Sunday, January 17, 2010

Captain for a Day

Ok, technically, I wasn't exactly the captain...but I did have the chance to spend some time on Steve's boat, the Nevada. And I did sit in the captain's chair, even though Steve had a momentary panic attack. Come on, when am I ever going to have the opportunity to sit in the captain's chair again? Oddly, I didn't feel powerful or in control of a 17 ton boat (is that right? or is it 17,000 tons? really don't know), probably because there weren't any worker-bees prepared to do my bidding, oh, and of course the fact that it's tied to a pier. Right. Can't forget that. I was enormously impressed by the sheer size, first of all, and then of course the fact that even though it is gargantuan, each person only gets a tiny little bed and a cubby for all their stuff. Remember your locker in high school? (If you had a full one, divide that in half) Yeah, that's about the amount of storage space allotted to each person. For three months. What would you put in your 3x1x2 cubby?

We were even able to have dinner on the sub, which was pretty good. The chefs gave us a little tour of the kitchen, and believe it or not, it's about the same size as mine. I was shocked. When the boat is underway, there's about 180 people on board, eating four times a day. (The fourth meal, between dinner and breakfast, is called "midrats.") How these chefs manage to feed all those people with so little space is unfathomable to me. For our meal, there was lasagna, garlic bread, salad and angel food cake for dessert. The chefs did a great job, and the lasagna was yummy. I tried to share my piece of cake, but I ate it before anyone else could get a bite. Oops.

Seeing the boat was an opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm so glad I didn't pass it up. It was so special, getting to see where Steve spends the majority of his time, and I've got some good ideas of what to send with him the next time he goes out to sea.

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