The exciting part for me was once the Alvin was placed in the cradle on deck. The crew are always supervised by a launch coordinator who works with the bridge and A-frame controllers to ensure a successful retrieval. Once Alvin is secured on the deck, the Alvin crew springs into action hosing the critical components with fresh water. Immediately, Alvin Technician and Pilot-in-Training Greg Speer removes the yellow bag filled with Styrofoam cups and passes it to the scientists, who are giddy to examine how their souvenirs turned out.

The crew positions a staircase that leads down to the deck from the hatch of the sub, and down comes Dr. Craig Cary, followed shortly after by Charles Lee. Tradition has it that when a person completes their first dive in Alvin, those scientists and crew who remain on the ship prepare for their return and a little bit of good, wholesome fun. Typically, this process involves obtaining personal items of the observer and doing something interesting with them. For example, the crew have shared stories of observers who have returned to find their clothing neatly folded in a freezer or scattered throughout the ship as part of a scavenger hunt. Many times, this initiation includes getting wet, since you don't get wet at all while diving.

Since Craig is a very experienced diver, he was not part of this good-humored fun. Charles, however, was the brunt of the scientists planning and he returned to find his shoes frozen, having spent the entire duration of the dive in the freezer. Additionally, Charles enjoyed an ice bath courtesy of Dr. Joe Grzymski. To catch all the action, check out the videos in today's Neat Stuff.

Once the fun was over, it was time to get down to business. Once Alvin's crew secured the sub in the hangar, the scientists enthusiastically sprang into action. The trip from the bottom of the ocean is quite a stressful event for the biota, including Alvinella, Riftia, vent mussels, and vent clams that came back up on this trip. The scientists carefully ensure that nothing is wasted, not even the water. Everything is carefully observed and collected, then quickly ushered into the laboratories for preservation or analysis. Stay tuned for more information on the destination of individual specimens in future daily journals.

After a very long day for everyone, it's finally time for dinner. Shortly thereafter, several meetings take place including a post-dive summary meeting and a pre-dive meeting for the upcoming dive tomorrow. Discussed at this meeting are the many successes of the sampling and also an overview of the vent site. Then, the scientists prepare the equipment for tomorrow's dives. Craig, Kevin, and I are up very late making final adjustments to two pieces of equipment on Alvin's basket. Then, it's time for bed.

Up early this morning were Dr. Barbara Campbell and Michelle Phillips, the observers for Dive No. 2. To find out what transpires during an actual dive and to see some exciting footage from the seafloor, check in tomorrow as we follow along with Barb and Michelle.

"If you want to see anything, go up to the bow," Ordinary Seaman Kevin Threadgold told me.

Kevin's a jolly guy, with a bandana on his head, an orange t-shirt that says "Catfish" -- more on these t-shirts later -- and a tattoo of an African mask on his upper arm. He was telling me nicely, but still I felt a little foolish. I had watched Alvin sink into the ocean at the back of the ship, and that is where I expected to see it rise up. But nobody on this ship ever says, "Well, duh." I'm not a member of the crew, I'm not a technician, and I'm not a scientist, and everyone else here is one of those. I've resigned myself to asking a lot of questions. Believe me, I feel sheepish, but everyone -- without exception -- answers thoroughly and considerately. I'm grateful and glad that I have the opportunity to tell people reading the Web site how courageous, fascinating, and downright cool this gang is.

Just before this, I was in the lab, talking to Dr. Astrid Schnetzer about her protist traps, riding to the ocean floor with Alvin. They're like clear, plastic tennis ball cans with the top covered in a fine mesh fabric. Inside is a sponge. (Check out the photograph.)

"The sponge is already saturated when the trap reaches the vents," Astrid told me. "So we will need the protists to crawl through the spaces in the mesh and colonize the holes in the sponge."

Astrid's colleague at the University of Southern California (USC), Peter Countway, was an Extreme 2003 scientist; he deployed two prototype "prototraps" last year. They worked, and Astrid is aboard in 2004 to deploy ten traps in all. Astrid wants the traps placed in a variety of locations -- on 'stumps' where chimneys have broken off, on bare rock, Riftia fields, and so on. That's just one of many jobs the Alvin pilot and observers had today.

We were still waiting for them to return. On deck, some of the scientists -- Ky Hacker, Tom Niederberger, Ian McDonald, and Barbara Campbell -- stood in the bow, hands shielding their eyes.

"About 700 feet off the bow," Kevin had said.

For about 15 minutes, we peered across the water, looking for a glimmer of orange. Soon the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) was set down on the starboard side and sped in front of the ship. We watched it, thinking it would lead us to Alvin, but Alvin wasn't up yet. The RIB powered around, Swimmers Jerry Graham and Sean McPeak waiting inside, watching. Barbara was the first person near me to spot the submarine. "There it is!" Sure enough, Alvin's orange sail bobbed into view.

Now the RIB rode up to Alvin, and Jerry and Sean scrambled atop it. Jerry attached a hand-held phone to the jack in Alvin's sail, so that he could talk with pilot Bruce Strickrott, inside. The ship moved forward to bring Alvin astern so it could be hooked onto the A-frame and hoisted back to the deck. Craig Cary, Charles Lee, and Bruce climbed out like Hollywood celebrities emerging from a limousine. It reminded me of that moment in Apollo 13 when the astronauts splash down in the ocean -- back in the sun and fresh air once more. You can read about what happened next in Mike's journal. And don't miss the video of Charles returning from his first dive.

Astrid isn't the only one interested in what comes up from the bottom. Everyone has to stay back while Alvin is on the fantail. But once it crosses the deck on its tracks and moves into the hangar, the scientists crowd around the basket, eager to delve into its treasures: clams, mussels, Pompeii worms, Riftia, and lots and lots of water samples.

At the post-dive briefing in the evening, Craig Cary reported that the prototraps had been placed in a Riftia patch and a mussel bed. Because good sites weren't found to place all the traps, they'd been brought back up and would go down again next time. (Check the Dive Log for exact positions; in the Dive Log they're called proto-traps. Other areas are planned for the four more traps going down tomorrow, for four or five days, or maybe longer, Astrid says. What's she going to do in the meantime?

"I'm going to become a night owl." She plans to help with the large-volume water sampler that Dr. Shannon Williamson and Shellie Bench are deploying tomorrow and with the CTD, an instrument that measures conductivity (a measurement of salinity), temperature, and density. For more on that, see Tools of the Trade.

Yes, there's plenty of serious science going on here, but also plenty of fun. Eric DeChaine stopped by the computer lab to show me what had happened to his Styrofoam cup. Check it out!

For more cups, check out today's Neat Stuff.