After more bad weather delaying the dives, we started heading back south. We went from being near Maryland to slowly making our way to North Carolina. During the delay, I was able to assemble a tiny circuit board under a microscope using solder paste! Placing the first component was super nervewracking; watching my hand shake and go all over the place with the tiniest movements trying not to bump any of the other components. After the first piece was in, it was a lot less stressful. Once all the components were all placed, we used a toaster oven to fully solder all the pieces together (we were strictly told not to make pizza in the toaster oven).
On our last day of clearance, we were able to do two dives. The first one the sub was in the water two hours, then pulled out, a quick transit south, then back in the water for four hours. It’s actually really nice having two dives because I’m able to keep busy which I prefer over doing nothing. I was able to do the subs internal post dive for the first time. With the time I’ve spent in there looking at all the switches and reading the operations manual, I knew how to do a lot of it already. One of the techs was in there to explain the things I didn’t know and to make sure it was all done correctly.
We made port in North Carolina and all the scientists disembarked. The ship is so quiet now that there are only 30 people on it.