SEA Semester in the NEWS
Part of the Crew
By Meghan Kita
Muhlenberg College News

One thing Devin Goldsmith ’21, a psychology major and innovation & entrepreneurship minor, appreciates about Muhlenberg is how easy it is to build relationships with professors. She wanted something similar in a study abroad program, and she found it in SEA Semester. The program packs 38 people—students, teachers, crew—onto a 130-foot sailing vessel. (That’s about 43 yards, less than half the length of a football field.)

Despite the choppiness of the sea following the last of our gales, we arrived at Wellington Harbor enough ahead of schedule that we hove to for the night in Cook Strait. Even with doing that, we docked off of Queens Wharf around 1130, after only a few hours of navigating our way through the harbor.

A few days ago we found out that we would have to go home early from Wellington because of the COVID-19 virus, and since then we have all been trying to make the most of what time we had left. It’s been hard. Unfortunately, we missed out on the entire last leg of our trip that would take us to Christchurch.

Today has been quite a day. When we arrived in Wellington yesterday, it felt like the world crashed into us. Today felt like two different worlds. As planned, we visited Te Papa, which is Aotearoa New Zealand’s national museum. As such, it tries to present a unified idea of New Zealand that people can support.

Surveys. I think most people actually despise them. So much that sometimes they try to get out of participating. But try as they might to escape my pestering, I tracked down (nearly) everyone onboard for this one.

T’was the night before anchor, when all through the boat, MOST people were sleeping as we were afloat.

In the deck watch rotation, positions rotate every hour. They are lookout, helm, weather/navigation, and boat check. Lookout used to be my least favorite position because time always passed so slowly, and I thought there was nothing to do except stare out over the vast blue ocean towards the horizon. Many watch rotations later, lookout has become one of my favorite positions

At precisely 11:43 this morning, C watch piled onto the elephant table amongst the sails alongside their current watch officers, Kevo, Geoff, and I, for our routine watch meeting-a tradition that occurs before every afternoon watch. The Cramer once more surrounded by land and calm waters, Virgin Gorda to the east, Tortola to the west, bright skies and blue-tinged cumulus clouds above.

As we approach Wellington with only 11 days left on our floating classroom, academic deadlines are in full swing. Five main things remain: “Sense of Place” travel stories, science research Projects, “Oceans and Global Change” ocean health projects, the “Maritime History and Culture” final exam, and final “Leadership in a Dynamic Environment” essays

When applying to SEA Semester, I thought that I would be missing out on the experience to be surrounded by a new culture and language to the extent that those studying in non-English speaking countries have. However, I quickly realized that living on a tall ship does require learning a new language of sorts.