Watchlords

This is a watch review. It just so happens to be one that involved staying three fathoms beneath the surface of the sea, overnight.



I recently stayed at the Jules Undersea Lodge, the current iteration of what once was La Chalupa, an undersea living habitat that was part of the Puerto Rico International Undersea Laboratory program. PRINUL kicked off in 1972, squarely in the middle of the golden era of Man in the Sea research programs that saw aquanauts living and working at depth studying marine ecology, diving physiology, and ocean engineering. Four aquanauts at a time occupied the La Chalupa habitat, which was submerged in 20 meters of water off the coast of Puerto Rico the year PRINUL started. The objective of the program was to answer the question: Can humans live and work in the sea?

The PRINUL program ran out of funding and was forced to wind down in the late 1970s, but Ian Koblick, the father of the La Chalupa habitat, found a second life for the vessel in the '80s as Jules Undersea Lodge, now essentially an underwater hotel.

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/i-spe ... ko-sbgh255

Hopefully I'm never sat next to the author.