Hannah King of Connecticut College describes week 4 of the shore component for Caribbean Reef Expedition.

It was a busy, fun-filled day aboard Mama Seamans today, mostly because it’s Halloween! Although most of us here, having not showered for a few days (guilty), could have passed for the stinkiest of ghouls and goblins, we mustered up all the creativity we had and produced some pretty clever costumes to celebrate the occasion. Some of my favorites were Claire and Sarah’s use of their foulies to become a farmer and Zero from Holes, respectively.

Happy Halloween everybody!

So where to begin so much has happened just today and it’s hard to figure out where to start. I guess I’ll start with this, today was the beginning of phase II, The Shadow Phase. During this phase, we students are given more opportunities to be put into leadership rolls. That could be anywhere from calling the striking or a setting a sail or calling a gybe (that’s a way of turning the boat, mostly used to get ready for science).

It’s been quite an adventurous few days. There’s no shortage of wind or swell, or rain or dampness, and certainly no shortage of laughter and smiles.

Today marks one of my favorite days of the voyage. The students have earned the opportunity to stand as junior watch officers (J-Wo) and junior lab officers (J-Lo) under their mate and scientist.  This means the J-Wo and J-Lo are working together to ensure that the routine tasks of the watch, sail handling, ship maneuvers, and science deployments are completed.

Salutations, civilization!

I don’t even know where to begin when attempting to describe to you my time onboard the ship thus far. It has been a crazy time of ups and downs, all of which are memorable in their own ways. Thankfully for me, most of the seasickness has finally passed (besides the natural fatigue that accompanies life onboard).

Hello Folks!

Another beautiful day and another beautiful sunrise and sunset.  Out here in the middle of the ocean, these are my favorite thing to move relative to… that and 6 meals a day!

The seas have been laying down a bit, making working and moving around the vessel a bit easier.  The Main Engine has been off for a good chunk of the last two days, which is nice for the engineer.  Makes my world a bit quieter and cooler.

Greetings from the Corwith Cramer crew! Hope everyone on land is having (had?) a great weekend! I’m writing to you from the freshly cleaned library of our freshly cleaned ship! Today was field day and for those of you not in the know and wondering how we could possibly host a lively array of lawn activities and sporting events on a tall ship in the middle of the ocean, field day is when we clean the ship from the heads to the soles!

Ever since Rich Wilson completed his solo circumnavigation in the Vendée Globe 2016 ocean race in February, his friends at SEA have been waiting to hear the details of this inspiring adventure.

Wilson, a longtime SEA trustee and overseer, obliged them last Sunday when he addressed the SEA Semi-Annual Dinner at the Coonamessett Inn in Falmouth.

Wilson was the only American to compete in the race as well as the oldest participant. He completed the race in 107days.

Over the past few days, the rough waves, interesting shower situations, and deck restrictions have triggered many spiritual conversations with Poseidon in search of smoother sailing. Someone must have spoken to him ‘cause this morning, we woke up to the open deck sign and gentler waves.

It’s hard to believe how little time has passed because I feel like we have been up to so much during the 9 days C-275 has spent on the Cramer. Last Friday, we left the WHOI dock and this Friday, we find ourselves in full watch schedules, working on our Creature Feature Infotainment assignment, and most urgent and exciting learning the lines in preparation for the Great Line Chase on Monday! There seems to be so much to look forward to.

We have been deploying a hydrophone each morning during our science station to hopefully pick up on whale song along our cruise track. Humpback whales breed and calve in Tongan waters each year and we’ve seen them blow, breach, and flap around periodically.

One question we’ve faced while listening to the hydrophone is, what noises are generated from the boat and what sounds are actually from the whales?

Today, during our hydrophone, the science team was able to isolate vessel noises thanks to support from Ted and Mike, our engineers on board.