I went out for a few hours and did some cleaning on the Wet Porch and open bottom bell. The Wet Porch is the area where the divers stage in and out of Aquarius; it is a high traffic area and needs to be kept clean of marine growth. The open bottom bell is an emergency haven located on the sand patch, and is similar to another we recently had donated by the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City. That bell, named the Kamper Station, will be located in 95 FSW and will be used as a fill station for next year's science season. Like its sister stations located 900 feet from the habitat at the Pinnacle and Northeast sites, it will have communications and air fill capabilities, and will be located 600 feet southeast of the habitat. When the scientists need to fill their tanks, they go to one of the three way-stations located in these different areas around Aquarius, and fill their twin 100 cu.ft. doubles through the use of quick disconnect hoses. They are required to check in at one of the way-stations every two hours, refilling their tanks and calling the tech inside Aquarius to let them him know how things are going with the dive, their working location, and the plan for the remainder of their dive or excursion.

The visibility has continued to drop off throughout the afternoon and the water temperature has dropped a degree or two centigrade. None of this has dampened the progress of our science team; they're out until dark tonight.