When we are not manning the Watch Desk, we take turns through the night working on various projects, usually related to equipment maintenance. For the last few nights, while Joe March took the “Watch”, I have been collecting data from all the previous Aquarius missions completed here at Conch Reef. With this saturation, Aquarius logs a total of seventy–eight missions in thirteen years. On a personal level, I realized that this month marks my eighth year with the National Undersea Research Center, and during that time I have had the pleasure of helping support forty–three of those missions. It never ceases to amaze me how much quality research is generated with each and every one of the Aquarius missions, and with the additional support of our Dayboat crew, this facility can boast the most outstanding record for successful scientific marine research.

I have seen many changes over the years and one of the most notable is the cooperative effort with the Navy. On these last two missions and over the last few months in fact, the Navy has expended a tremendous amount of man power to help us complete repairs resulting from a debilitating hurricane season. Over the last few years, the Navy’s participation has made a marked difference in how much the program has been able to accomplish in terms of scientific research. Thank you Navy Divers and especially Bob Barth for making both your vision a reality, and that huge pot of chili!

Murphy then tried a new tactic, he decided to send a 6 foot barracuda to take a snap at me, thanks to my lightning quick reactions he only cut my finger. Oh, I’m just kidding, I cut myself on an oyster while cleaning the baseplate. Sorry for the exaggeration, the truth seems so trivial.

We have one more day in Aquarius before we start our sixteen hour decompression. The days have flown by and all six of us have lived and worked great together. Usually after the second or third day it becomes clear who’s the nut in a bucket of screws, but fortunately we are all just screws and were able to work well together.

Much was completed today for this mission, but the highlight of my day happened when HTC Glen Rubin made a dive while flying our American flag, capturing the event for his retirement. Chad and I were fortunate enough to be diving at the time, and were able to be a part of the pictures. I am honored to have been underwater with the Stars and Stripes flying over our heads. This flag will be encased in his retirement Shadow box, and will be seen by his ancestors to come, reminding them of his dedication to this great nation. Thank you Glen.

BRAVO ZULU

I will not go into any detail regarding their work because I feel this entry, at least for the moment, should briefly shadow Day–2. At O–Dark Thirty I received a phone call from a saturation diving icon, Bob Barth. Remember that name… Bob Barth. Bob is a former US Navy saturation diver and pioneer from the US Navy’s Sea Lab I, II and Sea Lab III program legacy. Thanks for the phone call Bob.

Today I also was witness to a diver circling Aquarius with a large American flag. As the diver swam by our view port, the flag waved as water flowed across the stars and stripes. A picture was taken of that diver swimming with the American flag waiving proudly. That diver was HTC(DSW) Glen Rubin. Glen, who is a friend I dove with while I was active duty Navy, will be retiring soon, retiring from a 26 year Naval career, which I’m sure he’s very proud of. The picture will be presented at his upcoming retirement ceremony with a plaque, the picture nicely framed. This picture of Glen with the American flag, set against Aquarius as a background, will serve two purposes in my opinion. One is to remind Glen of his illustrious Naval career as a Navy Deep Sea Diver and friend of Aquarius, as well as it’s staff and crew. Two, to remind me, and hopefully the rest of the Aquarius staff and crew, that a loyal friend felt it important enough to him, to fly his retirement flag “amidships” Aquarius, America’s Inner Space Station.

Today I write about Bob Barth and Glen Rubin, two heroes respectively. Gentlemen, this is from me… A retired US Navy Chief Petty Officer and former Navy Deep Sea Diver like the both of you. I would like to personally thank you both for your dedicated Naval service and personal sacrifices that we share. I personally salute you and your families.

I want to close with these final words. With all that is going on in the world today, and despite our little imperfections, be proud to be an American! The next time you see or speak with a member of America’s armed forces, take the time to thank them for their dedicated and selfless service to this great country.

Ira and I splashed just before eight AM and picked up where we left off last night While we waited for surface support to arrive on station; we continued cleaning the baseplate jack screws. Just like work on land, there are jobs that are tedious down here, but they must be done. The only difference is the challenge of the work environment. Just because a job is tedious doesn’t mean we don’t like it, any job down here is a good job, and all of us would gladly jump in to do it.

Once surface support arrived we quickly turned in our scrapers and brushes to do some “man work” (sorry women no offense intended, I know women divers who do a great job doing man work too). I say man work because we get to hammer anchors into the floor bed using hydraulics and a big jack hammer. The trick is to use teamwork and manipulate the hammer to stay in position until the anchor is deep enough, which sometimes means standing on the hammer and pushing against objects above with your hands while your partner guides it into position.

The next pair replaced us and began drilling holes in the floor bed to place a different type of anchor. One of the challenging aspects of this job is communications, divers relay info to the diving supervisor, supervisors relay that info to Aquarius’s inside commander (Roger), which then gets relayed to surface support, and then back through the same channels for conformation. You can imagine how frustrating this can get if not done clearly. Info must flow both directions so everyone knows the status of the job, if delayed, frustration will begin to mount.

Our team has done a great job today, there was little to no frustration, we worked hard and we were able to overcome the challenges that always present themselves with this type of work. We would not have been successful today without the experience of all team members from surface support to the divers.

We arrived on station at 1015 am. Team one reached surface around 1045 as team two anxiously awaited our descent to Aquarius. We left surface at 1205 and rallied in the wet porch to store our air bottles, we then received our first brief in the escape pod otherwise known as the Gazebo. Our next brief was given by Roger inside Aquarius where he explained the important things such as where the food is and where we sleep. We then ate lunch and immediately went to work, Ira Lafever and I were the first pair of divers. Our first task was to clean the threads on the baseplate’s screw jacks. We spent two hours cleaning and then did a quick hose stretch before Joshua Nudelman and Chad Wascom took over. Terry Pace swapped with Chad after two hours to inspect the work and survey the area.

The amount of effort, support crew, and planning it takes to run a dive like this is amazing. I am grateful to the Navy and the people of NOAA’s Aquarius for giving us this opportunity.

Aquarius never really “leaves bottom” or “reaches the surface” in the traditional sense. Designed as a pressure vessel, we “leave bottom”, “reach surface” and “reach bottom” again, all without getting wet during our decompression procedures. The first set of Navy saturation divers exit Aquarius shortly after reaching the bottom, and make a 50’ / 15 minute No “D” dive following their 5 day saturation mission and see sun light. I won’t be leaving the bottom with this set. I stay and wait for the second set of Navy saturation divers for their 6 day mission.

This was the plan, for me to stay and re–saturate with the next group. No problem, I say… Carlos Eyles, author of Blue Water Hunter said… “A man isn’t a man until he returns to the sea”.