Mission Journal 1 — Roger Garcia: Mission Day 1: Friday, December 9th, 2005
We reached the surface at 0945 after 16.5 hours of decompression. The end of the first half of the Navy saturation mission for 06–10–Sat, and the beginning of the second half had arrived. Forty five minutes after reaching the surface, we requested permission to leave the surface once again. That’s right, leave the surface again.
Aquarius never really “leaves bottom” or “reaches the surface” in the traditional sense. Designed as a pressure vessel, we “leave bottom”, “reach surface” and “reach bottom” again, all without getting wet during our decompression procedures. The first set of Navy saturation divers exit Aquarius shortly after reaching the bottom, and make a 50’ / 15 minute No “D” dive following their 5 day saturation mission and see sun light. I won’t be leaving the bottom with this set. I stay and wait for the second set of Navy saturation divers for their 6 day mission.
This was the plan, for me to stay and re–saturate with the next group. No problem, I say… Carlos Eyles, author of Blue Water Hunter said… “A man isn’t a man until he returns to the sea”.