• Pope makes first stop in Cuba’s 2nd city

    Desmond Boylan / Reuters

    Pope Benedict XVI and Cuba's President Raul Castro walk together after the pope's arrival in Santiago de Cuba on Monday afternoon.

    By Kerry Sanders , NBC News correspondent

    SANTIAGO, Cuba – There was an air of excitement in Antonio Maceo Plaza here in this island’s second largest city as people anxiously awaited Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival Monday afternoon.

    Santiago is the first stop on his three-day visit to the island. Just 12 miles outside of town, is the sanctuary of El Cobre, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a tiny wooden statue that is revered by all Cubans – Catholic and non-Catholic alike – and which the pope is coming to see.  

    While Cuba’s communist government is ostensibly anti-religious, it is treating the papal visit like that of any other head of state. Granma, the Communist government newspaper, put Benedict’s visit on its front page Monday and every event of the visit will be televised and broadcast on state-run radio. 

    Most businesses were closed here today in anticipation of the big arrival. The pope will celebrate an open-air Mass Monday evening in the plaza which thousands are expected to attend. 

    Among those most excited is architect Juan Ramon Navarro, a 36-year-old father of two who designed the giant altar under which the pope will celebrate Mass.

    Navarro explained that if you look at the altar from the sides, the 45-foot high arches create an "M" for the Virgin Mary. It is decorated in red, white and blue, just like the Cuban flag, and he said the canvas cover is meant to conjure up the image of Mary's skirt.

    Kerry Sanders / NBC News

    The open-air altar Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate mass in Santiago de Cuba on Monday.

    “I am thrilled,” Navarro said about the finished product. "It's quite an honor, as you can imagine."

    Battle to balance ideals
    Catholic or not, many of Cuba’s 11 million citizens are hoping Benedict will push for greater economic and political freedoms on the island.

    Since its 1959 revolution, which was centered here, Cuba’s Communist government has survived the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    But now it is in a battle to balance its ideals – a socialist government that would care for its population from the cradle to the grave – with the realities of pressure from sanctions and an increasingly competitive world economy.

    And into the breach, the church has increasingly stepped up to provide the social safety net, this despite the fact that only 10 percent of the population identify themselves as Catholics.

    Government food rations here don't last the elderly an entire week. Instead, the Catholic Church now feeds and supplements medicine for the elderly.

    Havana's Cardinal Jamie Ortega has also played an increasingly political role – recently he quietly helped negotiate the release of more than 100 jailed political dissidents.

    Kerry Sanders / NBC News

    A parishoner looks up at the the sanctuary of El Cobre, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a tiny wooden statue that is revered by all Cubans - Catholics and non-Catholics a

    The church does not flaunt its influence in Cuba out of a fear it will offend President Raul Castro, or his brother Fidel, and in the process lose all it has gained since Pope John Paul II visited 14 years ago.

    But the church does not shy away from controversy either.

    Prior to his arrival this afternoon, Pope Benedict told reporters on his plane from Rome that, "it is evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality."

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  • Battling to control Haiti's cholera epidemic

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
     
    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The victims of Haiti’s latest challenge lie in cots quarantined so as not to spread cholera.
     
    The bacterial disease has killed more than 1,100 people and hospitalized more than 18,000 since the outbreak was first reported late last month and health officials here fear the epidemic is about to get far worse: The United Nations estimates as many as 200,000 Haitians will contract cholera within the next six to 12 months.

    Kerry Sanders / NBC News

    Pierre Dennis,9, suffers from cholera and clings to life in a Red Cross tent hospital.

    In the worst hit area, Cap-Haitien, U.N. statistics reveal the death rate is an astounding 30 percent.

    “It's an epidemic, it's a nationwide crisis now,” said Imogen Wall, the U.N.Humanitarian spokeswoman in Port-au-Prince.  “Cholera is in Haiti now, so this will go on for years.”  
     
    Race to save lives
    Cholera, a water-borne bacterial illness, can kill within hours if left untreated. But if treated quickly, survival is almost guaranteed. A simple mixture of salt and sugar water to replace lost fluids nearly always results in a cure, according to the World Health Organization.  

    But when patients get treatment late, the administration of intravenous fluids may be necessary.
     
