Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will join this spring’s SEA Semester: Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (MBC) program on a special collaboration to explore the ocean’s mesopelagic or twilight zone, further augmenting one of SEA’s most advanced scientific undergraduate programs.

SEA Semester students of the Marine Biodiversity & Conservation program (Class C-279) recently completed their research voyage from Nassau, Bahamas to New York, with a stop in Bermuda. The program culminated with several weeks on the Woods Hole campus, and presentation of student research at the Ned Cabot Marine Biodiversity & Conservation Symposium.  As part of their curriculum, students prepared press releases describing their research. These releases will be published here, on the SEA Currents blog, over the course of the next two weeks.

SEA Semester students of the Marine Biodiversity & Conservation program (Class C-279) recently completed their research voyage from Nassau, Bahamas to New York, with a stop in Bermuda. The program culminated with several weeks on the Woods Hole campus, and presentation of student research at the Ned Cabot Marine Biodiversity & Conservation Symposium.  As part of their curriculum, students prepared press releases describing their research. These releases will be published here, on the SEA Currents blog, over the course of the next two weeks.

We all knew this moment was coming. As the sun set over the East River, those of us leaving tomorrow began packing our belongings and cleaning our bunks. I can hardly believe that we’ve concluded our voyage already; the Cramer became our home, and it’s hard to leave such a familiar place behind and to readjust to the rhythms of life on land.

The siren call of a port stop is upon us.  We’re all looking forward to talking to loved ones and friends, eating some ice cream, and stretching our legs, but there’s something bittersweet about losing the simplicity of a life underway.  Land represents connectivity,  turning on the phone and the alarm clock and the laptop, replugging after all this time.

Take the helm, they say. Hands to braces to brace square, they say. Haul away your halyards, they say. These are a few of many commands that a sailor will never forget, especially aboard the Cramer. Hello! My name is Tucker Cunningham, a sailing intern aboard the Corwith Cramer. I have been with the Cramer since April 2nd starting from Key West and now just a few days south of Bermuda

I’m happy to report Sargy Success from the Sargassum group (Alena, Dani and I)! Sargy, as we have affectionately started calling Sargassum - ok, maybe it’s just me - is a seaweed that spends its entire life floating in the open ocean.  This floating Sargassum supports a diverse community of mobile and sessile fauna, small islands of diversity within a blue desert.

Although my planner doesn’t work as well here at sea, this morning still felt significant to me when I realized that today marks the first day of May, and almost two weeks onboard the Cramer. If you took away my watch and told me we’ve been sailing for months, I’d probably believe you.

After days of stifling temperatures, lazy winds, and glassy seas, Cramer and her crew had an exciting reality check and change of pace last night. Scattered, localized rainstorms merged together around 2000 yesterday (not on my watch!) and resulted in squall conditions overnight, with pouring rain, major swells, and pushy winds. Led by the ever-intrepid B and C watches, who clipped in and foulie-d up during the night and dawn shifts, we rode through the storm, racking up miles under the powerful winds.

Slept in today until 1100 after a successful evening watch (1900-0100) with my B watch friends. The winds failed us at some point in the night, leaving me rudely awakened by increasingly sultry conditions belowdeck. Finally settling into the lopsided 18-hour watch cycle and succumbing to exhaustion means I can pretty much sleep through anything at this point, and the more I settle in, the more I find I can enjoy the small stuff; the little spark of joy I get every time I go up on deck and see the McLane pump deployed or the Neuston tow picking up samples, or the satisfaction of seeing 15 minutes of tough sail handling pay off as we pick up speed and cut through the waves.