This past week has been exceedingly hectic to the point that I didn’t realize it was friday until I just now when I updated this blog. Ship time is a different thing sometimes.
I just spent the past hour in the Jason Deep Submersible ROV van. It is a tiny 40 square foot box with more tv’s and xbox controllers and odd specialized controllers than anywhere else I have ever seen. Quite simply I watched them attach a shackle to a trawl resistant mooring so it could be brought to the surface. Now connecting a shackle is simple on the surface. But when you are 300 meters below the surface in 15 foot viz water and your only depth perception is being able to zoom in and out on camera this simple task becomes an ballet of skin. The manipulator arms are nearly four foot long with little graspy hands at the ends of fully rotatable wrists. The pilot maneuvered these hands with the precision of a heart surgeon. This is another one of those times where the written word fails to describe the amazing feat of ingenuity and dexterity of the actual action accomplished. But if you would like to see this happening live we are broadcasting live streaming video from the ship.
It can be viewed at explorationnow.org/atlantis