The big day (Day 9) of the beginning of our return to the surface arrived. Bill and I were unable to enter the water given the amount of diving the day before and Sarah and Josh did their last bit of work and were out of the water by 10 am.
With the divers were out of the water by 10 am, Otter and James started to clean and prepare the Habitat for the potting of equipment and personal belongings to the surface. The team cleaned and packed bags of equipment and clothing. The potters soon popped up like sea otters in the wet porch - grabbing the pots and taking them to the surface. There was a final burst of activity and then they were gone.

As arranged - Peter (Edmunds) popped his head in with the PAM that we had deployed onto the reef at 60 foot. We grabbed it, downloaded the data and sent the other PAM up in the pots to the surface. Pete grabbed this one - replaced the equalizing bung and headed for the shallows (20 foot site) to PAM and collect Porites asteroides there.

By this time, the seventh man ("Smitty") joined us and the time for de-saturating our bodies was looming. After a brief talk to us about the decompression procedures by Smitty, we ate lunch - provided from the surface by Otter's girlfriend, Chrissie. Smitty has also brought some delicious Sushi.

Decompression began at 4 pm with three sessions of breathing pure oxygen on our beds. We had talked excitedly up to this point and then all was quiet, just the sound of breathing through the masks could be heard. The seventh man (relatively unsaturated by comparison to the Aquanauts) is needed to drive the bus while the initial phases of the pressure decrease occur. While Otter and James joined us on oxygen, Smitty sealed the main lock door and began to decrease the pressure.

As the evening wore on, the team sat and watched a DVD movie or read. By 11 pm, we were already at 17 feet, with all our thoughts focussing on the ascent to the surface tomorrow. Some think of visiting a fast food restaurant, others think about green leafy vegetables. All of us think of the sun and the fresh air. What will it feel like?