SuperFalcon submersible expedition

Judy has spent the first few days hanging out at our beautiful beach and pool. Her ear is still blocked with fluid from the otitis media and her cough, while improved, persists. I'm somewhat beaten-up. I have cuts and scrapes all over and I slammed my right flank into the chase boat platform while getting out of the water on the day that I spent hooking the sub to tow lines and and to the fork lift straps. It was great fun.
Our team of pilots have spent the past two days doing something that we haven't done before. We piloted the sub one-way from one port to another. I took it from the Tala Bay Marina to the Royal Navy Base. Visibility was o.k., about 50 feet. We followed the reef contour line at 90-120 feet of depth. Graham was my co-pilot. A couple of times I had to perform an emergency reset of the flight controls as we were diving toward the reef and the nose would not pull up. No problem. I quickly put the throttle at neutral and performed a quick reset of the pitch. We did not come any closer than 5 or 6 feet to the reef bottom. It is just part of the personality of the sub that you learn to expect and deal with. The UQC (underwater communications; VHF doesn't work underwater) performed well and we were able to keep in contact with the surface support boat the entire time. We came across a relatively flat, sandy bottom at 130 feet. Graham instructed me to perform a gentile landing in the sand. This went well. It was a little unnerving to intentionally run the nose onto the sand. He wanted me to know the impact point (bottom) of the sub and how it fells to land it on its bottom. As we reached our destination, I set the controls for a gentile spiral ascent from 130 feet to the surface. The purpose of the is to allow the pilots to assess the surface conditions, especially any obstacles, before surfacing. Once the sub attained the proper attitude I locked the controls in that position and was able to take my hands off of them to enjoy the slow ride to the surface. There were no apparent obstacles. This was a lot of fun.
Once on the surface, I called for the support boat to tow us into the Navy harbor. However, Graham changed his mind and wanted to do a 3 minute dive to 30-40 feet on a Southerly heading. I slowly took her down to this depth and we were rewarded with the most amazing spectacle of jellyfish. They were magically illuminated. The sea was thick with them. It felt as if we were in a jellyfish aquarium. It was one of the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen.
We surfaced and made it to the Navy base without incident.
That night, all of the pilots reconvened at the Navy base for a night dive. Graham wanted us to experience this so we are somewhat prepared for any future expeditions. It was interesting. However, there was no visibility in the harbor. The best view was actually from the surface at the pier. The sub with its laser lights on the wings looks like a spacecraft from a science fiction movie.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the expedition. We did meet with them for dinner the following evening and exchanged some photos. We will exchange video sometime in the future. I have some good footage of us surfacing on our back (I was wearing a GoPro camera while piloting the sub). Today, Karen and Graham are heading to Amman for the day to meet with the King. I am hoping that he will make an offer that they cannot refuse. It would be great to be able to base the sub here. The Royal Navy has been very gracious and helpful. Judy and I have fallen in love with Jordan and its people. Regardless of the future plans for the Super Falcon, we will return.
Today, we will relax by the beach and pool. Tomorrow we head to Amman, via Wadi Rum, for our return flight home. I hope to begin posting some pictures later today.