Our initial saturation mission for 2006 is now in the books, with all aquanauts safely on the surface, clean of any issues after their 12 hour “bends watch”, and headed home after an enjoyable team celebration and cookout last evening. I want to thank the aquanaut team of Whaley, Becker, Spence, Emborski, O’Sullivan, and Garcia for the fine job they did down below on this five day sat. Not only did they give us a great leg up on preparing for our upcoming eighteen day NASA NEEMO IX mission, but they allowed us to “shake down” and test systems since our last Aquarius dive in December. Although usually handled as a staff mission, our NURC team is at two thirds its normal level, so using US Navy divers, who are sat trained and experienced, offered us a huge opportunity to complete our objectives, and that is exactly what this veteran team accomplished. Equally as important as the workhorses below, were the topside team members made up of US Navy and NURC diving personnel. The mission greatly depended on the diving support by the team of Reimers, Daubon, Ruterbusch, Peacock, Urban, Kane, Hamilton, Buijten, Buckley, Hulsbeck, Talacek, Landucci, Letts, March, and Rutten. We were also aided by a visit from the NASA vessel R/V Liberty Star and their team of United Space Alliance divers, deploying our deep water u/w fill station, the “Kamper”, following its post hurricane season repair.
On a somber note, all of us at NURC bid a fond farewell to Joe March, as he moves on to another job, where I’m sure he’ll be the asset he was for our program. I had the pleasure of saturating with Joe on one staff and two NASA missions, and he always made my job easier due to his dedication and work ethics. Good luck Joe, you’ll be missed.
I can’t thank all these fine US Navy divers without recognizing the efforts to get us where we are today by many others throughout US Navy diving, most notably my friends and fellow aquanauts, Bob Barth, Jim Wilkins, Chris Murray, and Mark “Kamper” Helmkamp. You have all helped forge the present cooperative relationship between the US Navy and NOAA, and we thank you for your leadership and undying support.
Hoo-Yah, Deep Sea! NURCA-NURCA, Shallow sats!
I reflect on my time here working with Aquarius, enjoying the peace and quiet of early morning deco. As I make my first jounal entry on my last day in the habitat, I would like to thank the people responsible for giving me this opportunity. I have worked alongside the Navy’s Finest for eleven years, but I was not a Navy Diver, nor will I ever pretend to be. However, I always wondered what diving would be like, just a wanna-be. Working for NURC has opened the door to this awesome new world. As I approach 500 dives in my short 32 months experience, I am no less eager to get wet, than I was for dive number 1. I have learned that I’m never done learning, and smart enough to know that I’ll never be smart enough.
As you read various journal entries, the the theme is pretty much the same. What a unique experience to saturate, to live underwater, and do what a very small percentage of the population ever get to do. I feel the same way of course, but maybe from a little different perspective. I never cease to be amazed and enjoy God’s creation aquatic.
Aside from the diving aspect, I been fortunate to work alongside and meet a lot of good people. As I move on, I will always have good memories of the NASA, Navy and various science teams utilizing Aquarius. It’s also been great rubbing elbows with some pioneers occasionally. To Scott Carpenter, Dick Rutkowski, and Bob Barth, I appreciate your contributions to diving and hyperbarics. It’s been an honor. I’ve also had the priviledge to dive with (Shadow Divers) John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. Thanks for the braggin’ rights.
To the NURC team, past and present, I have thoroughly enjoyed working and saturating with you. Thank you again for the opportunity. I tried to leave her better than I found her! Good luck in the future. I look forward to diving with you later on down the road.
There are very few men in this world who get to say in their lifetime “I was able to live among the creatures who dwell beneath the surface of the oceans.” We, the crew of Aquarius, may now say these words. For as long as I can remember, I have had this dream, vision, desire to do just that. Tomorrow, on my 45th birthday, I will surface from one of the most memorable weeks in all my days on this planet. It has been my privilege to work and live in this great underwater habitat with the men that have accompanied me this week. The people that run this program throughout the year to provide this opportunity for us, and all other scientists, researchers and specialty groups, are the most dedicated and professional “team” in this business. To check the particulars of the mission you can look at the “March 2006 Mission” or LT Joe O’Sullivan’s journal entry.
