Mission Journal 10 — Meredith Kintzing and Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 10: Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
So we are currently at 21 feet, but still physically sitting at 46 feet. You do the math. Unfortunately, due to Tropical Storm Katrina bearing down on us, our underwater adventure is being curtailed. We first noticed the storm pop up last night and thought nothing of it before going to bed. Much to our dismay, by 7 AM the word came down from above that an early decompression was going to commence at 5 PM. With our science gear littered across the reef, we had a hectic morning gathering our instruments and wrapping up our experiments. It was by far the hardest morning of the mission. With all the gear tucked away we finally found ourselves with a little down time. While we relaxed at our favorite, and only, table, a giant visitor made a cameo appearance. Coming out from under Aquarius, Noaah’s dad Earl chilled for a bit outside the view port. He seems to be more successful at scooping up the yellowtail than Noaah as we guess he weighs in at a hefty 250 pounds. As day moved into night, we could tell the storm was overhead. You can actually see the lightning from down here. It is as if there are a bunch of photographers flashing away lighting up the reef. We hope you have enjoyed our Aquarius mission as much as we have. Many thanks to Craig, Kea, and the rest of the Aquarius team for all of your help and support. See you on the surface!
Howard and Meredith over and out.