Didn't get as much time on the wreck as I would have liked, as one of the group used his air up twice as fast as anyone else and ended up sharing with the dive master while the rest of us still had enough for another half hour. Still, the weather is good and it will still be there tomorrow...
Things I learned yesterday:
1) Don't buy a cheap Chinese dive light (actually not even very cheap at €49 without batteries). Mine was rated to 60m but at about 5m it began to let water in, was dim and flickering at 20m and gave up the ghost entirely shortly afterwards.
2) Even a small electric current will electrolyse seawater into hydrogen and oxygen: as I boarded the boat after the dive, the blinkin' thing exploded, scattering batteries and bits & pieces everywhere.
3) The French are well versed in the art of robbery: the chandler who sold me the light that very morning, refunded the price of the light but not of the batteries; presumably he thought that I could retrieve them from the sea bed and get some further use out of them...
Strangely, there is no trace at all of the rear fuselage and tail of the B-17; not even on some wider sonar images that can be found on the web.
Maybe it broke off during the ditching and sank immediately, leaving the rest to drift to where it is now, or a possibly a vessel has snagged it with an anchor and dragged it away (as happened to the cockpit roof a few years back).
Nobody at the local dive centre will admit to any knowledge of its whereabouts but I get the sense that they know something that they are not letting on.....
Fancy coming down here with Predator and having a look, Bill?
