Save the date!  On Sunday, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m., SEA Associate Professor of Oceanography Jeff Schell will deliver a free public lecture, “Chasing Coral Reef Resilience Across the Central Pacific.”

More information to follow.

Greetings from the Robert C. Seamans in the middle of the South Pacific.

Over a number of days in the past week the students, faculty, and staff of SPICE 2018, Class S-282, have been extremely privileged to spend time on Hunga Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai (HTHH). The students have done an excellent job of summing up our time there so far, but what we have been doing here is as close to the original explorers of old as you get in the modern day, so here is everything we’ve done all in one place.

Field Day! Today was long and productive. I work as assistant engineer, and on Thursday our regular preventative maintenance routine is to exercise fifty or so valves, and lubricate ventilation dampers. It is not generally the favorite chore. This morning it was made easier with the excellent help of Olivia, one of the sailing interns. Valve day ended up only taking all morning, which is pretty good, considering.

What a day on the Robert C. Seamans! After many days spent altering between the states of standing by, motoring, and being hove to, today was one of the first full days of sailing that the ship has had in a while. While the time that we spent exploring Tonga and maneuvering around the brand new island has been nothing short of incredible, I have missed the sight of full sails and the feeling of being back in a steady routine.

Our second day underway to Fiji from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai has been an exciting one weather wise. Long gone are the days of motor sailing under the stays’ls on smooth, glass-like waters. Last night on evening watch, 1900-0100, the wind was blowing force 5 and force 6 with gusts at 7.

Good afternoon from all of us aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer! Today is an exciting day. Although we have been anchored for our first few nights of the cruise, we anticipate to be underway in a few hours.  This means that everyone on the ship, such as the professional crew, students, and scientists will be working diligently to keep us afloat and safe until we finally set anchor at Grenada in the Caribbean after 2000 miles of sailing upon the open ocean.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I started the morning with a lovely wakeup by Irena at 5:20a.m. I was able to be assistant steward for breakfast.

We are underway aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer. Students boarded the afternoon of Saturday 12th October to began their time aboard as the crew of SEA Semester Cruise C282 from Woods Hole to St. Georges in Grenada.

Now that we are clear of the excitement of a cruise ship booting us from the dock, we’re back to our routine. After re-docking in Nuku’alofa, we kept up our regularly scheduled programming and met with the Tongan Department of the Environment. But first, we started our day by going aloft for the first time.

O.K. we just departed the dock by the palace in under 20 minutes to make way for an emergency aboard an incoming cruise ship that needed our parking space. Captain says we done good. No makings for an Allstate mayhem commercial here, no sir.