NORTH ATLANTIC
7:00 a.m. — Most of the crew was up late waiting for Mir 1 to be recovered and planning for today, so morning comes quickly. The day starts with a Mir meeting and the news that both subs are nearly ready to go; thus, Jim Cameron expresses the desire to dive as early as possible. After breakfast, Jim meets with the producers, experts and talent to plan the dive and go over the latest show rundown.
10:30 a.m. — Mir 1 has another perfect launch. The plan is for Mir 1 to get partway down and measure the currents so that Jim can plan his fiber deployment for the Mir 2 dive.
1:30 p.m. — After several delays, Mir 2 is finally launched. The crew retreats to the control room to watch the fiber hook-up and begin the nerve-wracking descent process. It is two to four hours of pure terror — watching the fiber spool and hoping that it will work, but powerless to prevent any problems. We don't have to wait long ... two-and-a-half minutes into the dive the fiber fails.
The crew stays on the surface for a while with the divers trying to fix the problem. Finally, they decide to recover the sub and replace the spool with one that has already been prepared for tomorrow's dive. Once the sub is on board, it is determined that the problem is with one of the connectors; since it will take several hours to fix, they decide to go with the replacement spool.
Most dives on this expedition have had a series of delays — a testament to the difficulty of what we are trying to do. It is easy to forget the unbelievable technology required just to put one of these manned submersibles in such a dangerous and unforgiving environment. Add to that all of the new technologies that are being employed for this show and it all makes sense. Although there has been a huge amount of research, testing and attention to detail, this is very difficult stuff indeed.
5:30 p.m. — Mir 2 launches again after the fiber spool has been replaced. However, a critical exterior camera is not working, and the sub returns to the Keldysh once more.
7:00 p.m. — The faulty camera cable is fixed and Mir 2 launches for the third time today. The diver hooks up the fiber and everything looks great, but as they begin the descent, we start to get some break-up. The signal continues to go downhill and after 23 minutes we lose the feed.
It takes a while for the Keldysh to establish in-water communications, but we finally learn that Jim has cut the cable and is continuing on to the bottom. The best that we can do now is continue building the framework of our show and piece it together with the footage he brings back tonight to create a back-up show as quickly as possible. Ideally, we would like to get a show fed to our uplink tomorrow afternoon, try again to do a fiber dive, and build an even better show. We all have a feeling that this one is going to go very close to the wire for air Sunday night.
11:30 p.m. — Word comes up from the Mirs that three ROVs are operational and they are exploring Titanic. This is thrilling news. The production crew continues to build the blocks of the show, though they anxiously wait to see the footage that Jim will bring back.
Midnight — One of the RHIB crews heads out into a pitch-black night to spool out a reel of fiber over the ocean. Technicians theorize that today the fiber may have been curling up like a telephone cord. They decide to take it off the spool to straighten it out and then wind it back on again for the next dive. This should take them four to five hours. The production crew continues work as well, and this looks to be a long night.
Bob Sitrick is vice president of live production for Discovery.
More Leg 2 Expedition Logs: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 |
Also read the entries from Leg 1 of the expedition. |
