At 3,300 feet into the dive, the pilot suddenly can no longer communicate with the vehicle. Within this steel cable are optical fibers that handle the telemetry. To pinpoint precisely where a fiber failed along an 11,500-foot cable would be, to say the least, impractical. My watch has ended.
Watches are four hours on, eight off, around the clock.
You just have to get used to it. Mine is 4 to 8, a.m. They include a few crew members, who pop off their watch to catch a glimpse of the action. There isn't room to shake hands, and every now and then someone has to turn on the air, so we don't suffocate from lack of oxygen breathed by so many excited lungs. First sight of bottom Three days after leaving Seattle and 15 years after John Delaney first thought of bringing up a smoker, we see a patch of seafloor where, in the coming days, the expedition will meet with success or failure.