This is our series of supplemental logs that were taken from our scientific research expedition to RMS Titanic earlier last month. I hope that you enjoy!
Another beautiful sunny day greets our expedition team as Keldysh is stationed over the wreck site of Titanic. Normally, the MIR submersibles do not work back-to-back days; however, the crew worked throughout the night readying both submersibles for today's dives. With all the wonderful experiences and stories that our Dive Day One aquanauts related to the rest of the team members, there is an excitement in the air. Because of the limited space in the MIR, there are no rest room facilites. Divers the night before go into what I call a "modified hospital diet". There are no heavy foods and light meals the day before, no food after midnight and limited liquid consumption.
After going through the pre-dive meeting, our aquanauts for today are ready for their dives to commence at 9:45 with the launching of MIR I. On today's dive MIR I will be piloted by Anatoly Sagalevitch and the observers will be the Boris Teterev and Claudio Taboada. Boris is a very warm, bubbly gentlemen from Russia and has a very magnetic personality. Claudio comes from Argentina and he is a friendly gentlemen with a large smile and is a perfect tourism commercial for a visit to Argentina. MIR II will be piloted by Victor Nescheta and the observers will be a husband and wife team from Japan named Tomiko and Shunji Itakura. This couple were the nicest pair and were very much admired and respected from everyone on board the ship. After the rest of the team bid farewell to our aquanauts, it was time to watch some videos and presentations by Don Walsh and Ralph White. I was told today that the dive schedule has changed and that I would be diving with Rob Goldsmith from the UK on Dive Day Three. Rob is being followed by the British History Channel and our dive operations manager, Rob McCallum felt that someone with my background and expertise is deep diving, shipwreck history and my documentary experience would be a better fit for their broadcast. Since I already had a dive plan in mind, and it was validated by our submersible pilot, Genya Cherniev, beforehand, I felt that this would be a good thing for the History Channel. Like clockwork, the MIR submersibles came back to the surface. The first submersible, MIR I at 7:00 pm, followed by MIR II about 35 minutes later.
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