the dive 3 the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern Oceans.) He’s piloted the Limiting Factor on 15 of its trips to Challenger Deep, but there’s a chance this may be the last time he performs that feat. Having achieved his goal—and so much more— he’s on the verge of selling the undersea exploration system that he envisioned and piloted through its many record-setting expeditions. Victor’s companion on this descent is the oceanographer Dawn Wright, aka Deepsea Dawn. Now the chief scientist of Esri®, the world’s leading geographic information system (GIS) software firm, Dawn has dedicated her life to learning about the ocean—and working to ensure that knowledge of the deep is more widely shared. For Dawn, experiencing Challenger Deep firsthand will be the opportunity of a lifetime. +0 HOURS, 16 MINUTES | −931 METERS Darkness comes quickly beneath the ocean’s surface. Sunlight penetrates only the uppermost 400 meters (1,312 feet) of water, a threshold the Limiting Factor blows through within minutes of sinking under the waves. The next 600 meters (1,968 feet) are fittingly called the twilight zone. This region is believed to be home to more marine life than the rest of the ocean—and much of it provides its own radiance to make up for the lack of natural light. As Dawn says, “It’s exhilarating, and it never gets old, the fact that you’re descending through the lit zone of the ocean, which is beautiful aqua blue, then things slowly turn to gray and then pitch black.” As the Limiting Factor nears the lower extent of the twilight zone, a glow appears through Victor’s porthole, off to the sub’s left. Believing the source to be some kind of bioluminescent life-form, probably jellyfish or siphonophores (wormlike organisms), Victor flashes the sub’s lights. Much to the delight of their human visitors, the creatures respond in kind. This conversation of sorts between nature and machine serves as a fleeting example of the magic of the ocean—a magic that Dawn has felt deeply since her childhood in Hawaii. Dawn, now 62, moved to Hawaii from the East Coast at the age of six, when her mother accepted a teaching position there. She recalls spending much of her time at the beach, swimming and exploring: “That is part of the culture of Hawaii,” she says, “to enjoy but also to hold the ocean as sacred, as life giving. It’s a natural part of everyday life there.” By the age of eight, inspired by watching Jacques Cousteau on TV, Dawn had decided to become an oceanographer. And yet today,
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