SEE SITES MY TRIP ON MAP - Images load under the menu - click to enlarge them
ottoman grave markers from the Sinop Museum

Istanbul

Sinop / Black Sea

Aegean Coast
  1. Hagia Sophia
  2. Blue Mosque
  3. Shopping Istanbul
  4. Plane flight
  5. Bus trip
  6. Istanbul Streets
  7. Transportation
  8. Turkish Construction
  1. Black Sea coast
  2. Sinop Museum
  3. Walls of Sinop
  4. Otel 57
  5. Sinop Streets
  6. Sinop market
  7. Sinop Habor
  8. Hinterland
  1. Bodrum
  2. Gallipoli
  3. Troy
  4. Ephesus
  5. Pergamum
UNDERWATER SURVEY '99 Yildiz1 2- Guven1 2 3 - Orkoz - Saros - ROVs

MORE ON ROVS

 

We had two ROVs that were on two ships most of the expediton.

Benthos Sea Rover Benthos Sea Rover
is first ROV does a survey of the area using both sonar and a television camera.The sonar is the small red can looking thing on top of the ROV. It was carried by the Yildiz.
Benthos Mini-Rover Mark II
is second ROV, which belongs to National Geographic, is designed to take sill pictures and high quality television images it worked off the Orkoz 2 most of the trip, with National Geographic.		 Benthos Mini-Rover Mark II
 

Unlike most people think, you can't just lower the ROV overboard and expect everything to work just fine. Alot of the first week was spent just working on getting the ROVs working. We had to work out a number of issues.

Launch and recovery. Each ROV weighs about one hundred pounds. The platform we are using for the project is a fishing ship. The boom hanging off the back works surprising well for supporting the ROV. A rod is used to use the ROV away from the ship. The next, issue to work out was ROV's flotation. This needed to be adjusted for both the load of equipment on the frame of the ROV and the salinity of the water. Being a member of this expedition I am becoming more and more aware of the weeks and even months it takes to film successfully underwater. There is a lot of sitting around waiting for things to happen. Luckily I am in the company of some of the most knowledgeable people in the world on the subject of underwater archaeology. The time passes a little more quickly because of this. I like the crew. They all are very interested in the operation of the machinery. They care a lot about what is going on with the ROV. I drew a picture of Yoph and his grandson. They liked the pictures very much. They gave me the Turkish sign for "good." They razed all four fingers vertically and put the thumb to the top of the middle finger and shake it. The ROV made it to the bottom toward the end of the day. By viewing the TV monitor everybody can follow it's progress. I was surprised that I did not see any fish. I think the lights and noise scare them off long before you can get close. It cruised a sandy plain that was almost feature less The other boat using the sonar. Was able to find some targets at the end of the day. In the evening we watch these on a TV. Tomorrow the National Geographic camera ROV will be able to take a closer look.