February 1, 2004
Missed Birthday Wishes to Melissa Perfit from Mike and Ryan
We have been making exceptional time heading south and we are expected to be on site late Monday evening. This means that we will make our first dive on Tuesday at a hydrothermal site where Bill Seyfried’s team will deploy their temperature and chemistry probes. Ten days later, the intent is to recover them to see how the hydrothermal vent chemistry has varied over that time period. A series of geophysical/geological dives are then planned. Each day we will be posting a summary of Alvin activities on the web site. We are also planning our first camera tow on Monday night and into the wee hours of Tuesday, Feb. 3.
Carl
Wood, the Steward, fixing lunch today.
As we near the dive area, the Alvin crew began to acquaint the scientists with the “bells and whistles” of the sub. This afternoon, Bruce Strickrott, an Alvin pilot, discussed the various hand-held cameras and recorders that could be used for imaging through the three portholes of the sub. Alvin holds three people, so this evening each pilot took groups of two scientists on board to review the various safety information, equipment, video and navigation monitors and controls available to the scientists on the port and starboard sides. The controls allow the observers to move the external still and video cameras that are used extensively to image the surroundings as Alvin goes about tasks on the seafloor.
Ken Sims climbs out of Alvin after his briefing.
Mark Spear (left) and Bob Green of the Alvin Group, work on the elevator floatation assembly.
The scientists also have several audio recording systems available because an important part of dive is to provide direct observations and interpretations of the surroundings; an aspect that is unavailable during remote operations. We are testing a digital voice recognition system that will save a great amount of time in transcribing the audio. The concensus is that success will be claimed if the system can recognize John's Scottish accent.
Michael
Perfit and Ed "Catfish" Popowitz discuss the intricacies of
the Super Bowl football pool on Super Bowl Sunday. The ship was able to
pick up the game on radio waves via U.S. Military Broadcast. Many on board
were THRILLED that the Pats won - Go Pats!
There is an added sense of excitement here amongst the scientists as we near the dive area, and the Atlantis and Alvin crews are also eager to start the diving operations. This anticipation has been somewhat muted by our inability to catch any more tuna today, so the promise of sashimi must wait at least another day.
The "Rat" Cam
will take time lapse photos on the ocean floor during some of the dives.