(Click on the images to see them full size)

Thus far in this cruise everything has been going very well. From the first dive on all of the equipment has been working and we have all been getting good samples and data. Today started off just like any other day with Amy Banta and Carol Di Meo climbing into the sub at 8 am for the dive. Today was Amy's first dive ever in Alvin.

Here is the sub being launched this morning. The bright and sunny day seemed to bode well, though somehow the day did not turn out that well!

During the day when the surface and sub are talking to each other, the squawking can be heard in different places on the ship. Usually the communication is a request for navigation targets or a routine communications check to be sure everything is still OK. Around 10 o'clock today, I heard some squawking and did not think much of it. Five or ten minutes later the expedition leader was called the communications center. By now my curiosity was piqued, so I headed up to the communications center and on the way calls on the intercom system came for the captain and then the chief scientist to call the bridge. Something was clearly wrong.

As I climbed the last of the stairs, the expedition leader was making the decision to abort the dive and recall the sub back to the surface. Over an hour later, the sub was brought on deck and now the Alvin group is working on finding the problem. In the meantime, we are all left hoping that the problem can be fixed soon. From time to time, various members of the science party wander out on deck and stare knowing that there is nothing that we can do at the moment, but hoping for the best.

Meanwhile, Amy was dumped with the required bucket of water, though she just barely made it to the bottom of the ocean.

Update received Thursday, May 27th

They found the electrical problem and fixed it last night and the sub just went into the water a few minutes ago. Hopefully all goes well today. Otherwise we are just getting caught up with our samples and looking at some of the results from earlier in the cruise.

Picture of a colony of Alvinellids. This particular Alvinellid colony/chimney is in an area called Cerebrus.