Expedition Journal; Nerina Holden, 14 August 99 5:30pm On Friday the whole surface team took a trip to the Habitat and went inside for tea and biscuits. Well, we actually had a powdered orange juice drink thing and peanuts, but they tasted just fine. Daryl tells me that the powdered juice was originally created for astronauts, but now is being used by aquanauts.

The Habitat loomed out of the gloom as we descended. What a fantastic place. When you see it for the first time it definitely feels like something out of a sci-fi movie, or a Bond film. It has a resident population of fish, some of which are particularly impressive. Five-foot tarpon (my personal favorite) circled the Habitat's legs and groups of large fish skittered through the whole area. Territorial damselfish charged out from their lairs to chase us off if we got too close. Damselfish are smaller than your hand, so this is always amusing. Daryl's comments on the Habitat's appearance go something like this; "it looks like a yellow Winnebago, or maybe a school bus."

We entered the Habitat via the moon pool, had a quick freshwater shower, dried off and were allowed into the inner sanctum. It's small inside, very small when you consider it houses six adults for ten days. The (only) bedroom is six foot by ten and has six bunks, all of which were unmade; tisk! No, I lie; Hutch had made his, very neatly. An area as big as the bedroom floor occupies one wall and is filled with dials, gauges, lights, and levers. It was lovely to see that an old-fashioned Caisson Gauge took pride of place amongst the high technology, reassuringly showing the depth as 45 feet. Peanuts and orange juice at 45 feet somehow taste better. We took lots of photographs, stared out of the two portholes at the amazing scenery, and talked excitedly. We noticed that the Aquanauts sounded normal, but our voices sounded very squeaky. Apparently, the body makes adjustments to return the voice to normal after a few days at depth. One hour was not enough time for our voices to adjust, so we arrived squeaking and left squeaking.

It was great to see the Aquanauts, Hutch, Tom and Nadav were fine hosts, not minding at all our invasion. And then, in a blink, we had to leave. On our way out we collected more samples, and Ania and I danced the Can-Can on the Habitat's roof, difficult with diving gear and fins on, but quite spectacular none the less.

Today we had a half-day plan - to go to the Habitat for equipment delivery and then on to Admiral's reef for coral samples. We completed the dive to the Habitat successfully, but on our way up we could see it had started to rain. Bad weather stopped play. A nasty rainstorm came in as we were moored at the Habitat and Otto described the scene as a confused sea. Wind going one way and swell going the other. The sea looked angry, we were cold and wet. We headed back to shore sharpish as the weather raged around us. A hot cup of cocoa sorely needed.