Saturday, March 27, 2004
This is it! I can feel it This is the day! I have been thinking of this moment for more than one year now... After more than one week, watching at the others going back and forth with Alvin became a habit for me. But today, Saturday, this is my turn, and everything is different: like in a dream, Cheryl, Pat and I are diving 2.5 kilometers below the sea, where everything should be dark and life primitive.

I can feel the thrill as we enter the water. An hour and a half and a couple of CDs later, we land on the seafloor. Lights on and this is somehow different from what I had expected: the place is much more alive, much rougher than in my thoughts. As for the submersible, it moves so smoothly that we feel like were in a space shuttle (O.K, I have not been there yet, but at least, it feels so). The world down here is really peaceful compared to the buzz of our research vessel, above; just Pat's music to scare crabs and prevent Cheryl from staying concentrated. The rest of our trip is a matter of work. We go from one place to the other, sampling every field we drive through and trying to use the device Leonid and I brought with us to estimate the velocity of flux pouring out from the seafloor. Well, it looks like some other versions will be needed (already the fourth one in one week!), especially to save Alvin's power and to force Pat to stay down a bit longer, because we already need to head for the surface.

As weights are released, I can feel the cold temperature, just above 0c, and to see so much water out there just makes me wish the sub would be a restroom; I think that after 6 hours spent in a closed space, you can imagine why I wish so... But no way, I shall overcome! No bottle for me... After all, once on board, I just need to Oh, Jeeze! That is true: buckets of water are waiting for new divers, once they get off the sub. Tradition is tradition, and lately with some improvements: ice cubes, retrieved from the water just before the crime. And I can testify that it is efficient to cool you down in case the sun is shining too much. After the torture, I rush to my cabin (Hmmm, cabin!...) to discover the second tradition, this time fairly new (I am just the second one to undergo it): some of your clothes (you know, the ones you wanted especially to wear at this very time) are missing and kept in the freezer, just in case buckets of water were not enough to make you go back to Earth after your amazing trip.

As for the others, they are already back to work, analyzing what we brought back. And it is going to last the whole night, as I am still thinking of crabs, colorless fish and tube worms. Did I tell you we saw a skate down there? Pretty amazing, isnt it! But I can feel that my eyes are half closed. I guess the excitement and the trip totally shattered my energy. Just the time to say goodbye and wish you a good night. Zzzzzz
—Pierre

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A second report-of-the-day from Cheryl Parker:

I can't say much about the happenings on the ship today but it was a great day at the bottom of the ocean! Pierre and I dove, with Pat Hickey as pilot, to the Bio9 and P vent areas. As usual Pat flew though the work with amazing skill. Bio9 is a tough area to sample since there are a few vents all close together. It's an incredible sight though to be seeing vents out all three viewports at the same time! We accomplished all of our goals of water sampling, measuring velocity of the fluid flow and slurping up some microbes to keep those biologists busy staring into their microscopes. We also set out some more markers so that we can identify these sites in the future.

I've been diving in the sub before but this was my first time as the experienced diver so I got to sit Port side. It was definitely exciting but then I can't think of when going to the bottom of the ocean wouldn't be. I've been to both of the sites we visited a couple times before but I find it amazing how dynamic the systems are..I hardly recognize them each time because they seem to change so much. My first time there was two years ago and since then the animals as well at the structure of the vents themselves have changed. I also saw a good size skate swimming around when we landed. Pat said they are pretty rare to see.

Being in the sub in some ways is like a mini vacation from the ship. You are no longer rolling around on the surface and you leave the noise and business of Atlantis behind. It's very quiet down there. You get very focused on your work and it makes for a long exhausting but amazing day. After the dive the craziness begins. Our lab is up processing water samples sometime right until breakfast! Among other happenings on Atlantis: The ping-pong tournament is nearing the final match. Captain Chiljean will be in the final match but Eric and Patrick still need to play to find out who will stay in. Eric is the only hope for the science party (not many people stand a chance against the Captain). Only a few days left till Manzanillo!
—Cheryl Parker