Inauguration Day!

Mathieu’s first Nautile dive. Mathieu is a geologist specializing in the petrology and geochemistry of rocks in the oceanic lithosphere. Also, our bathymetric data from Ulyx.

 What was your initial impression when you entered the Nautile's sphere?

(Mathieu reflects before answering)  "....So this is it! Or not quite, as we still have the time of descent until we reach the seabed to discover for real what we have already been lucky enough to see on the videos taken by Nautile."

During the 5 hours of the dive and all that you saw, which images first come to mind?

During the last hour, we came across an unexpected zone  compared to what had been sampled by the dredging. In the "sphere", we all felt that something quite extraordinary was happening. We discussed with the Pourquoi Pas? whether to continue with the navigation originally planned or to stay in the area to explore it. The decision to change route and stay on site increased the feeling of unexpected discovery.

How did you feel at the end of the dive? 

I was very eager to share what we had experienced and observed, and to describe the sample collection areas, and show my colleagues the videos and photos taken by the Nautile cameras.

To conclude, what was the most important moment of the day for you (before, during or after the dive)?

I can't really disassociate a particular part of the dive. I'd say "the whole experience" from getting into the sphere, the five hours at the bottom, to sharing the experience with my colleagues afterwards, as well as the two days that followed, spent sorting data.

Something that struck me during the dive were the conversations between the pilot and co-pilot. They have such vast experience and vision. They see things before the rest of us! It’s not just a scientist and a pilot but a whole set of skills and experience that make for an association that makes things happen.

Have you an anecdote for us?

I woke up about 2.5 hours before the dive, I checked my e-mails and unfortunately closed my eyes for 2 minutes which turned into 2 hours… I consequently got ready in a rush to be “only 10 minutes late”. This incident made me forget the chocolate bar I had planned to take for the dive. But it still got to be eaten on the seabed as I gave it to the person who got to dive two days later in the same zone.

 

After Mathieu’s dive, it was Ulyx’s turn to go to the seabed to carry out its first analysis profiles on uneven ground and collect its first bathymetric data of the mission with the onboard multi-beam sounder.