Mission Journal 9 — David Ince: Mission Day 2: Tuesday, December 7th, 2004
This morning I awoke slowly to a soft chiming bell (the hab’s alarm call I guess) and to the green aquatic light filtering through the bunk room’s 4″ thick view port. I had slept an unbroken straight 8 hours, really unusual for me, perhaps I should put a very large aquarium at the foot of my bed at home. Roger, our NOAA technician and dive safety officer, was quietly and efficiently running through the hab’s system checks as the rest of us gradually got moving, washed and breakfasted. One of the first things that I noticed as I peered out of the view ports with renewed wonder, was that the cast of fishy characters had changed in the living marine life show. A whole new variety of fauna hunter and prey was zipping past in the early morning light, another day of survival and surviving to play out.
We were to start diving at 0800, but in the event hit the water at 0756. My mission here is to laser profile the sea lab’s hull, and today we began in earnest. The local inhabitants had other ideas though, and the hab’s living exoskeleton of snappers that I had admired so much yesterday quickly became a hindrance to our work as they herded directly in the areas we were trying to scan. My attempts to shoo them away were laughable and if anything encouraged their curiosity. In the end we just persevered and managed to build the picture we required by re-scanning the areas of interest several times, hoping that the fish didn’t have the skill to occupy the exact same position every time. The ruse appeared to work, though I’ve yet to fully analyze the data! Next time perhaps I should employ one of the barracuda as a ’sheep dog’, they seem to have the uncanny ability to clear an area of fish instantly.
In the moments between scans (it is a pretty dull and slow process) I just watched the marine sanctuary pulse around me, taking every opportunity to put my digital camera to good use. The hab itself has become a part of the reef, and you don’t have to look too far, just keep still and watch. I amused myself for quite a while teasing a small jawfish, no bigger than half my little finger, allowing it to snap at the self same little finger as it popped out of its adapted home in the deck grates. Despite it diminutive size I wasn’t brave enough to take off my glove! I certainly got lots of practice with the macro function on the camera.
We finished today with an awesome night excursion dive, a surreal experience as my buddy (Dom Hove) and I swam through the hazy glow of the lights and saw the full compliment of marine animals gathered around the hab. The bigger animals definitely rule the night, attracted to the beacon of hab lights knowing that there will be easy pickings, sharks, rays and big mean looking barracuda. We are pretty big mean ‘fish’ too, so fortunately we were not on their menu….tonight at least!