions over the Antikythera shipwreck, firstly conducting multi beam sonar runs, and then stereo photogrammetry passes, in order to stitch thousands of photos together and create a very high resolution map of the area.

Some missions have been in excess of two hours each, emphasising one of the key  benefits of using a robot is that humans aren’t exposed to difficult conditions.

Here’s a video taken by Phil Short of Sirius in action over the Antikythera shipwreck.

Sirius is being operated from the yacht GLAROS, generously provided by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation as a research vessel for the project.

We’re currently over the Antikythera shipwreck, with the underwater robot (AUV) making the first high resolution digital map of the area using multi-beam sonar.

Here’s the robot, minutes before diving to 15 metres above the bottom of the seabead to create a sonar map of the Antikythera shipwreck.

It will do various missions, next taking stereo photographs to create a detailed 3D model of the site.

This update was provided live off the support vessel POSEIDON, at sea, over the top of the Antikythera shipwreck using Cosmote 4G technology.

Tracking the underwater robot (AUV).

The team from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, creating history.

Dr. Dimitri Kourkoumelis arrived at 3.30am this morning and is on board POSEIDON, supervising on behalf of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities.

Cosmote has provided the technology which broadcasts this update from at sea, over the Antikythera shipwreck.

There were 3-4 metre waves over the wreck site today, so AUV (underwater robotic) operations took place on the sheltered side of the island on the yacht GLAROS* and diving vessel, POSEIDON.

So instead of diving, the archaeologists examined the general area near the wreck site, discussing theories of how it may have sank at the hands of Roman sailors possibly during similar conditions, more than 2000 years ago.

Archaeologists Dr. Brendan Foley, Alex Tourtas and Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou examining the coastline adjacent to the Antikythera shipwreck.

Operations expert, skipper and technical diving instructor, Alexander Sotiriou theorizing about where the ship may have hit.

Cosmote has installed a dedicated 4G base station overlooking the wreck, so we can share information from at sea. It’s one of the fastest in Greece, clocking faster than 90Mb/s downloads via the mobile network.

* The yacht GLAROS has been generously provided as a research vessel for the project thanks to the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation.