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Dan Porter is Chief of Operations for Blue Water Ventures Key West and captain of the Blue Water Rose.
Dan has worked on some of the most famous shipwrecks in the world, and wants to give you his perspective on the crew and all their adventures at sea though
this "Captain's Blog."
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In Dan Porter's own words...
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November 7, 2008:
We all had high hopes of getting one more day in before the conditions deteriorated to the point where we could not continue excavation. Unfortunately it was not going to happen. We returned to port to turn in our artifacts and started working on the boat to get it prepared for the next trip.
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November 6, 2008:
This morning our day began with the news of a late season hurricane over the VHF radio. The wind field from the storm would start affecting our weather conditions as early this evening so we quickly continued our excavations on the west side of the Cannon Ball Clump area. We have to remember the purpose of working in this area is to define the secondary scatter trails off of these known areas. We have found at least one of these trails that I believe looks promising. As we continue plotting our excavations these trails should become more and more prominent. It will take a lot more excavation work and I am sure we will have some fascinating discoveries along the way. As the day comes to an end we are all hoping for one more day.
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November 5, 2008:
Another good day, on site early and right to it. I took the helm today and put Jesse and Gavin in the water. As we went through the day, material kept coming up but nothing significant. We have just about worked into some virgin area. When ever we do get a hole in those areas there is a lot more material. With the change of time it makes our afternoons go by fast. We all wish there was more time in the day but we’re glad to get the chances that we are this time of year.
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November 4, 2008:
Ok, the conditions were just about the same as the day before and we couldn’t wait to get back in the water and started where we left off yesterday. Gavin Rall and I started off in the water to see what we could make happen with Jesse VanHouten at the helm and Larry Jones working the deck. We were still working the previous excavated area and material was coming up out of every hole. We got into a particular type of bottom terrain that we call Swiss cheese because it is a porous type of bottom that is very hard to search. I use a water jet in this terrain so I can dust the sand out of the holes. It worked very well and in the very first hole I dusted out, I uncovered a small gold bead. It looked as though it had been there for four hundred years just waiting to be uncovered. This find, as with all significant finds slows the process down to a crawl. We spent the rest of the day working around this area with nothing else to show for it. Tomorrow we continue on!
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November 3, 2008:
This morning the winds are blowing from the north about 15 to 20 knots but the wind direction makes it very workable. We got an early start and we were hooked up to our anchors by seven O’clock. The water was pretty darn cold and we would all like to thank the guys at Henderson wet suits for the supply of new suits, the timing was perfect. The day continued with no problems but also with no big finds.
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November 2, 2008:
As we started loading groceries on board the Blue Water Rose the weather started looking better and better. We left the dock around noon and arrived at the site a little after two o’clock. We straightened out our anchors and put them on our coordinates for tomorrow’s excavations. We have to work through an area of past excavations from other expeditions. This should take about a day maybe a day and a half. This is what we do to complete a methodical search of an area we are targeting. Although the seas are calming down the visibility is still pretty bad.
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October 18 - November 1, 2008:
Well October was a rough month but we took full advantage of the wind and got a lot done both on the boats and in the chart room. I had the opportunity to show the new charts to Keith Webb and we spent countless hours brain storming over the charts to come up with what we believe is a sound plan for defining the secondary scatter pattern from the main pile and cannon ball clump areas.
The good new is October is now over and the weather is calming down as I type; it looks good through Thursday right now. The boat is fueled & iced up and we are heading for the site at first light. We are all very excited and I don’t think that any of us are going to sleep tonight. We know we are going to be in a very good area with a wealth of information. Stay tuned and I will try and provide updates from sea.
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October 18 - November 1, 2008:
Well October was a rough month but we took full advantage of the wind and got a lot done both on the boats and in the chart room. I had the opportunity to show the new charts to Keith Webb and we spent countless hours brain storming over the charts to come up with what we believe is a sound plan for defining the secondary scatter pattern from the main pile and cannon ball clump areas.
