Return to Sha'ab Rumi
Yet again, the Cousteau team is traveling back in time. In the 1960's, Captain Cousteau carried out three experiments in underwater living, and vestiges of the underwater habitats built for the Conshelf II mission still lie at Sha'ab Rumi, Sudan. Claude Wesly, one of the original aquanauts of the Conshelf experiments, is on board Alcyone to recall his adventures and to dive on the site once more.

The Cousteau team dives on Sha'ab Rumi reef, in Sudan, where the remains of the undersea habitat, Conshelf II, lie.
Forty years later, Claude Wesly, one of the original pioneers of that ground-breaking experiment, rediscovers the site he still holds dear.
One of Captain Cousteau’s many dreams was that people could live under the sea. In 1963, in Sudan, a hamlet came into being, in a calm, carefully chosen lagoon resplendent with marine life. Ballasting the Starfish House and the Sea Urchin, as the structures that served as living quarters and submersible hangar were called, was a real feat. It required the placement of 4,790 lead bars, each weighing 50 kg. But finally the team got its reward and the Captain was pleased: "A strange feeling," he wrote, "that humans also have a home in the kingdom of fishes and sponges." The team from Calypso spent an entire month there without seeing the sun.

What remains in 2004?
Today, although the habitat was broken down and removed, the hangar still rests on Sha'ab Rumi, ten meters down. Corals have overgrown the structure, which has become a memorial to all the divers who took part in the Conshelf experiment. As Alcyone sails into the Red Sea on expedition, Claude Wesly, one of the original "oceanauts," is on board. Now 74 years old, he gets to dive again on the site of his exploits. Emotion and memories flood his mind. "It was like a dream . . . as if the Captain were there," he told the crew of Alcyone when he returned to the surface.