It’s good to be back! I first became acquainted with Aquarius on a saturation mission in 1988 when the habitat was located in Salt River Canyon in St Croix, US Virgin Islands. During that mission I was constantly aware that although we aquanauts could live for days at a time underwater without surfacing, we were always dependent on the surface support crew to supply most of our daily needs inside the habitat, and supply our air requirements for excursions away from the habitat. Although we realized then that we were prevented from surfacing before a lengthy decompression procedure, we seldom found ourselves alone from surface contact due to their frequent visits necessary to satisfy our daily needs. Fifteen years later, I can honestly say that I am more impressed than ever with the incredible undersea resource that the scientific community has in Aquarius. Today, aquanauts are more autonomous than ever from the surface. Due to remote air charging stations, no longer are aquanauts dependent on the surface crew to make their excursions from the habitat. Although we have been in the habitat for the present mission for more than 10 hours in our first day, we have been separated from surface contact other than through phone communications and telemetry. The result, more autonomy for undersea researchers and less constraints on their missions. Great progress!
The drop from our support boat yesterday to 95 fsw and the new Kamper Station was a bit like skydiving, quick and beautiful. Once inside the acrylic dome my dive buddy Lew Nuckols and I dropped our regulators and spoke a few words in the four atmosphere air, then chuckled with the reminder that it doesn’t take helium to change the vocal patterns of divers. We sounded like deep sea Donald Ducks. You would think that fellows who have taught about this would have expected it. Experiencing reality is still more impressive than theory or simulations. A brief tour of oceanographic sensors in the vicinity of the habitat followed, then into our home for the next several days.
Lew and I are here to learn what we can of Aquarius systems, and to brainstorm engineering projects. It is a privilege to do so on a staff saturation dive. Our inbrief is short but effective. Jim Buckley our mission leader explains emergency equipment and procedures, then living techniques that make life here much more comfortable. I appreciate the thousands of aquanaut hours before us that have made this a reliable home.
Hookah diving while saturated is the best. Sure, umbilical management can be a nuisance but not having the least concern for a) how much gas is left in my rig? And, b) how much bottom time do I have left on my planned dive? - is like being unshackled from time. I’ll take on an umbilical for that. I was able to trace outboard tanks, lines, and cables without rushing, stopping often to visit with our indigenous neighbors. Ok, I’ll admit to leaning back on a rock to take in the awesome view in 80 feet + visibility, with Aquarius towering above me covered in several schools of baitfish and every other size up the food chain to six foot barracudas. The hum of compressors on the converted 30 feet diameter NOAA weather buoy rolling above, and the whirr of the chiller unit add life to the structures themselves and they almost seem to have grown here like the locals.
An antibacterial suit dunk and hot water diver shower squared me away in the wet porch before re-entering the living quarters for chow. Hot meals! Freeze-dried backpacking food, heated with near boiling water straight from the tap, hit the spot. Soon Lew and I returned to the reef for a night dive before dinner and bed. Hyperbaric sleep, with the steady sound of snapping shrimp at work on the hull, and a transducer softly broadcasting the surf above into your quarters, is sweet repose indeed.