For the duration of the project the INA team is staying at te Royal Hotel in Kushimoto, part of the Daiwa House Group. It offers 252 rooms of the higest standarts and convention facilities on 13 floors, a number of restaurants specialized in different types of food. It has its own separate dog hotel with training falicities.

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It is interesting how the history is told. I heard many variations of the story of the sinking of the Erturgul, and its salvage operation. What has been written, and what has been told is different. Also, what has been told was written and became to be known as “what really happened.” Some say there was a large explosion, and the other say the ship hit the reef and lost control. The wind direction at the time of sinking seems to have different stories as well.

read more | Randy's blog

I did not go out on the boat today, but because the divers are getting back to the hotel often too late and too tired to write up the day's news for this website, I will report on what I heard from them over dinner, and that is that they are finding quite a few artifacts, including today a wooden fragment of the ship's hull, several pulley blocks, and two rifles. The idea this year is not to raise artifacts, but simply to learn as much about the site as possible in order to plan for a large-scale excavation next year.

read more | george's blog