First, all the scientists participated in a ship-orientation meeting conducted by our captain, George Silva. The purpose of this meeting was to familiarize the science party with the guidelines for life on the research vessel. The ship is organized into various departments, and after the captain finished his introduction, all the department heads had a chance to talk about the guidelines and opportunities for the science party while they're aboard. For example, Jeff Little, the chief engineer, spoke about what we should do in case of maintenance issues (such as broken light bulbs, heating, or air conditioning) and offered us a trip to visit the engine room, the powerhouse of this grand vessel. The department heads covered everything from what we can and can't do during an Alvin launch to what we should do if we need medicine. They did a phenomenal job of orienting us to their home (Atlantis) and what will be our home for the next three weeks.

Check Karen's daily journal for more about our orientation. I'll skip ahead to my favorite part of the day -- diving orientation with the Alvin pilots. Alvin pilot Anthony Tarantino greeted Kevin Portune and I at 2000 hours (military time for 8:00 p.m.). He explained that we'd be covering a lot of important material both about the Alvin and diving procedures in case we get a chance to dive. Our tour began on the outside of the sub, looking at the bow (or front).

We began by finding out how Alvin 'sees.' There are three windows, or ports, for the people inside the sub to look through. The pilot has a port looking directly out over the front of the sub. The other two ports are for observers or, in our case, the scientists who are selected to participate. The observers have the job of looking through the ports to help the pilot by looking out for seafloor hazards.

Alvin also "sees" through five different cameras. There are two cameras with bright lights mounted at the top of the submarine looking down over the front. These are called pan-and-tilt cameras because the two observers (the scientists) can control these cameras from inside the sub with a joystick and a series of switches for zoom and focus. There also is a camera mounted on the starboard (right-side) manipulator. The manipulators are two arms that extend from the front of the sub and are controlled by the pilot. The camera mounted on the starboard manipulator is called a three-chip, meaning very high quality. Next, there is a digital camera that takes still pictures. Finally, there is a camera focused on the "basket." The basket isn't really a basket at all -- instead, it's more like a platform or table mounted to the front of the sub, and it is the place where the scientists attach their specific equipment. The scientists spent most of yesterday and today assembling their gear, testing it, and making fine-tuned adjustments before working with the pilots to affix it to the basket.

Anthony proceeded around the side of the sub and explained the weight system that is used to get Alvin to the bottom and then back up to the surface. He also told us a lot about the safety features of the sub, including what the pilot would do if Alvin got stuck or trapped. Then Anthony explained that it was time to go inside, so he showed us how we should get in. You enter Alvin through a circular opening in the bright orange top. There are places that you should and should not put your hands and feet. After you pass through the opening, you descend a ladder to the sub's main compartment. As you do this, you have to be careful not to flip any of the switches on the instrument panels, which are all around you and very close to the ladder.

As we went down, we met Bruce Strickrott, another Alvin pilot. When we were in the sub, Kevin and I were scrunched on the sides of the sub, pressed right up against the walls. Bruce sat on a little padded bench right in the front center of the compartment. Bruce explained a lot of the safety features of the sub and explained what the observers would need to know if for some reason the pilot couldn't do something. I'll explain a lot more about the safety features as we begin the dives. I was very impressed by the number of safety features that the sub possesses and the thorough job that the pilots did in helping us understand the features of Alvin.

Tomorrow the diving begins ...

What a long day Tuesday was. By the time I went to bed last night, I felt like I'd traveled to the moon. In fact, moon travel is something I keep thinking about on this journey across the wide ocean.

The moon was over our shoulders, and we turned around and saw it as we watched Mexico disappear over the edge of the earth. "Water, water, every where ..." goes the poem. But instead of feeling that things are going downhill, as the Ancient Mariner did, I can feel my spirits rise. All day long, we have so much to do inside the ship. Every couple of hours when I make my way on deck for a break, the sea looks completely different: blue and ribbed like corduroy at 11:00 a.m., smooth and pale blue, with purplish spots and gentle swells at 3:00 p.m., and peacock blue with swirls of navy at 4:30 p.m. At 8:00 p.m., when Shellie and I went to the fantail for our Alvin orientation, Tory and Carl, two of the stewards on Atlantis, pointed out gleams of bioluminescence in the wake. I've seen that happen sometimes at the beach when I kicked up waves, and I know about the light that comes from tiny organisms in the water. But I've never seen so much of it.

Craig led our first science meeting in the ship's library, a room lined with photographs of Atlantis and Alvin and their home, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. One photograph shows Alvin being tested in Eel Pond, behind the Woods Hole labs. Whoa -- Alvin couldn't have gone very deep there.

Scientists are always using Eel Pond as a testing ground. One time when I was in the library there doing research for my Arctic book, I lifted up my head to see a man taking an odd-looking object out of his car. He left this triangular box on the wall and went back to the car for an oblong box. Then came another triangular box. Are you getting the picture? I watched him attach them together with a system of nuts and bolts, then launch the whole thing, climb in, and row around, to the admiring applause of a few other WHOI folks who had come outside to see what was going on. Creative people! As our captain, George Silva, said to me, "We're all artists, in our own way." I think the Alvin group has created a masterpiece. Can you imagine watching Alvin launch in a little pond?

The science meeting was our chance to meet every single member of the science team. We all had to introduce ourselves and describe our goals for this trip. "To show people what interesting lives scientists have, " was one of mine.

"We're an industrial platform underway," Mitzi Crane, the first mate, told us. Fire is the most worrisome prospect for people on ships. Once Atlantis had a fire in the laundry room, while Alvin was diving. They had to radio the sub to delay surfacing. (Fortunately the fire was quickly put out.)

Much of what we were introduced to involved fires -- preventing fires, putting out fires, continuing to breathe long enough to put out a fire, continuing to breathe long enough to evacuate the ship, and evacuating the ship. We learned the phone system, heard test blasts of the most important ship alarms (fire and man overboard) and were briefed on what to do in emergency situations.

There were more safety precautions during our Alvin briefings after dinner. We went in twos, just like we'll go when we dive in Alvin, IF we go (not all of us will be able to dive, as there aren't as many diving spots as there are people). Shellie and I climbed gingerly down the steep ladder inside Alvin's tunnel, climbed over pilot Bruce Strickrott, and curled ourselves into the seats beside him.

"This is like being in the lunar module," I said, thinking of that tiny capsule that landed on the moon when I was really small.

"Someday Alvin will be in the Smithsonian, too," Bruce said.

I'm sure he's right; even though the ocean is right under our nose, the ocean floor is a distant world.

For more on our first dip into Alvin, check Mike's daily journal.