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BAHAMAS JOURNEY A Quest For Drugs From The Sea MISSION DISPATCH 2 • October 12, 2003 Dispatch by Mark Carroll - @Sea Photo-Journalist 
Onward and Downward
Things are starting to flow. The science team is finding its rhythm against the drone of the ship's engines as we push east along Grand Bahama toward Abaco and South to Little San Salvador. The scrub-tree shorelines of the islands are a constant, distant companion on out port side. Otherwise, everything is blue and white from here to the horizon. Puffball clouds hang perfectly in a cerulean sky. The foam bow wake of our ship cuts the crystal sea. The vessel itself is a mirror of our surroundings with twilight blue trim on white so brilliant that it hurts to look at it under the midday sun. Underwater it's been a savory 80 degrees...a bit hotter topside. The reefs are alive and untouched with the visibility of gin (although considerably saltier). "Ideal" would certainly be an understatement here. After one of today's scuba dives, smiles spoke volumes as the research divers surfaced from the reef clutching their collections in mesh grab bags. Bobbing on the surface swell, I heard the post-dive conversations turn to the promise of theses fresh samples and their fate in the lab back aboard ship. 
Topside, as the dive team motored back to the mothership, the submersible crew tightened down the final proverbial bolts on the
JOHNSON SEA-LINK (JSL)
submersible before launching it off the back of the ship into the quiet abyss on its first dive of this mission.
The four on board the sub planned to collect promising sponge samples, just like the scuba-diving researchers, only deeper...nearly
3,000 feet deeper.
ADDITIONAL DISPATCH IMAGES [ IMAGE 01 ] [ IMAGE 02 ] [ IMAGE 03 ]  
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