I was reminded again this evening of how unique an experience this is as I was swimming back from the last dive of the day. Aquarius was lit up by the external lights, and looming out of the dusk came a large stingray, gliding across the sand. A school of barracuda was swimming overhead, as they had been all day, and many of the nocturnally active species of fish were starting to make their first appearance. The ability to live and work literally in the midst of a coral reef is simply amazing.

We've been incredibly busy since I last posted a mission log. All of the instrumentation is still working great, and we're streaming data to our surface team as fast as we can collect it. Consider this: working at 60-70 feet (where our equipment and corals are located) we normally would have between one to one a half hours per day in which to collect data (about twice that using Nitrox mixed gas). In between each dive we'd have to pick up all of our equipment, carry it to the boat, and then either sit on the surface between dives, or else pack up and head back to shore. Instead, we're now spending six hours per day each in the water, and most of the equipment can be left in place overnight. In short, in this 10 day period of time, we can accomplish work that would normally require over 2 months of diving every day. Even more importantly, many of our experiments require continuous measurements that easily exceed the normal bottom time of surface-based air dive.

With that in mind, most of our waking hours are spent either in the water, or else getting equipment ready for the next day's activities. David and Kristi are likewise busy on the surface collating data (and in some cases beginning analysis), constructing and weighing plaster models, and getting supplies ready for the daily deliveries.

We did have a nice break yesterday when we broadcast via cell phone and web cam to Ms. Dryden's class at Satchel Ford school in South Carolina (for a nice write-up by Kathryn Winiarski for The State newspaper, see:

• http://web.philly.com/content/columbia/2000/11/11/local/underwater11_.htm

  We also had a visit from a Learning Channel film crew on Wednesday, although we were so tired from the day's dives that I'm not sure how we'll look on camera. At one point I actually staged out of the habitat without my fins on!

  Only a few more days to go, and I have mixed feelings about heading topside again. I definitely am ready to see my family, but at the same time this is awfully hard to leave behind..