    The faces of the youngest of the victims are haunting: Twelve-year-old Yvio St. Leger and his nine-year-old brother Pierre Dennis lay side-by-side in a Red Cross tent hospital 40 miles north of the capital city. Both are alive, but their parents and two siblings died en route to the clinic.

    Dr. Henrike Meyer, who is in Haiti with the German Red Cross, slipped a finger-nail sized pill into Pierre’s mouth. Then she gave him a little water so he could swallow it down. As hard as he tried, Pierre couldn’t swallow. After three tries, he spit the pill into a bucket.

    Health officials warn that Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic will strike at least 200,000 people in the coming months. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    He was trying to take Doxycycline, an antibiotic that is a long-tested medicine used to treat a variety of infections all over the world.

    Pierre was hooked up to an IV. “The main problem is we need to provide fluid, fluid, fluid,” said Meyer. “He got already yesterday about four liters, and we have to continue.”

    (The brothers were recovering well, according to doctors Friday, but they are still under observation at the hospital).  
     
    Anger over source of illness 
    Cholera is often spread due to poor hygiene. Despite rampant bad sanitation and poor access to clean drinking water in Haiti, cholera has not been recorded in the island nation for six decades. But cholera is endemic to Nepal, and thousands of Nepalese troops came to help Haiti in the wake of January’s devastating earthquake.

    Outrage over the outbreak has erupted over the last several days, fueled by suspicions that U.N. troops from Nepal spread the disease from their base into the Artibonite River system, where the initial outbreak was centered last month. Those suspicions are shared by some prominent global health experts.
     
    Anti-U.N. violence spread to the nation’s capital Thursday as protesters threw rocks at peacekeepers, attacked foreigners' cars, blocked roads with burning tires, and toppled light poles.  

    But Wall, the U.N. spokeswoman, said where the illness came from is irrelevant at this point.
     
    “It doesn't change the response knowing where it came from. We know everything we need to know about this illness from lab tests, and we know how to deal with it,” she explained. “So the origin is obviously of interest but not significant from a response view.”
     
    Dealing with crisis at hand
    In one of the quarantines, 12-year-old Emerson, cradled in his mother’s arms, said he believed he got sick after eating rice.

    “It hurts inside. I cry a lot,” he said. As his mother gently poured cool fresh water into her hands and bathed his face, Emerson cried, “I’m hot. I’m hot. I’m hot.”

    Doctors say all Emerson and his mother can do right now is wait.
     
    Juergen Rostan, the logistics officer at the German Red Cross clinic, said he’s unsure what they’ll do if more patients arrive.

    All 45 cots at their clinic are now filled. His hope is to cure those who arrive as quickly as possible, so they can leave and make room for the next patients.

    “We do what we can here on the spot, and that’s all we can do from our side here,” he said.

    Wyclef Jean on Haiiti presidential run: World 'wasn't ready for me'

     Prevention education needs to spread
    Unlike the outpouring of help that flooded into Haiti following the January earthquake, there’s little outsiders can do to help now.  Local aid organizations say the key to beating the cholera epidemic is education.
     
    If word could spread quickly to explain that washing hands, boiling water for 20 minutes before drinking it and keeping fecal matter far from water sources will help prevent the spread of illness, experts believe the battle could be won.
     
    But there are a limited number of Creole speakers with medical authority with the time to spread the word because they are increasingly dealing with the crisis at hand.
     
    Another problem is millions of homeless packed together in tent camps in the capital city. Health officials say that close proximity means once cholera hits, it can spread to hundreds of others within days.
     
    The Haitian department of health has launched a team of six men to scour the city for the dead. On Tuesday they found two bodies. Wednesday, another was found dead in a busy street. The team wears masks, protective yellow suits, and gloves, and they spray a chlorine disinfectant on the bodies. It’s a stunning image that scares residents as much as it calms them.
     
    Haiti has a long history of uphill battles: political upheavals, hurricanes, earthquakes, and now, cholera. But deep in the soul of those I met, there is an energy that drives them to keep going and overcome the problem, not matter what the challenge. And in that spirit, there is hope for a nation that again is in crisis.

  • Hoping for a happy ending in Chile

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
    Reporter’s Notebook

    COPIAPO, Chile – I’ve been reporting the news for 28 years, and I have never been as personally wrapped up in a drama as I have been on this story.

    I remember my mentor, NBC News’ veteran Jim Bennett, telling me: “As a reporter you are there to observe, and nothing more.”

