Can't beat our commute to Aquarius this morning: a warm sunny day, flat seas, and a splashy greeting by three bottlenose dolphins just off our bow as we left the harbor. After a leisurely ride to the Pinnacle study site, Tim, one of the senior Aquarius technicians, and Dr. Steven Miller, NURC/UNCW Director, accompanied us to the gazebo. We checked the communications between the gazebo and Aquarius, talking to Mike Florant in Aquarius. And we tested the underwater diver recall system, and then received a gracious underwater "Bon Voyage" from Tim and Steven. Steven saturated in Aquarius last month; I think he was more than a little bit nostalgic and envious when he had to surface and we swam off.

Now it was time to work. E'bett and I spent some time searching for an appropriate study site at 80 feet. While we were setting up our transect line at the site, we were entertained by a "squadron" of 11 eagle rays performing a graceful "fly-by." Of course, we had to take a break to watch!

Our next task involved fastening plastic bags over 60 individuals of the green alga, Halimeda tuna, and releasing a red dye within the bag. The dye will stain the calcium segments, thereby providing a time mark. At the end of the mission, we will collect and examine the stained individuals: unstained tissue represents new growth and a means of determining overall productivity. We have pictures of the Halimeda staining procedure - click here.

Meanwhile, Celia and Clare set up a series of lines at our 50-foot site, which we will use as transect lines and as navigation aids. Our dives required more air than we had in our tanks, but this was no problem. We simply swam back to the gazebo, plugged into the high-pressure line. We entertained ourselves with jokes that would never draw a laugh at the surface, or with songs (singing in the shower is bearable, singing in the gazebo is something else) until our tanks were filled. Oh yeah, we also nipped on a few candy bars.

After our morning tasks were completed, we followed the travel line back to Aquarius for a lunch break. The routine is simple: we leave our tanks on the tank rack under the wet porch, enter the wet porch through the moon pool, hang up our wet suits so they drip into the moon pool, take a quick shower, and "dress" for lunch with warm and dry clothes. Although the wet porch environment is quite warm and humid, the main living areas of Aquarius are a very comfortable 74 degrees and 82 percent humidity. In fact, most of us wear sweats, even though we are sitting in a warm tropical sea.

The first thing all of us notice in the hyperbaric environment of Aquarius is that our voices sound a little different. The air, of course, is 2.5 times denser than surface air, which accounts for some of the voice changes. The denser air also makes our chest muscles work a little harder, resulting in a slight, but temporary, tightness when breathing. And the denser air means that we can't whistle and that we "push" air around when we walk. Some aquanauts report changes in their sense of taste, but I don't notice this. I mean, chocolate is chocolate wherever you are, right?

After lunch, it's back to the "office," a commute that takes about 15 minutes, but can take longer if we swim into a current. No current today. Our afternoon tasks consisted of setting up a series of quadrats, tagging plants, and bagging an additional 60 plants at the 50-foot site. The commute home was nice. 'm starting to notice individual fish and how they behave towards us as we swim by. I expect our commute will be much like a stroll through the neighborhood and will provide us with an opportunity to meet our new neighbors. Of course, I realize that the fish probably will fret about "there goes the neighborhood" as we swim by, but I think we can co-exist.

Dinner is not a sit down affair. All of us are on slightly different schedule; some are starving right after a dive and others prefer to eat much later. So we begin a subtle and intricate choreography, whereby we get done what needs to get done, but at the same time, respect each other's space. Dinner also is not the lavish seafood affair commonly portrayed in the Cousteau films. Because of the hyperbaric environment, aromatic cooking and open flames are forbidden. Freeze-dried camping food is the only reasonable solution for a main meal and fortunately the technology has evolved to the point where some of the meals are quite palatable.

Although many things are different when living 20,000 mm under the sea, some things remain the same: sleep comes easy after a day's work. And if you need to count sheep before you can sleep. counting fish through the porthole is much more effective.