Kathy's Shipwrecked Diary

Production team

Day 1

Wow! Here we are again. Another amazing place it’s a privilege to be in.

I came to Zanzibar once before - about 12 years ago during a 6 month stint travelling, mostly alone in Africa, then in India. I had loved Zanzibar. It’s such an exotic mix of cultures. It feels like different kinds of people have been passing through for eons. Which they have. It feels quite a lot more touristy now - but you can still escape … and our location is a complete escape. It’s empty. Deliciously!

So - to the challenges. I have to determine the tides - and find a shipwreck. J has to build an R.O.V. (remotely operated vehicle) - to work underwater (!!), Ellen and Mike are making iodine to purify water for us to - drink - allegedly.

I had a lovely first day looking at the tides. Didn’t think too long and hard … just decided I had to get on with it. I judged we were pretty close to high tide when we were given the challenge. Ideally I wanted to measure the highest water level, and the lowest. Basing it all on one reading would be daft, so I had to get going quickly to see if I might catch the high tide.

So I took a long bit of wood - marked off regular distances, which I indicated by tying on a bit of orange rope - and stuck it in the water like a giant ruler.

When the water level got low on the ‘ruler’ - I stuck another one in - further out to sea.

Then I measured off where the water level was every hour. High tide had been around midday - so I knew I had about 6 hours before the lowest water level - indicating low tide.

So I was forced to nip in and out of the sea, sticking poles into the sea bed, propping them up with big rocks. On a sunny day, on a beautiful beach, in warm turquoise water - this was just divine. What a job!

From the place everyone else was working - I must have looked a sight. I could be seen, wrestling with a pole in the water - using my feet to try to get the rocks underwater in place, wearing rather sad, baggy M & S undies (having not been quite prepared for this concept!). Clearly - it was hysterical for them.

I carried on, happy as Larry, oblivious. Happy in my absorbing, delightful task.

Towards low tide, the waves calmed enormously - so it was much easier to measure the depth. Of course.

I took depth readings every 15 minutes - and kept going a couple of hours after the lowest point so I could plot a graph showing depth of water over time to get a really accurate measure of the lowest point. It meant taking some measures in the dark. But hey, in a warm sea, it was a pleasure.

A long but brilliant day!

Production team

Day 2

An altogether less pleasant day.

Nice start - with Kate saying I was pretty ‘bang on’ with my tide time.

Now, of course, there’s just ONE DAY to find a way of finding the shipwreck.

The theory is fine … and I thought I just needed a bit of wood with some nails stuck in to sort it out.

But it just wasn’t so simple! Firstly - it took ages working out how to explain it simply. It seems obvious to me - but once you start explaining it, suddenly it feels much more complicated. And if you explain every bit in one go - you lose the will to live it goes on so long.

So I made up a bit of wood with some angles marked on. But how do I know this crummy bit of wood will really help?!

So I decided I had to test it out on distant things - where I could work out the angles.

The production team hadn’t imagined I’d do this - and it turned out our site hadn’t been marked on the map so accurately (fair enough! It’s hardly a known landmark!). So we needed to get round this.

Finally - I worked out some reasonable points to use, with angles I would find reasonably accurately from the map.

The device worked fine for smallish angles - for 15°-30°. Beyond that - it became harder. I guess because I needed to move my head a little to line up the nails properly.

Euchh! This is so much harder than it should be!

I marked out angles from the first clock tower (the one nearer to us) to all the points I thought could be useful - the other clock tower, Chumbe lighthouse, and the edge of the closest island - Bawi.

Went to sleep feeling less than confident. It’s funny … life is bigger than this. Why worry? But these challenges get so absorbing - you just get obsessed. It’s like doing research in science. You get to care so much about something other people would think mad, or irrelevant. But you do care. And I wouldn’t describe myself as an obsessive (or anal) person. I like big picture stuff - not detail. But you can get so interested - it can make you feel like singing, or drive you mad because even your dreams start to include bits of the science or the project.

(On these Rough Science trips - Jonathan always dreams that the camera crews are filming him sleeping. Maybe that’s because they usually do?!)

Production team

Day 3

Really frustrating day. I was really worried about trying to get us to the wreck at low tide - so Jonathan’s ROV had the best chance of getting a good view of the shipwreck … that is … IF we found it.

And also - to give us the best chance of seeing the wreck. My angle device is not so accurate I’ll be able to really - pin-point the exact spot.

I began by ignoring all the plans I’d made about the direction to head in & how to get there . I could see a sandbar - and assumed it was the dotted line on the map. I thought this was going to be easier than I’d imagined. So we just headed to the sandbar.

My mistake was - dotted lines were meant to mean “reef’” - rather than “visible at low tide”. So - I got us going off in completely the wrong direction.

My next problem was - I’d taken all my angles from clock tower (A) … but we couldn’t see clock tower (A) from where we were. I’d assumed if it was on the map - we’d see it from the sea. Big assumption. I should have used clock tower (B). After all - it was closer to the shipwreck. Sigh! So most of the angles I’d got worked out - were useless.

I did have 2 angles to measure off - which should be enough. But while one was 15°, which was fine - the other was about 78°… which was hopeless - way beyond the point at which the device worked.

Really disappointed. I felt helpless. If I’d just used the nearest clock tower (which would have been logical but it hadn’t occurred to me the other might not be visible) - it would have been fine.

But interestingly, Raphael, the captain, gently ignored some of my instructions. Then we seemed to slow down dramatically for one of my readings. When Kate went in - we were right on top of the shipwreck.

Of course - Raphael knows where it is. He’s busy lining up markers he can see - using the same logic - only using things on land you can see, rather than things you can’t.

But it would have been a complete cheat. It wasn’t me and my ‘device’ … it was local knowledge. Which is great - but only if we show it for real.

So - I said I was unhappy. I hadn’t found the wreck. I wouldn’t have - with what I was using. So we went for taking a look at coral - not a shipwreck.

Frustrated - and cross with myself - but the ROV was AMAZING!