Did you shoot awesome video footage while you were at SEA?  Then enter the SEA Video Contest!  We’re looking for videos, less than 60 seconds in length, that capture what’s special about SEA Semester.  The videos can be about anything: our ships, the program you participated in, your shipmates, life at sea, charismatic megafauna, the stars, your favorite port stop… it’s up to you!

Winners will receive prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, plus, of course, everlasting glory.

But you can’t win unless you enter!

Today is the last day of SEASCape. there were mixed emotions of thankfulness to go home, and sadness for leaving a bunch of new and incredible friends.

Hey everyone, it’s Annabel again. We are currently on our way to American Samoa, preparing to anchor tomorrow and go through customs on the morning of the 13th. It has been a whirlwind of a trip, but luckily the past few days have been a good time to reflect on the 5 weeks that just passed us by.

WOW!! I can’t believe we have sailed across the Pacific Ocean, crossed the equator, visited some atoll islands and are now on our way to our very last port stop in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Today is Friday and in just three days I’ll be on a plane flying back home.

Hello outside world, it’s Kerry here. So many of my shipmates have already touched on the wondrous place that is PIPA with its stunning culture, biodiversity-not to mention the sweet snorkel spots. I believe I speak for everyone when I say PIPA will be dearly missed and when we return to our respective homes, we will recount our experiences here such frequency that you polliwogs may become tired of hearing how we swam with baby sharks or saw an awesome blue dragon slug.

Today we had a guest speaker, Amy Kukulya, a leading engineer behind shark cam at WHOI. She talked to us about her career pathways and aspirations in engineering and other fields such as environmental policy. She described many difficulties she has had to face in the field, like being the only female in a white male environment. Her talk was very inspirational and eye-opening for all of us.

The day started with the normal morning routine. Once everyone had gotten out of bed, we learned our final knot for the program: the sheet bend. None of us could tell this knot apart from the bowline, but we believes the RAs that it was different. Our first event of the mornings was Oceans and Society, in which we learned about the history and culture of the Caribbean, namely Jamaica. We read the authors Mary Prince, and Jamaica Kincaid.

Today was a bittersweet day for all of us. Around 1245 we crossed the PIPA boundary and sailed into a new EEZ. Although most of us are excited to get home soon, as well as to be done with all of our assignments in the next few days, PIPA has treated us extraordinarily well over the past 3.5 weeks.

Here we are, on the last leg of our long journey through PIPA! Woot! We’re almost there. Destination: American Samoa. We’ve conducted SO much research and data sampling to add to a fantastic data set in these remote parts of the world. Pretty sweet as.

Our students have learned the ship and are beginning to take on the responsibilities as junior watch leaders.

Ahoy landlubbers!!

We are slowly approaching the end of our voyage LL. As of now, we plan on anchoring tonight, ending our continuous voyage sailing at sea.