A long day on the reef today, and we managed to get quite a bit of work done. By the end of the day, all equipment was up and running, measuring oxygen profiles, water flow and photosynthesis over one of our experimental corals. The weather topside has gotten a big rough, but the only sign of it we feel down here is the pressure change on our ears as big waves pass overhead. Not so for the surface crew - apparently the seas were nasty enough that we were unable to send equipment back and forth today. We had plenty to do, though, so this hasn't slowed us down one bit. We each spent almost 5 hours out diving today, which has left us all tired but feeling good about all we accomplished today.

Like the rest of the nation, we spent our free time last evening glued to the news stations (in our case, on the internet), following the presidential election. While most of the aquanauts voted via absentee ballot before leaving home last week, we do have to remind ourselves that the rest of the world continues on as usual up top. I did get a chance to talk to my wife (Briana) briefly via cell phone tonight, which was a nice ending to a long day. It's now late evening, and the snapping shrimp have started their nocturnal percussion on the habitat walls, making it sound like its raining outside. Time to organize our dive plan for tomorrow and get our equipment organized. A film crew from the Discovery Channel will be diving down some time tomorrow (weather permitting), so we need to clean this place up a bit!