    But this story is different. I’m reporting on the 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped half a mile underground for over two months. We just learned today that rescue workers are hoping to start evacuating the miners at midnight local time Tuesday.

    I know there are still dangerous moments to come, but I’m rooting for a happy ending.

    I could be wrong, but I think that since we so rarely see a happy ending unfold in real time, everyone is anxiously awaiting some good news.

    AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

    SLIDESHOW: Chilean mine collapse

    Hard to contain excitement
    It’s obvious my detached impartiality washed away here when the drilling team punched through the final few feet on Saturday morning.

    I was live on NBC’s Today Show and, as the word spread of the success, I felt a rush of victory. I was caught up in a moment that put the rescue one major step closer to success.

    If you watch the video below, it’s obvious that I couldn’t contain my excitement.


    Waiting for the big moment
    At this point, over 1,500 journalists have converged at the site of the sand-swept mine from all over the world. I’ve seen teams from China, Russia, England, but also from Finland, Poland, even the Czech Republic.

    The San Jose Mine sits in the middle of the Atacama Desert. Were you to come here, you’d drive through a remarkable landscape where little thrives. A few dime-sized flowers cling to life in this, the driest desert on Earth.

    And like those plants, there are the 33 miners: Men who beat the odds by surviving 17 days on what was designed to be two days worth of tuna and peaches. Those men have now survived a total of 68 days as teams on the surface fight to save their lives.

    When they emerge, we’ve been told a Chilean TV station, TVN, will focus its camera on the hole.

    One-by-one, the survivors will enter a different world. They won’t see the hundreds of cameras positioned just down the hill, but they may hear the expected cheers a half-mile away.

    But it’s fair to say the whole world will be watching.

    I can’t predict my reaction, but like the families who have held vigil here on the surface, I’m excited.

    Isn’t it about time we all shared some good news?

    Who are the Chilean miners? Click here to learn more about the miners

  • Father: 'I don’t want them to ever go back into a mine'

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

    COPIAPO, Chile – The 33 miners who are trapped in a Chilean gold and copper mine marked off Day 60 on Monday as their families keep an anxious vigil on the surface.

    One of them, Alfonso Avalos, says he’s feeling useless. The 52-year-old miner wants to dig, he wants to help his trapped sons – but all he can do is wait around, a half mile above the collapsed mine.
    Alfonso and his family sit idle in the Atacama Desert. They occasionally smile when they share stories about Florenzio Avalos, 31, and Renan Avalos, 29.

    To better understand what the miners face in their daily jobs, Alfonso and his brother, Wilson, 37, invited me to visit the nearby Clara Mine, which was closed about a year ago when the gold yield was considered too limited to support an expensive digging operation.

    They led me through the cave entrance and in less than 10 minutes, I could no longer see any light from the surface. The only light came from our head-lamps.

    The tunnel down was tall enough for a truck to drive down and wide enough for two vehicles to pass. We carefully walked down a 30-degree slope, and while the path was relatively clear, there were a lot of rocks that would be easy to trip over. High above us, perhaps as tall as the second story of a house, I could see thin stalactites dripping droplets of mineral water.

    A photo of Florenzio Avalos, 31, one of the trapped miners. His father Alfonso Avalos is praying for his safety and hopes he does not return to work in the mines if he survives.

    As we walked down about a mile, Alfonso told me that it was the first time in his career that he felt nervous being inside a mine. And he’s worried about his sons, once they are again above ground.

    “I don’t want them to ever go back into a mine,” he said.

    Miners live by a code: Do not talk about the dangers of the job because that could bring bad luck. But with this disaster, that code has now been broken.

    Alfonso said among the family, his sons used to would quietly complain to him that the mine was unsafe. He added, “They would tell me they tell their bosses but no one listens.”

    And the reason they kept working? “Ah, the money! These are good paying jobs and without an education, there’s not much else we can do.”

    A race to reach the miners
    Meantime, the drilling efforts have moved closer to the trapped men as three engineering teams use three different approaches.
    Team A includes engineers from South Africa; Team B has some Americans; and Team C has Canadians.

    The South African team is closest, a mere 396 feet away as of Monday.

    But the operation is now on hold until Wednesday as the drill bit has dulled, and the replacement part won’t be ready until mid-week.

