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Habitat Day 1 & 2

We finally made it! We were officially saturated as of this morning, and are now full fledged aquanauts. Took a little while to get in yesterday, as the ARB crew were prepping the Habitat, so we hung out on the Research Diver and breathed in as much surface air as we could. Finally got the go-ahead at 12pm, and splashed in. This was my very 1st time inside the Habitat, so it was pretty cool stuff. Otter gave us the grand tour, ate our first packs of freeze-dried Mountain House gourmet entrees (I had the Chicken Polynesian), and set off for our first 5 hour dive to the Deep S4 site. With much efficiency (haha), we hammered in 80 bases, and cable tied on most of the cages, taking care to stay above 95ft. Came back with the fading twilight (no shiny vampires anywhere) to a hot shower and more MH goodness. If you're watching on the creepy mainlock cam, you'll think we are a bunch of pigs. We're always eating.

Not much nightlife here, though the 'live TV' was pretty inte…
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Beautiful St John's

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Ahhhh...the joys of diving in 3.5m vis.....No need to struggle with the buoy, no need to 'touch and feel' our way along the reef crest, no fear of hitting my face on an angle iron/anemone/bunch of hydroids/poky mussid.... If only everyday could be like this ;)

Check out the blue water!


Allied cowrie!!

Wow! An Alveopora colony! They're not easy to find, normally we only see Goniopora.
Check out the tentacles- 12 instead of 24!

Nice fishies like the Copperbanded Butterflyfish

The carpet eel blenny made an appearance too

Cute flatworm!

Another flatworm

Ginormous swimming flatworm

Tiny little phyllid nudibranch

Drupella snails happily munching away on the Oxypora coral (The skeleton had holes- Hah!)

And saving the best for last, guess what we came across on the nubbins tray while cleaning?

Guess who's hiding among the nubbins?

A closer look at the Tiger Tailed Seahorse

So, think Singapore's marine life deserves some legal protection?

You can read comments on setting up a marine park i…
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Habitat training- Day 4/5

Dives: 90ft 47min, 51ft 55min

We're done with training, and on our way to moving from Candidate status to fully fledged Aquanauts (only when we step through the wetporch and start the mission). The last two days have actually been relatively light, compared to the beginning of the week. Yesterday we were briefed on the living and working space within the Habitat, and did an orientation swim to our work sites. Only one mask off exercise while sharing air with our buddies, and not too long! Probably less than 10min.

Today the ARB crew carried out an emergency evacuation drill from the Habitat. We sat in the gazebo breathing 'oxygen' while the Habitat was on 'fire', and were all safely escorted to the surface and put on more 'oxygen'.

Up next- more mundane stuff. We have 160 Vexar cages to make, laptops to prep, clothing and gear to pack. One more drill on Tuesday, and in we go!
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