Students Processing Sargassum

Greetings, all!

After spending a few hours feeling nauseous at every trip below decks yesterday, it is amazing that I was able to spend most of my 6 hour watch as the dish assistant today in the galley! It feels great to (hopefully) be acquiring some sea legs, of course attributing most credit to medicine, a full belly, and a hydrated body. As a “newbie” aboard the Cramer, the crew is nothing but kind and positive. It’s a huge help to be surrounded by people that want to get to know you and lighten the mood with corny jokes when need be. While tending to the post-breakfast dish pileup, I was called above deck by a watchmate to do some sail handling and take part in my first gybe! For those of you that don’t know, a gybe is a maneuver in which the stern of the vessel passes through the wind in order to  change course. This was a really awesome experience because we had learned about gybes during the shore component of our program; now, my watch was able to not only see one in action but to participate in the manipulation of one.

Some more excitement was encompassed by the first set of opportunistic dip nets that occurred on deck while I was in the galley. Aboard Mama Cramer, science only happens when we manipulate her to ‘heave to’ or to sail inefficiently. Heaving to is when the vessel is not quite sailing, but drifting along the current. The vessel needs to be traveling at a relatively slow pace to deploy our scientific equipment. And thus, my watchmates were able to deploy the CTD (conductivity, depth, & temperature gauge) and to fetch some Sargassum by dip netting over the side of the vessel. Said Sargassum is currently being processed and analyzed by my fellow classmates.

Now, I have class soon so I better head out! I can’t wait to see what new experiences are ahead of me.

Sincerely,
Paige

P.S. Hi Mom & Dad, and other friends/family reading this!