Figure 1 7. ALUMINA UT Inspecting AL VIN While Holding on to AL VIN's Sail 



with Her Manipulators. 



During ALUMINAUT's dive, winds had died to less than 5 knots and seas had abated. 

 Near ideal conditions existed when the lift of ALVIN began. The spherical buoy and pon- 

 toon supporting the bitter end of the lift Hne were brought alongside MIZAR, and the line 

 was run through the center well to the traction and take-up winches. The buoy and pontoon 

 were removed, and at 0830 MIZAR began hauling in on the lift line. At 1107, the readout 

 for the load cell on the hft line steadied at 9,000 pounds indicating breakout had occurred. 

 The low lift force, which was approximately equal to the in-water weight of ALVIN, indicated 

 that the syntactic material was still fully effective. There was an approximate 200-pound re- 

 duction of lift force at breakout. The lack of appreciable breakout was attributed to the 

 following: (1) the shape of ALVIN's lower hull was almost ideal for breakout; (2) the 

 ocean floor was a shallow layer of unexpectedly soft silt over hard clay; and (3) the lift 

 force was exerted at an angle to the vertical tending to roll ALVIN off the bottom. 



Lifting proceeded smoothly and without incident. When the syntactic foam block, AMF 

 transponder. Benthos light, steel balls and Stimson anchor came to the surface, they were re- 

 moved from the lift line and stayed off for later recovery. 



29 



