February 9, 2004
One of the Sunday night's suicidal flying fish
Prior to Monday's trabajo tipico, Sunday night presented Atlantis with its biggest challenge yet. Large swells created by rather strong and constant winds gave the local flying fish community the opportunity they had been waiting for..... to carry out a long anticipated aerial attack on Atlantis. Unfortunately (for the fish) they miscalculated their ability to breathe once out of water and the attack failed. Although the science party did their best to restore the fish to their briny environs before they expired, a good number of flyers died in vain.
Monday's sunrise over the Pacific, as photographed by usual late-night Rabbit Cam operator, Adam Soule.
As dawn approched, members of the Alvin group started their final preparations for the day's dive. A short time later, Michael Perfit and Javier Escartin awoke and prepared themselves for a day of exploring the off-axis area around 9° 43.5'. It is here that the scientific team has identified what appears to be a single lava flow that extends nearly 4 km down the flanks of the East Pacific Rise. Such long lava flows have not been well-docmented in the past at mid-ocean ridges and the divers were excited to start their exploration.
Mark Spear, one of the Alvin 'Pilots-in-Training' (PITs) took these photos today during launch/recovery operations. Carl Wood and Gavin Eppard were the swimmers and 'Catfish' Popowitz was the Avon driver.
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Mike, Javier and pilot Bruce Strickrott spent the first half of the day examining lavas that might be related to the long flow and were able to locate a 80 m-wide channel that contained a flat lava flow known as a lineated sheet flow. Lava samples were taken that will be analyzed using a variety of geochemical techniques in order to determine if the different samples are related to one another magmatically. The dive was proceeding well when the team on the bottom got a call from the "Top Lab" on Atlantis. Due to deteriorating weather conditions and increasing heights of the swells Alvin was forced to return to the surfuce ~2 hours before it's expected ascent. Mike and Javier were disappointed because they were not able to complete their dive as planned but the time they did spend was very successful at determining the nature of the long lava flow. Although the seas were quite rough when Alvin appeard on the surface, the recovery was completed seamlessly.
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Monday's Alvin recovery under an ominous sky and cresting wave caps.
Recovery swimmers, Carl Wood and Gavin Eppard, swan-dive off Alvin as it is hoisted by the A-Frame.
Upon his return from his first Alvin dive, Javier was greated with a pair of frozen sneakers and a ritual 'baptism' of iced sea water.
A soaked Javier displays his "cold feet", but he is now inducted into the community of deep sea divers.
The early Alvin return afforded the "late-night" Rabbit Cam crew the opportunity to get the tow started early and get a good nights sleep in preperation for "hump day" (the day that marks the midpoint of the cruise).
Biologist, Rhian Waller, dons her safety helmet in preparation for additional flying fish attacks.