Hello to everyone reading our blogs! This is Emily Benson and Nathan Ruel, two students aboard the Cramer as part of the C-301 class.

As one of the stewards on board, I roll out of my bunk around 04:30 every other morning to make breakfast for the ship’s company. For a quiet and sleepy hour or so, I am just about the only person awake below deck, and this time alone in the galley inevitably fosters some good contemplation. As I remove the butcher paper from each carefully packed plum, I can’t help but notice the similarity to unwrapping presents on Christmas morning. When we anchored in Francis Bay I was surprised to notice holiday lights adorning the hills in the distance. I find it hard to fathom that back home my family and friends are experiencing snowfall, warm cocoa, and cozy sweaters.

Greetings to our faithful blog readers and to Professor Erin Bryant!

The pandemic has altered futures and disrupted many students’ academic paths and potential jobs. I find myself at the center of this. In 2020 we all assumed it would pass like everything else and we could go back to “normal.” I was a sophomore at Smith College full of drive and hope, applying to over 20 internships for the summer and looking forward to my study abroad the following spring in 2021. One by one, each internship got canceled, never knowing if I even qualified for any of them and still, I had hope.

While in St Croix we spent some of our time trying to ground-truth aspects of the policy brief we wrote during the shore portion of the semester. First, we think it is important to give a summary of the paper for those of you who didn’t read it. Our policy brief, “MPAs to Hope Spots: Creating More Effective Protections for Marine Environments,” focused on how we could potentially improve the effectiveness of MPAs by implementing different aspects of Hope Spots, which are large marine protected areas designed in partnership with local stakeholders and supported by the Mission Blue Sylvia Earle Alliance with science, expeditions, and communications.

Hello everyone! We are So Hess and Kyaralind Vasquez-Liriano. Our blog post will be centering on the policy brief we created during the shore component at Woods Hole.

Although most people use the words “happiness” and “joy” interchangeably, there is a nuanced different between them. Happiness is a fleeting emotion, subject to change with the passing events of this world. Joy, however, is a spiritual condition, a quality that can be developed, honed, and utilized. Many people in this world do not or cannot live happy lives, but where happiness fails, joy can fill in.

The story I am about to tell you is not a happy one. It is not full of seamless smiles or easy days but it is full of joy. Moments where laughter was chosen, and hope was clung to.

While on land in Massachusetts, C-301 chose policy topics to take a deep research dive, writing multi-page policy briefs and developing a presentation you may have attended last month. We chose to examine ridge to reef policy in St. Croix, zeroing in on watershed policies and waste management practices and considering their impacts on marine systems.

Once on the ground in St. Croix, our student community had the opportunity to interview a handful of policy makers and experts who allowed us to ground-truth much of our research.

I write to you from the main salon aboard Cramer. I’m sure many of you have read previous posts, so you know that we are headed East, struggling against the trade winds but nonetheless steadily chugging towards Martinique. This is Adelaide Gonzalez, of Bowdoin College, joined by my dear friend Natalie Rotondo, of the University of Rhode Island. We are two members of C watch, one of three watches that rotate around an 18-hour day, four-part cycle.