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Watch Standing

31 March

On watch, things have been mostly quiet, but with some interesting or exciting events. The night before last, during a turn between lanes, the midwatch took the vehicle to video altitude (only a few meters to test the hi-resolution sonar and the optical gear. Everything worked fine, and we got our first view of the bottom in this area. We saw fish, sea slugs, crustaceans, worm trails, and all varieties of bottom-dwellers. An amazing amount of life, existing in total darkness at 18,000 foot depth, under pressures exceeding 8,000 psi. There is so much to learn down there! One of the bottom features we noted with interest were numerous tracks in the sand which looked like Nauticos shells. We know that they are made by a creature that likes to leave its excrement in spiral trails (Tom Dettweiler taught us this).

David Jourdan, Sue Morris, and Tom Bethge standing watch in the Ops center.

A parody "To Do" list for the watch crew.