NORTH ATLANTIC

11:00 a.m. — I don't believe the ship even bothered with breakfast as most everyone slept in. After checking in with the office I head down to lunch. Most people spend the afternoon sunning themselves, drinking wine and relaxing. There is a good deal of silliness with water balloons and fire hoses.

Noon — Mir 1 heads down for a final dive. Jim descends five hours later in Mir 2. He takes all of the bots with him to try and get some more shots on deck with the bots deployed and perhaps do some more exploration.

3:00 p.m. — The crew heads back down to mission control to start packing up equipment and making copies of the tapes. The editing staff still has a great deal of work ahead, logging the hundreds of hours of footage shot on the expedition and eventually putting another show together out of the material.

7:00 p.m. — Dinner is a giddy affair and while some still have work to do, most of the crew gathers in the conference room for a little celebration. For me, one night of sleep was not enough, and early to bed is a happy occasion.

EPILOGUE: JULY 27, 2005

We recovered both Mirs this morning after the final dive, sent the crew over to the support ship for passage back to St. John's, and headed for home.

While at times tense, exhausting, disappointing and difficult, the expedition as a whole was an amazing experience and one that I am personally very proud of. I am happy to head back to home and family, but this has been a wonderfully challenging project and I have learned a lot — about technology, the ocean, and myself. I am grateful to the Discovery Channel for providing me with this opportunity, and to all of you for sharing this journey. I hope you have enjoyed reading along as much as I have loved writing about it.

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. |