    Photo by Jim Craven/ NBC News

    An inside look at the Clara Mine, a former gold mine that is near the San Jose Mine where 33 miners have been trapped for 60 days.

    That leaves the Americans most likely to punch a 28-inch wide shaft to the men first. They’re now 465 feet away.

    Unlike the other two teams, the U.S. already has a so-called pilot hole down to the men. First they drilled a 5 inch-wide shaft. Then it was opened to 12 inches. Now the engineers are creating a 28-inch-wide-hole which will be just big enough for the escape capsules to navigate.
    As the U.S. team drills down, upwards of 20 tons of rock is falling in on the trapped miners. They’re working in three 11-man shifts to clear that debris, in effect working to save their own lives.

    One question yet to be answered: Will the hole that is ultimately used require a sleeve? The initial thoughts were to link a pipe down the hole, and as the pipe went in, grease the inside for the capsules trips up and down.

    But now some say that will delay the rescue by as much as 11days. And since the drilled holes are not direct, some pipes will have to be fashioned in unique shapes to accommodate the curves.

    And then there’s the whispered political pressure to get the job done. Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera has an important meeting in Europe in mid-October, and rescue crews here say they’ve been told the president wants to personally witness the rescue before he leaves.

    No one would be happier if the rescue happens sooner than later than the families of waiting to come to the surface.

  • Mother Nature holds sway over Titanic expedition

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News

    ST JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND -- Blame Mother Nature.

    An iceberg sank the Titanic. And now, a hurricane has chased the Titanic expedition back to shore.

    The captain of the research vessel Jean Charcot informed team leaders days ago that he was uncomfortable with Hurricane Danielle’s track.

    And his decision to return to port was smart as the seas are now kicking up at the site in the North Atlantic, and are expected to become 40-foot swells when the brunt of the storm hits.

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    The return to port does provide the teams opportunity to re-group.

    The main power supply onboard the ship failed in the final hours of work, and the ship's onboard power system is not well integrated. This vessel was built in France and was once used by Jacques Cousteau. However, the power system in France is different that that of the United States, so you can’t just plug in this high-tech equipment without all sorts of complicated conversions.

    The team also is using the time to consider where to look next.

    The mapping equipment returned some stunning results. The The Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) nicknamed “Ginger” and “Mary Ann" used sonar to map a 5-by-3 mile area. It’s long been believed the wreckage sat in a 6-square mile area, but now these new maps reveal more wreckage that’s never been studied, photographed or documented.

    When the team returns, in about a week, they want to see what is there, in 3D and HD.

    Love at sea
    The one thing the Titanic historians onboard say is unlikely: finding the necklace. If you saw the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "Titanic," you remember the "Heart of the Ocean" jewel.

    Sadly, the experts say that’s simply a Hollywood creation.

    But then again, you never know what can happen on an expedition like this.

    Case in point: MaryAnn Keith and Evan Kovaks are both researchers who met five years ago while floating at sea on a mission to the Titanic.

    This morning, they gathered on the bow with the captain and were married. So perhaps that is the "Heart of the Ocean" -- their love for each other.

    Meantime, NBC News editor Vince Genova somehow found a few minutes of downtime to put together a mini-movie of the last 7 days. Click below to view.

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  • Viewing the Titanic wreckage in high-def 3-D

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News correspondent

    ABOARD THE JEAN CHARCOT - We saw our first pictures of the Titanic wreckage in 3-D, high-def early this morning. I expected euphoria, maybe cheering,  in the command room of the Jean Charcot, the research vessel that's documenting the Titanic debris before it disintegrates. Instead, there was an intense silence.

    About 11 scientists and archeologists crowded around the special monitors. Everyone was wearing a pair of three-dimension glasses to take in the stunning visuals. The cameras, mounted to a Remotely Operated Vehicle, also called an ROV, sent back pictures live as it traveled along the starboard side of the submerged vessel.

    Photo by Kerry Sanders

    At times the port holes reflected back light. There’s still glass in some of those windows two miles down. As the cameras climbed up along the ship's side, it floated over the deck near the bow, and you could see anchor chains in place as if the ship had been at sea just days ago. The Titanic sank April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

    Along the railings there are lines of what looks like un-formed iron. Those are the trails excreted by the naturally occurring microbes that are slowly digesting the steel of this once proud ship.

