Cruising under the sea
A row of big round windows on each side of the vessel gave everybody a good view of the underwater
world outside. The pilot sat in the front of the vessel looking out through a big bubble-window
on the bow. At one end of the passenger compartment was a big digital readout that continuously
reported the depth of the water over the sub. I was curious about just how deep we would go.
The pilot's possition during the dive |
With each viewing port was a chart that showed pictures of the type of fish we could expect
to see as we descended. We also heard a safety speech very much like those heard just before
an airplane takes off. We were told of escape hatches, locations of life vests and procedures
to abandon the ship. Then our adventure began as the vessel began its tour of the deep.
Examples of fish we might see during our dive |
Something I hadn't expected was the way the light changed as we descended deeper and deeper.
I had never been this deep before. I knew that there would be a color change as the water filtered
the color of the light from the surface. However, I didn't expect such a dramatic change in
colors. Fish that were very brightly colored and easy to see in shallow water became nearly
invisible in deeper water. In the natural light that was filtered by the water, the fish were
difficult to see. It was mostly their movement that revealed the location of the fish.
What appears to be a folded deck chair |
While the sub descended slowly, following the slope of the sea floor, I enjoyed the scenery
as our vessel floated above underwater hills and valleys. It was somewhat like flying slowly
at a low altitude. As the sub cruised on down, we saw several pieces of junk like a deck chair
that was resting on an underwater hill. It had probably been dropped over the side of a boat
or ship. Another object, on the bottom, that I didn’t recognize, just looked like a piece
of junk metal. The most interesting scenes were those of sunken vessels. One was an old Navy
landing craft. But the most dramatic scene was a complete sailboat sitting on the bottom of
the sea. It was clear that the sunken vessels provided a home for a lot of fish along with other
flora and fauna attached to the undersea objects. Occasionally I was startled by a fish that
appeared suddenly right outside our viewing port and disappeared just as quickly.
A sailboat sitting upright at what was almost or deepest depth |
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