Sue and Marie

One of the most pleasurable parts of
scuba diving is the feeling of being
weightless. Flying through the water
like a bird is a thrilling experience
and it´s a lot cheaper and easier
than booking your place on a space
mission. Achieving neutral buoyancy
underwater is the key to comfortable
diving.
When you have mastered this, diving
is silly fun. Imagine stopping to look
at something, turning upside down to
get a better view, backing up to take
a photo and gently swimming off, all
with little or no effort. Your world is
now in 3D. Swimming up the side of
a rock formation is a lot easier than
climbing it and you can´t fall off.
There are some caves in Talum,
Mexico, that have petrified trees in
them. It really is a buzz to go flying
through the trees. The water is as clear
as air and you feel as close to being an
astronaut as you are ever likely to.
This nicely brings me into a new
project I have been following recently.
Sir Richard Branson has wanted
to venture into space for years, but
has now put that on a backburner to
concentrate on his new mission, Virgin
Oceanic. He does love to spend his
bazillions on fun stuff.
He and his team are building a
submarine capable of travelling to the
deepest depths of our 5 oceans. His
test pilot is going to take this sub to the
bottom of the Mariana Trench in the
Pacific Ocean.
It is 11,034m deep, which compares
to Mt. Everest, which is 8,848m. Sir
Richard will complete the 2nd dive to
the Puerto Rico Trench in the Atlantic
Ocean, which is a mere 8,380m deep.
These oceans will exert a pressure
on the submarine of over 1,000
atmospheres, which is the equivalent
of 800 elephants standing on a mini
cooper!
The deepest a submarine has been so
far is 6,500m by the Japanese Shinkai
submarine. They really will be going
where no man has ever gone before.
When all 5 dives have been completed,
they will donate the submarine to an
American museum.
They will then build another submarine
that will be able to accommodate
passengers, taking them on the journey
of a lifetime to see the gems these
oceans contain. 70% of our planet lies
underwater, so there are lots of new
destinations for us to go and check out.
Scientists estimate we have only
discovered 10% of the species that live
in our oceans, so there are exciting
times ahead.
Who needs space travel. Check out
the Virgin Oceanic website. It looks
awesome.