[by Erikos Kranidiotis and Stelios Stamatakis]
Underwater exploration of Lavreotiki old Mining Works is a difficult and demanding task. This is a short film from our recent mission to find the missing engine that has been abandonded at old underewater Mine Sklives. Since the project started in June of 2019 it has always been a goal of the team to locate the engine and other machinery which were thought to have been left in the Sklives mining facility when this flooded back in the late 70s. During spring of 2020, information obtained by Vasilis Stergiou which he shared with us confirmed this as highly probable, although the exact location would have to be explored underwater.
With the help of expert in this field Hercules Katsaros and members of the team we set out in September 2020 on a mission to find it. We dived from the 4th level down two flight of stairs to locate the engine which was situated underwater at a depth of 20 meters. We emptied both our primary reels laying down line throughout the mine and the underwater section is a stunning time capsule. This was our 9th mine and by far the best mine dive to date.
This short film documents these efforts, above and below water, ultimately reaching the goal of locating the engine.