Members of C Watch don immersion suits on the quarterdeck.

Welcome to the SEA Penn State program blog! I am happy to report that all 24 Pennsylvania State University participants (22 students, their professor Monica Medina, and teaching assistant Julia Stewart) have arrived in St. Croix and are safely aboard the Corwith Cramer. Orientation to the ship began immediately after they moved into their shipboard bunks this morning. They held initial meetings with their watch groups and then completed 40-minute watch rotations to learn about line handling, hydrowinch operations, and how to do a boat check. After snack, the afternoon continued with galley orientation and station bill review in watches followed by emergency drill walk-throughs. More orientation is now in progress after a delicious All Hands dinner, with rotations by watch in the lab, engine room, and doghouse.

We have ambitious plans for the scientific data we hope to collect in our coming week at sea. Each of the three watches will be responsible for analyzing and interpreting a subset of that data. Students will work collaboratively, in pairs within a watch and as an entire watch, to prepare a written research paper and poster presentations summarizing their research findings and conclusions. Drafts of these reports will be completed at sea, and then subsequently revised and finalized upon the students’ return to Penn State. Final research posters will be presented by each pair of students at the Undergraduate Exhibition on the Penn State campus in April.

Both student and professional crew will stand anchor watch tonight, before we get underway tomorrow morning. It has been a long day, but a good one. Speaking on behalf of the entire professional crew, we look forward to sailing with this energetic and enthusiastic group, and seeing how their science research work unfolds!

- Audrey