On the 25th we pulled into Vlore which is the third largest city in Albania and the largest coastal city. We came in for a press meeting and to meet with Auron Tare, who is Albania's National Agency Coast head. He is a long time friend to RPM and is very involved with the culture surrounding Albania's coast. He and a group of local politicians and people involved in the new agency came aboard Friday evening for a demonstration of the AUV. It was a great experience to interact with locals and learn more about the region. It was also my first time getting to see the AUV in action.
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| The AUV in action. Emily Kovacs |
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| AUV in its full glory. Emily Kovacs |
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| Socializing between Hercules crew and our guests. Emily Kovacs |
The following morning the crew and some of the guests from the previous night set out for Sazan. Sazan is an island off of Vlore that is three miles long and about 1.7 miles wide. It does have a few large mountains on it, the highest reaching 337 meters above sea level. The island was originally used as a military base but has since been abandoned in the 1980's. There are numerous buildings throughout the island and bunkers scattered everywhere.
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| RV Hercules on Sazan. Emily Kovacs |
The afternoon started off with Jack and Derrick Smith (who is our resident biologist on board) talking with the guests about the biological impacts on the region and keeping the environment healthy.
There was a group of us who decided to trek up the mountain. We had quite the adventure picking black raspberries and seeing all the old buildings. It took us several hours to make it all the way to the top, but it was well worth the view.
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| Old overgrown buildings. Emily Kovacs |
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| View of the harbor and Hercules from 1/4 the way up. Emily Kovacs |
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| Top of the mountain is our captain and Lauren! Emily Kovacs |
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| One of the natives thinking about joining us on board. Emily Kovacs |
As I write this, we are still positioned on Sazan. Morgan and I were going to have AUV lessons today while the rest of the crew went to sector scan a WW I ship called the Regina Margarita, but the wind and seas were too rough to use the equipment. So we came back to Sazan's harbor for the afternoon. The FKCC trio did get some review time in before Morgan and I took our second quiz regarding the equipment. Tonight we will depart for Barr, Montenegro where we will work with the AUV and sector scanner on several sights.
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| Studying for the quiz. Courtesy of Jack Seubert |
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| Not a bad place for school! Courtesy of Jack Seubert |
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