Aquarius Undersea Laboratory » June, 2006 Saturation – Leg 2

CWO4 Rusty Deen: Mission Day 8 Thursday, June 15th, 2006

CWO4 Rusty Deen — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:44:12 +0000

Mission Success! The past two Aquarius saturation dives have proven to be most beneficial to both the U.S. Navy and to NURC. Our MK16 Mod 1 closed circuit underwater breathing rigs worked very well from Aquarius. In some cases, the divers were able to complete over 6 hours (two dive sets) on one rig. The maintenance and pre-dive procedures between dives proved to be very simple and easy to perform inside Aquarius. The closed circuit aquanauts were able to conduct various diver task outside Aquarius, requiring only minor daily support from above. As you can see from the postings from the divers, they have shared a variety of personal comments. Regardless of how critical they are of their personal skills and challenges, their accomplishments here in Key Largo have been significant. They have demonstrated extended excursion times, less re-charging requirements, minimum topside support, and may I add, “more time to safely concentrate on diver tasks”.

We sincerly appreciate the exceptional support and opportunity from NURC. Once again, we have demonstrated the benefit for having a facility like this available to the U.S. Navy Divng Program, and look forward to sharing future opportunities with NURC.

Again, our thanks to Craig and all the NURC divers for their tremendous support and making this a successful trade.

I would also like to thank Bernie Campoli for capturing and documenting our efforts underwater. Bernie has been diving professionally as an underwater photograhper since the SEALAB days. We appreciate your work Bernie, thanks!

CWO4 Rusty Deen

Dave Givey: Mission Day 3: Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Dave Givey — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:39:48 +0000

Another great diving day. I locked out of the wetporch on yet another NURCA NURCA mission-I dove the Bear drysuit with MK-16 rebreather. Team Aquarius- HooYah Total dive time- 2 hours

Jeremy Mullis: Mission Day 3: Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Jeremy Mullis — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:24:42 +0000

Woke up this morning at 0600 and had another wonderful breakfast. Corey and the XO made a dive out in the MK-16′s and I went out on the hooka. Being able to swim as opposed to walking around was a nice change. Although the bubbles from my exhaust did tend to scare away most of the wild life. Visability was poor again today, but the water was still warm and plenty to look at nevertheless. Locked out all of the dive gear and most of our clothing. Now we have entered the decompression phase of Saturation diving. The 3M phase, “Meals, Movies, and Mattresses.” Sleep until you’re hungery and eat ’til you’re tired. This has really been a great experence and really hope that we get the chance to do another mission with these guys in the future. All true professionals and great at their jobs.

Hooyah America

Jeremy Mullis

Corey Seymour: Mission Day 3: Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Corey Seymour — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:23:00 +0000

The food has remained good throughout the entire dive. I also slept well last night due to the calmed seas. The crew are well trained and extremely helpful. Our evening entertainment consisted of observation of the Goliath Grouper eating habits and the other fishes gathering for the crill that have congregated around the lights.

My last dive this morning went well again, and the rig never gave me many problems while outside. I spent most of the time stretching out the EGS hoses and gathering all the gear for tomorrow’s departure. We also spent a significant amount of time cleaning the structure of marine growth. That was a real treat for us and anyone that was watching online as several of the fish would eat while sitting in your hand. The rest has been prep for decompression.

Corey Seymour: Mission Day 2: Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

Corey Seymour — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 00:31:55 +0000

After a great first day of diving and good food, we enjoyed a “change of the guard” as the sea life changed from the fast swimming, always moving day shift to the night shift. I had long night with little sleep due to the constant pressure changes of 4-6 ft seas. That plus the three Goliath Groupers that dine outside the bunk room viewport. They are incredible creatures! I believe the only predator that is constant is the school of barracuda that stay nearby. They are eating day and night.The dive today was again approximately 3 hours of minor work to the habitat’s anchoring gear and a large amount of cleaning on the gazebo deck. Our rebreathers were flawless again today and as before, the fish are not threatened and will allow you to observe them up close. The rebreather is so quiet they pay me no attention. I have observed that when doing heavy work the rebreather is easily overworked and if you are working in an upward looking posture it makes it very difficult to breath and work due to the nature of gases and pressure. I dove MDV’s dry suit today and it was dry for the entire dive. The suit is much more comfortable than mine, but not as thermally protective as Tim’s.

Sea life today consisted of the normal grouper, various snapper, snook, parrot fishes, angel fishes, tarpon, permit, stingray, eagle ray, moray eel, and countless other smaller fishes. The reef has an incredible variety of marine life and I don’t dare try to look up all of the different species.

Chad Leaman: Mission Day 2: Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

Chad Leaman — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:30:41 +0000

I missed the cut off time to register for this blog page last night, after finishing my first dive, so I’ll begin our Aquarius saga starting yesterday, after being delayed for a day-and-a-half due to TS Alberto.

