Our Commitment to the Project
For ten months, we have been thinking only of the Lost Island. This virtually unknown submerged volcano appears to us during the night, in our dreams ... a beautiful obsession. From the first moment, we were overwhelmed by the legendary tales that told of an island created by an explosion only to disappear into thin air, leaving no trace. We have conducted extensive research on the history of the mysterious island and met many experts, but none of them was able to provide complete information on the Sea Bank of the Sicily Strait. A mysterious island, a submerged volcano, an unexplored dive site in the middle of a wonderful sea... our destination was decided; the Lost Island would be ours! The diving will not be easy, but together we can complete this ambitious research project.
We had our Never Never Land, we had a foundation and direction for our research, now we just had to organize the logistics. We soon realized that this would not be an easy task. There were no boats equipped to take us to Ferdinandea island and no organized technical diving in those waters. To avoid running into violent storms, we had to plan our activities in the summer, the high season, when no one would be able to rent us a boat for our research unless we were forcing them to rob a bank! Luckily, we met the guys of the Crew Lopez. When we told them about the Lost Island and our hopes and plans to implement the project, they understood and joined us. We had the boat!
We have created a technical diving center and a modern filling station from nothing, found our base of operations and a host hotel for our fellow adventurers, and while I'm writing this, over a ton of diving equipment and a truck full of helium and oxygen on the road, destined for the Lost Island. The organization phase is now over, and we are working day and night to define the last details before starting the project. In the last ten months we have met wonderful people who have joined us, and we could not have achieved this much without them. We started from nothing, from a dream, and now that we are ready to leave, a smile appears on our faces - we are so excited and ready to explore the unknown!
We wanted to share with you these important moments in the development of the Lost Island Project. We will continue to use our blog, Facebook page, and the DIR Explorers Forum as a means of keeping you up to date on the project’s accomplishments and our plans Now we are only missing you. Inevitably, all this comes at a price and given the exceptional nature of the project and especially the place we're going to explore, this price is not for everyone. We listened to your messages and we are committed even more to try to find a possibility to involve even more people. The Special Offer that was presented yesterday is not a marketing operation, but the result of our efforts and our willingness to take on more of the costs in order to share this endeavor. We hope that the offer puts this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity within reach for you.
We remain dedicated to all of you, our fellow explorers and adventurers.
Enjoy!
Project Organization: What we will do?
The first year of The Lost Island Project will have two phases of development: exploration and data collection. Documentation will be a fundamental part of the project which will be present at every stage of the activities. Each week-long project installment will be structured similarly for efficiency and the ease of new participants.
1. Day 1 of the project involves the presentation of the activities and the first two talks regarding data collection procedures and the procedures for diving in the high sea. The first talk will explain in detail the goals that divers will accomplish during their research, and the second will cover the official accident plan for the project. Next, we will perform two training dives in which we will apply the information from the talks. The dives will be conducted in shallow water under the scientific supervision of marine biologist Dr. Nicola Savi and the guidance of GUE instructor Francesco Spaggiari for the high-seas diving procedures. These first dives will also serve to finalize the equipment before it is shipped to the project site. At the end of the day we will move to the nearby port of San Leone to load all the equipment on the boat and depart to the island of Ferdinandea. The island is about 40 nautical miles from the port of San Leone and we will spend our first night aboard the boat, sailing towards our goal beneath the stars.
2. On the second day we will wake up anchored above the volcano, the top of which sits at about 8 meters depth. We will spend three days in Ferdinandea, diving and conducting research. The site is an underwater mountain that rises from about 300 meters with the base at about 50 meters . The teams involved in the activities of exploration and research will always be assisted at the surface by a boat with a diver on board for emergencies, to ensure maximum safety during the diving operations. The team of researchers will be divided according to the degree of patent ownership and will be composed of a maximum of 3 divers and 1 supervisor.
The time on the island will not just include diving; all data collected will be cataloged so that it can be analyzed once we return to land. On all dives, a member of the team will have the task of documenting the activities, since one of the aims of the project is to make a documentary that follows the development of the project step by step, including the emotions and experiences of the participants.
The fifth day will split into 3 phases:
a. Data collection and cataloguing
b. Planning and production of photo and video documentation
c. Gas refills
This day will be rich in content. Under the supervision of our marine biologist, we will learn the possible results of our research in depth, and we will prepare to send the collected data to the scientific directors. We will take care of the video editing, photo cataloging, and logistics, in order to ensure that the new teams of divers who arrive in the coming days can work as efficiently as possible.
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3. The last day of the project (Friday), we will have the opportunity to take a guided tour to the beautiful Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, an extraordinary place famous throughout the world for the beauty of its Greek temples. For those who wish to go by sea, there will be a chance to dive the underwater sites of Agrigento or spend a day aboard a boat exploring the coast of Sicily.
Enjoy!
