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Journal 9- Bill Leggat: Day 3: Wednesday, June 12, 2002
I am about to hit the sack after our third day in Aquarius. Unfortunately, Ove and I got the short straw and had to check the larvae on the "porch" outside the habitat at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00 last night and tonight. This means brief excursions on hookah (your air is supplied to you via an air hose from the habitat) every hour. Surprisingly, this form of diving gives a feeling of freedom after having dived all day with the normal equipment (buoyancy compensator, two 100 cubic foot tanks, two line reels, emergency buoy, etc). It is a real delight to simply strap a small emergency tank to your back and go outside on the hookah without a wetsuit, weight belt, or any of the other bulky equipment we need when venturing away from the habitat. The last actual scuba dive tonight was a twilight/night dive. Ove and I checked some equipment at 95 feet, it is great to be able to do this sort of dive without worrying about bottom time, and then tested out a new lighting system that allows us to see the fluorescent pigments in the corals. You have to dive with only a black-light "torch" (flashlight for my American friends) and a yellow filter over your mask. This lighting brings up spectacular greens and reds that normally can not be seen. It makes for some very surreal diving as the lack of normal light means that it is almost impossible to see anything apart from the brightly fluorescing corals. I think the funniest moment of the mission so far goes to Ove. Today, after spending 15 minutes ensuring his camera was properly set up, 10 minutes looking for his mask (he couldn't find it and had to borrow someone else's), he gracefully launched himself from the wet porch only to discover that he had forgotten to put his fins on. After much ungainly paddling he finally managed to get back to the wet porch and found that that his fins and mask were both sitting at the railing above his head. A close second to this moment was while doing the night dive. In the almost pitch darkness of the black light a friendly nurse shark, only about 4 foot long, decided to come and see what all the fuss was about. It can certainly be startling to see a shark come barreling out of the darkness over the coral where you are and run slap bang into the camera, I think we both jumped about 3 feet. Currently several snook are cruising just outside the habitat, trying to catch some of the smaller fish, lured here by the lights. As we are working we sometimes see a flash of silver as they cruise past the viewports. Cheers from Aquarius Bill |
Mission
Date: June, 2002 Mission Summary Aquanaut Profiles Expedition Journals Mission Pictures |
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