We slept well last night and the memory of our night dive was with us as we awoke this morning. A 12-hour interval in the habitat is required after multiple dives during the day, so our first dive could not start any earlier than 9:30 this morning - 12 hours after our night dive finished. None of us set our alarm clocks and we awoke between 8:30 and 8:50. Bill and I had a quick breakfast (coffee and instant oatmeal) and began suiting for our first dive. At 9:32 we left the habitat and swam down the S4 transect line to take the first water specimens of the day. The visibility was good this morning and we could see about 50 feet ahead of us as we swam towards the sample site located at 60 feet on the bottom of the reef. Bill and I let air out of our buoyancy compensators and slowly descended towards the bottom, our vertical movement a gradual progression as we slowly settled on the sand. We took 3 water samples and alternated taking digital underwater photographs to document the data collection. After filling the syringes we returned to the habitat so the samples could be filtered and put on ice in accordance with the research protocol.

On the second half of our dive we proceeded down the SE excursion line to lay transects for Mike and Mike to continue the coral science experiment. After the night dive in the same area last night the terrain was familiar but did not seem as lonely and foreboding as it had the night before. Our bubbles no longer left a bioluminscent trail as they floated up to the surface and the visibility was considerably better than we had noted in the dark. We completed our tasks and returned to the habitat in time to get ready for another educational outreach event. This event was coordinated by Johnson Space Center through NASA Quest, an interactive web site where students can ask questions over the internet. There were a lot of excellent questions and the students seemed particularly interested in the differences and similarities between living in an underwater habitat and living in space. Bill and I were inside the habitat answering most of the questions. Mike G. and Mike L.A. answered a few questions from outside the habitat using the buddyphone before heading back along the SE excursion line to continue the reef science experiment.

After finishing lunch and cleaning up Bill and I took a short rest before suiting for our second dive at 3:00 pm. This dive was a continuation of the reef science experiment, although we scheduled a brief return to the habitat for a 4:40 pm link-up with the crew on the International Space Station. We experienced some delays and technical challenges getting the link-up in place, but Mike G. and Mike L.A. were ultimately successful in having a 10-minute conversation with the ISS crew and the visiting Soyuz crew. Bill and I were unable to connect from outside the habitat because of some technical challenges. We had hoped to participate in the link-up from outside the habitat. That certainly would have made for an exciting dive!

We returned to the habitat at 6:00 pm and briefly had a chance to say hello to Mark and Monika who were in the gazebo when we arrived. They were doing really well and it was fun to talk together in the air filled gazebo 50 feet below the surface.

After cleaning our equipment, showering and drying off, we sat down to a well-earned dinner and rest after the long day's work. Tomorrow we start the long 17-hour decompression back to surface pressure and we are looking forward to our last dive of the mission - from 7:00 to 8:30 am. As the mission starts to come to a close I find myself thinking more of the surface world again. The lightning flashes above us with a storm overhead remind me of another place that we had all but forgotten of during our stay as inhabitants of the reef. While I look forward to the chance to be at home with my wife Cathy and my children Evan and Olivia, I am already looking forward to an opportunity to revisit Aquarius and say hello once again to the new friends I have made on the reef.