We also saw an eel that was totally exposed. I don't think I've ever seen an eel that wasn't hiding or at least sticking out of a hole. This guy was a spotted eel, and was totally out at the base of a coral. Dan tried to get a picture and he reared up and opened his mouth, looking as fierce as he could. That will be a great picture if it turns out. Later we saw two hermit crabs side by side on the sand. Mike joked that it was a hermit crab race in progress. Maybe we'll go back tomorrow and see who won! We also saw a really large moray eel near the habitat. He could have swallowed the spotted one whole.

After the dive, we all cleaned up and took naps. I was up late on the computer last night, so a nap was much appreciated on my part. Around noon Bill and Monika visited for our phone call with the Expedition 4 crew on board the International Space Station. They had been sent the NASA press release on our mission, as well as the USA Today article, and had been following our mission. They had just passed overhead about an hour before the call, and told us what the weather was like on the surface. How's that for service?! It was nice to talk to them again, and a rare treat to get to talk to them from orbit. They'll be back on earth shortly after I get back, and since I was their training lead I've still got a lot of stuff to do to prepare for them coming home. I think of all that has happened in my life in the last 6 months - heck in any 6-month time frame - and those guys have been in orbit the whole time. They are lucky to have such supportive and understanding families... On a side note - we talked to them using "speakerphone" connected to a cell phone that has its antenna on the life support buoy above. The phone has been spontaneously cutting out on us all week during our comm links to the Houston support team, so it was only a question of when it would fail during our big call. We probably got to talk for 25 minutes today before it finally disconnected. I guess it's time for us to invest in a new phone. (Note: - this is a speakerphone we scrounged up to support our unique mission requirements, not standard NURC equipment.)

I haven't talked much about the food so far, largely because it's pretty standard. We have a refrigerator - it doesn't get quite as cold as a real refrigerator, so it's called a "cold box," but it gets the job done. It keeps milk, tortillas, salsa, cheese, meat, fruit, and more fresh for the mission. In the pantry we have mostly dehydrated foods. NASA donated 3 full days worth of ISS space food (that was about to expire), and the rest is typical camping fare. In short, the food is not great, but then, none of us really cared much what they brought down for us to eat so we get what we get. It's also not bad, and definitely is getting the job done. For what it's worth, breakfast was instant oatmeal, lunch - I forget, and dinner some kind of Mountain House beef stew and rice pilaf (hey, whatever sounds good at the time.)

Our afternoon dive was 2 hours long and was back to the Pinnacle to finish up the coral science. We finally did, and are certainly better for the experience, trying though it was. Tomorrow we have extended our planned dive time to 3.5 hours to try to do the same thing at the Northeast site. The terrain out there is much flatter, and that should help immensely compared to the spurs and grooves out at the Pinnacle. Given our learning curve to date, the extended dive time, and the friendlier terrain, we think this will be enough time to get the job done. I have to admit, though, that if we finish earlier there will be rejoicing all around!

Tonight is a quiet evening. Our surface team and support team in Houston are enjoying their weekend (I hope), so we didn't have our routine "tagups" with them this morning and night. I'm starting to feel a little nostalgic as I see the end of the mission approaching - we only have two more dives left. The second dive tomorrow will be a night dive. That will be fun and I'm sure fascinating. We have to stay inside on Monday before decompression starts, and will be locked inside during the decompression. You'll hear all about it first right here at the NURC web page. From the current crew of Aquarius - have a good weekend!