I’m not going to lie, today has been BUSY! Saturdays really are full of fun, learning and aquatic treats. Today started out for A Watch with a fast paced morning watch, sailing under all fore and aft sails up until our science station at 0900.  The much anticipated MOCNESS made its first foray into the depths for this trip with a 400 meter tow, cumulatively taking about two hours of towing time. Molly and Erik did some spot on steering, with over a mile of wire over the side.

Hello landfolks! Greetings from the Corwith Cramer!
At the risk of sounding too nerdy, I’’m going to start off by saying that the Cramer reminds me of Hogwarts. It’s a moving, changing vessel of hands-on learning, with secret areas in the soles and clever storage spaces in every conceivable place. With only 135 feet to house 35 people and everything they need for a month, the Cramer wastes no space

It’s hard to believe we are more than halfway through our journey! Looking at the boat’s position on the chart in the center of the world’s second biggest ocean hasn’t quite set in, and I suspect it won’t until I set foot in on another continent. We are already leaving the West Atlantic Basin and about to enter into the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Zone within the next day or two! Life on board continues to be a cycle of new experiences- some watches are tiring, but then just when we start to feel a little down, we get an extraordinary sunset or a pod of dolphins appears beside the boat to lift the mood back up.

It is incredible to stop and think that I am sitting in a sailing vessel tracking across the Atlantic. This isn’’t only an experience anymore, but a way of life. Living at sea gets better and better as waking up for dawn watch becomes an occasion to look forward to, and our steward Sayzie somehow makes every meal better than the last. Cramer is really starting to become home.

To all on shore, we have spent a whole day with the engine off and the sails up!  A low pressure system just passed over us at the beginning of Afternoon Watch and has left behind it clear and sunny skies. We have been able to exercise most of the sails today, which was a great change from the motor sailing we had been doing with just the lowers up. Currently, we are flying the storm trys’l (still up from the low pressure system), the mainstays’l, the forestays’l, the jib, the tops’l and the rafee sail.

We are back underway and remembering how this sailing thing works. It was an amazing extended stay in Nuku Hiva, full of lush tropical forests, waterfalls, and charismatic megafauna. Absolutely the highlight of my birthday was completing a boat check while on anchor watch around 4 AM, and being called up to the quarterdeck to watch one, then two, then three manta rays swimming up to our boat, floating dreamily around in our stern light, somersaulting and waving to us. It was breathtaking; I never imagined I would be seeing such a beautiful animal!

After a night of motorsailing, the silence of simply sailing is refreshing. We are under the four lowers with the JT, but there is a new sail set, called the fisherman! It is difficult to set up and only used in light winds. The excitement has been high because it is the first new sail that we have set. Also, today Chuck made the announcement that we have entered tropical waters! Woot!