29 October 2009 Dinner with the Captain

Location: Lat: 71 16.503 N Long:  144 18.779 W

Sunrise: 10:19 am Sunset: 4:25 pm

****Over the past week, several members of the science crew on board have been invited to have dinner with the captain. It is quite a honor to be invited to join the captain for dinner. Last week the media crew and helicopter crew were also asked to join the captain for dinner.

The captain has a private cabin with his own conference table that can be used a dinner table. All of the food was the same as we would have eaten in the regular mess, however it was presented neatly on a plate and served to us. It was like having dinner at a nice restaurant. The best part of the whole meal was the atmosphere. Rather than eating in a cafeteria with 50 other people, it was a pleasant change to have a more intimate meal with a group of only 5 other people. Captain Vaughn is very personable and easy to talk to. The divers shared stories about some of their diving experiences, the Captain shared about time in Antarctica with the Coast Guard, and I was able to share about my experiences working with teens. Overall, it was quite an honor and we had a great time with the Captain.