Last Dive Day

Yup, that's right, Alvin went into the water for the last time for this cruise this morning at 9:00 am. We had a 1 hour delay because we've been experiencing high winds, a little less than the 25 knot cut off, but still rather high. I missed the women getting into the sub this morning because I was setting up my last induction (did ya hear that, the LAST one!!). But I watched the launch off the A frame and managed to take a few photos of Alvin going into the abyss. I have to say, I'm really glad this was not my dive day. The water was choppy, wavy and I'm sure the sphere occupants had an extra bumpy time on the surface, both this morning and this evening during retrieval. Its been a wavy day. Not nearly as bad as it was back at 9 North when we had the 10 foot swells, but still a bit on the loopy side for even walking down the passageway.

We are now beginning to pack up the labs, process the last of the samples and get things ready to go home. With that thought, I realized I hadn't posted any pictures of our work spaces. I've been talking about the wet lab and the computer room, but you guys haven't seen them. So, I'm taking a moment for a picture page and showing you where we've been working for the last 3.5 weeks.

Computer Room






And...
Wet Lab








We were going to have everything packed up and head to port right after the Alvin recovery, but we realized we needed one more sample, an off axis control for the deep-sea vents we just sampled here. Oops. So we are doing an impromptu CTD cast out there right now. It takes about one hour for the rosette to go to the bottom of the ocean, and one hour to come back. Of course there's a short time in between when the bottles are being fired off and collecting water. We are only getting 50 liters of water, so hopefully it won't be an excruciatingly late evening. Cross your fingers.

And I finally got a beautiful sunrise! This morning it looked like it would be yet another disappointment. The sky was full of clouds, the sun was merely peaking through and I was sure it would not be good. I had taken my camera back inside and started to do some work. Then I peaked around the corner and there it was! This was my morning sunrise on the Pacific finally worth taking the picture for! Only a short time now, Tuesday morning I'll be home!