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    Shooting Titanic in 3-D was Billy Lange’s idea.  He’s from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Lange was the first to spot the wreckage 25 years ago. This morning he sat front and center, exhausted by delays, but driven by the giddy energy of doing something no one has ever attempted before.

    Photo by Kerry Sanders

    The only disappointment here is mother nature. Hurricane Danielle will force the expedition to head for cover early Sunday morning. The ROV will be pulled from the waters tonight, and then the captain will point North West for St. John’s Newfoundland.

    It’s only a delay. The RMS Titanic, Inc assembled team will return once the weather passes.  They’re just bummed to have finally made it here and have to delay their goal. One of the things they hope to do is document upwards of 40 percent of the debris field which has never been photographed or mapped before.

    Photo by Kerry Sanders

    You can follow the team's updates on facebook.com/rmstitanicinc.

    Related links from Kerry Sanders:
    -First new images of titanic debris field emerge
    -Kerry Sanders Q&A on the expedition

  • First new images of Titanic debris field emerge

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

    ABOARD THE JEAN CHARCOT – As we continue to float two-plus miles above the wreck of the Titanic, there was a significant scientific development Friday.

    The Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) nicknamed “Ginger” and “Mary Ann” that were launched earlier this week to crisscross the ocean floor and retrieve information have now come home to the ship.

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    They left on a pre-determined route: “Ginger” traveled north and south and “MaryAnn” traveled east and west.

    As they traveled about 40 yards above the sea bed, following a pattern like “mowing the yard,” the two AUV’s fired outside-scan-sonar.

    Woods Hole Oceanographic teams working with the Waitt Institute, which owns the AUV’s, have now downloaded the side-scan sonar.

    The picture that is emerging is a first of its kind, stunning image of the five-mile, by three-mile area where the Titanic came to rest.

    The images are color-coded, but with some expert input, what you may not see at first glance becomes quite obvious.

    Titanic expedition leader David Gallo says this is an “awesome” moment.

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    He and his team knew the Titanic broke into two pieces, but nobody realized the debris field was a large as it is.

    Upwards of 40 percent of the area where the Titanic sank has never been mapped or documented – until now.

    Up next: 3-D images. If all goes according to the plan, those images will come to the surface by Saturday morning.

    This underwater geology is science you can clearly follow with a good expert, so click on the video to follow what the maps mean.

    Related links from Kerry Sanders:
    Underwater equipment launched in Titanic search
    Keeping an eye on the weather enroute to Titanic wreckage
    Diving down to document Titanic debris

  • Kerry Sanders Q & A on the Titanic expedition

    A team of underwater archeologists, maritime engineers, technicians and explorers are trying to do what's never been done before: document every inch of the debris field where the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912.

    NBC News' Kerry Sanders is with the scientists aboard the Jean Charcot research vessel in the North Atlantic. On Thursday Sanders and Titanic historian Parks Stephenson's responsed to reader's questions about the research expedition.

    Read the chat here: Kerry Sanders Q & A on the Titanic expedition

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  • Underwater equipment launched in Titanic search

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

    ABOARD THE JEAN CHARCOT – The wind and the seas have not been cooperating with a group of scientists’ effort to document the debris field where the Titanic sank in the middle of the North Atlantic.

    Strong 30 mile-per-hour winds delayed efforts to launch high-tech autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) late Wednesday afternoon.

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    And although losing time is always a concern , the teams here waited out the weather and around 4 a.m., the first AUV, nicknamed “Mary Ann” splashed into the North Atlantic.

    The AUV, owned by the Waitt Institute, and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is a technical marvel.

    Shaped like a torpedo, it’s stuffed with directional and sensing equipment – and as its name suggests, once launched, it works on its own.

    The teams like to say it’s “mowing the yard.” That’s because “Mary Ann” is moving at around 4 miles per hour, about 40 yards above the seabed. She’ll cover three miles, and then turn around and return, just as if you were mowing the yard. Her pattern is East-West.

    Another AUV nicknamed “Ginger” will be deployed Thursday during daylight hours to “mow the yard” in a North-South pattern.

    “Ginger and Mary Ann” are names that give the research teams a chuckle. Clearly, sticking with the Gilligan’s Island theme, it’s fair to say the scientific team members here are the “Professors.”

    Billionaire Ted Waitt, of Gateway computer fame, owns the AUV’s at his Waitt Institute. The technology was initially developed at Woods Hole.