The good new is October is now over and the weather is calming down as I type; it looks good through Thursday right now. The boat is fueled & iced up and we are heading for the site at first light. We are all very excited and I don’t think that any of us are going to sleep tonight. We know we are going to be in a very good area with a wealth of information. Stay tuned and I will try and provide updates from sea.
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October 4 - 10, 2008:
The weather pattern has changed and not in our favor. In the mean time, he crew and I have used the time in port to get on top of a few things. Mainly boat work! We have put the survey boat, Southern Rose in the water and preparing to finish the first part of the magnetometer survey. This should take one more trip to the site and then we will start our Northern survey. I can’t tell you how excited we all are about starting the next survey. Jesse VanHouten will take the helm of that project.
As the items we found the last trip went through the conservation and preservation process some of my assumptions were proven wrong. The first one was the gold ring. I had thought that the ring had a silver setting. What it actually had was a green piece of cut glass framed in silver and set in the gold ring. This must have been one awesome looking ring. This shows how professional conservation and preservation practices are of the utmost importance. John Corcoran in the Mel Fisher Treasures’ lab is absolutely the most dedicated and professional conservator I have ever met.
The second assumption I made was that the shaped piece of jade that Gavin Rall found was the lid to a box. In all actuality it was a paper weight and might be green marble. I have to thank John at the lab again for doing the research figure out exactly what this unique artifact actually is.
I have been working with Gary Randolph on the early charts of the Margarita. What we did was digitize the old charts that were plotted using a DelNorte positioning system. Then overlaid our modern DGPS plotted charts for the first time. I must say I am very impressed by the information that this put at my finger tips. This will help immensely as I work on defining the secondary scatter patterns of the main pile and cannon ball clump areas. While we are waiting for our permit extensions to the north we are concentrating on these secondary scatters. It is very exciting and we are expecting some very significant finds in these new areas.
Got to check the weather for the fifth time today, it should break soon. The crew and I can’t wait to get back out there!
Check out some of the latest pictures here.
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October 3, 2008:
As we got rolling this morning the wind started blowing from the North at 15 to 20 knots and the seas were 2 to 4 feet. We got hooked up to our anchors without any problems. The film crew came out again today. As the day progress the conditions held but we worked through it. The material was a little lighter today but we did find a top to another Candle Stick Holder. Chris Tanaka came up with a musket ball and a key, two items I love to find it always seems that something good comes up around these items. Well we worked to about 6:30pm and headed for Key West.
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October 2, 2008:
Someone must have prayed to the wind God. Today was another awesome day. We set up and continued working up the West side of the Cannon Ball Clump area. The film crew was out again today and with 40’ visibility I’m sure they had a great day. I dove all day again and happened to find more treasure. A little after noon I got a strong hit on flat white bottom. It took a while to work it out of the hole it was in but I got it. It was a silver button of sorts, it was square about 1 ¼ inches with a hole in the middle and notches on all four sides. This is another first for me. Jesse VanHouten and Larry Jones did a great job positioning the boat today while Gavin Rall handled tagging the artifacts and filled out the log. All and all another good day for everyone followed up with fresh fish and lobster for dinner.
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October 1, 2008:
This morning, the winds had switched to the North at around 15 to 20 knots. When we arrived on site the water was still clear and we decided to start where we left off yesterday. The set up was easy, even in the rough conditions. As the day got started, we were recovering barrel hoop fragments, lead sheathing and olive jar sherds. The True TV crew showed up again today and we had no problems working around them. On the forth hole, I got a strong hit on the metal detector. The hit sounded like a musket ball but as I hand fanned the small six inch solution hole I saw a glimmer of Gold. I could tell that it was a ring; a man’s ring with what I thought was a big emerald. We have a rule on the Blue Water Rose, as soon as you see what you think is treasure everything stops and we go into documentation mode. We want to have real life finds on video not reenactments. As I brought the ring out of the hole I could see that it was not an emerald. I had no idea exactly what it was. As it turns out it appears to be a gold ring with a silver setting. I have never seen anything like it before and I have seen a lot of rings off of Spanish shipwrecks. The rest of the day was uneventful, and came to an end around 6:00pm. Our friend stopped by and gave us more lobsters for dinner. Ahh, the life of a treasure hunter!
