Today was a chance to get the team out to the black hole again and do some more filming. I can’t lie and say that anything overtly dangerous happened during the surface interval. I jumped in the water with my mask and snorkel to freedive down to the layer of toxic bacteria (which sounded sensible at the time though, now as I write it, not so much). I made it to about 50 feet and as I saw this dark hazy red glow emanate from the depths, felt the temperature start to rise (the bacteria layer is about 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit), I confess I realized this wasn’t the smartest idea and turned around. The idea of swimming through a dark, sulfuric layer of red bacteria at 60 feet, holding my breath, was a bit much for me and I decided to live to freedive another day.

By the time we made it back to the boat, the divers were just absolutely shattered and we all collapsed in the lounge waiting for dinner. A little food and some glasses of wine later, I put on the Nile. The last film that my father ever created, most of the team had never seen it, and many of the younger members had never even seen an original Cousteau Film, period. I was amazed at how enthralled everyone was, I think it is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen, but then again, I am only slightly biased. Everyone did agree that it was excellent and I was proud to be able to share a little bit of my heritage with a group of people that I have grown so fond of over the last 8 or 9 months.

Tomorrow is a transit day as we sail 17 hours from Andros Island to Conception Island in search of the wreck of the Southampton. It promises to be a rough crossing, so everyone is securing their gear and I am going to go join them.

Goodnight.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 10:33 am and is filed under BBC/Discovery OCEANS, Expeditions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.