Buoyancy

People sometimes ask us to put something on the bottom of the sea, for example.
They have no idea how difficult this is. The practical difficulties apply mainly to activities we need to perform for scientists. Towing instruments, installing laboratory equipment onboard, access to buoys at sea with a small boat, placing and recovering moorings, taking whatever sample of bottom, water, fauna. You cannot just do those things; there are currents, animals, there is the buoyancy of the water that you have to fight.

1. First, one could describe it as sublime, in the classical sense (i.e. you feel very small.)
2. Secondly, is the power it has to lift you when you swim. It’s buoyancy.
There is an ecstasy of the thing that can engulf you + charm you + suddenly you become conscious of your own vulnerability.

I used to spend vacation time in Martinique. I prefer the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Nowadays, I can play with my son + my dog in the sea → they can both swim better than me. I feel joy when I encounter the ocean now, because I experience it through my son’s eyes. The experience of weightlessness and buoyancy is what fascinates me the most.