Liz and I woke up at 7:00am, ready for a packed day of training. Billy Snook picked us up around 7:30am and drove us to the Aquarius Reef base, the building onland where Aquarius operations and management happen. We met the entire Mission 31 team, including the mission coordinators, topside crews, Navy support divers, and FIU scientists. After working with these people remotely for several months now, it was great to finally meet in the same room! The only people not there were the PR team and complete Northeastern and FIU science support teams. We spent time getting to know each other before reviewing the week's schedule.
Mid-morning the aquanauts and working divers headed to the pool where we passed swimming tests, including treading water for 10 min, swimming 400m, swimming 25m holding breath, and mask-snorkel recovery exercises.
Mid-morning the aquanauts and working divers headed to the pool where we passed swimming tests, including treading water for 10 min, swimming 400m, swimming 25m holding breath, and mask-snorkel recovery exercises.
During the snorkel recovery test I realized pieces of sand from Hawaii are still perfectly lodged into my snorkel purge . . . not good, but they bring back great memories from last summer working for NOAA.
Back at the reef base (i.e., "control center") I chatted with David Peta who runs IT for Aquarius and was manning the watch desk. The watch desk has six display monitors showing information about Aquarius, including information about the health of the aquanauts, video feeds, and statistics on power consumption and air quality.
 This ominous red phone connects directly to Aquarius.  The "mother unit" shows O2 and CO2 data from the Aquarius habitat. |   Slice of an undersea cable on display at the Aquarius Reef Base. Cables like these run throughout the seafloor and carry practically all international web traffic. |
A model of Aquarius (where we'll be living next month!) sitting on the "watch desk" at command center.
We also started eating some of the four dozen boxes of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish that arrived last week courtesy of our food sponsor, Campbell's.
I've been hearing from past aquanauts that your senses of taste and smell are dulled while living underwater. One group of researchers on Aquarius apparently did a study on it, but no one is sure where the results are. I thought I might as well do a quick study before leaving . . . and it might as well be Goldfish we taste test.
I've been hearing from past aquanauts that your senses of taste and smell are dulled while living underwater. One group of researchers on Aquarius apparently did a study on it, but no one is sure where the results are. I thought I might as well do a quick study before leaving . . . and it might as well be Goldfish we taste test.
 |  So many Goldfish! |
The diving hard hat we'll use on the mission was designed and built for the National Treasure movie, but they didn't use it after all! For the movie the designers added an extra-large viewing window and inside lights. The helmet in the picture at left is on display at the Aquarius reef base, similar to the one we'll be using tomorrow. It weights about 30lbs, so it's heavy on your shoulders.
In the afternoon we completed checkout dives to test our basic SCUBA skills, such as taking on/off mask underwater, buddy breathing, and buoyancy control. We completed the tests on a coral reef called "hen & chickens," because a boat carrying chickens accidentally dropped a few of them nearby. Poor chickens . . .
 Onboard a boat named after undersea living pioneer George Bond for day 1 of aquanaut training. |  Gear lined up onboard. |
Official Mission 31 screensaver on one of the desktops at command center.
The day of training wrapped up with a classroom debrief from Aquarius manager Roger about the decompression chambers available onsite. Afterward, the FIU aquanauts Adam and Andy returned with Liz and me to the big yellow house the team is sharing. After a few errands, we all drove the short way to mission headquarters to check on the rest of the crew. Everyone had work or research to catch up on. While Fabien filmed an interview inside, the rest of us worked productively on on laptops by the pool, enjoying the gorgeous weather.
I moved next to the grill when my laptop needed charging.
Tomorrow will be entirely in the classroom. We'll go over emergency protocols and be fitted for the neck-dam and vest that is necessary for the dive helmets. We need to make sure we're all comfortable with the MK-III light weight surface supplied diving system we'll be using. Before lights out in the yellow house, the aquanauts plan to wind down by watching the movie classic Life Aquatic, hands down one of my favorites -- a perfect way to end Day 1.
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