Erin Myers
W-155, Captain of Makulu II for Reach the World
“ More than the adventure and academics that originally lured me to SEA, I was most impacted by the instructors’ commitment, expertise and intellectual-mindedness. They could have been successful at a million different careers, and they chose the sea. They encouraged us as individuals, exemplified how to come together as a crew and challenged us to stretch beyond our perceived limits and address our weaknesses.”
With a promise of tropical breezes and phosphorescent-filled seas, I headed to Woods Hole to find the SEA campus covered with a light layer of snow. During the next six weeks, Ken Neal-Boyd, Pete Kalajian and Jen Irving hammered home principles of celestial navigation, mechanical advantage and the International Date Line. Mary Malloy and Jim Millinger challenged us to consider the preservation of marine species along with the preservation of indigenous cultures that rely on those species. After Rich Malatesta and Lisa Graziano covered the fundamentals of oceanography, they turned it over to us. While some shipmates planned to conduct their first field research, others developed projects to gather thesis data, and I headed to the WHOI library to learn about calcium carbonate sediments. From territorial seas to the Caribbean Sea, we studied the myriad of forces that influence the oceans and read the literature inspired by it.
More than the adventure and academics that originally lured me to SEA, I was most impacted by the instructors’ commitment, expertise and intellectual-mindedness. They could have been successful at a million different careers, and they chose the sea. They encouraged us as individuals, exemplified how to come together as a crew and challenged us to stretch beyond our perceived limits and address our weaknesses.
When I later followed their example and chose the sea, I found that my instructors had become my mentors. I found myself trying to emulate Ken Neal-Boyd and Virginia Land, my SEA captain and chief mate, as I prepared to captain Makulu II on her second circumnavigation. On Makulu II, we were charged to fulfill Reach the World’s mission to bring real-world expeditions to under-resourced classrooms in the United States. In the numerous difficult situations that we encountered, from taciturn port officials to approaching squalls to language barriers, I wondered what they would do and followed their example. More important than the skills, SEA gave me the foundation and confidence to lead my crew and absorb the lessons that our pitfalls and victories taught us along the way. And somewhere half way around the world, Jen Irving’s explanations came back to me as I finally understood the International Date Line.