Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

In the 90's I got into scuba diving to solve some problems at work. I had been  building docks,boathouses and the like for a few years (loved every minute of it)...when it came time to do various underwater chores...the divers that got hired were just not up to the task....they were good divers,but not great at working underwater. Keep in mind these are pre-regulation days in light commercial diving. The joys of work dives   frozen fresh water on top of sea water Diver Mike  So I decided ...I'll just do it myself. I signed up for a scuba course in Sechelt and met a man who would go on to be a huge factor in some great future times....Bill Brooks. I'll leave those tales for another time. Flash forward a few years...Bill and I have salvaged sunken boom boats, a slew of pleasure boats at the bottom of a damaged marina and had experimented with dives past 200ft.  By the time of this story rolls around I'm an establish local work diver. I...

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...

In the 90's I got into scuba diving to solve some problems at work. I had been  building docks,boathouses and the like for a few years (loved every minute of it)...when it came time to do various underwater chores...the divers that got hired were just not up to the task....they were good divers,but not great at working underwater. Keep in mind these are pre-regulation days in light commercial diving. The joys of work dives   frozen fresh water on top of sea water Diver Mike  So I decided ...I'll just do it myself. I signed up for a scuba course in Sechelt and met a man who would go on to be a huge factor in some great future times....Bill Brooks. I'll leave those tales for another time. Flash forward a few years...Bill and I have salvaged sunken boom boats, a slew of pleasure boats at the bottom of a damaged marina and had experimented with dives past 200ft.  By the time of this story rolls around I'm an establish local work diver. In the cou...