Part of living a full life is pushing through the fear of the unknown. Had I not put my fear aside I would have missed a whitewater rafting expedition in Costa Rica, this research expedition, and my unforgettable adventure today.

This afternoon we could not yet launch ROPOS, the Canadian remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) because ALVIN, the American manned underwater vehicle, was down at the same time. Both use the same underwater signals for navigation, so putting them both down at the same time might have resulted in confusion or tangled lines. To avoid this, the people on ALVIN's ship, the Atlantis, and the people on this ship, the Thompson, agreed to time-share the communication net. They talk to one another to make sure that one vehicle doesn't go down until the other has come up. Since ALVIN only works in daylight, the ROPOS crew can expect to launch their vehicle tonight.

A view of the Thompson from the sea as we returned from the Atlantis

Our sister ship, the Atlantis, invited six people from our ship to witness the recovery of the ALVIN at 5:00 p.m.. It is traditional to take one crew member, so we had five more spaces to fill. Veronique Robigou, a geologist from the University of Washington, was going to go with four of the eight teachers. I was wary of the idea of going two miles across the whitecaps of the open ocean in a 15-foot boat that reminded me of a life raft, but I kept quiet and drew my lot with everyone else. When I saw my winning slip of paper I felt more trepidation than anything else. Wouldn't someone else be better than I would? I spent the next three hours in doubt.

At 2:00 p.m. we were scheduled to set off. No crew member wanted to go, so we fit Peter Tyson, one of the NOVA team, on instead. To my surprise, the ride was fun and exhilarating. It was wet, but not scary. I wondered where all that fear had come from and where it had all gone. I felt great!

On board the Atlantis we were met by their chief scientist, Alan Chave, who gave us a tour of the ship, including visits with several scientists ranging from astrophysicists to biologists, working on a wide range of projects to learn more about hydrothermal vents. We also went to the bridge (the control room of a ship), where we met Steve Faluatico, an ALVIN pilot who was not in ALVIN today, but navigating ALVIN from the surface lab instead. I felt as if I was part of the space shuttle operation as I heard the radio communication of the pilot inside ALVIN telling Steve about the tubeworms and water samples he had collected today. The work day for them was almost over and it was time to
resurface.

A swimmer standing on the ALVIN

ALVIN resurfaces at least 400 meters away from the Atlantis so that they don't bump into each other, but as soon as it was sighted two swimmers in wetsuits took off to meet it in the Zodiac, with one swimmer standing in the bow, holding the ropes on either side of him, looking like a superhero. The swimmers' job is to make sure all is well inside the ALVIN, to tie ropes from the Atlantis to the sub that drags it in, and then to lift it up onto the Atlantis. It was quite a sight to see the female swimmer standing on the ALVIN, holding onto the top part of the sub, talking on the phone with the people inside.

Once the scientists emerged from ALVIN they were promptly doused with ice water as a baptism after their first dive. Tradition has it that after a first dive a person is drenched in some unpleasant liquid, the choice of liquid being left to those remaining on the ship. However, while icewater may seem a bit unpleasant, this only occurs after the first dive a person makes. The swimmers looked much colder running around on the fantail fixing up their boat and other equipment with their wet hair and bare hands and feet.

The return ride for us was smoother and shorter than the first, but equally fun. As Myles Gordon, the Director of Education at the Museum of Natural History said, "The worst feeling is regret for something you could have done but didn't." What an amazing experience I had!!

Ingrid R. Buntschuh