The amount of human plastic debris in the ocean continues to rise as human production and consumption of plastic persists across the globe.

The final days of S-299 were a whirlwind. In the wee hours of July 5, the students successfully completed their mission; all watches worked together and accomplished navigating to and completing a neuston net tow at three CalCOFI sampling stations.

Hi all,


Today’s the day! Mission officially starts today as of morning watch, but as B Watch, we’ve got a special role: prep C watch to start mission, and to bring us all to the finish line. It just so happened that we had the honour of starting the day off with Dawn Watch and ending it with Evening Watch.

I hardly know how to begin.have you ever seen something happen and, while you’re in the moment, while you’re witnessing it, you know that this, this is a thing that many, many people have never seen before, that this, this is a thing that you imagine you may never see again in my lifetime?

Now that we have come back into the California Current and gone past multiple marine sanctuaries, I find it very hard not to spend as much time as I can on deck.

endless horizon
      a view for days, months, and weeks
this only I seek

Today was our relaxed full day anchored at Point Reyes. We’ve all had extra time to relax and reflect, our duties on watch consisting mostly of brief anchor checks, boat checks, and weather logging.

LAC high has mostly worn off. Crew morale was probably the highest it has been all trip. It was a lot of fun seeing people covertly bustling about to make their secret sailor gifts, with some being more tight-lipped about who they had, and others enlisting the help of their friends for information and whatnot.

Happy Tuesday (likely now Wednesday, maybe even later) to all of our avid readers! Today was a day like most, filled with watch, class, food, and classwork (as you might imagine). Today, I had afternoon watch, which meant a long night’s sleep after an eventful evening watch last night.