The Fish Tank

Day Four

Today was a minimal work day due to the weather. The waves are still too big for us to go in the water and demonstrate escape drills, buddy breathing drills, and being lost drills. Hopefully, tomorrow we can do these. The boat will try to go out at 8:00 am and see what the water is like at the site. If the water is good, then we will follow out on a second boat. Ther trip takes about fourty minutes to an hour each way.

Weather Sept 1 --We are off the Southern tip of Flordia..Under all the colors

At the base, we had to pass a written Saturation Diving Test. This was not too hard as the base crew had been drilling us ve3ry well on emergency procedures since we arrived on Monday. They then released us to work and study on our own.

Since we had some spare time and it was not raining. I helped our sonar man Ben set up his equipment and test it in the swimming pool. I learned alot about frequency, apature size and modulation of sound waves. He even let me run the sonar for a bit. It is so finely tuned that it can see fins and eyes on fish at distances of 100 meters.

On the left is the type of pictures the soanr produces. There are really two sonars in his set up.One for near distnace and one for objects further away. The sonars sit on a large tripodthat can be adjusted for the sea floor.

In the next picture,you can see Ben's leg in the very bottom of the screen.

We had a great time chatting with my class as well as Mrs. Ott's, Ms. Powell's, and Ms. Paul's classes back in Enid. Even Ben got to participate as all the fifth graders asked fantasic questions about sonar and how it is used for marine research. That was really the highlight of my day!!!

In the evening, all the crew spent some time BBQing hamburgers and getting to know each other better, Finally, I had to spend more time memorizing the rope pull communication drills. This allows divers to talk to people on the surface by pulling ropes in a certain pattern. This is another test I have to pass. especially while underwater and in stressful situtations. Practice makes perfect :)