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OPERATION DEEP SCOPE Exploring Gulf of Mexico Deep-Sea Habitats MISSION DISPATCH 1 • August 07, 2004 Dispatch by Mark Schrope - @Sea Photo-Journalist 
We're underway. After a day of preparations and talking to reporters at Panama City on Friday, we left the dock this morning
at about 7:00 a.m. The full team of scientists made it aboard, including one from Australia and one from Germany, who arrived
as the ship was leaving the dock.
Our original plan was to head first to our closest dive site, called DeSoto Canyon, and then hop every few days to the next site with one long transit back to Panama City at the end of the cruise. But the weather did not cooperate. Seas today have been running up to 5 feet, which is not much by open ocean standards, but larger than we like to see for launching the sub. The wind is blowing about 20 knots with whitecaps all around and swells washing across the deck, but our ship takes the seas well and we're comfortable onboard. 
The new plan is to do as much traveling as we can now while we can't dive in hopes that the seas will calm down as forecast by tomorrow. Barring other complications this will allow us to still make all the 30 or so dives we have scheduled. We've been steaming now for 12 hours straight, and have another 20 or so to go before we make the Brine Pool dive site. If it's calm by the morning. Because of the expense and complicated logistics of arranging an expedition like this, submersible dives are a precious commodity and one many of the scientists aboard wait years to get. So, we have to take every possible chance to dive and will alter our strategy as often as necessary to squeeze in as many dives as possible. 
Most of the day was spent in meetings and making final preparations for upcoming experiments. The captain reviewed safety procedures for everyone, explaining what to do if there were a fire, or if we ever had to abandon ship, though we try to avoid that. In contrast to the famously under-equipped Titanic, the R/V Seward Johnson II has enough life rafts to hold twice as many people as we have aboard. We were also encouraged in no uncertain terms to not fall overboard. Next, all the scientists met to go over dive plans and to introduce themselves, as many aboard are meeting for the first time. At dusk we first saw lights from an oilrig, and by nightfall they were all around us. 
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