Save the date! On Sunday, Dec. 16th, at 2 p.m.,  Dr. Jan Witting, SEA Professor of Oceanography, will deliver a free public lecture, “Voyage to the White Shark Cafe,”  at Sea Education Association’s Madden Center Lecture Hall, 171 Woods Hole Rd., Falmouth. Refreshments will be served.

Today is the beginning of the end for S-283; we began the last leg of our voyage from Napier to Auckland. It is simultaneously bittersweet and exciting to think about how far we’ve come. This morning, all hands were on deck to help us get underway.

So many times I think that I have reached the peak of an experience and then an opportunity arises that surpasses all expectations. Today, after an early wake up for another delicious breakfast (shout out to Sabrina, our fabulous steward), we headed into Napier once more, and after some brief but much appreciated free time in the morning to grab coffee and pastries and otherwise explore, we were bused to visit the gannet colony out at Cape Kidnappers.

Today was the first day of planned activity in Napier and things on land are already becoming familiar again. When we arrived in port, Captain Rappaport used an analogy during one of our first musters to warn us against falling back in to old habits while we are here.

During a cruise with SEA Semester, there are many truly amazing things that happen and (for some reason) they always get all the attention on the blog. So this blog post is about a mundane comfort on the ship that is hardly ever mentioned. The title requires an explanation.

The wait is over folks, here it is, Mia’s account of the time she licked a man-of-war:

“Biovolume the sample.” I read the question maybe ten times before I start trying to answer it. In front of me there is only a graduated cylinder and a small metal lab spatula. I look around the crowded wet lab, too aware of the two minute timer ticking away somewhere out of sight, knowing that if I don’t biovolume something soon, I’ll have to skip the question entirely.

When I was a young girl, I used to feel lonely when I woke up in the middle of the night.  Night was a time to be sleeping, and I would spend hours trying to force sleep to come even when it couldn’t - counting the minutes and hours impatiently.  But here on the boat, we are asked to be up at odd hours.

SEA Semester in the News
URI student joins SEA Semester to study coral reef ecology on tall ship ocean research voyage
URI Today

Woods Hole, Mass. - Dec. 4, 2018 - The Sea Education Association has announced that University of Rhode Island senior marine biology major Sharil Deleon is on an ocean research voyage this fall to study human impact on Caribbean coral reef ecosystems. Through SEA Semester: Caribbean Reef Expedition, which is offered by Sea Education Association, the Central Falls native, together with other students with a variety of academic interests, is conducting guided field research at sea sailing through the Lesser Antilles to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

We’ve been on the ship long enough now that we’re all familiar with the intricate peculiarities of life here. Undoubtedly, one of these peculiarities is communication, in all of its iterations. This is the only place I’ve ever been where repeating what other people say to you back to them becomes a near-comical reflex, popping up even in casual conversation. I am in constant communication with some of my shipmates, namely those on my watch, who I see every time I am awake, without fail.

Although I hate to be the next person to talk about a sun rise, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

The sun rose at around 0600 this morning; however, I wasn’t watching it closely. I was on the helm steering a course of 185.