Hanging out with astronauts
One more time, a phone call changes everything. Also the phone call comes from a repeat source, Tug boat captain, Don MacKenzie of MacKenzie Sea Services. Don called to see if I was interested in going out with him to the Chaudierre dive site with some very special guests and cargo. The Chaudierre is a 366 ft warship that was sunk in Sechelt Inlet to provide a great dive site and artificial reef. The guests were underwater technical wizard Phil Nuytten with his NewtSuit dive systems and two of Canada's astronauts Steve MacLean and Julie Payette. Julie Payette getting prepped for a dive in a Newtsuit Phil Nuytten in the black dry suit It was easy to decide to skip out of work to go on this adventure, I mean really , what a collection of Canadian technical firepower, all in one spot. The idea was to have the astronauts dive the Newtsuits down to the Chaudierre to get the feeling of working in space. The Newtsuits are hard-shell, one atmosphere, s...