Coming in, secure in the harbor as we are now, generates a comfortable feeling for mariners. We are no longer subjected to the whims of the ocean, the motion of the vessel and other associated voyaging challenges.

I began to write this multiple ways. This beginning paragraph I write the dawn of the 22nd, having watched the orange moon set and the sun slowly become lighter, because I needed to take pause last night. I have so many tangents running in my mind, so many things I want to say about today, yesterday, and every day since I showed up late one night in Woods Hole that I can’t keep them straight and my tired eyes are making matters more blurry.

A heartfelt thank you to Cramer, her crew, and old man Neptune for a successful and safe voyage thus far. A sincere thank you to all hands, especially the students, for their tireless efforts in the water during the many snorkel surveys and their meticulous efforts afterwards ensuring the quality of our datasets! 

Dear C-283,
       
I think this is supposed to be for the people back home, but I am completely unrepentant in saying it’s for you. People back home are welcomed, encouraged even, to read it, because I know the people reading this for me miss me fiercely, and I miss you too, fiercely enough to know that my heart is not completely in it when I say I never want to go home. Though I’m still not sure I’m ready to go home yet.

SEA in the News
Year’s scariest statistic: 90.5% of plastic not recycled
CBS News

Britain’s Royal Statistical Society has selected an eye-opening statistic on the proportion of plastic that is never recycled as its “statistic of the year.” The stat - 90.5 percent - comes from a global analysis of plastics co-authored last year by Dr. Roland Geyer, University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. Jenna Jambeck, University of Georgia, and our own Dr. Kara Lavender Law, Research Professor of Oceanography at Sea Education Association.

I’ll start with an apology: I offer no photos to accompany this blog post. I took none at sunrise this morning, and frankly, if anyone else had, they could not do justice to what we saw. “The fingers of God Scraping the Sky.”

Forming a community at sea aboard a ship like the Corwith Cramer is a magical thing that seems to take on a life of its own. Strangers become friends and shipmates, and now having been a month at sea with each other, and with the end date of our trip drawing to a close, these bonds between us seem to morph ever faster into something deeper. There’s nowhere I see this more than in the galley, where as the steward, I make 3 meals and 3 snacks a day for all 36 people aboard this vessel.

Monday the 17th has been so eventful! It started out with an optional yoga session lead by Elliot. The sun started to rise during the session and continued well into breakfast time. It was truly special watching the world awaken; seeing the sky lighten and the mist around the island become more visible and eventually dissipate. This morning was definitely worthy of Ceili’s term of ‘sunrise/sunset appreciation.’

During spring break last year, exactly 9 months ago, I applied to SEA Semester. Right after applying, I distinctly remember procrastinating my school work and reading this blog. I pored over last year’s Global Ocean program entries, going from beginning to the end, blogpost by blogpost, hoping to get insight on what to pack or to prepare for.

I’d like to start this blog post with an excerpt from

“Song of the Open Road,” by Walt Whitman:

We must not stop here
However sweet these laid-up stores
However convenient this dwelling
We cannot remain here
However sheltered this port and
However calm these waters
We must not anchor here
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us,
We are permitted to receive it but a little while