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September 30, 2008:
WOW! What a wild night of storms last night. Around midnight a strong storm hit and lasted till about 3:00am. Surprisingly when we woke it was flat calm. We had to make some much needed phone calls this morning so we motored into phone range and I worked out our strategies with Keith Webb on where we are going to work today. We decided to work to the West of the area called the cannon ball clump. It paid off the very first hole! I recovered a very nice silver candle stick holder and a silver coin. What a way to start the day. We brought material out of just about every hole. At the end of the day I asked our new diver Gavin Rall to come up with some beginners luck for me and sure enough he did. He swam over to me in the hole and held out what looks to be a Jade box lid. What a great find! Unfortunately as soon as we hit the surface we got hit with another storm. We can’t wait to get back to the spot and continue working this area more.
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September 29, 2008:
The crew and I are very excited about the weather today as we awoke to calm winds! For the first time the weather man was wrong in our favor. That has not happened much this year. The water visibility was awesome as we started our day. I wanted to do some exploring to the west of the main pile area. I know there are scattered items to the West but it is old area. I try and divide my time working where I know there is treasure and moving up the trail to the north looking for new areas of interest.
We had problems with the West anchor all day. There is not much sand here for it grab a good hold. The area looked really good as there was a lot of ballast and lead sheathing. We shut down around 6:30pm. Our friend stopped by and gave us more lobster than we could eat for dinner but we tried any way!
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September 28, 2008:
The weather looks great today, so we set up to the Eeast of the pearl and gold chains find. This is a promising area as it is near a silver coin arquebus’ find. We found material in almost every hole. The day ended at 6:30pm.
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September 27, 2008:
Today we started off waiting out a minor rain shower. We headed out to the site around 8:30am and began our day around where we left off yesterday, on the west side of cluster A. The film crew arrived slightly before 10:00am. As the day went on we continued to bring up material, including ceramics, barrel hoop fragments and spikes. Minor problems including anchors dragging have slowed us down slightly, but no major issues have surfaced. My daughters Katie and Allie were on board today and a big help to the whole operation. Katie got in the water with me and dove ten or so holes. We left the site around 6:45pm and stopped by our favorite fishing hole before dinner. Tomorrow is a new day and we can’t wait.
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September 26, 2008:
Today we did final preparations for our trip to the site. I would like to say that we all got some much needed rest but that was not the case. On a boat the size of the Blue Water Rose there is always something to repair or maintain. After two days on shore we are headed back to the site. We arrived at the Margarita at 12:30pm and worked on our anchors for an hour or two then set up on the west side of the cluster A area. This is one spot that we jumped over after doing the work around the Gold Chalise. There was a lot of material coming up here with ballast and fine ceramics. We were finding stuff in every hole and we were expecting something special at anytime. We ended the day at 6:45pm and headed to the Marquesas for the night.
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September 22, 2008:
Today we set up to the North, on our boundary line. I went a little too far to the west and wanted to pick up and move early
but decided to give it a full chance. Out of the first 20 holes all we found was one iron ring.
We repositioned more to the East, still close to our northern boundary line, but still not a lot of material coming up.
I guess no material would be a better statement. We pulled the blowers at 6:45 and headed back to Marquesas for the night.
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September 21, 2008:
The weather was not much better today but we were able to set up with no problems.
We set up to the North of the area that we found the silver coins. Sharon brought the camera crew to the boat
about 10:00 am. There was no problem working around them. The day did not produce any treasure but material came up
out of just about every hole.
