Thanks a lot @misterakpan for the @curie nomination for Author Showcase! There are four parts to this story (you can read Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here)... it's much better when read in its entirety.

A little background: I'm a professional scuba diver, software engineer, digital nomad, and world traveller. Back in 2004n (and freshly off completing my master's degree in computer science), I moved down to Roatan, Honduras to teach scuba diving for a season... and I left five years later! During my time on that wild island, I was lucky enough to become friends with Karl Stanley, the inventor and captain of the submarine Idabel featured in this story.

I strongly believe that Karl is one of the smartest human beings alive. I have done four submarine dives with Karl (and obviously survived each time):

• 2004: Six-gill shark feeding dive to 1750ft -- this is the one the story is based upon -- 9 hours underwater
• 2007: Deep reef exploration dive to 1500ft -- 5 hours underwater
• 2009: Deep reef exploration dive to 1800ft -- 6 hours underwater
• 2011: Six-gill shark feeding dive to 1850ft -- 7.5 hours underwater