We arrived at Newfoundland yesterday at 2pm local time. The landscape between St Johns airport and Heathrow is worlds apart, from concrete eyesore, to evergreen wilderness, it is truly breathtaking. Unfortunately we wouldn't be staying here for very long and we headed straight for the Fairmont Hotel. That evening over dinner, we met up with other people who will be taking part in the dives. The mixture of nationalities was diverse, with people from Russia , Argentina , Germany , Japan , Great Britain and the U.S. After a reasonably large quantity of wine I went to bed looking forward to the day ahead.

I awoke around 3:30am , my body clock still stuck on U.K. time. I took a glimpse out the window of my hotel room that overlooked the harbour. In the distance I saw the Akademik Keldysh moored at the dock. From where I stood, the ship looked tiny. It had returned the day before from the Titanic wreck site with James Cameron on board, I could see people hurrying around trying to get her ready for our adventure. I went back to bed feeling very restless!

When I eventually got up Andy (my cameraman on the trip) my dad and I took breakfast in the hotel before we went to the Keldysh. Because the quayside would be very busy later on Andy decided he wanted to film my dad and I looking at the ship. I was not prepared for her sheer size, at 200ft long she was massive! It then dawned on me that the Titanic was nearly 900ft long! If a 200ft long vessel can make me speechless, for the people of Southampton nearly one hundred years ago, the site of the Titanic must have been astounding.

As we were filming Andy pointed out that James Cameron himself had just departed the Keldysh right behind me! To have a world famous director departing the boat that I was going to be sailing on was an extremely surreal feeling.

We had to meet at 3pm to take a tour of St John's before we boarded the ship. It really is a nice place and I wish I could have spent more time taking in the sites here. Around 5:30pm we boarded the Keldysh. I made some last minute phone calls and sent a few text messages to friends and family knowing this would be the last time I would be speaking to them in 11 days.

Boarding the ship was extremely emotional. It was a mixture of excitement, nerves, sadness, happiness…I even had a little cry. Knowing I wouldn't see land for nearly two weeks and couldn't just pick up the phone to someone and call them made me feel a little uneasy.

It is now 22:20 and my first evening on the Keldysh. Tomorrow we get introduced to the submersibles Mir 1 and Mir 2. I can't wait!