Patent ID: 8123957

Claim:
A method of submerging and surfacing an apparatus having intake equipment in a body of fluid, comprising the steps of: providing two flotation ballasts, arranged parallel with respect to each other and in a same horizontal plane, each having a ballast chamber, each of the two flotation ballasts further comprising a cylinder having an end cap on each end of the cylinder, thus forming the ballast chamber; coupling a flotation platform to the two flotation ballasts; coupling intake equipment to the flotation platform between the two flotation ballasts in essentially the same horizontal plane; coupling at least one primary air line to the flotation ballasts, the distal end being coupled via at least one combiner to a plurality of subsidiary air lines at the apparatus, each respective subsidiary line being coupled to at least one inlet at each of the two flotation ballasts; operating the at least one primary air line and subsidiary air lines as a conduit for the injection of a compressed gas into each ballast chamber of the two flotation ballasts; displacing a fluid ballast there-from; providing for an aperture on the bottom of each of the two flotation ballasts, the aperture operable to allow the ingress and egress of a fluid ballast into and out of the ballast chamber, the arrangement of the two flotation ballasts with respect to each other being such that, when placed on the surface of a body of fluid and prior to having fluid introduced into the respective ballast chambers, the center axis of each of the two flotation ballasts are parallel to each other, and the plane in which the center axes lie is substantially parallel to the surface of the body of fluid with the aperture respective apertures submerged.