We started our day off with a fantastic breakfast of banana bread, eggs, and fruit followed by team building activities at watch meetings. We may have struggled with these activities at first, but we eventually figured it out. Before we knew it, it was time for class.

For B Watch, today started bright and early…or maybe just early since it was 0100. A Watch was relieved of their duties and it was quiet below deck until the first breakfast at 0620. Eggs, bacon, and potatoes are a great way to start the day (special shout out to Cody and Marie)!

The sea is calm tonight.  The tide is full, the wind lies fair.  Steady constellations are illuminated from the dark night.  Nikumaroro looks like the island paradise that as a girl I dreamed of living on.  Uninhabited, a place all your own, to live with nature and create the world you want.

What a day! The students on the Cramer began their first watch schedules. We had a great class on the sails, lines, including what the names of the sails on the Cramer are, and how they work, as well as securing and coiling ropes. We had our first oceanographic ‘super’ station to sample and collect scientific data on Stellwagen Bank. Our day even included “charismatic megafauna” sightings.

We started our day off with a healthy breakfast provided by our fantastic steward, Jared. It consisted of fried eggs and a mix of sweet potatoes and potatoes. After eating, we headed to the Madden Center for our first class of the day with Maia Theophanis and learned about graphical analysis and data visualization.

As we guide our steadfast sailing vessel across the watery expanse of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, shipboard life teems with energy and excitement. A squall rips through the rigging on dawn watch as we scramble to strike the mains’l. Large, translucent lobster larvae and unidentified purple jellyfish are pulled up from the deep in our net tows

Today we spent the majority of our day in the town of Chatham. Chatham is home to the famous U.S. Coast Guard Station featured in The Finest Hours and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC), both of which we visited. At the White Shark Conservancy, we learned about great white sharks and the high concentration of white sharks in the Chatham area due to the increased local seal population.

Today, the students of the Cramer began the day with a breakfast for all, followed by the announcements of watches and the start of emergency drills. We practiced how to respond to three different emergencies: fire, man overboard, and prepare to abandon ship. Everyone on the ship has a duty during one of these emergency scenarios.

Hi y’all it’s me, Jber, the first Assistant Scientist onboard, and it’s my birthday! I know my parents always think about me a lot on my birthday when I’m at sea, so I always try to write the blog on this day to say hi! Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Plz pet the dog for me.

After a delicious breakfast cooked by Jared, we began our day with a guest lecture with Logan Kline from NOAA about marine mammals and sound. We learned how anthropogenic noises in the ocean affect marine mammals and about Logan’s work with Passive Acoustic Monitoring to study these effects.