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September 20, 2008:
The parts for the wench came around 9:30 so we went to work on that. Larry had it together in no time and we were
headed to the site. The wind and seas were not much better this day and we tried to hook up to our mooring anchors, but it was to much.
We returned to Marquesas and worked on the boat below deck. The weather forecast looks better for tomorrow from 15kts and
gusty to 10 to 15kts. Hopefully we will get a chance tomorrow.
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September 19, 2008:
As we woke, the wind was still blowing after a night of storms. We were pulling anchor to head to the site despite the
conditions. Just as the anchor came on board the wench on the bow blew out. After spending the morning tearing it apart
we were one seal short. I called Shawn and he got the parts together and got them to Shawn Redding to deliver to me
the next morning. The weather was not cooperating with us anyway so we don’t feel to bad.
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September 18, 2008:
Up with sun pulling the battery’s out and while checking them found we needed to replace two. Larry rewired the starter and
had a meeting with Louie the electrician. We top off with fuel and ice and headed back to the site with hope of the
weather holding. We arrived at Marquises around 4:00pm, the wind was blowing around 20kts so we stayed and took the whaler
fishing inside the island. Jesse caught some nice bait so we did some free lining. Lot of hits, Chris Tanaka caught a
nice cabara snapper. It was prefect for diner. A couple of the muttons went in the sea food chowder along with a few
lobsters that Gordo gave us.
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September 17, 2008:
Another awesome day! I don’t know where these days were this summer but I sure am glad that there here now. We set up to
continue where we left off yesterday. After Jesse’s 2 coin clump find we had to keep going. Chris Rackley and Chris Tanaka
started off diving. Early in the day we had bow anchor problems but got things straightened out. I got in the water around
noon, replacing Chris Tanaka and as soon as I turned my detector on, I found a silver coin, then one more out of the same hole.
After that we started having a few problems. We shut the motors off to let the sand fall to the bottom of the strainers and
when we went to restart them we had battery issues. A ground on the port starter shorted. We finely got things back on track
and digging holes. The one problem was we could not shut off the port motor. If we did it would not restart. The port motor runs
all of our hydraulics, steering, wenches, ect. We dug till dark and returned to Key West. We stayed on the boat so we would be
there and ready in the AM.
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September 16, 2008:
Today we woke up to a beautiful morning the way summer was supposed to be. We were on site 7:40am. East set up. With the lack of
material yesterday I decided to drop back to a spot we have wanted to hit for months. It is just east of the Gold bar and bit we
found last year. We will work through the Stone area.
The day went well no problems with the anchors. The east side is producing positive material. At the end of the day Jesse recovered
a four Coin clump. The coins appear to be in real good condition. Again we have found a new area that has been looked over.
These coins are the eastern most coins found on the site. The area to the North of us today looks very promising. Chris Tanaka
cooked an awesome dinner of pork chops and veggies. There is a big full moon in the sky tonight.
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September 15, 2008:
After riding three hurricanes out at the dock and rebuilding our anchor boat, the crew and I are back on the site. I can’t begin to
tell you how excited we all are to be here. The water visibility on the site is as bad as we have seen it all year “Around 4’ “.
As we started our day we were North of our northern most spot. We are just about 100 yards South of our northern boundary line. As
the day started the material was light and scattered but the enthusiasm is high. As the day went on it stayed slow.
We worked all day with a full moon tide. The whaler started to give us a little trouble but we made it through. We have our fingers
crossed for tomorrow. Not a very productive day. But we are all happy to be here.
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September 5, 2008:
So much for the hopes of a light hurricane season. The crew and I are in preparation for our third storm of the year Ike.
The good news is the forecast looks favorable as soon as Ike moves on. With a hopeful stretch of good weather to come the
crew and I are very excited about getting back to the site. We look forward to continuing our quest of solving the riddles
of the Margarita as its northern progression during the hurricanes of 1622. This one of the most interesting and exciting
parts of the job we do. Solving the riddles of historical shipwrecks is very exciting and our progress this year on the
Margarita has us all chomping at the bit to get back to work.
