It was a dark and stormy night on the Corwith Cramer as C Watch slid out of their bunks at 0030 on October 31st, 2020.

SEA Research Professor of Oceanography Kara Lavender Law is the lead author of a research article published today in Science Advances. The article, “The United States’ contribution of plastic waste to land and ocean,” reveals that the exportation of plastic waste abroad has masked the actual U.S. contribution to the plastic pollution crisis, and that the United States is actually a top source of plastic pollution in coastal environments.

It is currently my third year doing the trip south, each one has been to a different destination with a different crew, different set of students and different adventures. I only planned on going on the first trip south two years ago but have somehow managed to be on everyone since.

As we prepare for Halloween, what better place to be but venturing into the Bermuda Triangle, a small portion of the vast ocean that captures many peoples amazement with all of the mysteries it holds.

Onjalé Scott Price, acting director of this past summer’s Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP), along with co-authors Kelly Luis, André Price, SEA Assistant Professor of Oceanography Ben Harden, Joniqua Howard, Luis Valentin, George Liles, and Ambrose Jearld, Jr., have published a report on the program, with lessons learned for other organizations seeking to adapt summer internships for virtual delivery. The paper, “Same Program Different Delivery: Adapting the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program for a Virtual Era,” was published today in the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Bulletin.

I woke up this morning at around 9:30 and took a shower, which I thoroughly enjoyed after a few days of sweating in the hot sun and in the galley. I then went up on deck and walked straight to the doghouse, where I scrolled around on the GPS computer to check how far we had gone overnight.

As anyone on this ship could tell you, time passes in a peculiar way aboard the Corwith Cramer. Perhaps it is because of our rotating watch schedule of 6 hours on and 12 hours off, but by nightfall, that morning’s sunrise always feels like days away.

As I’m sitting here in the library typing this up, Megan and I can see the waves crashing over the port hole. The waves today have been so intense that they’ve been crashing over the deck, and quite a few unlucky individuals have been soaked, including Raechel, Becca and Ethan. It has been quite a watch.

Gulf Stream ho!!

Last evening we sailed into the Gulf Stream and entered a current flowing briskly to the East at better than 3-knots.

As fun as life on the Corwith Cramer is, it’s definitely an adjustment compared to life on shore.  Of course, in the distant time of about three weeks ago, we were given plenty of advice for living at sea: Bring warm, waterproof clothes.