The water is so calm, it is hard to believe that the nearest land is more than 400 nautical miles away; it looks more like a painting than reality.

The water is so calm, it is hard to believe that the nearest land is more than 400 nautical miles away; it looks more like a painting than reality. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deepwater Wonders of Wake. Download larger version (jpg, 3.4 MB).

Transit to the First Dive Site
July 29, 2016

It is a long transit to our first dive site, so we spent the last two days transit mapping. While we were transiting, we were treated to some of the calmest waters we have ever seen. It looked like we were steaming across an inland lake, not the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration remotely operated vehicle (ROV) team used the transit days to make improvements on the ROVs and practice with the Deep Discoverer's manipulator arms. During the transit, we were also troubleshooting an issue with the VSAT. The problem alluded us for almost two days, but after some long days, our telepresence engineers and electronics technicians were able to get the satellite back to working normally.