Tove Petterson, Expedition Team Member and Marine Operations

During the Voyage to Kure expedition, Tove Petterson served as logistics specialist for the Ocean Adventures Marine Operations group. She is a certified ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operator with Deep Ocean Engineering and has logged thousands of dives, conducting commercial work and search and recovery missions. She has also served as an art department diver, building film sets underwater; has filmed hulls of ships; and has inspected underwater equipment in harbors.

As the logistics specialist for Ocean Adventures' Marine Operations group, describe a typical day for you on the Kure expedition.

Each day I got up around 5:30 a.m. and would head straight up to the top deck to check the condition of the zodiac and fill it with air and fuel. Then I would do a quick walk around the decks and up to the bow to see that all was OK with the expedition gear after a night at sea. At that point I would break for a quick breakfast with the team, which was prepared by our chef, Rhonda. Then the team would gather for our daily meeting to review the plans and set the objectives for the day. My duties on the dives varied from filling the tanks with Nitrox gas, to gear maintenance, to driving the zodiac, to looking after the divers, to tending the underwater light cable above or below the water, to taking still photographs, to appearing on camera with Jean-Michel. It could be anything on any given day!

What was the best thing about the voyage to Kure for you personally?

My favorite spot along the way was Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals. I got to spend large parts of the day amongst the birds, seals and turtles. Sitting on the beach, I was surrounded by young albatrosses facing into the wind, strengthening their wings before their first take off to spend a life at sea. I was stationed on Tern Island for nearly a week. I enjoyed the social time with Dr. Beth Flint tremendously. I will never forget that no one had deodorant, and I just had to get used to the smell of my own body odor. The sound of the birds outside my bedroom window was so loud that I would not have been able to hear a person calling my name outside my door, yet I still fell asleep like a happy baby.

You have worked building underwater sets, as an ROV operator and as a stunt performer -- very exotic jobs?

I became a scuba diver at the age of 15 and have traveled to many places. As for being a stunt performer, I never planned on being a "stuntie." I was introduced to the stunt world through my career as an underwater camera operator. I decided to pursue it as one part of my career, so I spent four or five years specifically training to become a stunt performer. I spent lots of money to gain my qualifications, and I had lots of fun along the way!