SEA Currents: pacificcrossing2020
May 29, 2020
Sampling for Plastics at Sea

As the Robert C. Seamans sails from Hawai’i to California, we’re telling the story of the Pacific through ArcGIS Storymaps. We’re reposting some of the entries here, in our SEA Currents blog, but we encourage you to follow regular updates by going directly to Pacific Crossing 2020 StoryMaps.
Today started for me by waking up around 0930, finding some leftover breakfast on the hutch, and then going back to bed to do some reading and some more snoozing. When I reappeared around 11:30 I saw that it was flat calm and we were going to have a swim call in 15 minutes. The water here is slightly colder and saltier than near Hawaii, about 24 degrees Celsius and salinity is around 34 parts per thousand. It made for a refreshing swim and some great floating.
May 28, 2020
Seamans in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

As the Robert C. Seamans sails from Hawai’i to California, we’re telling the story of the Pacific through ArcGIS Storymaps. We’re reposting some of the entries here, in our SEA Currents blog, but we encourage you to follow regular updates by going directly to Pacific Crossing 2020 StoryMaps.
As Captain Rick Miller described two days ago, there is an atmospheric high pressure located over the Seamans. He also described a pattern of winds rotating clockwise around the center of this high, resulting in a pattern of northeast trade winds in the low latitudes (equator to about 20˚ N), and the common northerly winds on the west coast of the US. Since the Seamans is a sailing vessel, we pay close attention to winds, but winds do far more than move the ship – they move the whole ocean!
May 26, 2020
Passage Planning

As the Robert C. Seamans sails from Hawai’i to California, we’re telling the story of the Pacific through ArcGIS Storymaps. We’re reposting some of the entries here, in our SEA Currents blog, but we encourage you to follow regular updates by going directly to Pacific Crossing 2020 StoryMaps.
May 22, 2020
Numbers from our Trip
We’ve MADE IT!! We are tied up to the dock in downtown Honolulu and I got to command the vessel when docking which was quite fun and INTIMIDATING. We arrived Monday and had Tuesday off to relax and re-connect with the outside world and family/friends before starting to get ready for our next leg.