This is our series of supplemental logs that were taken from our scientific research expedition to RMS Titanic earlier last month. I hope that you enjoy!
Today is a day of rest for me, as well as the crew of the MIR submersible team. We have had three straight days of perfect weather and successfully accomplished 6 submersible dives to the Titanic. Last night, I had a very late night after our MIR submersible was recovered by Keldysh. By the time we got back on the deck of Keldysh, it was almost 9:45 pm and MIR I had already been back for over 3 hours. I felt very satisfied with our dive and visited all the spots that I had planned on visiting with the exception of the Grand Staircase. As we disembarked from the MIR, I was given a flute of champagne (or sparkling white wine?) and proceeded to down the flute in one gulp, followed by a bathroom run. My modified diet had served me well while in the MIR for over 12 hours. When I got back out on deck, they gave me the entire bottle of champagne and brought me to the dining room for a wonderful gourmet meal. Stripping out of the NOMEX fire-proof suit, I had a scrumptious meal with many of my fellow observers that took an opportunity to grill me about my wonderful experience. By the time I finished dinner and changed, it was about 11:30 pm but I was too excited to sleep. I decided to stay up with my good friends from Arizona ( Brian Day O'Connor, Chris Vinger, John Lennon and Eric Crown) until the wee hours talking about our Titanic adventures and other sultry tales.
The next morning, I got a chance to sleep in until 8 am and made sure that I returned the NOMEX suit back to Mother before she tracked me down. I was slated to give two Andrea Doria presentations today - one of the presentations was our Corporation's copyrighted film and the other one was presenting Peter Gimbel's early 1980 expedition to this beautiful Italian liner. Today's activities included a Group Expedition Photograph and later our big BBQ dinner extravaganza out on the patio deck of Keldysh. During this buffet, the Russian crew re-introduced me to "Sheila". Sheila is not a person nor anything living. Sheila is their special homemade vodka that they make somewhere in the deep bowels of Keldysh. I have no idea what is in Sheila but I can certainly attest that it is VERY strong. The movie for the evening was James Cameron's Titanic. I would of thought that everyone had watched this film many times and that the attendance would be sparse. However, I was so wrong as everyone came to watch the film including Anatoly Sagelevitch, who was one of the stars of the film. In his movie role, Anatoly had this famous line "No gold???" that sent our audience into an uproar. I really admire and respect Anatoly. He is truly a warm and wonderful person!
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