    Kerry Sanders/NBC News

    The "Mary Ann" autonomous underwater vehicle before it was launched to document the Titanic debris.

    Billionaire Ted Waitt, of Gateway computer fame, owns the AUV’s at his Waitt Institute. The technology was initially developed at Woods Hole.

    As “Mary Ann” moves along the wreck of the Titanic, she not only snaps photos from a camera positioned in the belly near her tail, but from the sides, a side-scan sonar is pulsing, creating a relief map about 400 yards on both sides.

    All this data will be collected with the AUV’s surface. It will take some heavy computer crunching, but we should get the first full relief map of the bottom here. And those high resolution pictures will be pieced together to create a mosaic map of the entire Titanic wreck site.

    You can follow updates from the crew at facebook.com/rmstitanicinc

    See Kerry's other blogs about his journey to the wreckage of the Titanic:

    Keeping an eye on the weather enroute to Titanic wreckage
    Diving down to document Titanic debris

  • Keeping an eye on the weather enroute to Titanic wreckage

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

    ABOARD THE JEAN CHARCOT – Yes, things really do go “bump in the night” out at sea. In this case it was my head. Ouch!

    Rough seas last night almost rolled me out of my bunk. My head took a wallop against the bulk head, but I’m OK.

    Wednesday morning could not be more glorious. We’re one-and-half time zones east of New York. The temperature is in the mid 60’s with a gentle breeze, and there’s an air of excitement as we near the site of the Titanic’s wreckage.

    By Dwaine Scott/NBC News

    Sunrise seen from the deck of the Jean Charcot in the North Atlantic enroute to explore the wreckage of the Titanic.

    Among those onboard is Billy Lange from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was the first to spot the wreckage in 1985.

    He says he could not have imagined back then that he’d return with the gear he has onboard, and for good reason: the high-tech, HD 3-D equipment he will deploy into the depths of the North Atlantic was not yet invented 25 years ago.

    When the research team arrives at the wreck site, it plans to pause in silence to remember those who died. The team has brought flowers to toss into the same frigid waters where more than 1,500 souls were lost when the ship hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912.

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    Keeping an eye out for bad weather
    The captain of the Jean Charcot research vessel has one eye on the ship’s weather charts and radar. Hurricane Danielle may move east of Bermuda and follow the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream could provide a highway for the storm to the spot we’re headed.

    If there were an emergency order to evacuate, the research team says that its autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which are akin to a torpedo, could remain in the water-gathering data.

    There is a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) tethered to the Jean Charcot which would have to be retrieved and then we’d move as quickly as we can to safety.
    Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

    If you’d like to follow some updates from the expedition team members, click on: facebook.com/RMSTitanicinc.

  • Diving down to document Titanic debris

    By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

    ABOARD THE JEAN CHARCOT – We departed St. John’s Harbor, Newfoundland, at 9:17 p.m. last night. A full moon bathed the calm waters of the cove as a pilot guided our 243-foot research vessel into open waters of the North Atlantic.

    I’ve joined a team of underwater archeologists, maritime engineers, technicians and explorers as they try to do what’s never been done before: document every inch of the debris field where the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. Premier Exhibitions, which has Titanic artifacts on display in Las Vegas, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio, is funding the multi-million dollar expedition.

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    The primary challenge as we begin the voyage is not one of technology, but the one sailors face all the time: the weather. As of now, Hurricane Danielle is projected to follow many possible paths, but one of them could involve a direct route to the where we are headed.

    For those of you who want to track our movements, we are currently at 45 degrees, 47.6 minutes North; 051 degrees 45.3 minutes West.

    Among the teams working together onboard are experts from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Phoenix International, the Waitt Institute and NOAA.

    Our NBC Team includes cameraman Dwaine Scott, video editor Vince Genova and engineer Bruno Trepanier. Together, we will provide live reports and pictures from the ship in the middle of the North Atlantic, as well as from the wreckage site, which is two-plus miles under the water’s surface.

    It’s estimated 40 percent of the wreck has never been mapped or studied.

    I’ll update our movements here online as well as live on MSNBC, NBC’s Today Show and Nightly News, The Weather Channel and on your local NBC station. You can also follow the developments on Facebook by checking out RMS Titanic.

    Come along on an adventure.

    Related link: Titanic expedition will create 3-D map of wreck
    See more on msnbc.com's: Technolog