As we are rapidly approaching San Diego, a lot of us are trying to figure out what this voyage means to us and what things will be like when we arrive. When you sail a lot, you are used to missing out. I’ve been at sea for elections, friend’s weddings, several births, a death in the family, the events in Charlottesville in 2017, the Pulse massacre in 2016, and now, in 2020, for both COVID and the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests.

I bet you are thinking to yourself. “Self, after 55 days on board (most of them at sea) what could the crew possibly be talking about at this point?” (Copyright @ Chris Nolan)

As the Robert C. Seamans sails from Hawai’i to California, we’re telling the story of the Pacific through ArcGIS Storymaps. We’re reposting some of the entries here, in our SEA Currents blog, but we encourage you to follow regular updates by going directly to Pacific Crossing 2020 StoryMaps.

Today started for me by waking up around 0930, finding some leftover breakfast on the hutch, and then going back to bed to do some reading and some more snoozing. When I reappeared around 11:30 I saw that it was flat calm and we were going to have a swim call in 15 minutes. The water here is slightly colder and saltier than near Hawaii, about 24 degrees Celsius and salinity is around 34 parts per thousand. It made for a refreshing swim and some great floating.

As the Robert C. Seamans sails from Hawai’i to California, we’re telling the story of the Pacific through ArcGIS Storymaps. We’re reposting some of the entries here, in our SEA Currents blog, but we encourage you to follow regular updates by going directly to Pacific Crossing 2020 StoryMaps.

As Captain Rick Miller described two days ago, there is an atmospheric high pressure located over the Seamans. He also described a pattern of winds rotating clockwise around the center of this high, resulting in a pattern of northeast trade winds in the low latitudes (equator to about 20˚ N), and the common northerly winds on the west coast of the US. Since the Seamans is a sailing vessel, we pay close attention to winds, but winds do far more than move the ship – they move the whole ocean!

As the Robert C. Seamans sails from Hawai’i to California, we’re telling the story of the Pacific through ArcGIS Storymaps. We’re reposting some of the entries here, in our SEA Currents blog, but we encourage you to follow regular updates by going directly to Pacific Crossing 2020 StoryMaps.

We’ve MADE IT!!  We are tied up to the dock in downtown Honolulu and I got to command the vessel when docking which was quite fun and INTIMIDATING.  We arrived Monday and had Tuesday off to relax and re-connect with the outside world and family/friends before starting to get ready for our next leg.

These days, our global demand for science is apparent. We sit on the edge of our seat awaiting the results of the newest coronavirus treatments, relying heavily on scientists working worldwide to provide hope for our future. This is the short-game - we’re in the weeds and need a solution yesterday.

Today is officially 30 days since we left New Zealand! One of the ways we know that it’s been 30 days is all of the music we had downloaded on our phones from Spotify has expired (a heavy sigh was heard around the ship)

Once on the boat, the concept of time seems to slip away from all of us. Days don’t make sense. Recalling events and approximating how long ago they happened takes effort. This trip, we decided to take advantage of that. As previously written by the lovely Sonia, we experienced an Easter-ween celebration taking part in both Easter and Halloween festivities.