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July 25 thru July 30, 2008:
Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we had a very successful trip to the site. We were back on our trail
to the North and finding material with just about every excavation. We also made a move to the North-east this trip and never ran
out material. One of the high lights that came from this new area was that we found a magnificent piece of majolica. It was the
side of a cup or small bowl and had four colors. The typical white & blue and also yellow & red. One of the strongest indicators
of the actual trail was that we were finding scattered ballast in this area. As far as I know this is the farthest North that
ballast has ever been found.
Ok, the bad news is that the weather still has not been cooperating with us. The wind and seas have taken its toll on our anchor boat.
We have to replace the hull. This probably sounds worse than it really is. We anticipate being ready to return to the site on our
planned date without any delays and then we plan on continuing up the northerly trail.
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July 23, 2008:
Ok the crew, Keith Webb and I have made it through Blue Water Ventures KW Division week. For those of us that were here last year, the bounty of our efforts has paid off. With a very nice party at our friend Jack Warner’s house the 2007 season came to a close. There was a lot of smiling face’s as we looked back at an outstanding year.
Tomorrow we head back to the site. We all know exactly where we are going. It has been on our minds since the second we left the Margarita seven days ago. We know we are going to a very good area that has had very little work but produced the right kind of artifacts. I for one am very excited about continuing our push to the North. Believe it or not we even have a positive weather forcast. Be on standby for the next update!!!
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July 16, 2008:
I would like to say we continued on our search to the north but that did not happen this time. When you make a find as magnificent as the Gold Chalice we found on our last trip to the Margarita, things change. We had to modify our excavation techniques. We went from an exploratory search to a very refined methodical search pattern. Of course this takes a lot more work and time but after making one of the most significant finds in the last thirty years on this site I feel the time is well spent. I was very happy with the amount of progress this trip. We have excavated approximately 60% of the surrounding area where we recovered the Gold Chalice. In well over 200 separate excavations this trip we recovered a wide range of shipwreck debris. The whole crew is on Pins & Needles as we prepare for our next trip later this week.
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July 5, 2008:
I would like to say we continued on our search to the north but that did not happen this time. When you make a find as magnificent as the Gold Chalice we found on our last trip to the Margarita, things change. We had to modify our excavation techniques. We went from an exploratory search to a very refined methodical search pattern. Of course this takes a lot more work and time but after making one of the most significant finds in the last thirty years on this site I feel the time is well spent. I was very happy with the amount of progress this trip. We have excavated approximately 60% of the surrounding area where we recovered the Gold Chalice. In well over 200 separate excavations this trip we recovered a wide range of shipwreck debris. The whole crew is on Pins & Needles as we prepare for our next trip later this week.
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June 26, 2008: Hello everyone! I wanted to personally invite you all to the first installment of the "Captain's Blog".
Well the crew of the Blue Water Rose had another extremely successful trip to the Santa Margarita this week. We have defined
a trail of a certain type of material that we believe to be from a very rich section of the ship, the Stern Castle. As we work
on this trail we have been given small clues such as the magnificent gold tooth pick and spoon, scattered silver coins, other
silver artifacts, musket balls, and a large amount of ornate ceramics including an intact bowl.
On Tuesday June 24th, the wind and seas were not favorable for excavation but with the seasoned crew aboard, I decided to give
it a shot anyway, and boy am I glad I did. On the fourth excavation our newest crew member Michael DeMar uncovered a spectacular
artifact, a solid Gold Chalice. Regardless of the weather situation we continued to work for the rest of the day, until a very
powerful waterspout came within just a few hundred yards of the Blue Water Rose. Then within minutes two more water spouts dropped
so close we decided to pull anchor and head for lee side of Marquesas Keys to ride out the storm. The trail is certainly heating up
and I can't wait to tell all about our next adventure when we make port again.
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