Message in a bottle? A note from down under, and the bottom of the Ocean.

A new home site for Chris and Jen in Australia.

"The olds" , mom and dad with daughter Jen and Chris.

Dear family,

I can guarantee you fine folk that this is the first time you have received an email from someone 130 metres under the ocean.. or in usa terms nearly 200 yards.. haha converting for the inlaws x whichever way we look at it its deep, and of course (you know me) its weird and wonderful! deep sea 'saturation' diving in the oil and gas fields is something ive had my mind set on for some time, ive been diving professionally now for five years, having dived commercially in 5 states of australia and internationally in trinidad, thailand indonesia singapore and this last year ive spent a copious amount of time underwater in New Zealand building new fields off the west coast of the north island, new plymouth.. this year alone ive worked here over 2 months! Having reached my life long diving goal to be a qualified deep sea diver in march this year its an unreal feeling to be here now living leagues under the ocean and walking around on the seabed experiencing things only a small handful of the worlds population could begin to imagine!

How it works!? i live in a storage chamber that is in the hull of a purpose built diving vessel, when its time to dive we transfer through to a diving bell which is launched off the side of the vessel and lowered just off the seabed we then put our diving helmets suits etc on open the bottom hatch of the 'bell' and drop to the seabed getting supplied our breathing gas by a hose that also supplies hot water to our suits communications to surface, camera and lighting. we work for 6 hours on bottom then we return to bell, close the hatch and then are brought back to the ship and transferred to the living chamber where we shower eat sleep and chill out! The amount of time we are 'underwater' for is maximum of 1 month.. this particular job we are underwater for 20 days, working for 15 days and then it takes nearly five days to get back to the surface at this depth.. im currently coming into day 9!

The interesting facts - NO theres no sunlight in and down here so i come out pasty and white like an albino, but being dark skinned im not as bad as some! also, no air.. i breathe a mix of helium and oxygen which makes me talk like a chipmunk, so i dont hear my own voice the whole time either. our food is prepared on the outside and locked in through a little medical lock and once its eaten we send the empties back to the surface.. thats pretty much all the big facts and im sure youve got heaps of questions so.. buy me a beer and ill tell ya haha ;o)

And probably the biggest question you have is WHY!?? quite simply, i enjoy it! it suits my personality and the characters i meet put hollywood movies to shame, its raw and real and confronting.. im exploring the limits of my mental endurance and ability and learning so much about my being and morality every time i drop out the bell to the bottom.. not in a dangerous way but more a surreal experience type of way (its actually a very safe form of diving)

anyways id luv to keep writing but its late and we dive next, so i will leave it there but hope you are all doing awesome and exploring your limits, or at least having a blast! Love to hear from you all and yes i can receive emails down here, just reply to this one and Jennie can forward it on!

Love you all very much and hope lifes grooving X

CHRIS