NEMO & NOMAD Return From the Nekton Mission First Descent

After a long week of patiently waiting and strategic logistics, NEMO & NOMAD subs return home to Pompano Beach, FL to prep for their next mission. As stated by our CEO Robert Carmichael “the girls are finally home.”

NEMO & NOMAD Subs Offloading at Global Sub Dive’s Headquarters

Earlier this year in January of 2019, NEMO & NOMAD shipped out to execute submersible operations for the Nekton Mission First Descent surveying 8 different locations off the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean. For this particular mission, the subs were dressed in yellow and red and sported decals from the mission’s partners Kensington Tours and Omega.

We wan to thank Triton Submersibles for the help and support offered to the Nekton Mission First Descent. You guys are awesome!

But yesterday was a really long day for the Global Sub Dive crew and support personnel. Based on the information received from Port Everglades the previous day, we all arrived bright and early at GSD’s HQ to receive our assets. The team and support crew spent quite an amount of time prepping the warehouse to ensure everything will be organized for the arrival of GSD’s best girls. However, in this business, anything can happen.

From left to right, Randy Holt, Billy Neunzing, Shane Zigler, and Diana Giorgetti patiently wait for cargo to arrive…

We waited an hour, then two, then four, and by the sixth hour we were all ready for the girls to get home. But the girls were not arriving. It took some strategic planning and sweet talking the wonderful staff at Maersk and Port Everglades to finally get the first part of our cargo delivered: the container.

During missions, the container serves as the lifeline for the subs. It carries anything from spare parts to miracle fixes. Upon its arrival, our awesome crane operator from Allegiance Crane’s Pompano Beach location was ready to offload all 15,000 pounds of it from the flat rack.

Randy Holt climbs up on top of the container and hooks all four corners to the crane’s rig.

After offload, the container is placed on a trailer, where it remain until it needs to ship out to the next mission. For the next few weeks, the Global Sub Dive crew will inventory its contents, clean it up, and get it ready for the next project.

Randy Holt happy to see the container finally on its trailer!

After the container arrived, was offloaded, placed on its new location, strapped and secured, the GSD team and support personnel prepped for the arrival of the girls: NEMO & NOMAD.

On first look, the girls arrived quite messy. Their “clothing” was undone, but we were happy to see they arrived unharmed and ready to be serviced.

The offloading of the subs took much longer and more fine tuned logistics. NEMO appeared to have been partying all night, while NOMAD was a little more dressed.

Despite their messy look, upon removal of their protective cover, we were happy to see that both NEMO & NOMAD were intact. We are still unsure what transpired at the port, but we thank whomever partied with our girls for returning them home safe.

First to offload was NOMAD. With her bright red suit, she looked stunning to us. Shane Zigler hooked her onto the crane’s rig and carefully offloaded from the flat rack and onto her trailer were she was hauled into our warehouse.

Then came NEMO. With her bright yellow suit, she really looked like a party girl! Once again, Shane Zigler climbed up and hooked NEMO to the crane’s rig to be carefully offloaded and hauled into our warehouse.

After what seemed to be the longest day of my life, container and subs were safely stored inside our warehouse and the Global Sub Dive crew and support personnel finally went home. It was a very long day…

Being part of a submersible operations team is a unique experience, but it comes with hard work and a requirement to be able to work as a team. I think we have the best submersible operations crew in the world and I am honored to be part of Global Sub Dive’s Surface to Seafloor Exploration Team.

Did know our subs executed the first deep ocean live broadcast during the Nekton Mission First Descent? Don’t worry, you can sign up to our newsletter and receive firsthand information about our operations.

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