Day one is behind us and we have settled into our new home. We have started into a routine that is designed to simulate living on-board the space station. All of our tasks for the day are methodically time-lined and we do our best to stay to it. However, just like space, we start to slip off the timeline as cameras fail, small leaks are found and repaired, and further communication is required before proceeding. The level of activity on board is intense. People are typing away on computers, collecting science data, testing communication with MCC back at Houston, and trying to cram in a meal of re-hydrated space food. Now there is a perplexing thought - re-hydrating space food to eat underwater…. Any way, its great and I love every minute of it.

A typical day, if there is such a thing, is jammin'. We're up early for space food sticks and then we brief with our topside support folks, Marc and Monika, who are awesome and keep the program moving. At around 8:00 or so, its splash time and we hit the water. Our dive times, distances, and objectives are clearly scripted. There is no tolerance for mistakes or miscommunication in this environment. Dives consist of objectives such as tests of communication equipment, coral growth studies, water quality studies, and mapping of the surrounding area.

We dive together as "buddy" teams. My buddy is Dave Williams, or "Dr. Dave." We're the "A" team. The second team, Mike G "DB" and Mike L-A "Hollywood" make up … yeah, you guessed it - "Team Bravo" with a capital B. Yes, the rivalry has already started, but it's all in fun.

This morning, during team Bravo's morning dive, Dave and I stayed inside to host an educational outreach event. This was an exciting event where our habitat home was connected via the Aquarius telemetry system and multiple ISDN lines to the Johnson Space Center, and then shipped to school kids across the country. It was a wonderful experience to share our thoughts about living in sea and space with the children. Dr. Miller, the Center Director here, and the folks at UNCW have done an excellent job of developing this undersea research outreach capability. It is an incredible platform for educational outreach, one that I hope we put to good use. It's our responsibility.

It's noon and it's lunch time. So what's on the menu today? Sliced dried peaches, sweet and sour pork, meatloaf in a bag???? Hmm. I'll settle on some vegetable soup. Actually, the space food is quite good and there is certainly plenty of it. Vicki and the folk's back home at the JSC food lab took care of us with an entire week of the space station menu. I wonder what's for dinner?

After lunch it's a bit crazy. Boats are in the area delivering supplies such as fresh water, diving tools, and equipment. The boats are not unlike the re-supply ships that we send to the space station. During this time we are also working on the computers, talking to Mission Control, and making sure that we have our plans in order for the afternoon dive.

The dives here from Aquarius are called excursions. But in typical NASA style, we had to have our own name so we call them EVAs, or extra vehicular activities. Again, just like in space. EVAs are a blast. Since we are in saturation and can't go to the surface for several days, we have the luxury of going deep and staying long. It's not unheard of for an aquanaut to spend up to six hours at 95 feet on a single dive! Now that's bottom time.

The reef is awesome. It's a peaceful place full of all types of swimming critters big and small. Lobster, stingray, snappers and eel all greet you on every dive. As we depart the excursion/navigation line we typically pass by our new found eel friend we call Chuck. This very large green moray can always be seen with his mouth flapping in the "breeze"….again, I don't get too close. Further down the navigation line - excitement. A beautiful black tip reef shark effortlessly swims by. It's readily apparent that this is a confident fish. He is sleek, aerodynamic, and swift. I wonder where he is headed as he cruises the reef. Finally, almost 1000 feet from our base at Aquarius, we are at our work site. We will spend the next several hours testing the communication system we are wearing and collecting data on the coral communities. Our friend Karl Shreeves, from PADI, has set us up with an incredible underwater communication system. Instead of relying on just hand signal as divers have done for years, we also have the luxury of talking to each other through the water. It's very effective for helping with the logistics during the underwater work, and it allows us to stay in contact with MCC in Houston. Soon, we set into a rhythm with the reef as we perform our work. It's quiet and beautiful. The comm system remains very quiet and that's a good sign.

After the dive it's time for dinner and a long hot shower. Not really, water conservation is a must. We all settle in for a dinner meal and have agreed that we will try and have one meal as a "family" each night, but it's not working too well. Everyone is off in six directions. I'm reminded of another place like that.

Well that about says it for the day. It's after dinner and it's time to write in Journals such as I am, to file dive plans, to do a bit more science, and hopefully to watch the wonderful activity of the fish community as they go about THEIR daily routine…...