Sewing Day

Today started early, the alarm went off at 4:45 am. I actually woke up and got out of bed within a few minutes of the alarm going off. A very rare event indeed for anyone who knows me. I got up and headed down to the deck, where I found only Maddhatter busily with the LVWS. He asked me to go wake up the others, apparently I was the 2nd one awake today, another rare event. I got them all awake, and then proceeded to cut out my filter patterns. Then I sewed, and sewed, and broke a needle (a hand needle, not a sewing machine needle), got a new needle and continued to sew more. I got both filters done by 1:30 pm, with one break for a bit of breakfast and one for lunch. Yes, it took me that long, but then again it was another case of the need for small stitches and some annoying filter fabric. The 80 micron mesh was making the thread curl up on itself when I drew it through, causing me to have to slow down for each stitch. The joy.


Once I was done, Strawberry Shortcake rescued me and we donned our swim suits and hit the pool. Yes, we have a pool. Of course the word "pool" is more kind than what the contraption really is. It is a tarp lining held together with nylon straps and wood. It is used for measuring flotation for objects and of course, for us to dip into. But the pool was a bit on the dirty (more like gross bottom dirt) and cold side today. While we sat there, a few of the ALVIN guys and an Atlantis guy stopped by. We chatted for a bit about past cruises, life and such; it was a nice casual down-time that I hadn't had out here in a while. Strawberry Shortcake and I talked the guys into cleaning the pool and they rigged up a hose for some fresh, warm water to fill it with and dropped in some chlorine tablets. I think by tomorrow it will be perfect to take a real dip in. I'm hoping to steal a few min tomorrow and take a dip again. The weather isn't that hot, so I can tolerate the outdoors now. :D


Today was also Maddhatter's dive, his first dive, ever. So you know what that means? Initiation!!! We lovingly stuffed his shoes with coffee grinds and red jello, dumped two pails of chilled water and one pail of water mixed with V8 juice onto him. He took it quite well, and we even had a towel waiting for him to dry off from the rinsing process. He told us that it was rather murky, and you could see the natural oil droplets being formed in the depths. And apparently fewer crabs and dimmer biolumincesce than at 9N. Darn, it was so pretty there, I had hoped he's see the pretty pretty light show like Strawberry Shortcake and I did. On the upside, Mookie dives tomorrow. We have to come up with some ideas for his "initiation" and make it awesome! Although he has said his shoes are off limits since he only has one pair. Fair enough.


I tried to add a countdown clock to the blog tonight, but it was too difficult to figure out. So this is the countdown in words: Saturday, November 29th is our last dive day. When ALVIN comes on board at 5:00 pm, we will kick the ship into high gear and head to port. We should be in port by very late that night or early Sunday morning. Our flight doesn't leave until Dec 1st at 4:30 pm. Guaymas is a very small town, and only one airline serves it. Only one flight per day flies in and out. We'll go to Phoenix and by 11:30 pm, board the flight home, arriving at the airport at 6:00 am. It will be a long flight home, but one we're all looking forward to. Our dives have already begun here, the LVWS is at the bottom of the basin right now pumping water. We'll bring it up in the morning and drop the second one right after. I found out today that the basin is about 2000 meters deep, so a bit more shallow than 9 N, which is making for faster drops and longer bottom times for the sub. Although the sub reeked of natural oil when it came up. Ewww. It was icky, and smelly.


Anyway, not too much more thrilling stuff happened today. While I was sewing I watched Office Space and Das Boot. I wanted to watch Das Boot in German with English subtitles but was outvoted by the crowd, hence we watched the English dubbed version. :( I think its better the other way, but I caved. How sad is that? They have Pan's Labyrinth too, although I think I would be the only person watching it.


Another sunset to close. I realized that there are some spots on my lens inside the camera. It isn't on the exchangeable lens, because I'm getting them on the smaller lenses too. So you'll see a smudge or two on the pics unfortunately. I might try to clean the interior of the camera out here, or wait to have it done at a shop at home. I'll try to photoshop the pics I have when I get home and send my camera in for a deep cleaning. I'm not sure where the smudges are, but they are deep inside. :( With that, this is the awesome sunset from tonight. Buenos noches.