Our first day began with 4 to 6 foot seas as we headed out to the Life Support Buoy (LSB) to begin the saturation mission. When we arrived on the site, the habitat technicians James and Tim had Aquarius up and running and were waiting for us. The other three and myself grabbed our 13 cubic foot pony bottles and jumped in. We swam down almost 8 bone-crushing fathoms to enter the wet porch and meet up with James and immediately began our safety briefing. After getting settled in, we dressed up our first two MK-16 divers and splashed them for a 3 hour dive. Dave and I made sure we prepared ourselves for our 3 hour dives next by eatting, mostly alot of snacks. During my 3 hour excursion it was very obvious the potential benefits of using rebreathers while studying marine life, it’s almost as if the fish can’t see you or think you are one of them. That was the ending to our long first day, I think everyone slept pretty soundly that night.

Day 2 began with hot coffee and breakfast burritos, not a bad life. I’m still trying to get used to have all the ammenities that are available (i.e. microwave, phone, Internet, and hot water). Our second day started pretty much the same way as yesterday afternoon, preparing for MK 16 dives. While diving the MK 16 you not only notice the fish getting closer to you, but also the sounds underwater. With no exhaust bubbles you can actually hear a lot more. We are keeping ourselves weighted heavy so we can help perform some underwater work around the habitat in preparation for the hurricane season. We left one of the 28 turn-buckles uncovered because of a large, very green moray eel happened to live right next to it. He had about a foot of his body out of his hole, half of that was his mouth, and he didn’t look too happy. Looking forward to a relaxing night and another day of diving tomorrow.

Jeremy Mullis: Mission Day 2: Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

Jeremy Mullis — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:20:13 +0000

Slept better last night than I had in years, it could have been an Ambien commercial! Waking up in the middle of the night with a 200 lb Goliath Grouper staring at you through the back lit view port was a new experience for me. The sea really came to life after the sun went down, and it was really quite something to witness the hunt. Out of the rack this morning at 0630, Masterdiver was already awake and had made fresh coffee with the French Press coffee maker, or “Liberty Press” if you prefer. Ate breakfast and set off to prediving the rigs for the first excursion. This morning Cory and I would again be the first two out for a three hour dive. Our first task was to tighten up the turnbuckles on Aquarius and its flask rack that fasten them to the sea floor. We worked together and made quick work of it. Then after taking a break to admire an eel that we had apparently disturbed from his slumber, we went back to work scrubbing the habitat valving with wire brushes. The support boat was on station earlier this morning than most, it arrived around 1030 with an eager crew. The pot runs commenced and we sent up one of our rigs, as it will not be used anymore this mission. Cory and I finished up our dive at 1100 and each enjoyed a wonderful lunch of freeze dried food. Weturned both rigs around and had the next two divers out in the water by 1300 without even breaking a sweat. Loving life down here. More to follow

Jeremy Mullis

Jeremy Mullis: Mission Day 1: Monday, June 12th, 2006

Jeremy Mullis — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:39:32 +0000

TS Alberto did finally get into a position that we felt that it wasn’t a threat to us, so this morning we were able to get out. When we left Key Largo the seas were pretty calm, but by the time we reached the LSB (Life Support Bouy), the seas had climbed to 4 to 6 foot swells. We moored up and dove down to the Aquarius in no time, where James and Tim were waiting for us and gave us our initial briefings. The next hour was spent doing pot runs and setting up two MK-16 for dives, Corry and I made the first dive out for 180 minutes. The visibility was pretty poor with a lot of silt & settiment, but lots of animal life to admire and watch without the disturbance that is usually associated with the bubbles exhausted with SCUBA. After returning to the wet porch, turn around time was quick and the XO and MDV were out in the water in no time. The view down here is unbelievable. Looking forward to getting some work done. More to follow.

Corey Seymour: Mission Day 1: Monday, June 12th, 2006

Corey Seymour — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:30:51 +0000

The first day, delayed by T.S. Alberto started with a quick scuba dive in 4-6 ft seas and 20 ft visibility. The habitat is comfortable and well designed for research and observation. After setting up our personal space we set up for our first 3 hour dive in dry suit and rebreather. While outside the habitat the dive went without rig problems for myself. My drysuit leaked quite a bit more than I expected. The fish here are conditioned to people that are not aggressive or predatory.

Dave Givey: Mission Day 1: Monday, June 12th, 2006

Dave Givey — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 22:22:50 +0000

Suit and rig shake down. I dove the Bear crushed neoprene drysuit with MK-16 Mod 1 rebreather. Left hip weight pouch ripped on dress out and weight was a constance annoyance the entire dive- it hung down between my legs and flopped around getting in the way. The suit was comfortable and performed nicely. The rig breathed fine and breathing resistance was minimal. EGS whip was stretched full 150′ length and switch-over block was tripped to go on EGS for a functional check at full whip length. Gas supply was sufficent with sufficent delivery pressure (more so than the MK-16 at 60 FSW). The EGS gas had a strange taste- stale or mildew. The visability was poor due to kicked up sediment from the tropical storm. The large fish groups held close to the habitat it seemed. The large Goliath Grouper hung out under the gazebo. No work was done during this dive. Dive time: 3 hours.