Craig Cooper: Mission Day 1: Monday, June 12th, 2006
Well it looks like Tropical Storm Alberto is finally going to let us get back to work down in Aquarius. Originally we were scheduled to start Leg 2 around noon on Saturday, but then Tropical Depression One reared its head off Cuba as we were surfacing from Leg 1 of these two Navy SRDD/NURC cooperative missions.
When tropical systems, whether they be a depression or full blown hurricane, are present, we track these storms’ paths and follow a Storm Response Plan Flow Chart. Two criteria looked at immediately are: is the storm South of 25 N Latitude, and are winds sustained at greater than 40 mph. Alberto fit both these criteria, causing us to delay the start of the saturation. If we had already started, we would have held the divers at storage depth (the depth they live at in Aquarius- 45 fsw), and prepared them for decompression. Aquanauts must be at storage depth for six hours before starting the sixteen and a half hour decompression, so any additional delay waiting for the divers to start decompression might push their surfacing into less than desirable sea conditions.
Probably the easiest National Hurricane Center graphic to interpret is the Tropical Cyclone Danger Zone, and unfortunately at each check yesterday at 0500, 1100, and 1700 we were always still just within the zone. No one could defend the position of committing divers into saturation while still within the zone, so we were glad to see that Alberto had moved above 25 N Latitude and they we are out of the danger zone.
The R/V Delta is plowing through 4-6′ seas at present on the way out to Aquarius with Habitat Techs James Talacek and Tim Gallagher. James and Tim will go through a daily habitat checklist, to make sure all systems beyond what we see on our Labview monitoring and video are good to go. Once complete, we will send the R/V Sabina out with MDV Leaman, LCDR Givey, Chief Mullis, and Hospital Corpsman Seymour to start this second dive. Everyone is rested up and anxious to get this second saturation underway. Because of the delay, we will extend the mission one day, surfacing the aquanauts on Thursday instead of Wednesday.
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