As for the difficulty factor of our construction task, it was pretty high today. The current was still going pretty strong (we're near the edge of the Gulf Stream so water can really move sometimes), and we were at the point where the structure was 8 feet off the seafloor. Since the structure itself is just PVC pipe, it is too flimsy to hang on to for support. So we were really challenged to keep our buoyancy perfectly controlled, swimming against the current, and keeping ourselves perfectly positioned to do the alignment required to finish the work. Our training instructor, Mark Hulsbeck (aka Otter), hammered on us all during our training week about improving our buoyancy control. He would have been proud to see how well we mastered our buoyancy during the challenging tasks today.

Mike and I finished so quickly that we next went out to take some water samples. We found that we couldn't open many of the syringes. Mike ascended to 60 feet and finally pried one open. It turns out we had some pressure differential trapped in the end of the syringe which was holding them tightly closed. So, Mike went down to get more empty syringes while I tried to get the remaining empty ones out of the bag (to take up and open), while taking a sample in a newly opened one. Meanwhile, the bag was positively buoyant (the syringes float), and continuously floated up in my face. I tried to be ever conscious of putting the bag on my arm between openings, but somewhere along the way I either got sloppy or else it floated off my arm when I wasn't looking. In any case, I looked for the bag and couldn't find it. Mike couldn't find the bag either. It was just gone. No way, I thought, it can't just be GONE. Did it float to the surface? We both looked up, sunlight glinting on the waves, and finally saw our little bag floating gently to the surface. I won't elaborate on the thoughts that went through my head... Anyway, while I got negative style points for losing the water sampling gear, once again our instructors would have been proud as Mike and I sat tight and watched it float away, and resisted the urge to bolt toward the surface to rescue the bag. That would have been a really dumb move, and could have had serious repercussions.

Our afternoon dive was 2 hours and 30 minutes long, and was the beginning of our coral science task. This is by far the most technically challenging of the diving we've done so far. We have to use our cave reels, measure and lay transect lines, photo document coral heads within each area, and record data on a slate we carry with us. Since yesterday we've had a pretty substantial current and the coral work area was right on a ridge. The current screamed up the ridge and made it extremely difficult to maintain our position well enough to control the camera. The identification numbers that we placed in front of each coral for the pictures tumbled away. I came back today feeling pretty beat up, physically and mentally. The really frustrating part is the tendency we have to reach out and grab something to help stabilize against the current, but that would likely result in damaging living coral or worse, breaking it off. As a result it takes a lot longer to get even simple tasks completed.

Tonight we sat around the main viewport after our dives were over and watched the fish. Our roommate Thor is a walking encyclopedia of marine life. It was really interesting to learn the names of some of the more common fish that have been hanging out around us all week. We also had some guest appearances from some tarpon (a large, 3-4 foot long silver colored fish) and permits (kind of a square headed fish, also large). I also saw a scorpion fish today hanging out on a piece of coral. It appeared to be barnacle-covered and barely visible - perfectly camouflaged.

I'm starting to suffer some skin problems now, halfway through the mission. My feet are getting chafed from the wetsuit boots and fins. I asked for my personal boots to be sent down and they arrived late this afternoon. I wore socks inside my booties on the dive this afternoon, and it seemed to help. Tomorrow they are sending down some lycra socks to wear inside the boots and that should help a lot. Also, I'm breaking out where the seams of the bathing suit and dive skin touch me, and a little bit on my face too. This is starting to take me back to junior high! I guess it's just part of price for the privilege of living here. We spend so much time in the water, eat kind of junky foods (we burn so many calories living down here that chocolates and nuts, two of my favorites anyway, just can't be passed up afterward), and it's a little humid - it just seems to be a losing battle. Fortunately, my ears continue to feel great. There's a lot of distance between discomfort and not being able to dive... :-)

The movie tonight is Zoolander, thanks to our excellent surface support team. It came from Blockbuster, and is due back in 5 days. Somehow I don't think they know where this one was headed... It's the perfect balance of silly humor with which to end another tiring but successful day.