Deep Blue Marine

I have been very busy this last week in Samana. More info on that coming. Internet access is extremely spotty and so I feel the need to get caught up on emails and such. I heard that there are the same old 4 happy campers on a blog somewhere who are entertaining each other, and themselves, with their ignorance as to what Deep Blue is doing. There will never be a day when posters on a board will ever have any impact on any decision made at Deep Blue. They will always have their theories and observations, but we will never seriously listen to any of them until they have spent time in our office and/or on the boat. I realize that there will always be a faction who will pursue that type of course and we are thankful for Freedom of Speech, but that doesn’t make them right.

The moon…….Mars…..oh yeah, the weather station.

Billy got the green light from the doctor so this morning the crew headed off to Florida, with a short layover in Denver. While recuperating from the surgery, they worked on building an exact duplicate of the cannon truck to match the other one we already have. Now we have two cannons to go on display.
Billy and the crew will spend the next few days getting the boat ready and then, with an eye to the sky and the computers, will make the trip back to Samana. As this boat is smaller than the Tracy, it will be safer to head over to the Bahamas and then work south, holing up at night. We will keep you apprised of their journey.

Lisa and Jed took the crew up to Woodland on Sunday to show them how to snowmobile. This has been another experience in the long list of firsts for these guys. And the hard snow ridge is much less forgiving than the crest of a wave. Click on “Pictures” and “Snowmobiling”.

Capt. Billy and the Dominican crew are still here in Salt Lake. It was anticipated that they would be here for a few days and then head to Florida where they would be working on a project for a couple of weeks and then head back to the DR. One of the reasons we brought Capt. Billy back to the States was a health concern that he felt more comfortable addressing here than in the DR. The day after they arrived he saw a doctor and then underwent some tests. We were hoping that the doc would prescribe a pill and it would be done, but things seem to never work out the way you want. He will need to be here a few more days and I will leave it up to him to discuss more details on the forum if he so chooses, but being the hard workers they are, they couldn’t just sit around so they are building the carriage for the second Scipion cannon in our shop. Not sure if Domingo and Roberto are getting used to the fog, ice, snow and cold though.

Shortly after the earthquake was reported a call was made to the crew in Samana. Although the quake was felt there, there appears to be no damage reported at this time. The immediate concern was the tsunami watch that was posted for Cuba, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic after the quake, but fortunately, due to the relatively shallow depth of the quake, those concerns never materialized. Our thoughts and prayers go to the people of Haiti.

We have been very busy showing the crew around some of the cool places here in Salt Lake City in between all of the very important meetings. We are very excited with the prospective projects that we will be announcing in the next couple of months. We firmly believe that this year will take Deep Blue Marine to a much higher level. Check out the rest of the pictures in the galleries by clicking on “Pictures” on the Home Page.

As conditions are not conducive for diving right now we decided to start off the New Year with a full staff meeting in Salt Lake. Alejandro and his wife arrived from Orlando last night and Capt. Billy, Roberto and Domingo left Santo Domingo yesterday on a flight to Salt Lake with a layover in New York. Well, with times being what they are, they were held up in customs and ended up missing their connecting flight to Salt Lake. Delta put them on the next available flight which ended up being today and as I write this the assumption is being made that they are somewhere over Ohio. So with a free night in New York and 20 degree temperatures what else is there to do but hit Times Square! This is the Dominicans’ first visit to the States and I really am trying to determine their feelings from the looks on their faces. Maybe it is just that they are frozen.

Last weekend we had some special guests drop by the boat in Samana. We had the Dominican President Lionel Fernandez’s personal doctor, Dr. Hilto Peralta, over for dinner along with the Commandant of the Navy and a Captain of a navy frigate. We cooked up half of a pig and had a pile of Cooky’s famous potato salad and rice.

Capt. Billy Rawson and our new archaeologist, Alejandro Selmi, were recently invited to the Department Christmas Party in Santo Domingo with Francis Soto, Wilfredo Feliz and the rest of the conservatory staff.