All I can say now is “Hoo-Yah!!!”
A special thanks to entire Aquarius crew and to Robert Kulback for his mentoring, diving instruction, and planting the seed deep into my character to “NEVER QUIT”.
Jeffrey R. Spence
U.S. Navy Deep Sea Diver
Hello from Aquarius. This has been a geat experience for me and the divers from NEDU, and Bob Whaley from NAVSEA. Everyone has worked together and accomplished every task that was assigned to us down in the Aquarius. Roger has done a great job as habitat tech. The top side support personnel have done a great job with the potting and jobs that were assigned to them. I would like to say one thing, the reason it took me so long to write my journal is Craig has worked us so hard down here that this is the first time I could get on the computer to write this journal. This has been my third time down to Key Largo, and my first time in sat in the Aquarius. I will hope that the Navy and NOAA will find time and money to keep this program running in the future. I would like to say Hi to Bob Barth, I wish you were down here in Key Largo. Thanks.
Thanks for all the great dives.
MDV Lyle Becker
It’s the end of day 3 down in the Aquarius Habitat, and with the 4-6′ sea state surging overhead, we have to clear our ears (equalize) constantly.
What a fantastic opportunity it has been to come down to Key Largo, FL and do my first saturation dive in Aquarius.
We started off on Monday on shore with some great training and orientation to the habitat, as well as the diving techniques that we would use the rest of the week. Then on Tuesday, which was day one of the mission, we came down to the habitat and settled in. That evening we did some basic maintenance dives, cleaning exterior hull valves on the outside of the habitat, normal preventative maintenance so they continue to operate freely.
On day two (yesterday) four of us(Becker, Emborski, Spence and I) started off by adjusting an umbilical which carries HP air and communications to the Northeast waystation, which is about 900 feet from the habitat. We buoyed it and secured it to holddowns on the seabed, so that it will stay up off the reef, preventing damage to the coral and other reef organisms. This waystation, a small shelter identical to the Gazebo outside Aquarius, is important to future missions, enabling divers to fill thier SCUBA tanks without having to come all the way back to the habitat. Once the umbilical was trimmed and adjusted, John Emborski and I broke off and started to allign a 400 foot armored cable that had been dropped off by the topside support divers earlier in the morning. That cable carries power and data between the topside Aquarius Life Support Buoy and the NOAA Ocean Observing System module that will provide constant real time oceanographic data collected by instuments mounted on the seafloor. We were joined by Bob Whaley for that task and had the job finished by the end of the dive. In the afternoon the five of us trimmed out an umbilical to another waystation located in 95 FSW, 350 feet SE of Aquarius called the Kamper Station, and then it was back to Aquarius for more valve cleaning, this time on the BARFF (Big Air Remote Flask Farm), eight 33′ long “Amarillo” air flasks, which provide 80,000 cuft of HP air to the the habitat.
Today on day three, we swam out a number of excursion lines and tywrapped cave diving arrows to them, pointing towards the habitat. The arrows direct divers to the nearest source of air, so that they always know where they are in relation to the habitat or nearest underwater fill station. On some of the short jumper lines between the main excursion lines running to Aquarius, the arrows point to a way station that has a SCUBA fill station, such as the Kamper Station mentioned above. The afternoon dive consisted of preparing a small boat mooring site for grouting, drilling holes for rebar that will key the new grout to the existing mooring base previously grouted on the Navy Aquarius missions last December.
That about sums it up. Tomorrow, we have one last two hour dive, we have to be back at our storage depth six hours before we start decompression at 1600 hours, and sixteen and a half hours later we will surface on Saturday morning.
For now, I need to hit the rack and get some sleep.
O’Sullivan out!