21 November 2002
Stacy's turn to write again!

Another full day of diving and related adventures. Andrew, Kathy and Dan went up to the Cape Evans Wall for a dive. This is one of the prettiest sites near McMurdo, with large Gersemia soft corals in pink abundance, and a glacier coming down into the sea - not very many places in this world where you can dive on a glacier! I have not been to this site this year, but a few years ago I remember the ice being very deceptive...first you'd bump into it not realizing it was so close, and then you'd reach out to touch it and it would still be 3 m away. There is nothing to scale it against, and it confuses your eyes.

Aaron and I dove at the wall at Cape Armitage, to take some pictures of old experimental substrates there. It was a good dive, but near the end Aaron experienced a sudden ear pain. We were already at depth, so it was not a typical squeeze, and it went away as we ascended. I thought it might have been a sudden shot of cold water that got inside his hood, but he had checked that and had experienced no dizziness. When he went to medical later on it turned out that there was blood behind his eardrum, so something in his inner ear ruptured. The doctor says there will be no problems, but he cannot dive for the next few days...our last few days. Kind of a bummer of a way to end, but as Aaron says, at least it didn't happen at the beginning and stop him for diving the whole time.

This is Aaron's ear. The docs took a better picture of the inside, but we don't have that one. Looks painful, doesn't it?

Two of the full face masks used for surface supply diving, hanging up to dry after a dive.

In the afternoon I used the surface supply dive gear to get in near the outfall. The surface supply uses a full face mask so that you stay completely isolated from the water and any potential pathogens. It is a little clumsier than the usual dive gear, at least for those of us who don't use it often. The weight belt is significantly heavier than usual, to compensate for the extra air in the large mask, you wear only a small bail-out bottle for an emergency as most of your air is compressed on the surface and supplied to you via a long hose. You wear no fins, as it is difficult to move with the hoses and the weight; instead of swimming you walk along the bottom. I collected the one sample we lacked from the outfall site, and took pictures. This is hopefully the last time I will see the outfall in this condition - the next time I am here the sewage treatment plant will be operating!

Aaron accompanied the drillers in the afternoon to guide them in drilling us our last holes near Hut Point. We will dive these sites tomorrow. Kathy spent the afternoon in the lab, weighing specimens for some of our analyses. In the evening Andrew and Dan dove at Cape Armitage to collect some sponges. Andrew was able to get a number of specimens of each of the species he has selected for his work, so it was very successful.

One of the many sponges found in the Antarctic.