The submarine dive was amazing!
When I first learned that it was possible to go on a submarine dive on this trip, I thought, “No way.” I am claustrophobic and scared of drowning, so I didn’t think I would have the courage to go on a dive. Then I read several books about Antarctica, and I thought, “I want to see what’s under the ice.”
When we first arrived on the ship, we had the option to sign up for the sub. I still wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to rule it out. I took the physical test which consisted of going from a standing position to sitting down on a chair to standing again all while keeping your hands in the air so you couldn’t use your hands to support yourself. I also signed a waiver and got weighed. The weight in the sub has to be carefully balanced, so they weigh each passenger and then figure out the best groups of people for each dive.
Before the dive, the dive support boat drives around the area where we are stationed for the day, looking for a good spot for the dive. The boat has equipment on board that can scan the ocean floor and read the topography. Once the boat finds a good spot, the sub drives over to that location.
We took a zodiac over to the submarine. We had to step from the boat onto the top of the sub and then climb down through the hatch.
The sub has room for six passengers and the pilot. We were each assigned a specific seat based on our weight, and I was in seat 2 right next to the pilot, Jessica.
Once we were all on board, Jess gave us a safety briefing, locked the hatch, and radioed the support boat to go through the cross-check list. Then we started down. The passenger seats were in a big plexiglass bubble, so it didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. It was not scary in the least.
As you go deeper underwater, the colors with longer wave lengths disappear first. Blue has the shortest wavelengths, so things underwater look blue until the sub’s spotlights are turned on.
We went down to 362 feet below the surface and hovered about 10 feet above the sea floor. It took us about 10 minutes to get down there.
The sub hadn’t explored this area before, so Jess was excited to see what we could see. There was a rocky hill in front of us, and we drove back and forth in front of it as we slowly went up the hill. We saw lots of things attached to the rock – several types of sea stars (starfish), sponges, jellies (jellyfish), sea cucumbers, coral, anemone, kelp.
We spent about 30 minutes looking around as we gradually ascended to about 50 feet below the surface, and then we wrapped up the dive and motored back up. I’m so glad I conquered my fears and took the plunge into the deep. It was an incredible experience!
