Mission Journal 8 — Roger Garcia: Mission Day 2: Tuesday, December 7th, 2004
Well, I am going to start today by owning up to the fact that I failed to give credit in yesterday’s journal to a British Diver, LCDR David Ince, who is in saturation with us, for playing a part in our success yesterday. I sincerely apologize, and want everyone who reads this to know that he was and is a part of our team.
The military in me will never fade away. I woke up at 0530, but lay in the rack until 0630 watching fish swim at my bunkroom window. Not too long after that, the rest of the aquanauts woke up and had breakfast. The dive plan was to splash the first set of divers at 0800, and in true form our divers splashed at 0756. LCDR Ince and MDV Hove started by setting up the laser scanner in preparation for the arrival of the R/V Sabina with surface support. The laser scanner will give us an accurate 3-D view of the Aquarius habitat for future maintenance. This is where I failed to give credit to LCDR Ince, he is the laser scanner expert, but he also has engineer topside in support of the laser scanner named Ian Stifle. Sat divers, in concert with topside support positioned the laser, scanned and took snap shots of the habitat from 0830 until 1600, and all seemed pleased with the results.
Mid day Jim Buckley (Habitat Operations Manager) called me and asked if Capt. Wilkins (US Navy Supervisor of Salvage) and Capt. Murray (former Supervisor of Diving and current Navy Diving Program Manager) could come down for a visit. Both Capts are qualified Navy saturation divers, and both have an Aquarius saturation mission under their belts. Following a quick meet and greet, both men sat down and had lunch. We talked for a few moments, after all… we do have some history between us. The view from the table was like no other (if you know what I mean).
The significance of this lunch today with these two men at 45 fsw (feet of sea water) over cheese quesadillas and gatorade would not be seen by most people, at least by people who aren’t used to paying attention to tiny details. This lunch was loaded with tiny details… and to those people I say this… “Some of the best business deals have been made over what may have seemed to be an insignificant lunch.”
One last thing. Usually there are un-song heroes, people in the background that are seldom noticed. Today, as well as yesterday, the topside crews of NURC and of the U.S. Navy, along with others, once again braved a long day and 6 - 7′ seas to ensure our success. HOO YAH TOPSIDE!