18th February 2011

With the Zero still in progress attention recently has been turned to an American Fighter plane (an Avenger).... there's not much to speak of left under sea really....just a few lumps and bumps. Although the cockpit is still identifiable and reasonably intact! So the potential to uncover and identify the pilot and crew is high!....So efforts over the last week have focussed on dredging enough of the cockpit away so as to be able to reach inside.

Ralph's been slightly on the sidelines with a tropical ulcer preventing him from diving, but that hasn't stopped him from remaining in the thick of it and operating the dredger from the boat.

As luck would have it his first dive back in the harbour struck gold....well more bone...but exciting nonetheless..

After bringing up a few pieces of metal and rubber from the cockpit the last two dives have yielded the pilots joystick, instrument panel and finally a pair of rather sodden ulna (arm bones... maybe they were saluting as they went down)!!

At this point, the boys in blue remain submerged, but American authorities have been notified and it is most likely they will come and take their lads home.... the Americans take their MIAs (Missing in Action) seriously...very seriously...so we'll be leaving the Avenger alone until they arrive on their white charger to (some what belatedly take their men back home)... we have fantastic images of an entire American fleet full of navy seals arriving, converging on the harbour like a host of locusts to extract their fallen comrades from Davey Jones locker....returning them to their beloved families amidst the pomp and ceremony only the yanks can truly conjure.