Timothy Henkel: Mission Day 1: Monday, May 21st, 2001
Well, yesterday morning we said good-bye to the surface, and dove 50 ft. underwater to live and work for 7 days. It was a return home; this time last year, I was in the same place, with the same scientists. It was a homecoming. I’m sure those of you who grew up in a metal tube the size of a large bus, and had 5 brothers or sisters to fill the little bit of space, can relate. Here, we get to roll out of bed, grab a bite to eat, walk out the door, and swim. Not a bad way to work.
We spent last week in training, reacquainting ourselves with the gear and the ideas of saturation diving. Like I said, we had all done this a year ago, but the gear isn’t our usual scuba gear. Twin aluminum air tanks, weighing about 90 pounds, lines and reels, systems of checks and double checks. Normally the surface is our safety net, but down here our bodies are saturated with gases, thus the type of diving “saturation diving.” So our metal tube, our Aquarius, is our safety net, and we’re never far from it.
It’s now Tuesday morning, and with network problems soon to be resolved, we have access to email and the Internet. So someone out there can read these random thoughts. We’re already ahead of our work schedule. Yesterday we began to monitor the giant barrel sponge Xestospongia muta. We’ve been watching the local population for a couple years now, examining growth, recruitment, die-off and disease. This mission we are continuing to look at deep water sponges, and will head to our site at 110 ft. depth this morning. Through Aquarius, we can stay out diving for over 3 hours at this depth, much longer than surface diving.
So, I should grab a bowl of oatmeal and prepare for the day. Looking out the window, the sun is shining, sky is blue, without a cloud to be seen. Well actually, the water is blue, and schools of fish are swimming about the window. Visibility could be a bit better, but hey when your get to live under the sea, who can complain. Just another day at the office.
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