Today we had our first cookout. It is a time when all those aboard get to relax and intermingle with one another in a social setting. Alvin resurfaced and was recovered at least an hour earlier than usual. Several people began setting up the back deck with seating areas and tables for the food. The grill was hot and smoking even before Alvin returned, to make sure the coals would be ready.

By about 5:30 p.m. (1730 CST), just about everyone was outside loading their plates up with a spread of options. We had hot dogs, chicken breasts, and steaks as the main dish. The side items included shrimp cocktail, potato salad, a broccoli dish, and baked beans. The sweet treat was my favorite, chocolate chip cookies with pecans, except in bars this time. Carl handled most of the grilling throughout.

The night was perfect for it. The breeze was very light and the sea was calm. Before long, the sun was setting — the sight of which was spectacular. Music was playing to compliment the social atmosphere. This was really a good chance for me to move around and talk to some of the crew members that I usually don’t get to see much because we’re all working. I have to say that it was an absolute pleasure.

More than anything, it was also great just to spend so much time outside and away from my computer! : ) Many people stuck around until 8 p.m. or so, getting to know each other and taking a break from the work regime. Sometimes it’s important to have those opportunities to keep the morale up and to stay refreshed.

So today was pretty light for me, especially considering I slept until almost 12:30, and I enjoyed every moment of it — the sleep and the day! : ) I hope I can say the same tomorrow. By the way, how did you all do on the maze yesterday? Be sure to see yesterday's "Neat Stuff" — the Mariner's Challenge, in case you missed it. Were you able to “see” through Alvin’s porthole to get a glimpse of what I saw during my dive?

Today actually started as many days at sea do, with the end of last night! At midnight, I found myself in the Main Lab preparing electrodes with some of the others of our group for today's dive. By 1:30 a.m., all four electrodes were ready to be mounted on the Alvin basket. We've designed new, longer, more slender electrodes to fit into the Sipper Wand so that we can measure temperature and electrochemistry simultaneously inside an Alvinella pompejana tube while collecting a water sample with the Sipper. Another electrode goes into a flow cell in-line with the Sipper Wand and the Sipper syringes to see if chemistry has changed with the sharp temperature changes. Two other electrodes go into a second, more robust wand, that's been named "Fat Albert." Each of them has to be resurfaced and calibrated every day. Once all of the electrodes were mounted and the wires secured, our work for the day was done. Wow! A 20-hour workday!

After about seven hours of sleep I woke up just after 9 a.m. I was still a little tired from the previous day, but really felt like getting some exercise, so I made a little use of the ship's weight room and stationary bike — it's so easy to get out of shape and add weight on a cruise like this since time for exercise is limited and the food is so good.

When I got up to the Main Lab around 10:30 a.m., not much was going on since most groups were all caught up with their samples and our group had a few electrodes ready from the previous day. I sat down at my laptop and started reviewing the notes and data sheets that Letise and I had written on Dive 3950. I had a pretty complete dive report done before lunch and gave that to Letise to review before our daily 2:30 p.m. science meeting.

Lunch was great, as all the food always is on the Atlantis (and the R/V Knorr, too). We had a rich clam chowder, full of clams. There's always a fresh salad available, and today's main course choices were steak fajitas or chicken and red pepper quesadillas. I'm certainly not used to eating lunches like that at home.

After lunch each day, I like to take a little walk around the deck and maybe lie down in the sun for a little while. Today was a gorgeous day and perfect for catching a little sun on the bow. After the little break, I found myself with AIS, Inc. President, Don Nuzzio, working with software and data problems for a while. The InsECT arrived on the deck safely yesterday, but was apparently giving trouble with uploading the 17,000 data files that had been collected in the Riftia fields over the previous five days. We worked on it for a while, but were unable to fix it right away and needed to head to the science meeting.

At the daily science meetings, we discuss some of the work that's been done, as well as what we'd like to see done on upcoming dives. I gave the dive report from my dive with Letise and Bruce and showed some pictures highlighting some of the things we did and saw.

By the end of the meeting, Alvin had left the bottom and we needed to prepare for the Sipper samples and finish off the last electrode for tomorrow's dive. Although there are only a maximum of 12 Sipper samples on any given dive, there are many different analyses we do on them, splitting the 10 ml between our group and Arizona State's Ken Vogelsonger. Lots of test tubes have to be prepared in advance.

The sub surfaced and was retrieved successfully (as always), and we all began collecting our samples from the basket. Today's dinner was a barbecue on the fantail, which was great. We had steak, chicken, shrimp, and amazing brownies. Picnic night always does tremendous things for overall cruise morale. We were all treated to a gorgeous sunset, and a beautiful moon rise over pretty calm waters, and then it was back to work for many of the scientists. I worked a bit more on data extraction from the InsECT with Don, and then wrote this journal entry for all of you.