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Journal 12 -
Janet Nestlerode: Mission Day 6: Saturday, November 16, 2002
This morning Jim woke us up at 4:30 a.m. so that we could be ready to leave the habitat for our 5:30 a.m. dive. We added dive lights to our array of gear that we took with us out on our excursion since it was still dark when we left Aquarius. Mark and Beth were dive buddies, and I paired up with Jo. The four of us went out to the end of the S-4 excursion line and as we kicked our fins through the water, we could see the sparkles of tiny bioluminescent dinoflagellates shine in our wakes. Jo and I used our cave-diving reels to run a line out away from the main excursion line out to patch reefs so that we could do some work away from the main line and still find our way back in the dark. Beth and Mark used the PAM instrument and Jo and I measured oxygen, pH and temperature at different heights above the substrate using the PVC frame that Jo described earlier. The reef looked different at night compared to how it looks during the day. At night, the individual coral polyps extend out of their calcium carbonate skeletons to feed, giving the coral heads a fuzzy appearance. We saw big hermit crabs walking around the sand in queen conch shells (there were about 9 inches long!) and beautiful basket stars (these look like brittle stars, but with highly branched arms) entangled in the gorgonians and extending their arms out into the water to feed. On our way back to the habitat, the sun started to come up and we saw a hawksbill turtle cross our path. We were close enough to see the barnacles on its back! We ended our morning dive at 9 am. By the time our surface team of divers left shore this morning, we had already been diving to 110 feet for three and a half hours! Our surface support divers, Danny, Kristen, and Lauren, came for a visit to the habitat at 10:30. We welcomed them with hot cocoa and towels as they popped their heads up through the moon pool in the wet porch. They spent about 45 minutes looking around inside and catching us up on what we’ve been missing at the surface. They brought us chocolates and magazines. We took lots of pictures of all of us sitting around the mess table and waved to Lawrence on the web camera so that he could see us back on shore. At 1:00, we had a video conference with the Orlando Science Center. Live video of all of us was broadcast to the auditorium and we were able to talk with the audience. They asked some great questions about what it is like to live and work from Aquarius and about the kinds of sea life we are seeing here! Later in the afternoon, we geared up for another dive. Jo and I went out to do more profile measurements out the 5th Leg Excursion Line while Beth and Mark stayed behind at the habitat and tended to the corals in the chambers. We saw an enormous sting ray (about 6 feet across!) swimming near the habitat as we returned at the end of our dive! One of the greatest things about diving from Aquarius is that you never know what kinds of exciting things you may see on every dive! We are going to bed early tonight because we have another early morning
departure scheduled. Tune in tomorrow to find out about what we saw! |
Mission
Date: November, 2002 Mission Summary Aquanaut Profiles Expedition Journals Mission Pictures |
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