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The Hardeep Shipwreck Mooring Buoy Project - Preservation.

We have been blessed locally with wonderful training conditions with great recreational scuba diving also. One of the main highlights for both recreational and divers in training is the Hardeep Ship wreck which lies in approximately 28 meters of water in Samesan, Pattaya, Thailand. The Hardeep is a ship with a lot of history and the details can be seen here. As it lays there have been no marker buoys on the wreck and it is now paying the price. When dive boats come in to drop off divers until currently the wreck is anchored to, causing a lot of stress on the boat that was sunk in 1942.

A team of divers for Mermaids carried out a "preservation" project on the Hardeep ship. It has been down for a long time and we wish for it to be diveable for a very much longer time yet.

Headed by Brock and Alex, Mermaids divers assisted with the planning, labour and the diving for the laying of new mooring lines. The "X" marks on the picture above show where the new mooring lines have been laid - we have one at the bow and one at the stern.

Tuesday 31st May 2005 Jeremiah, Alex, Brock, John and a team assisted with the creation of 50 x 50 kilogram concrete blocks. The mixes had to be made on the boat in the fishing port of Samesan as if they were made off of the boat there would have been a lot of fun transferring 1.5 tons of concrete on to a dive boat.

HMS - Mermaid's Photographer & technical diver setting for the day.	The fishing port of Samesan around the point from Pattaya, Thailand.	The guys meeting at the pier ready for the day.	One of the many islands scattered around the local area.
Jeremiah assisting with bringing the concrete mix on to the boat.	Making the 50 kilo moulds.	Inspection time.	The finished products - 50 x 50 kilogram concrete weights for mooring buoys.

With the concrete literally set we met on June the 1st 2005 at Mermaids CDC Pattaya, Thailand for the laying of the lines. This took very careful planning as we had to drop the 50 kilo concrete blocks in such a fashion that they stayed close to each other, we had to be careful to avoid the wreck and we only had a narrow window to work in as the sides of the Hardeep slope off to deep depths.

HMS, Jez, Alex, Brock and John at the shop preparing all.	The camera man for the Pattaya People taking scenic shots	Brock being interviewed about the project.	Alex giving a presentation in Thai to the journalists for the Bangkok Post.
	To the left - Pj being interviewed for TV. Alex being interviewed to the right - we were interviewed in the port as the reporters were not coming with us. The coverage is good as it highlights the cause that we are striving to achieve. Unless some action is taken now the wreck will not be able to be dived much longer - it is too valuable to lose.

The plan of attack to safely get the concrete blocks in place was for Pj and Alex to make a buddy team and take down two lines with attached buoys to mark the destination to drop the concrete over board. This is essential as with no reference we risked losing some of the concrete or even worse hitting the Hardeep ship.

Leaving the port for the Hardeep project.	Sharing a joke on the back platform before Alex and Pj enter to set the lines.	One of the buoys being thrown to Alex.	Descending down on to the wreck.
The Hardeep has many penetration possibilities.	Alex tugging on the first line to the bottom at 28 meters.	Alex adjusting his buoyancy to be negative to stay stuck on the bottom for the job.	Alex observing a 5 meter safety stop for 3 minutes. We stop on EVERY dive.

With the two marker buoys in place after a very difficult dive we were ready lighten the load of our dive boat and drop the concrete. Once safely on the bottom we can get on with collecting the blocks to create a hefty download for the "Police Marker Buoys" that had been donated by the local constabulary. We needed to collect 25 in each area and then bind then together to create one large 1250 kilogram weight. On "Twin Nitrox Sets" we had Brock, HMS, Dave and Jeremiah - this was to be our first group of 4. The reason for using Nitrox and twins was to increase the available dive "bottom time" so that the project could be completed without running out of air or available safe time underwater. Details of Nitrox diving can be seen here...

The 2nd group (of 3) heading for the other pile of concrete to be collected and bound, was Phil, Alex, and John. Thip and Pj joined the "twin sets" to document the process (take pictures). 

Over go the first 25 blocks at the 1st buoy marker.	Down they go!	HMS intently listening to a dive plan.	We need to get HMS and Jeremiah in the water quickly!
Equipment preparation and checks. The 3rd check already.	Jeremiah and HMS getting ready for the dive - about time too!	Brock ready to lead his team to the concrete assembly point.	Dave ready with his 100 pound twin set.
Phil ready with his "pony bottle" for filling his lift bag to move the concrete blocks.	John set and ready to go.	Jeremiah complete with twin set and air bag bottle.	Thip going with Pj for the photography side of things.

Once all equipment and buddy checks had been performed we could at last get down to the main project of the day - the dive laying the weight foundation for the buoys.

Following a twin set down the line to the concrete blocks.	Locating the blocks was interesting as they had spread.	Once found - lift bags were used to move the concrete blocks together.	Brock and Dave collected the blocks at the allocated place.
Brock tying the cable through the blocks.	That's what buddies are for - good when all dive as a team.	Lift bag usage bring the blocks to the increasing pile.	The pile grows.
	As Thip and Pj were on single sets and not Nitrox, their dive was shorter than the working divers and we did not get the finished result but progress looked good.

I have to say congratulations to the team from Mermaids. To Brock, Thip and Alex for the overall planning and execution and to John (X-Treme), HMS, Phil, Dave, and Jeremiah for the assistance with the dives. A great job was done and let's hope that this effort will allow us to train on and pleasure dive this wreck for many more years to come.