It's hard to believe that the diving is over. Today will be dedicated to getting our data and personal equipment organized, preparing for and initiating the decompression routine, and a little relaxation... much like deorbit prep on the Space Shuttle. We have one more night and a wakeup left... We all would love to get just one more dive, but... That's good because I would rather wrap up the mission with everybody wanting to stay a little longer instead of being burned out and dreading the last one or two dives.

Speaking of the diving, our final dive was the night dive last evening. We were scheduled to dive until 2200 and everybody milked every last minute out of the excursion. The night dive was by far the most awesome dive of the mission. It might be that it was one of the more relaxing dives and that we were able to focus more on the details of the reef, but it seemed that the reef came "alive" much more than during the day. Instead of venturing out 800 plus feet to one of the waystations, we stayed within 400 feet of Aquarius on what is called the 5th leg excursion line and spent a lot of time in each spot studying the details of the coral environment. Danny and I came across many crabs and lobsters; hermit crabs dragging conch shells, rough box crabs with what looked like a sponge on their back, channel clinging crabs under the habitat, and spiny lobsters out in the open. Jonathan and Greg got some great video of a giant hermit crab coming face to face with a scorpion fish, checking each other out, and deciding that they would not become acquainted with each other. Mike, Danny, and I were off the bow of the habitat when we found a very ugly - right out of a cheap science fiction movie - slimy tiger tail sea cucumber extending about 4 feet out of its hole in the coral... we had no idea how much of its body was still hidden in the hole. We also found a couple of beautiful long spined sea urchins, a giant basket star, a couple of spotted moray eels slithering in and out of hiding places in the coral, as well as another large southern stingray. Much of the time we had our flashlights off to allow our night vision to adjust. The diffused light of the moon was clearly visible along with the reflection of the habitat lights on the surface, the latter being an unexpected but convenient secondary navigation aid.

As I reflect on our time here, even though I had high expectations of the mission before, the experience has surpassed my expectations and I couldn't be more pleased with the way things went, both personally and for the crew.

As in all things, what makes the difference are the people. The crewmembers have been great to live and work with. The NASA part of the crew really enjoyed Mike and Byron and I think both Mike and Byron had an equally good experience with us. I felt pre-mission that it would be important to be a crew of 6 and not two crews.... and, fortunately, it has definitely turned out that way. Everybody has done all of the right things in regard to what it takes for an expedition to work in an isolated and unforgiving environment, to operate safely and effectively, while maintaining high morale, esprit, and camaraderie. Additionally, everybody's health has been maintained (no ear problems, rashes or other ailments often suffered in this environment), everybody is well rested, and the pantry is getting as depleted as any dietician would want. Best of all, we have encountered no close calls or safety problems and everybody has had fun.... my two top priorities going in.

The topside crew, both NASA and NURC/UNCW, have also been a pleasure to work with. They have gone above and beyond the call in anticipating the support we needed and responding to requests and contingencies, always in a can-do and enthusiastic way. In expeditions such as this, there is often great potential for a split to form between the deployed crew and the "base" crew during the course of the mission - sort of a we/they psychology, but nothing of the sort occurred to us. Everybody truly worked as a global team/crew; from the saturated crew on-board Aquarius, to the support divers potting down supplies, boat crews, the 24 hr/day watch desk, and the rest of the NURC/UNCW gang, as well as the NASA topside crew at NURC/UNCW, and the folks supporting back at Johnson Space Center and other remote sites. I also realize that there may be some supporting the mission that I'm not even aware of and I'm equally grateful for their contributions. It has truly been an honor to be part of this overall team!

Well, I've been chipping away at this journal off and on, and it's now 10:45. Enough for now... It's time to get back to preparations for "deco" and getting us and our stuff back to the surface. I'm looking forward to sunshine and that first breath of 14.7 psi air....