Graduation... and a most memorable welcome to the underwater world. Today was our final set of training dives. On the first one, Otter and Thor led us to the Pinnacle site, which will be our "field office" for the next 10 days. We spent some time just cruising around, to get a feel for the area and to begin setting our internal compasses. For Celia and me, it was a return to old haunts; for Clare and E-bett, it was a new area to explore. We checked out the "gazebo," a metal umbrella-like structure that provides a small air pocket in which we can stand and not only fill our tanks, but talk to one another and to the technicians (Mike and "Smitty") back in Aquarius. We also can store little snacks and fluids in the gazebo, so while we are filling our tanks with air, we can fill ourselves with various forms of high-octane sugar and chocolate!

We then began a slow swim along the 300 m long (about three football fields) excursion or reference line back to Aquarius. Again, we simulated an out-of-air scenario and buddy-breathed for the entire distance. About midway, Otter motioned for Clare and I to look behind us. There, flying ever so gracefully about five meters off to our side, was a spotted eagle ray with a wingspan of about 1.5 m. Clare and I stopped, and to our surprise, so did the eagle ray. It turned towards us and for a brief moment, all three of us faced one another. Then, as Dave Barry would say, "I'm not making this up," the eagle ray slowly raised and lowered its head. Clearly, this was a regal bow of welcome and acceptance. We were welcomed to its world as visitors who had earned the right of temporary residence by being trained in the use of Aquarius. I was stunned and could think of nothing else to do except gracefully return the bow. Moments later, the ray flew slowly into the distance, its message delivered. An excellent omen for our upcoming mission and a humbling reminder that, for all we have done as humans, we always will be mere visitors in the ocean.

After a brief stop at Aquarius, we returned to the boat where we had to wait for over an hour before enough nitrogen was eliminated from our tissues so we could do another dive. This was a vivid reinforcement of the main reason why we were using Aquarius. If we had been saturated, we wouldn't need to sit around in a boat before making a second dive, we could simply go right back out and do it.

On the second dive, Mike greeted us as we popped up one-by-one through the moon pool in the Aquarius wet porch area. After a quick-rinse shower, we were given an "anatomy and physiology" lecture on the wet porch, entry lock, main lock, and sleeping quarters. This will be my fourth saturation mission, my third in Aquarius and my second with Mike. Needless to say, I had a huge smile on my face as I walked into very familiar and comforting surroundings. For the others, it was a new experience and it was fun to watch their reactions as they slowly realized that this was going to be home for the next 10 days. Their smiles became as large as mine. All the food we had purchased yesterday was neatly stacked on the shelves and our small bags of clothes that we gave the crew this morning were neatly arranged in the sleeping quarters. It felt as if we had been escorted to our rooms in an expensive hotel - maybe we should give Mike a generous tip. Perhaps some chocolate later on.

Our time was up so we surfaced and went back to our main base. There, Otter and Thor informed us that we all graduated and their handshakes and smiles, along with those of our skipper, Fred, were much better than any official words written on parchment. Tomorrow, most of us will do some set-up dives at our study sites and Sunday will be devoted to fine-tuning the saturation schedule, coordinating activities with our colleagues who are using conventional scuba at our shallow site, and preparing all the equipment we will need for Aquarius. Monday, the mission begins...and I'm like a little kid two days before Christmas.