Treasure Hunters Set Sail for Fiji

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.   <ericshackleATbigpond.com>

Australian adventurer Don McIntyre and his doughty crew have set sail from
Tarawa, and are now heading for Fiji, on the first leg  of a global search for lost treasure.

They are travelling in an icebreaker named ICE, a 15.2metre  40-tonne steel ice-strengthened motor sailor dive support vessel.

"Jane is on watch now till 2100 hrs" Don reports on his website, "then me for three hours,..then Mark at midnight. We are running three four-hour watches during the day and four  three-hour watches at night... we had meat pies for lunch, and microwave dinner followed by the free ICE cream you get when you buy 5-litre yellow buckets in Tarawa..now we will havetwo of those! 

  "Looks like we will cross the equator again at about 2200hrs tonight ... so all good for now... we are very alert doing the hourly engine room checks..for now 1600rpm and 1.5gall fuel per hour..making 5.8 knots with the main and mizzen up into 18 knots apparent wind and 40degrees on port bow..

"Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight....with one eye open!"

Don has promised to donate 20 per cent of any treasure he finds to the Sheffield Institute Foundation for research into Motor Neurone Disease and other Neurological disorders.


You can follow Don's adventures or email him  by visiting his blog, www.bluetreasure.me

Treasure Hunters Set to Sail

From ERIC SHACKLE in Sydney, Australia. <ericshackle*bigpond.com>

Now that gold is worth more than $1800 an ounce -- the most it has ever been -- Australian adventurer Don McIntyre could not have chosen a better time to set out on his Blue Treasure expedition.

He is about to sail from Tarawa in a 15.2 metre 40-tonne steel ice-strengthened motor sailor dive support vessel named ICE. Two crew members have already been selected, and McIntyre is looking for others to join them -- and to share the costs.

Tarawa, an island in the central Pacific, was the scene of a fierce battle in WWII, in which thousands of US and Japanese forces lost their lives.

In his latest blog post, McIntyre reports:  "After crossing the equator Sunday weather was fantastic. We made a call to Macca [ABC radio host Ian MacNamara] on Australia All Over. We listen to Radio Australia every Sunday which was fun as he has many listeners in Australia and around the \Pacific.

"Then we passed another cruising yacht... going the other way..They left England 20 years ago and are still cruising..They were suprised to see us, as they heard us talking to Macca a few hours before on their radio.

"We cruised past great islands and were settling into another moonlit night with light winds when..silience!.. the engine just stopped dead like someone switched it off. It was 1930hrs.".

You can follow the ICE and contact its crew by visiting its website:
http://www.bluetreasure.me/blog/

and see photos: http://s1091.photobucket.com/albums/i386/Bluetreasure-Ice/